In preparing for the reunion, Dave did some research online to make sure we could drive through Zions National Park with our travel trailer because there are two tunnels. His research found that we needed an escort through the park because our trailer didn't meet the height and width requirements. At the end of the canyon coming from the hike, we pulled off and our brother-in-law, Bryce, said that Nate had done some searching and the escorts to get us through Zions Park were only available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. They (Dave and Bryce) decided to go for it anyway and if the Ranger turned us around then we would find somewhere for the night and try again the next day.
As we're driving toward the park you can see all the signs on the side of the road warning you not to drive through the canyon with a trailer and all the signs about the tunnels. We reach the Ranger's station and guess what? They're closed. Dave decides to head forward anyway. At this point, I once again hit panic mode. Are you kidding me? We're really going to go through these tunnels in the middle of the night without an escort? Have you been reading the signs?
I ask Dave if he's really going to go through the tunnels. I'm thinking that we should turn around and find somewhere to park for the night and try again tomorrow. Dave tells me not to "freak" out that he's not going to hurt anyone. I am once again praying like I've never prayed before that we're not going to meet another car coming the other way through the tunnels because as we're driving Dave makes the comment that there's more cars coming the other direction than he thought there would be. Yikes!
We make it to the first tunnel and I am so scared. My eyes are closed and I'm praying like crazy. I asked Dave how long the tunnel was and he said 1 mile. Holy Crap! He woke Hannah up in the back seat so she could see the tunnel. I did open my eyes for a little bit to check it out.
Phew! We made it through. We didn't pass one car coming the other way but as soon as we exited the tunnel there came another car. Wow! That was cutting it close. Thank you...thank you....thank you Heavenly Father for answering that prayer.
Oh but there's more.....there's not only one tunnel.....there's two! So we had to do the same thing once again. We made it! Now we're home free of the tunnels and on our way through the windy canyon to the reunion sight. We pulled into the Clear Creek Ranch at 11 p.m. and set up our trailer. We were exhausted but we still had to get things a bit in order and shower. It ended up being a long day/night.
We slept in as long as we could Thursday morning but Nicole and Ashley came to find us as soon as they were done eating breakfast. I can't say I blame them. We hadn't seen them since Tuesday night. Nicole was so full of kisses and I love yous. She couldn't get close enough to Dave and I. It was fun. However, it was in the morning that I realized how bad my quad muscles hurt from the hike! Holy smokes! I seriously couldn't get myself out of the bed.
Thursday morning of the reunion was playing at the Pink Coral Sand Dunes. Everyone left and headed on their way and we were following up after. Well, the map didn't print on the directions I had so after driving back and forth for 30 minutes, we finally stopped and got some directions and arrived at the sand dunes just in time for people to be heading back to the Ranch for lunch. Oops! Better luck next time. The rest of Thursday was free time, relay races, slip n' slide, kid crafts and that night was a nice fireside focusing on Dave's Aunt Sharon.
Friday morning brought a six mile hike to an observation point of Zions National Park. On Thursday with my legs being so sore that I couldn't even get myself off the toilet, I told Dave there was no way I was going on Friday's hike. On Thursday night, Dave asked Hannah and Ashley if they wanted to do the hike and of course they did. As we went to bed it was decided that we'd plan to go and if I woke up the next morning and couldn't it was fine. There were actually two options for the hike. One option was three miles in to the observation point and then three miles back out. The other option was three miles in and then a straight down hike for I'm not sure how many miles to the bottom of Zions National Park into a slot canyon. I did tell Dave on Thursday that if I went on the hike I would do the in and out option. There was NO WAY I was heading straight down. Forget that!
We got up early Friday morning to eat breakfast by 6:30 a.m. and be ready to go on the hike. We packed our sack lunches and were on our way around 7:30 a.m. Nicole stayed behind with Aly and Grandma Welker. Poor kid. This is round two that she's been left out. In our truck was Dave, me, Glade, Hannah, Ashley and Rachel (niece). Rachel was a trooper. She really didn't want to go but she did it anyway.
Here's a few pictures of the hike:
Here's a little observation point along the trail. I was too freaked out about the drop off behind everyone so I chose to take the pictures and not be in them.
We made it! It really was a neat observation point. Once again I was FREAKED out at the heights. You could stand from this observation point and look across the canyon and see the people standing at Angel's Point. Yep, the same Angel's Point that people die at! Our observation point was higher than Angel's point. We saw a double bus driving at the bottom of the canyon and it looked like a matchbox car. It was tiny. You could also look across the canyon and see the zigzag trail that some of the group was taking to get to the bottom of the canyon. Holy Crap! I'm glad I told Dave I wasn't going on the "down" trail. It looked intense and straight down!
Here's Glade with Ashley, Hannah and Rachel.
Dave was determined that I needed to get close to the edge to really "see" the view. I really hate heights and drop off edges so here's the photos of me freaking out and Dave trying to get me to "look". You can't tell but I'm hanging onto his shirt in the bottom picture. One of the cousins commented later that night that it was hilarious to see the two of us and every time Dave moved I scream. Nice! Glad to be remembered for that one!
Wendy and Kevin went on the hike with us too!
Friday afternoon brought a little nap time.....and I mean little......the girls couldn't hold still and watch the movie. Dave then headed off with Kevin to help with a repelling activity.
The girls went to the lodge for a 3-10 year old activity where they made sugar cookies and mini loaves of bread and I stayed behind and had a wonderful shower!
Friday night brought some amazing rain storms or should I say down pours. They were incredible. In between rain, we managed to have family pictures and then another fireside focusing on Dave's Uncle Ken and Aunt Sharon who were celebrating their 59th (I think) wedding anniversary.
Saturday morning was the day to head home after the family meeting. We were leaving the ranch and heading on our way around 11:30 a.m. We decided not to go through Zion's park on the way home because we would have to buy a park pass for $25 and pay another $25 for the escort. Hmm.....guess there was an advantage to coming through the park in the middle of the night on Wednesday! So we're on our way heading toward Mt. Caramel/Kanab.
When we left the Subway take out on Wednesday night in the pitch black our truck and trailer came to an abrupt stop when we hit something. Dave thought we had hit a hole or something but it was too dark to see anything. He backed up a bit, moved to the right, and off we went. Wednesday night when he was setting the trailer he noticed that there was a small crinkle on the trailer where we hit. He only saw cosmetic stuff. No big deal. I was too tired Wednesday night to worry about the cosmetic stuff. Dave said he knew I would be that's why he thought it was the best time to mention it on Wednesday. Smart man!
So, we're heading down the canyon and I can tell that Dave's not going as fast as normal and he keeps looking in his mirror. We're not too far when he says, "You need to find me a place to pull over." Well, instantly the hair on the back of my neck stands up be because I can tell something is wrong. I ask what the matter is and he tells me that he doesn't know but he needs to pull over. There was a place we had turned around on Thursday morning not too far down the road when we couldn't find the sand dunes so when we found this area we pulled off the side of the road. Dave gets out of the car to see what's going on and returns a few minutes later to inform me that we have a bent axle on the trailer and it's shredding our tire. Really? Really.
Dave's Dad and Glade pass and turn to come back and help. Everyone else is on their way to Panguitch so here we are on the side of the road trying to figure out what we're going to do. You can't straighten axles. You have to replace them. Of course you do. We're Welkers and if we didn't have bad luck we wouldn't have any luck at all! Dave tells me to start a movie for the girls because it's going to take awhile.
I did have to snap a few pictures for documentation.
Dave taxed through his brain about what our options were. He came up with removing the tire, using a tie down strap and putting all of the trailer weight on the back axle. We then needed to limp the trailer as far as we could, drop it and return at a later date to retrieve it with a new axle. Dave says we have three tires we can use on the trailer in case they pop. Oh that's a pleasant thought!
We make it to the end of the canyon which was only a couple of miles. We fill the tires up with air and then it's decided that we're going to try and push on to Panguitch, which is 50 miles from where we are. Yikes! We can leave the trailer in Panguitch at Erin's (Dave's sister) roommate's parent's house and then Dave will return on Monday to bring it home.
Thank goodness Grandpa and Uncle Glade took the girls in their vehicle. It was a major tense ride to Panguitch. I'm not sure how things would have gone over in the truck if they all of a sudden started fighting. The ride was pretty quiet and we were listening to every sound.
The max speed reached was 45 mph. For the most part we drove 40 mph but we made it! Safe and sound we pulled into Panguitch and were able to drop the trailer. We didn't even pop one tire! I call that amazing and a huge answer to the prayer said between Dave and I before leaving the canyon. Once again, we were watched over and safe.
The girls and I met up with others at Henry's Drive Inn for some lunch while Dave and Nate removed the axle from the trailer to bring home with us in the truck so we could get the exact measurements for the replacement axle. It took them a little over an hour to remove the axle, we met up at the house where we left the trailer and we were all off once again heading home.
It ended up being a really long day. We arrived in Mendon at 10:30 p.m. I do have to say the girls were troopers. They never complained. We have awesome travelers. We did stop and eat at Panda Express in Lehi/American Fork and got rained on. The girls thought that was pretty cool. We ate outside and as we were sitting there in came a thunderstorm. Sweet!
Arrangements were made with Dave's Dad and Nate to head out early Monday morning and retrieve the trailer. Nate had done a bunch of phone calling on Saturday while we were stranded trying to locate axles. Mondays are Dave's day to watch the girls so he packed them up early Monday morning at 6 a.m., took them to Nibley for the day and the three guys were off to collect the trailer.
Now let me just say, we can't do anything the easy way. The guys arrive in Salt Lake at 8 a.m. to pick up the axle. Where we're changing one axle we might as well change both axles and take them from the "drop" style to the "straight" style. Yea....I didn't understand it either until I could visually see what Dave was talking about. Upon arriving in Salt Lake the company only had one axle. Nice. So they then drove to Orem to another store to get one more. Well, wouldn't you know it. The store in Orem didn't have one. So back in the truck they get and retrace their miles to Ogden where a company has two. Dave was very impressed with the place in Ogden because they took the time to do some welding on the axles that more time would have needed to be spent finding a place to weld. Once they get that finished, they need to go to Salt Lake and return the other axle they purchased. I was heading to swim lessons with the girls at 4 p.m. when I chatted with Dave and they were about 50 minutes away from Panguitch.....meaning they hadn't made it there yet. I talked to Dave at 9 p.m. and they were at Henry's Drive Inn finally getting some dinner and then would be making the drive home. Dave arrived back in Mendon at 4 a.m. Tuesday morning......with the trailer......hurray!!! What a trooper! That is a very one day!
As Dave and I were alone in the truck on the drive to Panguitch, I said, "Do you think just once we could have a vacation where we didn't have an "adventure" and a story to tell when we got home? Just once I would like to return and say it was a pretty low key vacation. Nothing really happened." Yea right.....like that's going to ever happen. I'd write a book about all our adventures but it would be published as fiction and no one would believe it!
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