Fire alarm in the Lodge and Annie comes to visit

It turned cold last week, so management directed that the heat be turned on because the Rangers were having a meeting at the Lodge, and we should impress them with how comfortable everyone could be.
W-E-L-L, when heat hasn't been turned on for a season, you know that burning dust smell you get?  Someone smelled burning dust (and we have lots of dust), and turned on the fire alarm.  Standing rules are to secure your area and evacuate, in that order and nothing more.  Since the heat was turned on because it had turned cold, people went out with no wraps or with whatever they could grab going out the door of the Lodge.

The clouds hung low and heavy, and even the Rangers were cold.

20 minutes out in the cold ought to bring everyone to life and get them to work faster!  Right?  Wrong!

The weather had moderated by the time Annie arrived (you'll recall Margaret and Richard and I visited Annie at The North Rim) the next day, and we struck out on our travels.  First stop was at the "tourist trap" at Virgin, UT, so named for the Virgin River that flows through it. You also will recall the 23 miles of NW Arizona between St. George, UT and Mesquette, NV known as the Virgin Canyon, carved over eons by the Virgin River.  The muffins this place sells are huge and delicious, and our mouths were watering, but all we could do was drool.  They didn't open until 10, and we were off for a day of fun and discovery and couldn't wait 1/2 hour for them to open, even if the white rooster did coo and cluck like a hen for handouts.

Yes, I had to pose in front of the Virgin Jail, also.



We went to the Dixie Music Festival in a city park adjoining Dixie State College in St. George.  Lots of things are referred to as 'Dixie' in this part of Utah.  I guess it's because the area is 'Down South' in Utah!  There were more crafts and vendors than there was music, although someone was playing and/or singing most of the time, as we wandered among the tents.  We then drove around the part of 'old town' that I had explored previously and then parked and walked around the area a bit.  My knee began to argue that this was not what it wanted to do, so I sat in a lovely, shaded little area among shops.  This 'barn' shop I found most interesting. 

I thought Warren might be interested in its colors.

We found bargains galore in a consignment store.  Annie definitely has that Western Look in her hat.

It's hard to tell that I'm holding onto the thumb of a large cast hand.

It's not easy to tell what's snow and what's clouds in this picture, but I can assure you that below the clouds and above the dark shadow of the clouds on the mountain is SNOW.  The Pine Valley Mountains are just north of St. George and have some peaks in excess of 10,00 ft.  Anything over  8,000 ft. got snow last week, so here's the first real October snow, folks.

Here we are back in Paradise.  At the foot of Zion Canyon Drive from the Park entrance to the Lodge is a pull off with the sign "Court of the Patriarchs".  Across the Virgin River to the left are 5 high rock formations, named by the Mormons, who settled this area in the mid-1800s and tried with desperation to farm this arid sandy soil.

The 3 Patriarchs are Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph.

To the left of the Patriarchs are Mt. Moriah (may be similar but a slightly different name) and the Sentinel.  I got one but not both on the left side of the canyon...and of course that wonderful blue Western Sky complete with a couple of clouds.

Annie went for a hike, and I iced my knee before dinner and turning in for an early night.  She had to get an early start on Sunday morning to make the 3 hour drive back to the North Rim for work Sunday afternoon. 

 I love having visitors and seeing old friends.  One of the guys at the Front Desk made a comment today about my visitors.  Just wait until Retta arrives for a week!  I personally can't wait and am busy planning her schedule while I'm working and the motor trip we will be taking to the east side of the state to visit Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches, and Canyonlands National Parks.

Just 3 more weeks in Paradise.  It has flown by.