Taps for my camera

These are the last few pictures you'll see from my little point and shoot camera.  Always in my hand or my pocket,  my constant companion is now in a box ready to be sent for repair.    Don't feel bad for me, this one is my 4th.    I'm tough on cameras.   Because it's always with me, it is always in the elements.   Dust and sand and rocks are deadly to camera lenses and mine has been grinding in and out painfully for a while now.   I knew it wouldn't be long before the lens just refused to move.       Yesterday, along Onion Creek, it gave up the ghost.     Perhaps it was the sulfurous odor coming from the creek that made it stay inside.

I'm sorry, I know I've showed this to you before....but it makes me laugh

Onion Creek Road is one of our favorite drives in this area.   It is not technically difficult (although there are a few spots where the road is one lane only and they occur relatively high above the creek of course) but the scenery it passes through is a WOW.   The road crosses the creek about 34 times  (MonaLiza and I counted one time) and there is so much to see.    I won't write more about it, you've heard it all before.     The pictures that follow are taken with my phone :(

We misjudged the weather, or rather we believed the weather "forecasters".   It was supposed to be a sunny day.     We watched black clouds gathering over the beginning of our route, the way we had to get back.   Lightning split the sky ahead.     Luckily, the cell kept moving as we did so only a bit of the edge of the storm turned our dusty car muddy.

On the way back to Beluga we passed the entrance to Arches National Park.   The lines to get in, even in the late afternoon, were very long and two lanes wide.

hundreds of people waiting to get in to Arches National Park

This week is National Park Week, and seems to have drawn quite a crowd!   

This morning we had second cup with Lewis at our shady site and then Dave and I went into Moab to check out the Annual Car Show.

Dave is a good man.   He even held Lew's bone so he could chew it more easily.....

if Dave let go of the bone Lew would drag it to the grass to chew.....

The show was huge and very well done.   Lots of great cars from finely restored classics (and a few not so finely restored), funky rat rods, brand new showroom cars and highly modified Japanese models.     We had a good time but I really missed my camera.   It's no fun trying to capture the essence of these beauties with a telephone......

The "customized" wrecker used to get over ambitious or unlucky Jeepers out of bad situations was there.    Just for show mind you.     This particular guy (Rory) had just helped a man whose Jeep had overturned on one of the difficult trails.   The man lost several fingers in the wreck because he was holding on to the roll bar when the incident occurred.   Lesson learned.

This one's for you FRED!

so beautiful and clean.....

Afterward we had a yummy lunch at Sweet Cravings, did some grocery shopping and went back to Beluga.    Lewis was waiting for us.....he was hot.

can you get any closer to the fan Lew?
(pay no attention to the dust on the fan......)