Happy Birthday Penny and Other Sights

 Panguitch, Utah       High 75 Low 41

Today weather wise it was nice except for all the wind we are getting. 

Today Penny turned 7 years old. It doesn't seem like that long that we have had her but we got her about the middle of August 2014. Here she is sitting on my lap (one of her favorite places).

Last evening we went to a chocolate fest. There were all kinds of chocolate treats. Like the sign says, a balanced diet is chocolate in each hand. There were a lots of people there, quite a few selling it , and a lot eating it. 

Near the Panguitch City Offices is a statue depicting The Quilt Walk Story. Before I said it was during the winter of 1867 but it was the winter of 1864 which was a brutal winter. Food was scarce and the settlers were starving. A group of 7 men set out with a wagon and two oxen to get food in Parowan, 40 miles away. In their weakened state, the men struggled with every footstep, sinking in the snow. Continuing on after abandoning the wagon and oxen, the men decided to pray for help. As they knelt on a quilt, they noticed that they did not sink in the snow. The men completed their journey walking on quilts over the deep snow, retrieving the rear quilts and laying them in front of them over and over again. The story is now known as the Quilt Walk and is a treasured part of the history of Panguitch.

There  is a Quilt Walk quilt show going on here in Panguitch. It is the first free quilt show we have gone to. There are quite a few quilts in the show and Cindy found two that she says she would like to make. Sorry, more quilt pictures.

The two above are the ones Cindy want to make. The lower one has lots of piece of lace on and around the otter edge. The upper one has patches from National Parks and she wants to make a picnic quilt using patches from National Parks we have visited.

The rest are ones we liked.

More sightseeing tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting.

Red Canyon and Bryce National Park

 Panguitch, Utah        High 81 Low 39

It has been quite pleasant here but a little cool for me at night.

We went to see Red Canyon and stopped at the Visitor Center. There was a short walk that we decided to take. Parts of it were a little slippery and it took a bit for us to keep our footing but we made it ok.

Here we are with Linda, Cindy's sister.

We made it to the two tunnels in Red Canyon and read about the construction of the tunnels. 

We then drove to Bryce Canyon National Park. The last and only time I had been there was early in the 1980s. I got a contract to replace the cedar shingles on, I think, six buildings. We supplied the labor and the Park Service supplied the shingles and nails. I don't remember how much the contract was for, but we were doing the work in the fall and were hurrying to finish before the snow fall. The next picture is one of the buildings, The Lodge at Bryce Canyon. I do remember one of the requirements was that we had to place the shingles in a random wavy pattern and on one of the building the Park Service man told us to make the pattern wavier. It kept my people busy for a while. 

We noticed that since the shingles were installed, all the roofs have been painted green. It's only been 40 years since we installed ours.

We made a short stop at the visitor center and then went to several of the view points. At one of them we listened to a Range presentation on the geology of the area. He told us that most peoples first reaction to the Canyon is WOW! He also told us that the view we were looking at had the most Hoodoos of any place in the world. 

We thought that this old root (which looks like it has been carved) was kind of neat looking. We saw it on one of our walks along the rim of the Canyon.

Cindy had to get a picture of this flower.

I will have a lot more pictures tomorrow. Tonight we are going to a chocolate festival which is part of the Quilt Walk.

Thanks for visiting.

Finally on a Trip and More Quilts

 Panguitch, Utah     High 81 Low 73

We decided to make a trip to Panguitch, Utah. It is the only RV Park near Bryce Canyon that we were able to get into. Right now we plan on being her for six nights, but time will tell. Usually there isn't too much to do in this part of the world, but this week there is a quilt walk in town to commemorate what happened in 1867 to seven member of the community, but more on that later.

On the way down US 89 about 30 miles from here, there is an old log cabin that is the boyhood home of Butch Cassidy (Robert LeRoy Parker). There really isn't much to see, but was worth a stop since we have never stopped before. 

We weren't allowed to go into the old home so I had to get pictures through plastic. Like I said before, there aren't many furnishings.

The RV Park we are in is very old and in need of a lot of repair, but seems to be safe enough. 

The quilt walk festival starts Wednesday and we plan on doing it on Thursday. We think we can stay busy until Saturday.

I finished two more quilts. I hope you don't get tired of the pictures.

Thanks for visiting.