Of course, it rained through the night, which was no issue in Torrey. It did present a few problems when we set up in the mud at Duke’s Steakhouse and RV Park in Hanksville.
Dianne was all aflutter, but her wonderful husband calmed her down and with the ingenious use of boards across the mud, we made things work.
To make it up to my wonderful wife, I took her to lunch at Stan’s Burger Shack, Dianne’s favorite restaurant in the world (at least the restaurant she always wants to go for her birthday dinner).
We picked up a brochure on things to do in Hanksville, one of which was to visit the historic Wolverton Mill, now located behind the local BLM office.
The mill was originally built in the nearby Henry Mountains over a century ago by Edwin Thatcher Wolverton who was hoping to rediscover a lost Spanish gold mine up there. The mill has since been dismantled and moved to Hanksville.
Back at our slowly drying out, double-wide campsite…
…where we elected to kick back and enjoy an afternoon off. Hopefully, tomorrow we can drive the backroads to several of the area’s scenic sites.
And that’s exactly what we did, but not the sites we had originally planned to visit. Our first stop was to a small geological site known as Little Egypt.
We walked around for several hours, cameras in hand, and photographed many of the formations out here.
This area is barely on the map, and to keep it that way, I won’t tell you where it’s located.
We next drove out to Burr Point, which barely showed up on our map. No, this is not the Grand Canyon. It’s the canyon of the Dirty Devil River north of Powell Reservoir.
Getting here required driving ten miles on badly washboarded roads, but it was worth it.
With the skies darkening, we headed back to the pavement…
…and on to Duke’s Steakhouse…
…where I had a steak and Dianne had ribs.
Hopefully, tomorrow’s skies won’t look like this.
The mountains under these clouds were one of our original destinations, but I think we’ll make other plans.
Tuesday was another lazy day in the trailer. Dianne was working on Dianne things while I did all the serious relaxing. A bit after midday, we set out on our mission to photograph the old town of Giles, named after a former LDS bishop who could have been one of Dianne’s ancestors (Giles is her maiden name) and she hails from long abandoned Mormon stock.
The turnoff to Giles now accesses the Blue Valley Domes, a collection of geodesic domes available for folks who want to bunk in something a bit more unusual.
While they look neat, they’re a bit pricey and sitting right off the highway, they’ll be noisier and more public than I’d like. Maybe we’ll do them next year.
The long abandoned town of Giles was mostly on the other side of the river, and the road across was definitely washed out.
Lacking anything better to do, we topped up with gasoline, headed back to our cow (Cabin on Wheels), and discussed what to do about dinner. The choice was to either have leftovers or walk 100 yards over to Duke’s Slickrock Grill.
Well, I had a Rooster Cogburn order of chicken wings (all the dishes at Duke’s are named after John Wayne movies) and a Dead Horse Amber beer imported all the way from Moab.
[Long the land of 3.2 beer, Utah restaurants can now serve beer that’s 5% alcohol by volume and actually has flavor.]
Definitely a tasty treat. And the wings were pretty good, too.
On Wednesday, it was time to head home, with our planned three-night stay in Green River reduced to a one-night stopover. We booked a nice patio site at the Green River KOA…
…and headed over to Ray’s Tavern for dinner.
Normally we order their bacon cheeseburgers…
…with hand-cut fries, which are fantastic. This time, however, I decided to try a steak.
Unfortunately, the only wine Ray’s serves comes in a box, so I had my New York Cut steak with a beer.
Still, pretty damn nice.
The next morning, we made the 90-mile drive back to our little farming village in the Grand Valley of Colorado.
In a week, Dianne takes off for a three-night Snake Oil sales event in Dallas.
[Okay. It’s not really snake oil. It’s a collection of scientifically proven activation products that will improve your health and well being. Tests have shown that people who do not take these products will eventually die, so get with her immediately to secure any and all of these valuable products. Our trip to Mexico lies in the balance.]
The day she comes back from Dallas, we depart for Death Valley…
…and then on to western Nevada…
…on what was originally going to be the second half of this trip.
We’ll be there for her dad’s 100th birthday celebration…
…and who knows what else.