Vacation - Day Ten (Family)

After one last night sitting on the porch in Panguitch, we loaded up the van and headed out on Wednesday morning. Before going, we took some pictures. I know...big shock!

Sera and Grandpa John sharing some morning grapes

Grandma Dee, Grandpa John, and Sera

Grandma Dee & Sera

Three generations

Father and Son
Sera sharing kisses with Grandpa's new puppy, Belle, or as Sera referred to her, Sera's Belle
Bucky wanting in on the lovin' action
Jim, Sera, Kayson, Bradley, & Wendy (clockwise)

At the last minute, we learned that Jim's sister, Wendy and her family would be home while we were in Utah. They'd had to fly to Alaska for a funeral, and we didn't think we'd get to see them. We headed up to Provo where we met them for dinner. It was great to finally meet Wendy, her husband, Kay, and their sons, Bradley and Kayson.

Since this wasn't a planned stay, Jim wanted us to try camping out. Wendy made arrangements for a campsite for us and even set up their tent so we wouldn't have to rush to get ours up before sunset. When we got to Provo, we went straight to the restaurant. After dinner, we went back to the campsite to set up our air mattress, and then back to their place to visit some more.

This was only the second time I'd ever slept in a tent. The first time was in college. My friends and I took a road trip from Tallahassee to Pine Mountain, GA. We hiked up into the mountains and set up camp. One of the guys in our group was a real man's man who liked to hunt, fish, and camp. When the rattlesnake entered our camp, he flipped out his knife and sliced its head right off. Ughh... He then skinned and roasted it over the campfire. We all had to have a bite. They called it the ceremonial snake. Ugh again. During the night, it poured. Our tent stayed dry, but our hike back down the mountain was now a mud slide. Overall, I had fun with my friends, but I swore I'd never camp again.

Apparently I lied because there I was camping again. It had been in the high 90s all day and was still roasting when we headed to bed. I had brought flannel pants and a thermal top to sleep in because I had expected it to get cold during the night. When we heard the low was only going to 75, I elected to not wear them. In fact, I was sweating when I went to bed, so I slept in my shirt on top of the open sleeping bag. We had two mattresses set up: a queen and a twin. They were side by side. Jim and I were going to share the queen and put Sera on the twin. HA! She wanted to be between us, so I moved to the twin. Guess who moved with me? I moved back to the queen, and Jim moved to the twin, and we finally slept. All was fine until I woke up freezing and having to go to the bathroom. I probably could have gone back to sleep if it hadn't been so cold. Sera and I were on the sleeping bag in a weird angle so I couldn't zip us up. I finally gave up when Jim woke up. He helped me get out of the air mattress, and I headed to the bathrooms. I was planning to just go back to sleep in the van, but we were up by then. It was 6 am, so we (Jim) broke down the campsite, went to the bathrooms to change, and headed to breakfast. Wendy, Bradley, and Kayson met us there. We had a nice meal together and hit the road. Oh, and by the way, the overnight low? 52

Panguitch to Provo - 201.89 miles