Utah Camping Trip in September

John wasn’t so enthused about yesterday’s post. He called it a “smorgasbord” which I guess is polite for “rambling”. And he said it didn’t have any amazing pictures. I beg to differ. Pictures of my friends aren’t amazing? Pictures of me in a dorky striped blue hat and purple gardening clothes holding a large metal star isn’t amazing? Pictures of high-end turquoise mountain bikes on the back of a Sprinter van isn’t amazing? I mean, yes, it would have been more amazing if they were our bikes and our Sprinter van and not just something I saw in the botanical garden parking lot.

Here is what John means by amazing:

Unfortunately, our September Utah camping trip was mostly not fun. But we got some great pictures! I could just post the rest of the beautiful pictures and wax poetic about the wonders of nature, or I could tell you what really went down.

Let’s just say…every pet in our life was sick that weekend! Laura was texting from vacation in Peru saying that their cat, Caden, was in the hospital in California and might have to be put down. Luckily, Alex’s mom was pet sitting for them and was able to get the cat to the veterinary ER. Meanwhile, Callan and Guen were calling saying their dog Blue was in the hospital and might have to be put down. This was sudden and unexpected for both animals.

Meanwhile, our own dog, Biska had a bad case of diarrhea and John spent all night getting up with her because she kept needing to be let out of the camper van. It’s not really safe for her to be out alone at night in the wilderness, so John would have to pull on clothes and boots and leash her up and go out there in the cold, every couple of hours. I don’t think anyone slept for two nights. (Yes, it was John going out there with her, not me, because he’s amazing like that.)

We also had a totally traumatizing unexpected encounter with horses, which I can barely even think about, except to say that we’re ok. But I’m still upset about it.

Then the weather forecast changed, as a front approached. And we were worried about Biska’s health, even though she was running around with her usual energy, she wasn’t eating much and continued to have the stomach bug. So we gave up and went home. But we did somehow manage to get a ton of good pictures. So yeah, I could have told a much more cheerful story, but my truth is what you’re getting.

Here’s the rest of the amazing pictures:

Yep, beautiful photos but not exactly a relaxing trip. So fast forward to now…how did it all turn out?

Unfortunately Callan and Guen’s dog, Blue, did need to be put down, although not for another few weeks. Blue was an older dog, who used to live with Guen and her previous partner. Blue only recently started living with Callan and Guen. Understandably, Guen was quite upset to lose her dog, and Callan was too, even though they didn’t have the dog very long.

Laura’s cat, Caden, recovered to some extent, but continues to have some long term health issues.

Biska was fine as soon as we got home, thank goodness.

We’ll go back to Utah again next year. Hopefully with a more cheerful story to go along with the inevitably amazing photos.

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