Day 1

Ruffles and cheap prosecco to start off the week-long camp trip.

Because the restaurant had to be closed for repairs April 29 - May 7 we decided to take a road trip. The following posts are a daily log of our adventures.


At 8:46 a.m. we had the truck packed up, and were on our way to pick up greasy, smashed ham and Swiss cheese croissant egg sandwiches for the road. Our successful departure time could be credited to our advanced and efficient planning that only left us the task of loading up the dogs and the coolers in the morning. All we needed was a bundle of firewood, ice and Kent.

Because we always have the best intentions to leave early, but rarely ever do, I should have known that we were off to a too-good start. After a few hitches with our errands and fetching, we were officially on the road by 10:15 a.m. Not bad, but far from the 9 a.m. start we had hoped to achieve.

Tyler planning out all of our possible course options.

I thought we were well on our way, with only a quick stop at Cabela's before reaching our destination for the day: Moab. Shame on me for thinking that errand could be short and sweet. It's so easy to get distracted by the amount of inventory the store holds. Kent had to return a few items, so Tyler and I got lost in the abyss of camping gear: cots, grills, water purifiers, percolators, etc. Everything caught our eye. I managed to navigate the boys past the Bargain Cave (a time killer I knew we couldn't afford) but failed to mush them past the Gun Library. As soon as I snared one, the other would break free of my attention. Eventually we navigated our way to the check-out line, but picked the slowest lady checker in the store. Soon we were on the road and headed to the desert.

Tyler makes a pizza pie.

We were starving when we entered Moab, so we stopped at Eddie McStiff's for a late lunch, and to change our plans once again. While eating a terrible meal, we decided to camp out Onion Creek (close to town) so Kent could get some work done the next day and still be able to camp. He had planned on getting a hotel, but camping sounded like a much more fun proposition. Plus I think he wanted to check out the latest ambitious meal in the Dutch oven: deep dish pizza.

I made the dough ahead of time so the whole process was incredibly easy. Tyler just pressed the dough after oiling the pan, then added pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella with pepperoni and we were ready to bake up our creation. We did have brauts along too just in case the whole thing burnt to a crisp.

As we waited, the night began to get "weird cold" — as described by Kent. Here is the definition I came up with: the permanent feeling of goosebumps but your body shows no signs of them. Your core is warm, but somehow your appendages are chilled. Nothing about the temperature suggests that it's cold, but for some reason your brain wants another layer of clothing. Weird cold. 

As we watched the Dutch oven smolder with coals, we hoped that our pizza would turn out. I was so hungry, that I probably would have eaten whatever failed burnt mess that was in there, but I was in luck. The pizza worked! There was some burning of the crust, and next time we need to use about half the dough — but it worked! And it was delicious. Even with the weird cold, the dinner was perfect, and so were the following beers around the fire. Day 1 was off to a fabulous start for the trip.