the RV park, the city, the city park, the Christmas parade, hurricane lanterns and laundromats!!

After dry camping in a beautiful, rustic location near Bryce National Park, I was ready to move on. I wasn’t sure what the terrain was ahead of me. So I did a lot of looking online . I also wanted a place where I would have electricity again and water would be good too. So I found that 73 miles south in Kanab, Utah.

I had never heard of it before, but it is a charming town! It is apparently, the Moab of this area as it is close to Zion National Park and just south of Bryce National Park. By that I mean it has lots of motels, restaurants, gift shops and tour companies and ATV rentals. It is surrounded by the Red Rocks Hills. Beautiful setting.

I made arrangements online at a small RV Campground within the city limits. And it wasn’t until I got here that I realized how small it is! But cozy as well.

What I like about outdoor resort areas like this, is they try to make their buildings reflective of the environment. Many are in the red and sand and brown tones and the architecture will reflect the environment. It makes it much more interesting. And the items they have for sale are indicative of this area, the sandstone and the Native Americans.

Discovered a Lovely City Park

I looked online to see where there would be a little Park in the city that I could just sit out in and enjoy the outdoors and work on my blog. I found this one right along the four-lane highway through town nestled across from motels. It is so well done you don’t even pay attention to that. Come check out the park with me. 🤗

In this dry region, it is really well planted with a variety of trees and bushes of varying sizes. It also has a number of waterfall ponds around the island. During the day I saw butterflies and birds landing by the water. And while sitting here at the table, I enjoyed that sound of a stream running by. It really muffles the traffic that goes slowly by.

The park is named after Levi Stewart who is credited as being the founder of Kanab, Utah. They have a very nice statue depicting him at the top of the island.

I’m going to include a few history plaques that I thought were interesting about Kanab’s beginning.

Christmas Parade 🎄

I had a nice surprise while I was camping here! They do not have their Christmas parade or tree lighting ceremony until after Thanksgiving! So I got to see my first Christmas parade in 4 years! And the best part? I wasn’t freezing !! 😅

I was wondering if it would be more western themed or different from our parades. There were some differences. There were no marching bands. No horses!! 😮 They had floats that businesses or individuals made just like we do. They had the hot air balloon flames like we do and they threw candy as well.

They did not lead off with fire engines , rather the fire engine was the well decorated vehicle that signified the end of the parade. And they only ran the siren gently when the kids would pump their arms asking for it. 😊

What was interesting, is the main road through town is four lanes plus parking. I had never seen this before but it was really thoughtful. The parade went down one side of the street in the lane near the center on our side, and then at the end apparently turned around because then they came back on the other side of the street and threw candy and waved etc. So you got to see it twice if you wanted to!! It was probably in the low 50s and getting cooler , so I still had a mildly winter coat on but I did not need gloves. And it was not windy.

The Lantern Lighting

This was a cool surprise as well. After the parade, at an area I think that was behind one of the high schools, you could buy a lantern, light it and let it rise into the sky. I had heard about this but had never seen it. It was easy to find where the place was because all you had to do was follow the trail of lanterns. 😃 So I drove over there and walked up to the area. These were large lanterns. It would be a great fundraiser for any organization as it was for them. One lantern for $10, two lanterns for $15. I’m glad I did not purchase one because it’s more difficult to get them airborne then I realized.

Around this area there were probably 50 or more metal tiki lights that had a good flame going. That is what was used to light a rectangular piece that was strung inbetween the sides of the opening of the lantern.

Once it was burning, they continued to hold it over the flame or sometimes over the ground as it continued to burn. It had to build up enough heat to let the lantern rise. Sometimes it would rise and come back down and they’d grab it and let it build up again. Sometimes it went up like a shot. It reminded me of just how they heat up and launch hot air balloons. Same process. But of course, most of the people doing this were not experienced!

It was really cool and the atmosphere was just wonderful. They had slow Christmas music playing through speakers and there were easily over 150 people there. All concentrating on lighting their lanterns and then standing together and watching it go up in the sky with all the others.

Of course the next question is, what happens to the lanterns? When I looked at the material and I watched the lanterns, I’m pretty sure they completely burned up in the air. They would eventually just twinkle out.

I also did a short video of this. But I can’t put it in the blog as it won’t take it. If you are interested, just text me and I can send it via a link and I’d be happy to do so.

Laundromats in Southern Utah 🙄

I have been doing my laundry in laundromats for the last 2 years and in many different states. However only in Utah have I noticed that the front loading washing machines use barely any water. It does not even fill up so you can see it on the glass! I first noticed that when I was in Moab at SlickRock RV Campground. I had a load of t-shirts and sweatshirts and when I took them out, the sleeves on one sweatshirt were not even wet! So then I watched a load of my socks and I could see just how much water was in there. If it was a quarter filled I was lucky.

I of course did bring this to the attention of management. They are new machines and I don’t think the management staff was aware of just how they operated on such little water. They have to make a list of problems before the company supplying the machines will come because it is a 3-hour drive for the company to come one way. 🙄 So I continue doing small loads. The one nice thing with these new machines is you did not have to use quarters. Actually you couldn’t. You had to use a debit or credit card. So much nicer!

Now I am in Kanab. The laundromat is right across the side street from me so it was perfect. It still uses coins. You can see the kinds of machines. And if you look carefully you will see an old Maytag washer in great condition sitting in the corner to gather in the Lost items. Well guess what. These machines only fill about a quarter machine of water as well!! I’m not sure if that’s how the new machines are or if it’s a water saving measure because it’s Southern Utah. Someone please tell me… Now tell me if you can guess what this signage on the dryer says?

Yep. Signage only, no language needed. It took me a moment but it shows three thermometers. Blue for cool, light red for warm and deep red for hot. Another new invention.🤔

That’s all for now 😊