Does it rain in Moab?

Well here we are in Moab, Utah. Moab what is that you may ask... It is a biblical name. We learned this and much more while we have been here. Not knowing much before we came we relied on a little help from the natives to guide is in the right direction. We arrived in Moab late Tuesday night. When we arrived it was 10pm and still 93 degrees. We had the deluxe campsite this time that included power hookups and a water hookup. Rolling in style. Well for a moment anyway. We used Mr. Miklosey's tent setting up in the dark 101 class to help us out. We used our headlights to light the way for our set up. Well the lighting was not this issue, the rock hard ground was the issue for grounding the tent. We used our muscles and the mallet to get most of the stakes in, but we had to be creative for the rest. We had to tie the tent stings down with milk cartons filled with water to hold the tent in place. And its a good thing we did because that first night was windy. So windy that it provoked Katie to look up the weather forecast for Wednesday. The forecast called for a 30% chance of thunder storms through the day and into the night. The sky was overcast and the smell of rain was in the air, but what do we know, we are in the middle of the dessert, it doesn't rain here right? Well we decided to rely on a valuable source for that information, the KOA ground crew. Lauran asked the two gentleman working on the cabin across from us if it was going to rain today.... and they looked at her like she had three heads. hey both said in unison, "Rain in Moab... HAHAHAHA". So we went along with our day taking their words as gold. We took a journey up to Canyonlands National park one of two of the national parks in Moab. Upon arrival into the park we found it neccessary to stop at the visitor center for a trail map so that Katie would feel oriented. (she is a bit obsessed). When we pulled up to the center we were serenaded with beautiful banjo music coming from a cute park ranger. We walked by looking for our trail maps and he asked us if we would like to join him for his program that would be starting in 10 minutes... We inquired what the program would entail (remembering our previous prairie walk and many other learning experiences). He said it was about music and the Canyonlands. Thinking to ourselves we only live once and considering how cute this banjo player was we figured why not? Well those 10 minutes in the center flew by and before we knew it, it was time for the program we had been awaiting. All 5 of the participants sat down right in front of the center on some benches with our fearless leader (the banjo playing park ranger) in front of us. We all introduced ourselves and then the program was underway. The long awaited program consisted of the park ranger playing his banjo as the 5 participants( only 4 after the first 5 minutes) sang along on pre-printed sheets of paper. We sang/laughed hysterically two songs and then after we sang each song the ranger asked us to share with the group what the song meant to us and how it related to the national park service. And that was that. Needless to say.. we had a great time.

Who needs health insurance?
So lets go back to those smart ground keepers at the KOA. It never rains in Moab. Well shortly after leaving the center we were on our way into the canyon with our trail map in hand. Well we happen to notice some rain over across the canyons. Assuring ourselves that it would just be neat to look at, and it wouldn't really rain, we kept forging on. We decided to take a hike up on Whale Rock. Which is one of the many formations in the Canyonland. We kept seeing these stacked up little rocks along the way and we were baffled as to what they were. We thought they were naturally occurring formations or that people had stacked them while on their vacations (some people build sand castles others stack rocks). Well the hike up to Whale rock according to the sign was moderate and would only be 1 mile round trip. Well about after 20 minutes of aimlessly wondering and occasionally seeing these stacked rocks and wondering why the heck it was so hard to find this whale rock.. we kept walking figuring the scenery was pretty anyway. Just when we were turning back to go to the car we stumbled upon the real path again. So we followed up a fairly steep rock formation. Following what the sign said, Katie didn't think it would be necessary to change from her Birkenstock's into her hiking shoes. So the path lead us up on top of this huge rock structure that resembled a whale and it overlooked a huge canyon. It was like were standing in the clouds we were so high. Just as we were enjoying the top and catching our breaths a nice gift from heaven was hand delivered to us. We were instantly cooled by this continuous mist of water... OH no it was raining!!! The storm we had been observing in the distance was now right over us. Good think though, we were only on top of whale rock, which happens to be made from a certain type of rock called slick rock and slick rock it was. When we were climbing down, almost to the bottom, Katie lost her footing, thanks to the sandals and slick rock and twisted her knee and slid down the rest of the rock. We are not sure who was traumatized more, Lauran or Katie. Lauran and a slight heart attack at the sight of Katie's leg bending in a way that her foot almost touched her head. After sitting down for a moment and recollecting ourselves, we got up. Katie was fine, she only suffered a minor scrape. We are thankful that nothing more happened. We learned several lessons from this situation. 1) never trust moabians and their weather forecast 2) always have health insurance 3) dont hike up slick rock when its raining 4) dont wear sandals while hiking up slick rock while its raining.5)those stacked rocks were the trail markers, after Katie's fall, she must have had some sense knocked into her and we realized that if we followed those, we would find our car.

After learning from these lessons we decided to stay in the car and observe the beauty of the lightening storm from within car that was grounded on four rubber wheels. We got to see the storm roll over the canyon, which was really awesome. We took some pictures, so you'll have to look at them.

And it didn't rain while we spent the night in the cabin.
Camping and Raining
We decided to play it safe after the days excitement and to secure a cabin for the night instead of our tent in the chance that the storms continued through the night. So we took the tent down and relocated to a cabin for the night. After relocating we showered and put on skirts and makeup for the first time on our trip for our River boat dinner and cruise.
Preston and George were at the door greeting us to our dutch oven cooked meal. We were seated next to a couple from Lawrence, KS and we enjoyed our yummy foods that were cooked in huge metal pots. After dinner and some delightful conversation we boarded the boat for our sunset light and sound cruise down the Colorado. We were geared up for a spectacular lighting of the canyons, but we got a little more. Preston (70 yr old moabian equipped with cowboy hat and a laser pen) started off the tour by pointing out some notable features of the rocks like two holes that were ET's eyes. We might not have been able to see the 100 feet wide holes if it weren't for his 1 cm wide laser light pointing them out. As the sun set we then enjoyed the light show. The light show consisted of a pick up truck driving along the river road shining big beams of white light up on the canyon walls as music played on the boat. IT WAS BREATH TAKING! Although you could see the pick up truck with lights driving along the canyon, we tried to look beyond the truck and focus on the obnoxious campers that were camping on the river who so nicely were flashing us and the little children aboard the boat. In all reality the moon was shining over the river and there were many stars in sight. We enjoyed the cruise for other reasons than Preston would have thought.