Hurricane, UT & Zion National Park

We arrived in Hurricane on Monday after an uneventful trip south on I15.
We are definitely in the desert as the temperature upon arrival was 97 degrees with the humidity about 10%.

As we were setting up a very nice lady came and knocked on our door. She handed us two slices of watermelon and told us that since we wouldn't come to them she would come to us. There was a watermelon bust going on and I explained that we had just arrived and we were not completely set up yet.
We went down to the club house and played games for an hour or so, but we left early as I was tired from the drive.
Tuesday we went over to Zion (less than 20 miles) and took the free shuttle into the park. No vehicles other than park vehicles are allowed on the scenic route from May to November. It cuts down on traffic and pollution from the cars and trucks.

There were 7 stops along the route and you could get off at any stop and take as long as you wished as the shuttles were 5-7 minutes apart. There are many photo ops available and the scenery is absolutely gorgeous. ( Internet is so slow here that I can't post pictures).

The park here is nice. The infrastructure is a little old and the sites are close, but on the whole it is a nice park.
Evie and her husband Bill, (she is the very nice lady with the watermelon) go up to the clubhouse every night to play games and socialize. She has not been too successful in getting people to come. The park has been near capacity for the last 2 nights and everyone is given an activity sheet upon arrival. We don't understand the lack of participation.
We play pegs and jokers every night.
She teaches a game called Pickle Ball and is played on a tennis court. I'm not sure as to how the game is played, but she asked me to help extend the tennis court with paving stones.
That is what we did Wednesday.

Wednesday night while we were playing pegs & jokers, Evie suddenly screamed. There was a 2-21/2 inch tarantula crawling across the floor.
We got a large Styrofoam cup and trapped it. (Bill, a practical joker, wanted to leave it on the floor in the cup for the people who opened the clubhouse in the morning to find it. It was decided that it would not be good for the spider or the morning people, so I got a piece of paper, slid it between the bottom of the cup and the floor, took the whole thing outside and released it back to its home. Evie and Brenda were very alert for the rest of the evening, to the point of distraction to the game.

Thursday, Brenda and I went up to Kolob Canyon for the drive through that part of Zion. (Zion is a large park but there are not roads that connect all sides of the park). That drive is a 5 mile road that has a turn around point at the end. It is a beautiful drive with many turnouts for picture taking.The National Park Senior Pass paid for itself again.

This afternoon we are going down to St. George for a 5 mile bike ride with Evie and Bill. They come to this area often and know some biking trails in the area.

Ta ta for now