Not The Painter

May 22, 2026  — Day 59 Sun Outdoors Canyonlands, Moab UT May 24, 2026  — Day 61 Sun Outdoors Canyonlands, Moab UT Yes, nothing happened. We were still recovering from that virus and this is a really a great problem to have, but having so much fun can be tiring. So we didn’t do anything on the 22nd and we repeated that on the 24th!

May 23, 2026  — Day 60 Sun Outdoors Canyonlands, Moab UT We set out to drive the Potash Road once again. We learned from our mistake and this time we had a full tank of gas! We’ll skip over the parts you’ve already seen. In case you’re wondering, we didn’t try the climb for the dinosaur tracks again! Last time we were here at this spot we turned around. We could see the leak in the potash pond far off in the distance. We wanted a closer look but we turned around. It was a good lunch spot that day. Today we just pressed on. Potash is a mineral that…

May 21, 2026  — Day 58 Sun Outdoors Canyonlands, Moab UT Paul’s been thinking about getting an Electric Mountain Bike. He loves his “acoustic” bike. But, as we age, well the hills get steeper. He also been thinking of a “full suspension” bike. This is the kind that has front and rear shocks. So, he rented one to make sure he liked it. (Susan here: Honestly? I think he was trying to talk himself out of buying one but he’ll never admit it.) There’s an area of easier MTB trails right near our campground so that’s where he went. And look what he found when he got there. That post…

May 20, 2026  — Day 57 Sun Outdoors Canyonlands, Moab UT We’ve spoken before about dinner and a show (when there are people parking in neighboring sites, sometimes it’s pretty hilarious). How about breakfast and a show!? The campers at the end of our row turned left to leave & took out their water spigot. Susan saw them hit something on the drivers side but at the time didn’t realize it was the water spigot. Paul saw them go up and over the curb on the passenger side. Two things in 30 feet. That’s some seriously bad driving. Worse, they just drove away! (Oh, if only everyone was perfect like…

May 19, 2026  — Day 56 Sun Outdoors Canyonlands, Moab UT So today we’re doing the Shafer Trail. We hadn’t planned on doing 2 trails in a row, we need a break from the Jeep and the washboard roads beating our bodies up, but 11AM-ish line into Arches looked to be about an hour long. Arches no longer has timed entry tickets, so, like Monument Valley, you just wait in line until someone else leaves. No thanks. And we still didn’t feel well enough for anything that didn’t involve sitting in the Jeep, so off we went to the Shafer Trail! To get to the Shafer Trail we need to…

May 18, 2026  — Day 55 Sun Outdoors Canyonlands, Moab UT Today’s adventure is driving the Gemini Bridges trail. This is an easy “off road” trail. It is in scare quotes because a Subaru could do this trail. But it’s legit off-road and some of it is, shall we say, interesting. Now the thing to know about off road photography is that a steep road never looks steep in pictures. So when it looks steep? It’s steep! Here we demonstrate that photographic phenomenon. We hope nobody’s coming around that bend! This is why we have a Jeep. We can explore way, way, way off the beaten track! We got a…

May 17, 2026  — Day 54 Sun Outdoors Canyonlands, Moab UT Sometime during the past Plague week we decided that we’ve spent about a week in Moab and not had a bit of fun! Because of that realization we booked in another week so we could enjoy what Moab has to offer. Today, the 17th, we stepped outside of the first time in days. So what do two people who’ve been sick & stuck inside do? We went to see dinosaur tracks! You may remember from a past blog that we like dinosaur stuff. This will be picture heavy. They’re not in order, mostly, that’s ok because does it really…

May 11-16, 2026  — Day 47 to 53 Sun Outdoors Canyonlands, Moab UT Susan went to Urgent Care on the 11th. It wasn’t flu or COVID “just” some stupid virus. While Paul was waiting in the lobby, a masked up COVID patient came in. Susan convinced Paul to wait outside. (susan here: he did not need to catch COVID on top of whatever it was that we picked up.) Paul was feeling a little off and he jokingly thought he should join her in the examination room. We went to the grocery store to stock up on easy to prepare foods, and the supportive things that were recommended then headed…

May 10, 2026  — Day 47 Monument Valley KOA, Monument Valley UT — Sun Outdoors Canyonlands, Moab UT “You’re in no shape to drive,” he said, and she didn’t disagree. Susan was sick. We could have stayed here while she recovered, but it was dusty, hot and in the middle of nowhere. Let’s go to Moab. Moab. This is Jeep mecca, mountain biking mecca, never in any of our planning did we think we’d visit Moab. But why Moab? We wanted to get out of the heat. We can’t remember if we mentioned this earlier in the blog, but the plan was to leave Phoenix and follow the bird migrations…

May 9, 2026  — Day 46 Monument Valley KOA, Monument Valley UT Susan woke up still feeling tired [cue ominous music] so we just hung out some. It seemed that the best way to see the Monument Valley sights was to get a Navajo tour and one geared towards photography. You need two tours actually, one for sunrise and one for sunset. We watched a video from one of our favorite YouTube vloggers, Through My Lens, and he drove the scenic drive. They only allow a certain number of cars in at time. This means you could end up waiting a while just to get in. Given her fatigue, we…