Red Rocks Nevada to Virgin, Utah

 Balin and I have certainly have had some opportunities for growth these past 6 days.  

We landed in Red Rocks, outside of Vegas, originally hoping to mountain bike and explore the area, we quickly pivoted to hiking and road biking. 

It was sunny skies but stinking cold and we were staying in a very primitive campsite, used by rock climbers coming to explore the gorgeous sandstone cliffs in the area.  Balin and I didn’t really plan to camp in the wilderness for six days, but it just happened that way. No water, no electricity and no sewer.  At first, it was fun and simple—who needs to shower every day anyway? Apparently, Balin does. It quickly became clear that his morning workout routine, which involved working out until he was dripping with sweat, wasn’t going to happen. Running—no way. He sweats a lot, and the smell is just not something I want to sleep next to.

As time went on, Balin seemed a little more out of sorts each day until it reached its peak last night. We had a lovely home-cooked meal in the trailer, and after, as was his habit, he got out his computer to write some posts on Substack. To do that, he had to turn on the internet, which in turn drained the battery. So, he turned on the generator as we were down to just two bars on our battery. As I was brushing my teeth, I turned on the water, and nothing came out. Out of water.

Time passed, and the evening was getting late, so I asked Balin to turn off the generator since no one else in the campground was using one and they are quite loud. As soon as he turned off the generator, the battery went down to one bar. By the end of the evening, it was clear we were going to run out of power. No big deal, I thought, we have charged lights, and hey, it was time for bed anyway.

Unfortunately, when the trailer runs out of battery power, things start to make noise. Like the inverter, which beeped every 30 seconds. So, we turned it off. Shortly after falling asleep, the fridge started making cycling noises because it didn’t have enough power to run. In went the earplugs. About 2 a.m., the final straw was the thermostat for the heater started flashing—really brightly. I unzipped our bedding and struggled to find a solution to the flashing in a now very cold trailer. My wool sock on my foot worked in a pinch, and I slid it on the thermostat. Back to warmth and hopefully sleep.

The alarm blared at 6:30 AM, and we both knew coffee was the way to go as we packed up and set off for our next adventure, where we were promised all the comforts of home.

Once we arrived at the RV park, plugged in the power, filled up the water tank, and emptied the sewer, we simply sat in the sun, dreaming of a hot shower and electricity. (And yes, we did laundry too!) We’re really enjoying the simple pleasures of camping.