Driving on the Edge and Running out of Gas!

8/22 Well, first let me say I spent over an hour putting together this post en route to Reno for Dashy’s drop off and in one glitch of my app, it all disappeared. 🤦‍♀️😩 So going to attempt to do this AGAIN.

Yesterday on our way to wherever we landed for the evening I had all intentions of updating on our adventurous pit stop to the Canyonlands, but then somehow we found ourselves in another unexpected “adventure” we were navigating for about an hour of our trip. More on that later.

After leaving our cool spot in CO we got on the road and made it into Utah and headed toward Moab and our excursion on the Shafer Trail switchbacks. This was an amazing experience and we were blessed with near perfect (clear) weather to soak it all in- there is even a sign that says the distant mountain range we were able to see on the initial overlook was not a common happening!

Driving (and being the passenger) on this trail is not for the faint of heart, nor is it for anyone who even has slightest fear of heights. There are no guard rails and cars coming from the other direction on a path really only made for one vehicle! 😳 Ross seemed to be getting almost too much enjoyment of my increasing anxiety as the steepness and narrowness ratcheted up. (Little did he know he’d get his come-ups later!)

Ultimately I made it through with only fleeting moments of my life flashing by me. 😝 And just when I thought it was done, we actually then endured a VERY BUMPY path to where we ate lunch, overlooking the Colorado River - a beautiful (and finally flat) spot. (I can only imagine what was going through the neurotic mind of Dash who was being tossed around because I sure know what was going through mine!)

I can definitely say this is among the top 5 most adventurous things I’ve done in my life only just behind paragliding off the Alps and climbing Machu Picchu.

After our lunch stop we wised up and let some air out of our tires, which definitely made for a much more comfortable end of the trail. After about 2 plus hours we emerged from our off road excursion and hit the road to get more miles behind us.

You might have thought this was enough adventure for anyone but we (okay this one is on me) had to keep the excitement going… So … I may have falsely assured Ross of the existence of upcoming gas stations. I mean, in my bougie girl defense, who knew there were places in this country that don’t have gas stations for 45 plus miles?! 🤷‍♀️ I couldn’t imagine this would be a thing. Needless to say, for about an hour of our trip Ross was ruminating that he couldn’t believe we were going to run out of gas in the middle of the Salt Flats and then for good measure had to add to the drama by articulating we’d likely be rear-ended by a tractor trailer. All the while I simply intermittently prayed to anyone who might listen and laughed out loud because, well, that’s what I do when I’m nervous. 😏

Since I’m clearly still on this journey (translation - Ross didn’t leave me on the side of the road because of my poor shotgun navigation skills) it all worked out! We literally puttered our way into the first station we came to after discovering there is a signal even more dire than an orange low fuel light - and that’s a FLASHING orange low fuel light. So for all those Sprinter Van people out there, just some good info to catalog…

Good thing I’m WAY more skilled at finding last minute camp spots from the passenger seat than I am at navigating gas accessibility throughout the US. SO, once we regrouped from THAT we got about another hour in and I found a great spot to park for the night. In the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, I found an awesome app called The Dyrt to assist in this ever-evolving skill of mine.

This particular spot was hard to find and when we finally found it, it was pitch black. We were thrilled just to be there but truly had no idea what a truly beautiful spot it was too until we woke up this morning!

One of the main reasons we were even able to find it is because we spotted another camper in a renovated school bus who obviously had used The Dyrt too as this was definitely a bit of an obscure spot. (But good news is it was Ross’s favorite so far and so I soon began emerging back into his favor). The spot was so obscure actually we did kinda scare the parked camper as we pulled up after dark and somewhat out of the blue. After all, she was there as a single woman in her 20s, alone! (And I thought I was adventurous). We quickly learned she was also going to Burning Man while she learned we were harmless. When we woke to our beautiful surroundings I also noticed she had a social media handle on the back of her van. Seems we gained a new friend in Emily @biggirlworld. I messaged her this morning as we pulled away and we plan to connect in a few days in Black Rock Desert.