Barge Ride



An exhausted Rudy

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were work days. Sunday and  Monday were pretty slow, but Tuesday we had over 200 people go down the river, that was surprising.  I did call dad on Monday and had a nice chat with him, but never got to talk with the guy from IRV-2, maybe another day.  Brad and Rudy went with me to the Greendale overlook, but then took the 4 mile trail back to the campground…..not to shabby for a work day. Tuesday we headed into Dutch John after work to talk with Nan about when we are leaving.  We have decided we would stay until the end of August (our replacement volunteers cancelled) if we can have July 28 and 29^th off, so we can head up to Wyoming.  She was glad we had decided to stay, so the 2 days off were an easy trade.  We then had our regular afternoon ritual, nap for Brad and Rudy, and me I made deviled eggs for Wednesday.  We had dinner with Jim and as we were heading in for the night, we threw our lawn chairs in his car for Wednesday, the Forest Service is taking us all on a barge ride on the Green River above the dam.   I almost forgot, Sunday or Monday Jim made dinner for us, we had Pork Chops with a Raspberry BBQ sauce, baked potatoes and a veggie......not to shabby of a meal. 

Wednesday morning was a bit disorganized, but we were on the road at 8:30 heading for the Lucerne Marina.  We did managed to fit our shrimp and deviled eggs in Fred and Jim’s cooler, so we only needed our little cooler for water and drinks, and of course our bag is misc sun screen, tissues, camera, etc.   It was about an hour drive there, and our 3 cars pulled in only to find out we were the first to arrive.  We unloaded our cars by the dock and slowly but surely the rest of the crew started to show up.  Now we were told we are going on a barge ride, and they weren’t kidding, the Forest Service’s working barge pulled in to pick us up.  There ended up being a total of 15 people, Fred, Judy, Don, Jan, Jim, Chris, Adam, Jake, Patti, Terri, Ben, Brad, me and of course our Captain and co-captain.  We pulled out from the dock about 10:00 and headed down the river towards the visitors center.  What a beautiful trip, we all were surprised by the amount of boat in campgrounds and day use areas.  About 11:30, we pulled into an area called ‘The Hideout’ dropped off the grill, Chris and his cooler, then headed further down the river.  We got to the Visitors center and the captain had to point it out to us, as large as it at ground level, you could hardly see it from the river.  We then headed back to the ‘Hideout’ where burgers, hot dogs and sausages were already cooking and we all brought sides, shrimp, deviled eggs, potato salad, fresh fruit, macaroni salad with shrimp and many other sides, if anybody left hungry, it was their own fault.  We all hung out for about 1.5 hours, and then we loaded everything on the boat and headed back.  We actually were running early enough we did a little side trip through an area called ‘Horseshoe Curve’, it was beautiful and as it turned out, was the original area where the river flowed.  We got through there then headed for the dock, unloaded and we were on the road heading home by 3:00, a great day was had by one and all.  We got back, left the three dogs out, then Jim, Don, Jan, Brad and I were outside and talked for about an hour, discussing the trip among other things.  We headed in early, cheese and pretzels for dinner and off to bed early for everyone. 

Barge Ride Pics:  https://picasaweb.google.com/115574168101787483704/GreenRiverBargeRide?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJSusdjq_bHpMw&feat=directlink



Rudy and Freida
Playing tug-o-war

Thursday was shopping day.  We left about 10:00 to head into Vernal with the first stop being Wal-Greens, then off to Wal-Mart.  We stopped for lunch at ‘Wingers’ (guess what we had), then a few more stops before pulling into a shaded campground to use our phones and computer.  I looked up cameras, while Brad made about 5 phone calls.  An added surprise was when my phone rang and it was Mel, what a pleasant surprise, we actually got to talk for about half an hour.  After that we headed to the grocery store, spent our normal $150.00 for next to nothing, then headed home, and it was still 5:00 until we got there.  We got the groceries put away and then Jim came over for sausages on the grill.....another great evening.



Good Wine with our steak dinner

Friday is our stay at home day, and since we are planning on taking the Moho to Wyoming, we had a little maintenance to do.  First off the out side temperature gauge came loose, easy fix.  The next thing was the refrigerator door broke yesterday while I was putting away groceries.....it got fixed, but not so easy and about 3-4 hours worth of work, most of that was trying to find the right parts to fix the door.  In the mean time, I got the laundry done, worked on the puzzle and did my best to stay out of Brad's way!!  After that it was clean-up time and get ready for dinner.  I sliced up some potatoes and onion in foil for on the grill, we had 2 steaks and Jim brought one over for himself.  When everything was about done, Jim headed over to make some sautéed green beans, what a great meal.  All of a sudden the Robins were on the ground yelling and hopping around so Rudy and Freida headed over to see what all the commotion was about.  Brad walked over and there on the ground was a Gopher Snake....I guess the birds don't like them too much.  Later, while we are still talking, Rudy headed over the rock wall behind the trailer and as we all looked in the direction, a wolf went trotting off...wow, what a night.  Brad and Jim sat out and talked for a while, while I cleaned up and got dishes done.  After that I think we all headed inside and off to bed about 10:00.

Saturday was another work day, so we were out of the house by 6:30.  The morning started out slow, but by 9:30 or so, things changed.  We had over 800 people go down the river with over 200 launches, I never had a chance for a break.  It was 1:30 until we got out of there and we were both exhausted.  We headed home a quick lunch, then a nap for all.  After that Brad and Rudy headed out for a walk while I worked on the blog.  When they got back from their walk, Jim came over to talk, so we were planning on a salad for dinner with the left over steak on top, but it was already 7:00, so it ended up being one sausage for each of us....salad tomorrow for dinner, I'll clean the lettuce as soon as we get home.  We talked for a while, then I headed in to clean up and do dishes.  Brad came in shortly behind me, got showered and headed to bed about 9:15, with me following him before 10:00.  Busy days just seem to tire us all.  We'll see what tomorrow brings. 


 There is a rust colored humming bird in this tree.  I tried to get a picture on the feeder but with the sun the color wouldn't show.


Diane and Brad