The Floggings Will Continue

(until morale improves)

Goblin Valley, Utah

"On the first part of the journey I was looking at all the life
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rain
The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz
And the sky with no clouds
After three days in the desert fun I was looking at a river bed
And the story it told of a river that flowed
Made me sad to think it was dead..."
...By America

My dear departed mother-in-law, Frieda, gave me an ashtray in 1970, I left it out on the RV’s running board and now it’s gone, after 37 years, on the roadside somewhere in the Utah desert. Frieda gave me the ashtray so that I would remember her each time I had a smoke. It was indestructible.


Yesterday we drove up into the Capitol Reef National park. After I took one picture, my camera batteries died. I’d forgotten to bring the spare batteries. We hike into the Grand Wash for two miles. It’s a very narrow two-mile long canyon that is subject to periodic 15-foot walls of flash floods. The government has posted dire warnings about hiking here in the rain.. The rock formations are interesting with typical desert patinas and petrified sand dune striations. The sky turns black and it starts to rain. Thunder rumbles down the canyon...


We see lots of missed photo ops and have conversations with a French couple and some German hikers from Munich. We keep a wary eye on potential place to climb above 15 feet, but the flash flood never materializes.


On the way back we stop at an organic farm in the desert. A boy sits picking a guitar on the front porch. I think of “Deliverance”. The only thing in season now is greens so we buy ½ pound which the farmer, dressed in a Lawrence of Arabia hat and overalls, picks for us in his greenhouse. We also get some homemade bread and cinnamon rolls.

When we return we find that a storm has passed though and destroyed our awning. It’s a $1,200 replacement item. Maybe we’ll check out our insurance coverage back in Florida. Mrs. Phred makes us a big salad to go with a ribeye steak.


As you can see by the pictures, today we checked out Goblin Valley. The town of Green River, up the road, has internet coverage. After three nights without it, I’ve developed a bad internet jones.