Memorial Moab

What a weekend. I consented to go camping with all my family for Memorial weekend, but on one condition-I sleep in a camper. So Dave borrowed one from a very generous friend and off we were to the interesting landscape of Southern Utah.
The dessert is fickle my friend. While it is beautiful and majestic it is also violent and temperamental. We had everything from perfectly sunny to partly cloudy (great for the hike) to tornado force sandblasting winds to flash flooding and life threatening lightning storms.
Saturday was great in the day. We hiked to Delicate Arch under a nice overcast afternoon. Only 3 16.9oz. water bottles needed for that one. We got back to camp (a four letter word in my opinion) and all is well for about an hour of visiting. Then the gates of Hell opened up and we huddled (all 23 of us) under two shade canopies. It rained and rained and then it really got wet. Lightning was cracking so close that there was little if any lapse before the earsplitting thunder came. Keep in mind that there were babies, toddlers, and little ones climbing on each adult for safety. Well, it kept coming and hard, but it was too dangerous to leave the group to save anything. Within the 20 minutes of Satan's furry Candace and Ethan lost there tent to an instant river that ran directly through it. That was it. She broke. As soon as it has stopped enough to get the tent out of the "new" river, they packed loaded and left. About an hour later we all decided to forget about making dinner in the muddy mess and headed into Moab to Pizza Hut-yet another disappointment.
Sunday started out with a nice breeze and the sun was out. I rolled up my sleeves and bottoms and was determined to get a little dessert sun out of the trip. Paul, Steph, Sebastian, Peyton, Cam, Chelsea, Cahleb, Dave, and Kenadee all went rock crawling (4-wheelin'). It was such a beautiful day, that is until we started packing up. Then came round 2 with the elements. Light rain and breeze, then stornger rain and wind, then rain/hail and 40 mph winds that shred shade canopies BEFORE you can get them down. All the time being sandblasted. I think I got several treatments of microderm abration for free! But we did get packed. And of course, it was beautiful for several hours after that. And if you can believe it, we actually had a GOOD time! All I can say is...we have to get us a camper.