Between spring and summer term Karl and I had about two days off. So on that Thursday we decided that we were going to go camping in Moab and leave at 6 the next day. We got everything ready and loaded up in the car and Friday morning, bright and early, we took off to Moab. When we go on vacation we are usually heading south on I-15 to see my family or go to California, which I love, but it was nice to have a change of scenery. We went found a campsite and then went straight to Arches National Park to hike around. Just to let everyone know how hopelessly white I am, I was sunburned before I even got out of the car. I didn't put on sunscreen because I was hoping I would get a tan but the result was that I was just in pain for the next week.
Karl and I first went to the Delicate Arch. I figured if I was going to have that thing on my license plate I wanted to see it in person. It was a nice hike but the best part was when we were getting our picture taken. Every time we walked by people speaking a different language Karl would listen really hard to see if it was Italian. No luck the entire way up. Then I went to ask someone to take our picture and he ignored me. So Karl went up to ask him and as he was taking the picture his friends came back. What were they speaking? Italian of course. So Karl is all excited and starts talking to them. They are from one of the cities that he served in and they are all chatting away. I'm just standing there smiling and trying to follow the conversation but once they stopped talking about cities I was lost. I was so glad we ran into them though. They were nice and Karl got to practice. I think it made his day.
That evening we walked around the town, went out for gelato (one of the benefits of having an Italian missionary for a husband, besides his amazing pasta, is that he is willing to search out and try gelato places), and tried to figure out how we were going to go rafting the next day. We had brought up a raft but needed to find a way to get up to the launch site so we could leave our car at take out beach. The next morning we finally got things figured out, loaded up the car and headed up the canyon. Karl was going to drop me off, I was going to blow up the raft and he was going to take a taxi back up. The whole drive to the launch point we were looking at the river and getting more and more excited that we were going to be rafting down it. It was about a 15 minute drive with the excitement mounting every second. We are finally at launch point, pull out the raft and.... all we have are the oars, the pump, and inflatable seats. The actual boat apparently got left back in Riverton.
We were so depressed. We just threw everything back in the car and headed home. We had been so excited, had been looking forward to it all day, and our dreams were crushed. So our trip didn't quite go as planned. But we now know places to stay, how to work the river, where the good gelato place it, and basically have everything pegged for the next time we go. I am really, really, really hoping it is sometime soon.
Nick had told us about it about a month in advance and I was soooo excited to go. I think I asked Karl every week if we could go get tickets because I was scared it would sell out and we wouldn't be able to go. Fortunately we got the tickets but it was a sold out event.
Anyways, the best crash was in the last round. About five of the cars were chasing each other to our corner and one got hit so hard, so many times that it ended up on the cement barrier. I wish I had been able to get that one on video but I never was quite able to capture the action on tape.
So all in all it was a great night. I am now a fan of demolition derby's. I don't know why it took me this long and living in a city to go to one, but I think I might be hooked.
