Friday, May 10, 2024
This morning, we slept late and relaxed. Jane drove a loadful of laundry down to the campground laudromat. She stayed through the wash cycle to take advantage of the slightly faster internet. At best, both our cellular and wi-fi connections are spotty at our camp site which is nestled against a mountain side. We both retrieved our clothes from the dryer and stored them back in our motorhome.
After lunch, we headed into St. George. This small city of 95,000 inhabitants was settled by Mormons in 1861 when Brigham Young sent a group of 300 from his flock to this area on the Cotton Mission. As a result, many places and businesses amusingly have Dixie in their names. The town is named after an LDS Church apostle, George A. Smith. St. George has a commercial airport that is convenient for access to nearby national parks.
We found St. George clean and pleasant to visit. Our first stop was a hardware store to purchase some screws and anchors. We then proceeded to Farmstead Bakery for some bread. They didn’t have bread available but we couldn’t resist their milk chocolate tarts. We purchased two and enjoyed them with lattes on an outdoor deck facing a courthouse.
After our delicious snack at the bakery, we drove to Red Hills Desert Garden. Following so much desert topography, it was a pleasure to see thriving green plants, many in bloom, and flowing water features embedded among the surrounding red rock formations. The weather had turned cloudy and windy making it challenging to photograph the swaying plants. But, we enjoyed the visit and learned the names of some local plants we had been observing.
We also checked out Pioneer Park that was adjacent to the gardens. We drove through and parked the car at several lots to explore the red rock formations. Jane walked through a small slot canyon and together we made a short hike to a summit that overlooked St. George.
Jane was determined to find bread for us, so on the way back to our motorhome, we made another stop in St. George at Kneaders Bakery & Cafe. Jane succesfully purchased bread and we returned to the campgoround.
Back in our RV, we worked on the continuing saga of the sliding door to our bathroom. Despite Jane having glued the upper railing screws in place, on Wednesdays’ drive we heard a screw fall out when we hit a severe highway bump, and since then, the door has once again been behaving wonkily. So, I secured the railing with the new screws and wall anchors we purchased in St. George and the door is working fine now; hopefully it will survive future road bumps.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening relaxing, blogging, and planning our next stops. We visited the campground rec room to use the wi-fi there but it was useless because the campground has filled up with campers for the weekend overwhelming the service. While playing cards at a table in the rec room, we met an interesting couple who were at the pool table. They are from rural Missouri and as children had played with each other, separated after high school, got married and raised families, then five years ago reunited after not seeing each other for 50 years, and are now travelling around the country together.
After our card game, we returned to the RV and watched some of the cable news about visible auroras across the country due to the coronal mass ejection. Auroras had been spotted in some parts of Utah but our area had mostly cloudy skies and we didn’t see anything. We’re moving on tomorrow so perhaps will be in a better situation to observe auroras (and to access the internet).