Day 5 – June 23, 2019

So where did we leave off? Oh yeah. Should we continue or turn around and admit defeat? Kathy had made her feelings well known last night. To be honest, I find these things a bit flukey and definitely unrelated. There was too much excitement and too many months of planning to abandon the trip at this early stage. That left the third person in our group to break the tie.

The day before, Ashley made a direct statement that she is more of a hotel person. She does not like the way we tent camp. And remember, she made these comments before we were blitzed by a rapid fire water cannon.

Specifically, Ashley doesn’t like that we use the tent only to sleep in. No sitting around the campfire. No relaxing at the site. No star gazing. We set it up, sleep in it, and take it down.

So I’m thinking it is a lost cause. To be democratic, I called a family meeting to make a final decision on our long term plans. After a brief discussion, I voted first – percervier and continue. Kathy voted second – kinda wanted to head home but left open the possibility continuing. The final and deciding voter, Ashley, said we should keep going. Kathy made a stipulation that she would demand a return home if we have just one more bout of bad luck.

I pulled Ashley aside and admitted my surprise by her vote. She said she is really looking forward to the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta. I was kidding when I told her we would go there but now I guess we have to.

With the meeting completed, we packed everything up and headed for Bryce Canyon National Park.

Being Sunday, we searched for a place to go to mass. The nearest church was 20 miles past Bryce Canyon and it had just one mass a week, Sunday at 2. If only we were Morman. Most towns in Utah don’t have a stop light, but they have a Morman temple.

We were going to try to get a tent site within Bryce Canyon, get changed and get to mass by 2. The only problem with our plan was that the one road into Bryce Canyon is being repaired. This left us stuck in a huge traffic jam. We sat not moving for 20 minutes and clearly we were not going to make it to the park and to mass. I made an executive decision and flipped a U turn. We had seen a national forest campground a few miles back. We found a great location with a view of stunning red rock formations.

We quickly got changed and flew off to church. We found a quaint Catholic church with seating for 25. The priest and the singing were excellent. The mass lifted our spirits and reinvigorated us.

We had a late lunch or early dinner and headed back to the campground.

The only thing noteworthy about the evening was the low temperature. The forecast was a low of 40. One of the parishioners at church told us not to worry as there should be no frost this night.

Needless to say, we are not at all prepared for cold weather. But we bundled up as best as we could. This of course included the now famous pink bunny slippers. I tried to steal them from Ashley but she quickly refused and reminded me that I was the one who wanted to abandon them.

We nestled down and braced for the cold.