That is the spelling… We were ready to take a ride yesterday to the other Needles lookout and the road to the Anticline when an e mail came in from Peter telling us about the Festival… It sounded good, thinking back about the reenactment we went to in Savannah not too long ago, a quick map search and on the way we were. Peter and his friends are the ones that tagged along with us the other day while riding "La Sal Mountain" loop and has also made an entry on his own Blog titled "A Day with Ara and Spirit". Quite different to see us on someone else’s Blog! Very nice. Peter has also been living on the road in his Land Yacht… at 75… he is my new Hero, it gives me hope that if I make it that long in Life, I have so many years ahead and more to discover an incredible amount of unseen destinations! I can just imagine this Blog lasting 15 to 20 more years! Funny as some comments have been coming in regarding also Howard and Linda’s own Land Yacht describing their "home" as a "big whale". I have to respect everyone’s "taste" and needs as others respect mine. It is just a way of living, of consciousness… It is 36 flavors of Ice Cream! I also see those million dollar Prevost parked like sardines in RV Parks… everyone’s needs differ… I remember years ago "never" trailering my bike, I was a purist, I use to even blackmail with pictures on Forums to the ones that did trailer… and I remember telling friends "If someday you ever see me in an RV… just shoot me…". Well, the protection from the winter climate has brought us to this… I am not as tough as I use to be! But as I mentioned, I can’t wait to pack up that tent and go hide behind a rock… still in the low 30’s at night… it won’t be long.

I like simplicity, less is more, I still have empty storage around here… no need for 18 kitchen knives and a complete set of pots and pans as I use my camping gear on a daily basis. I always said that I could make a complete dinner using #10 cans! Amazingly "cans" are even used in many pro kitchens for molds! I did… I have always felt that the more one has the weaker the relationship is with one’s surroundings. Too much stuff to take care off… to many barriers.

This above, from the Festival, looks like a good home to me. So the Festival was for the organizers a total failure as only the two vendors you see showed up. They are blaming it on the price of fuel this year. I don’t think it is going to get any better. We ourselves of course feel it and are fortunate to be in Utah where we can cover many sights without too much distance. Between tire wear, oil changes and now high cost of fuel, maps are truly beginning to play a big role in our travels and the start of calculating much closer getting from point A to point B has began a while ago. Free camping is not only nice but a need to balance it all and sometimes unfortunately not possible. As they say "if you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!". One day at the time…

With a crowd or not, vendors or not either, we had a great time! So it gave me a chance to chat even more with the few that were present, including a local from Monticello that was preparing food, profit going to the local Boy Scout Chapter. Local Boy Scouts who I think where loosing those profits by shooting at each other, including the cooks with miniature marshmallow guns. Never seen one before! The food? He called it "chicken bites"… seasoned and delicious! at .50 cents a piece, yes, (my Dr is not reading this…) had a few and also learned that the land at the end of the county road where we got lost (of course you did not know that…) was his! and so was an old grainery standing by an old house. I told him that I had stood by the gate and took a couple pictures… as he replied, go back if you like and walk around.

Real nice guy… I told him that his "chicken bites" reminded me a bit of the "wrapped duck" recipe I learned from my Friend Walt in Mississippi (it is in the recipe section). He liked it… of course he said he now had to go and shoot him some ducks! My friend Peter also had missed the turn, the second photo was the sign for the Festival… so I actually felt really good getting lost on this beautiful road, so totally out of context with what you might think Utah looks like. Great views also…

The view below is from the first time we got lost! It is the road going to Monticello Race Track which I thought would be the location of the Festival… I guess I did not read the directions very well. Who needs to… not much fun if you know where you are going!

Yes, there is my buddy again, it was cold at 7000 feet, so he was all decked out with his helmet. He did not like the pistol and musket firing… same reaction as in Savannah. I just really liked this grainery (or is it "granary"?) as of course we went back since he allowed us to enter his property. What luck!… Even made up an… Artistic rendition of it… It is all subjective, right?

What attracted me was that it is built on slick rock with a cement foundation. Has to be solid not being on soft ground. We walked around it, no entry door but the old machinery was laying down in the back, interesting gears and a paddle system to get the grains up with the little windows as openings at the bottom to fill the containers when needed…

So this is my own rendition of the one wall with porthole like openings…

I hope it does not hurt too bad! Great ride back to the Needles area where we are still camping. It is Sunday, there is 51mph wind predicted by 9pm… so I will go ahead and post this before we take on cover if we have to and dedicate this below Sunset from last night (or maybe it was the night before…) to all the Mothers out there reading this… "Happy Mother’s Day"… I talked to my own mother this morning, she lives in Munich just in case you did not know, and that lasted for an hour while being in the Park using a phone booth as of course my cell phone does not work here. It has definitely been a strange day… I missed her company and to make the matters worse she had not received yet the cards that I had printed for her and mailed a while back.

"One of the hardest things in Life is having words in your heart you cannot utter" [James Earl Jones]

Till next time… have a great day, come and visit! Utah is beautiful…

You be well and stay well…   Ara & Spirit

Have you checked the T-shirts? "Throw the Dog a Bone!"… T-shirts… Mouse pads… Photography…

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Ara Gureghian   853 Vanderbilt Beach Rd #245   Naples, Fl 34108

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 11th, 2008 at 7:36 pm and is filed under travel, spirituality, pit bull, sidecar, motorcycle, cooking, photography, riding, homeless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.