With a little bit of luck

Hurricane, UT – My mother al-ways says it’s better to be born lucky than to be born rich.  Well, today we were lucky so many times we felt rich indeed.

The local TV news last night dissuaded us from visiting the big tourist spots today because it’s the March Break.  There can be long lineups, they warned, and we listened.

So, we decided to head into St George and visit the Camping World store. When we got there, we split up and had a good browse, and each of us found some neat gadgets for the RV. At the cash, we found out a number of the items were marked down significantly, so that sweetened the deal!

Just down the road Val spotted the Stephen Wade Honda dealer. He’d been hoping to find out if we could get the tires rotated because the front tires were a bit worn from being towed for so many miles. The service guy, Taylor, said it would be no problem and he could do it for us right away!  He also invited us to help ourselves to snacks and juice in the waiting area, and there was today’s local paper to read while we waited.  A short time later, Taylor came to tell us the job was done, and have a great day.  When Val asked what we owed him, he said “no charge”!

The town of St George is surrounded by walls of red rock and sculpted cliffs, and we drove up to the rim for a better look at the beautiful scenery that we had passed so quickly yesterday. The Pioneer Park offers parking spaces for visitors, as well as a paved roadway between the huge rock formations. We opted to walk the paths and climb over the massive red stones on foot, and were rewarded with a fabulous view over the entire valley where the city lay below and the mountains surrounding it. Lots of other visitors – some coming by the bus load – were scrambling over the rocks as well.

We continued our drive around the upper rim where many beautiful homes in gated communities also took advantage of the view. The houses were made of concrete (we saw one under construction) and covered with stucco in the same hues as the rocks, with tile rooves  and yards landscaped with rocks, gravel and local desert plants. Every home was neat as a pin!

Our route took us back into the city, with time to browse an-other out-door gear store before we headed for the cinema.  We’d been hoping to see Nebraska, an Oscar-nominated film, and, lucky for us, we found it was still showing in town.  It was also just a few blocks from the outdoor store.

The black-and-white picture relates a charming story of an aging man, who is convinced that he had won a million dollars by a deviously-worded subscription scheme. His son tries to explain the scam, but in the end helps his dad with his stubborn mission to collect his prize. Their adventures are beautifully and humorously related and the end is very satisfying.

Our server at the Italian restaurant where we went for dinner after the movie was the one who told us the March Break was ending this weekend. That made it even better that we’d been able to extend our stay here to fully explore all this area has to offer. Better to be born lucky!