When Reality conflicts with Fantasy

our 'living room' with a firepit. Wood supplied Shower and bath room are behind in tan canvas

The bedroom. No complaints there. Cute lighting, comfy bed with a down comforter which was needed as temps dipped into the 30s

Kitchen  Pans dangling from cherry tree, a refrigerator, spring water and a propane stove. Unfortunately the device to light the burners wasn't functional so I didn't cook

we took off early to Arizona to see the North Rim of the Grand Canyon

Kailab squirrel. I thought with its white tail, it was a partial albino but the ranger said all of them look like it. The genetically similar Abert squirrel is on the South Rim which is all brown except for a white breast. It shares the long tufted ears. They evolved separately on each side of the canyon over thousands of years

Bright Angel trail

Cold in the morning. I gradually shed layers as it warmed up

AThe Lodge had a native therme

Nice vistas. They also had a huge patio overlooking the canyon where we had a picnic lunch

It's fall. At high elevations, the aspens had turned

lichen covered rock

We had a nice dinner in the art filled Rocking V Café full of local art. I enjoyed my Polygamy Porter. Kanab was full of upscale good restaurants

This is how I imagined our glamping experience. I was so enamored with my fantasy I decided that we should stay there two nights! We'd be out in the wilderness surrounded by those steep red cliffs. The aspens would be bright yellow against the rocks. At night, so far from the city, we'd see thousands of stars. I would sip wine as I was in my warm hot tub before settling it my comfy bed. All that we'd hear where the coyotes at a distance. There would be wonderful flower gardens filled with different species of hummingbirds flitting around. We could pick vegetables from the garden.

The reality: We were in the backyard of some house in a working class neighborhood. Kanab has some  nice residential neighborhoods but this was not one of them. For privacy on three sides, we were surrounded with plasticized canvas. A backyard full of very noisy kids was just a few feet away from us physically. When will these kids ever go to bed? They were replaced the next night with their father and his drunken friends. The F word was a large part of their vocabulary.  I am sure they are Trump supporters. To the back of us was Kanab High. I had the interesting experience of taking a shower while watching a football game. The canvas came up to my chin so I didn't distract the players. Part of the yard, no canvas, abutted a truck garage which had lots of comings and goings. No physical barrier for curious truckers to visit our abode except the long grass which probably hadn't been cut all summer. There were a few flowers with no hummers and we could eat cherry tomatoes. The path to the 'bathroom' was lit by solar lights but after midnight, they were totally dark though the next night we were supplied with flashlights.  My hot tub? A small little tub that I couldn't stretch out in. No jets! And filling it with these propane burners would be onerous. What did I hear at night besides the F word? Barking dogs. Later the coyotes howled and a nearby owl hooted. There were lots off stars as there were no lights.

Steve was not amused to say the least and pouted the first evening. In the morning, he always takes a shower, always, but some how the 35 degree outside shower in the dark didn't appeal to him. Nor did he want to stick around while I tried to make breakfast (paleo pancakes anyone? with cowboy coffee). We both did take a shower in the heat of the late afternoon and it was fine. She did have a good supply of fluffy towels and good shampoos.

Fast food breakfast and off we went across the border into another time zone to Arizona. The border was marked with lots of alcohol supply stores for the few non Mormons not wanting to live under Mormon rules. We drove through Freedonia, so named from Free donna (free woman). Apparently some women didn't appreciate being in a polygamist marriage which they were forced into as soon as they hit puberty so some of them escaped to Arizona. Freedonia, first town.

However the beauty we would see that day would put us in a better mood. Steve loves the Grand Canyon. We had gone to the much more popular South Rim 18 months ago. The North Rim is harder to get to and is about 1200 feet higher in elevation. Snow will close it down from mid October to mid May. They get 12.5 feet of snow annually whereas the south rim gets less than half of that though there was snow when we went there in April. The cliffs are much sheerer too. The first thing I saw was the 'mutant' squirrel with the albino tail. I tried to get a good photo. Steve was away doing who knows what so no good lenses for me. On the south rim, I had gotten a good photo of his cousin who wasn't so shy. So evolution in action. As the condor flies, the two populations of squirrels are only a few miles, if that, apart but the canyon and river is a big barrier to mixing.

We hiked a lot and then had a picnic lunch overlooking the canyon at their lodge. Somewhere outside the park, someone had set up a latte truck. Much appreciated.

On the top of a pass going there, the Park Service had a lookout area pointing to the Grand Staircase Escalante (which Trump has now cut in half). I had always wondered about the name. There are layers and layers of different colored sandstone and limestone. Chocolate cliffs, Vermillion cliffs...on and on with the colors. The bright orange red of Bryce is the top layer of the staircase.

Back to Kanab for our shower and then to the good restaurant. We slept well.