Close To Home 06/09/20

Kodachrome Basin State Park, Cannonville, Utah

It is not good to eat too much honey, nor is it honorable to seek one’s own honor. ~ Proverbs 25:27

If you ever get to read this, you’ll discover that we stayed pretty close to home today. (As I write this, it’s June 12^th and we still don’t have enough internet service for me to post! The last one was June 2^nd. Sigh . . . )

Even now, I’m trying to get June 3^rd ready for Blaine to proof-read, but it’s very slow going. I opened up the blog at 8:30am. Once it opened 3 minutes later (an eternity in modern tech time), I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I’d already uploaded the pictures onto the site! Of course there are still numerous other things that need done to get it ready, and all require a stronger internet service than we have in Torrey (Our next stop. Confusing, isn’t it? Sorry.) Unfortunately, several of the pictures ended up sideways, and after 30 minutes, I’d only turned two of them. Heavy sigh . . . .

But then, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles! (That’s from “Fiddler on the Roof”, in case you were wondering. The tailor sings it. 😊) Sorry. Off track. Anyway, we discovered that our phones had two bars of service! Blaine connected our jetpack and we were off and running! Almost faster than lightning! I had the post ready for him to proofread by 9:30am! I was so excited! Wonder how many I’ll get done today?

Okay. So what happened on June 9^th? I can hardly remember. We’ve been running full-tilt for so many days, it’s all a bit of a blur by this point. That’s why blogging is so important to me. As I work on the days, looking at the multitude of pictures we take, it brings back the memory. Hopefully, it’s also interesting and edifying for you, the reader.

I definitely remember that we stayed close to home today. And I definitely remember what we had for dinner, because I pasted the recipe onto this day the next morning – so I’d remember. 😊

We chose to check out the Panorama Trail because it’s a 6-mile loop with some spur trails to a few points of interest, bringing our total to about 7-miles. According to the time stamp on our pictures, it took us about 6 ½ hours, including a lunch break.

For whatever reason, I decided to include a map of our hike today. : )

Believe it or not, those white rocks are the north side of Zion National Park!
It’s a clear day today!

Well, look at that, jeans and a jacket!
It must be cool this morning! lol

Blaine’s putting his hand on the prints on the wall.

We aren’t sure how these hand prints ended up on the rock. Blaine thinks people carved them out of the soft sandstone, but I maintain that they’re too rounded and smooth to be carved. My theory is the rock was wet and people pressed their hands in it. Blaine says the rock never gets that soft. What say you??

That looks nothing like a ballerina to either of us! Maybe it’s eroded since it was named . . . .

There’s pods growing inside those yucca plant flowers!

Looks like most of the hats have been sold. . .

Lost the jacket. It’s warming up.
Unfortunately, if it gets any warmer, I’m gonna boil because there’s nothing else I can remove.

I just love these “drips” of sandstone we find occasionally!

It seems one kind of rock is wrapped around another. . .

Umm. . . are we really supposed to go that way?

There he is. Picking at stuff again. : )

A lonely plant trying to make it in the rocks.

It was a much longer walk than we expected. : )

It really was a cool cave – – physically and aesthetically!

Found these shells sitting on a rock in the cave. : )

These were really cool! It’s an entire bush full of them!

I can’t remember if I mentioned it before, but this Park has 67 of these spires in it. Apparently, that’s a lot.

We didn’t realize how steep this trail went to get to the point. But it was a pretty easy trail.

Sign needs a little work, but it’s good enough, I suppose.

Blaine either doing research, or making a phone call. I had to go sit down, and this log was the only place above the dirt. : )

Blaine’s new app says this is a Stinging Serpent.

Once again, we saw no one. That is, until we were on our way back and we ran into some kids on bikes. And I mean real kids – – they were about 8-9 years old. They were on some kind of outing, because there were also two adults with them helping them out and giving them direction. They were all asking us about the cave, but they were headed the wrong direction for that, and we told the woman at the back that. Hopefully, their leader figured out how to get there, because if he didn’t, he’s going to have a disappointed group.

After we got back, we made a wardrobe change, and then took the Jeep for a run.

Doesn’t look much like a chimney to us, but it sure is huge!! And out in the middle of a large open area!

We drove a bit further to check out those rocks.

One more stop not too far from home, there’s a former Arch I wanted to see.

They talk about this arch frequently around here, even though it fell in April 2019.

You have to hike to it. It’s supposed to be an easy hike, but it wasn’t what we’d call easy. Still, it wasn’t so bad.

And there it is now.
Crumbled on the ground. : (

The hikes were good, the drive was good, dinner was great! And it made enough for three meals for us.

STUFFED MEATLOAF

3 potatoes, peeled and cubed

¼ C. olive oil

½ C. onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 ½ pounds ground beef

1 C. Italian seasoned bread crumbs

1 T. fresh parsley (or dry equivalent), minced

1 t. salt

1 t. pepper

2 eggs, slightly beaten

½ C. chicken broth

½ C. Romano cheese, grated

8 oz. ricotta cheese

1 C. mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 9 x 9 pan. Boil the potatoes until soft. Drain and allow to steam dry for a minute or two. Mash with a potato masher and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Sauté onion and garlic until the onion is translucent (about 5 minutes). Place with potatoes. Add ricotta, and mozzarella cheeses and mix well.

In a large bowl, mix the meat, crumbs, seasonings, eggs, broth and Romano cheese until thoroughly combined.

Place ½ the meat mixture in the bottom of the pan (shape like a flat, square plate). Spread the potato mixture over the meat, leaving a ½” border all around the edge. Place the remaining meat on top and seal the top and edges.

Bake for 1 hour.

HINT: Try varying the cheese flavors. Try various sauces, if desired such as horseradish/mayo, BBQ, or the sweet and sour sauce from our favorite recipe. You can make ahead and freeze, just remove from freezer one day before and put in the frig. Bake according to directions.

When we ate this leftover, a couple of days from now, I made a horseradish sauce. It really enhanced the flavor! I used one heaping tablespoon of Helmann’s, and the same amount of sour cream. Then I added maybe 2-3 T. of horseradish – until it had the flavor we both agreed was perfect.

After dinner, Blaine decided he needed to hike some more. I did not.