Kanab pt1

Keeping with what turned into our nightly ritual, Friday evening (the 17th) found Laura and I sitting in the “breakfast room”, on the sofas, with our cups of coffee (sometimes it was actually coffee); she was answering emails off and on while we chatted and watched Nick at Nite. The great part about coming downstairs to the breakfast room each night was that we always had the place to ourselves. There would be the occasional hotel guest that would wander in to grab a cuppa coffee or some tea, but otherwise we had the run of the place…complete remote control :0) This particular night, however, I think we both had the “gloomy gus” vibe going since neither of us wanted to leave Kanab. The “party” was over but no one wanted to go home.

My part of the Kanab trip started on the 15th. Being a Sunday, the traffic was light; blazing down I-15 through the metro areas of Ogden, Salt Lake and on past Provo was a snap. I’m not much for driving metro area I-15 so the lack of mad traffic was a blessing. With my tunes cranked up I be-bopped down the road, singing and grooving along my merry way, arriving to Kanab at about 4 p.m. Anyone who has been to the southern part of Utah will know what a huge difference there is in the landscape…it is so beautiful there - not that it isn’t in the northern part also – with all the different rock formations and the colors..oh! the colors are stunning! I checked into the hotel then headed back north of town to scout out where we would be spending our week working with critters great and small (the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is about a 10 minute drive from Kanab) since Laura and the girls were still several hours away, coming north from their stay at the Grand Canyon. Snapped some pictures, looked around, then headed back to town. Laura, Kaylin and Ashley arrived while I was downstairs in the gym so it was a pleasant surprise to open the door to our suite and see them!

There is just so much to say about my trip…tons of things to tell you. I don’t want to continue with a blow by blow account, so I will try to post each day some of the highlights (and silly stuff) that happened thoughtout the week. I made notes that final night so I wouldn’t forget anything. Had I been thinking I’d have brought a notebook to chronicle the day’s events each night during our lounge time in the breakfast room. Next time I’ll know, won’t I ;0)

Alrighty then…Monday morning we arrived just as the van for the tour was leaving the parking lot…luckily they turned around for us (missed orientation too…oops…should have remembered to print out the schedule) so we got to see where all the different areas were. Filled out some paperwork and then were turned loose to go have lunch before we started our work. And where did we go? DOGTOWN!!! Laura and I were assigned to the Garden complex, while the girls went to another area of Dogtown. Our “task masters” at the Garden were Skip and Karen, who were so awesome and funny. They made us feel right at home. Thus began the dogwalking…between us we walked every one of them! Miles of dogwalking, dog jogging, dog running. In sand. Up hills. Down hills. Whew!! After which we got to have playtime, where we could go into the runs, play with, brush and love the dogs (tough job, but someone needs to do it). I spent most of the time in the outside run of a dog who LOVED to be walked but did not like people very much…very very leary of anyone but Karen and Skip…abused and neglected before he got to Dogtown. Can not think of his name (see, if I’d have been writing this down as I went along, I’d remember now wouldn’t I?). Anyway, armed with some dog treats, I just sat in the yard with him, not getting close at all but letting him come as close as he felt comfortable on his own. Throw out a treat, entice him to venture a little closer. By the end of the day he would come up to my feet and take a treat, felt comfortable enough with me to lay down under the tree about 3 feet away. I hope that it helped reinforce that not all people are bad and want to hurt him. 5 o’clock rolled around fast, fun over for the day. Heeding the advice of Karen on the local eating establishments, we trooped back to town and into Escobar’s for chips, salsa and a monster chicken burrito. And ooooh was it good :0) If you’re ever in Kanab and in need of some great Mexican food….this is the spot, y’all. With full tummys, we headed back to the hotel to digest and take much needed showers, grab some coffee and lounge in front of the tv downstairs.

(The dog is one of the ones I walked on our first day...a cute hound mix named Amara)