May 30, 2022

I’ve made it through my quarantine period though I’m still testing positive for COVID so I cannot go back to work yet.  I’m also still avoiding indoor public places out of courtesy and an abundance of caution though according to CDC guidelines, I should be able to enter public places with a mask and not get anyone sick.  It’s been 8 days now and for most of the past week I felt pretty sick.  Like I had a bad cold.  I was congested, achey for the first couple of days, coughing, sneezing, and went through a whole box of tissues.  However, it’s not the sickest I’ve ever been and I thank the vaccines for that.  Since I have asthma, there is some likelihood that I could have needed to go on a respirator if my breathing had gotten much worse.  The managers here have been more than kind.  They brought me self test kits when I had trouble getting them.  The government supplied ones can only be shipped to a residential address and I no longer have one of those so I had to order some from Amazon and my lovely mother sent me some as well.  The managers here also texted often to check in on me, offered help if I needed anything, and dropped off packages I received at my door.  Not to mention, they haven’t given me a hard time about my inability to work while I’m camped on their property.  They really have all been great people.  I do feel badly about not being able to work though so I will be happy to be able to get back out there…hopefully soon.  

For the first several days I watched a lot of movies, napped, read novels, and worked on making a cross stitch of Bryce Canyon at night.  That turned into an epic fail though.  I spent many days working hard at this intricate design only to realize when I was about 1/3 of the way done that the piece of fabric I had cut was not big enough to fit my design.  At that point I kind of hit a wall.  I was sick of being sick, feeling cooped up in the RV, and feeling sorry for myself.  I was mad that I now had nothing to show for my time in convalescence and the thing I had worked hard on was junk. 

We did go outside one evening though to shoot the Milky Way.  We used the drive in at the campground and the sign by the road here as foreground images.  The conditions were fairly perfect as the Milky Way became visible as early as 10:30pm so we just had to wait until the movie was over and people had all cleared out to get our shots.  Luke also did a cool time lapse of the Milky Way rising up over the classic cars.  Here are the shots I got.

 

I turned my attention from working on a cross stitch to making miniatures for the mini flower shop I started building a couple of stops ago.  This project also tests my frustration tolerance at times as working with tiny things is often a challenge.  Luke downloaded a new video game called Borderlands 3 which is pretty fun so when I get a little testy we fire that up and kill bad guys.  These are my little minis so far.

One evening after dinner, I just needed to shift my perspective and get out even though I was still pretty sick so Luke took us on a nice mountain drive through part of the Dixie National Forest on Hell’s Backbone road.  I didn’t get out of the truck or take any photos, but it was nice to be away from my sick bed and observing nature.  We saw several deer running in the woods, huge trees, and meandering creeks.  We have also found a great spot to let the dogs run at Wide Hollow Reservoir about a half mile from our campground so we took them over there a couple of times to let them play.

This past weekend was busy at the campground as it was a holiday weekend.  Some campers that were parked behind us were fond of leaving their barking dog tied outside all day.  There were lots of little kids running around and playing together which at first I thought was charming, like viewing an old Norman Rockwell scene.  Eventually though I had to go out with my mask and give the kids that what for when they decided to throw a frisbee into my campsite and hit my camper with it.  I simply suggested several areas they could play that was not right in front of my site and they obliged.  I suggested we go out for a ride to get away from the noise so Luke and I and the dogs drove out to Kodachrome State Park.  We didn’t do any hikes, but it was still beautiful to see from the road and parking areas.  We also took a little side road just before the park to see the Grosvenor Arch.  This area is magnificent with so many beautiful landscapes to explore so stay tuned as soon I will be well again and we will resume adventures.  We also started to sample some of the local eats and grabbed take out Mexican from Georgie’s food truck in town.  It may have been one of the best steak burritos I’ve ever had…thank goodness I haven’t lost my sense of taste!