Saturday, October 13, 2012

Thrills and Chills in Northeastern Utah- not on a raft, but a Sportsmobile on a bridge.

You would imagine that rafting would provide enough thrills and chills for my risk loving husband, but he has experienced another sort of thrill when he drove our very large and heavy Sportsmobile through a "shortcut" recommended by the local shuttle firm.  Said shortcut was breathtaking in more ways then one.  We started out from Vernal, Utah, a very pretty small town after shopping to resupply Norm and the folks who were going down the river again.  Who knew that petunias would lead to almost horror...
 Leaving Vernal with its picturesque petunias and T-Rex and Pterodactyl statues, we traveled by dirt road following obscure landmarks through this canyon...

Edging carefully to the crumbling edge of the single track to let another vehicle pass...
we began to wonder at the wisdom of taking the shortcut as we passed a sign that said..."warning!  bridge ahead limited to two ton vehicles."  Ours weighs considerably more than that!  Deciding we would go take a look since we had already come fifty miles, we were relieved when we got to the bridge that the new sign said 6 ton limit!  Okay, we are a lot closer to that limit, although still a little over.  However the bridge looked pretty sketchy.  Norm, usually making fun of my over-active caution, agreed that our passengers should walk over first, which we did very cautiously as the bridge swung in the winds.  

Norm eased the van onto the bridge very slowly as it bucked and swayed...
And we cheered as he eased off the bridge back onto solid pavement.  We agreed that next time, we would skip the shortcut.  Thirty minutes of driving might be preferable to three minutes of terror!

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