The Misnomer of Fish Lake: AKA The Rapiers Go To Utah

It is hot. It is really hot. Not only is it hot, the humidity is as thick as I can remember it being in our nice little Arizona valley and we are just getting started with July. Which really has me looking forward to the 24th celebration in Pima later this month. It seems like every time it is held there, it should be renamed The LDS Human Bake Off or The Biggest Loser Mormon Community Edition. (The biggest loser comment refers to the amount of weight loss that occurs through the sweat glands of all present at the celebration and not any person or group of people who call Pima home. I just wanted to clarify.) I realize I sound a little testy about the heat, but that is all because we just spent several days in Central Utah where the temperature never really got much above 80. It was a little hard to come home from that. So with that intro, here is our story of the trip to Fish Lake.

This is the 15 passenger van we rented to drive to Fish Lake. In honor of the movie, RV, we referred to it lovingly as "The Big Rolling Turd".

Our story begins on Saturday, June 27, as we prepared to leave. This trip also doubled as the Danny Rapier Reunion 2009, so we had worked out to have my dad drive behind us to Mesa where we would rent a 15 passenger van and then make the rest of the trip all together. Once in Mesa, we had to then transfer all of the luggage and other items from our van and my dad's car into the new MASSIVE van. This happened at about 1:00 p.m. in Mesa...on the most humid day of the year thus far. I am fairly sure that I am now aware of what hell will consist of. It will be transferring luggage back and forth between vans in unbelievably oppressive heat. Between the head bumping, the profuse sweating, the trying to get wires and cords situated for portable DVD players, the stacking only to find out that your latest Tetris attempt is not going to work and various other frustrations, I think I created a new dictionary of made up swear words in an effort not to use the real ones. Then we were off to Flagstaff for the next leg of our journey and our overnight destination. We noticed a sign in the middle of Phoenix about an accident on Table Mesa Road. (Ok, time for an aside. Table Mesa Road...Really? Unless my spanish has completely deserted me, that translates to Table Table Road. It reminds me of the movie Mickey Blue Eyes when he learns that his fiance's father's restaurant is called, "The La Trattoria". He says, in the stammering way only Hugh Grant can, "Well...doesn't that mean The The Trattoria". Anyway, silly duplicate names in different languages annoy me. Maybe I wouldn't hold so much animosity if I weren't about to describe what happens next.) Sure enough, we travelled at a rate of roughly 2 miles per hour when we got north of Phoenix and in the vicinity of Table Mesa Road. Nothing like having your 12 hour drive turn into a 13 hour drive in the middle of it.

Once we made it through the traffic and had a good stay and visit at my cousin Shauna's house in Flag, we were on our way again after church on Sunday, June 28th. We drove, drove and drove a little bit further stopping in Page and Kanab before finally arriving at Fish Lake Sunday evening. Jerry and Kirt had enchiladas waiting for us, so we ate and pretty much went right to bed.

Hurry, take a picture quick! This is proof that we tried to put a life jacket on Kate. This smile quickly faded.

The next day, we went out onto the lake in a pontoon boat. By law, all children under 13 must have a life preserver on. Kate is not a fan of the law and promptly forced us to ignore it and just put her in her car seat while hoping the pontoon boat didn't sink. It didn't. Within the first ten minutes of fishing, I, the amazing outdoorsman that I am, caught a fish that was by far the biggest fish I have ever caught. This would prove to be the one and only highlight of the fishing portion of our trip over the next three days. Notice I didn't say it was the only fish we saw. We saw lots of fish jumping out of the lake and laughing at us, but this was the only fish we caught the entire trip.

Here is my trophy fish. Unfortunately, no one wanted to clean it, so we fed it to the local pelicans. That's right...pelicans. I had never associated pelicans with South Central Utah, but there you go.

Kirt letting Braden and Logan drive the boat. At least it gave them something to do since the fish weren't cooperating.

That night we ate at the Fish Lake Lodge and then went back to the Cabin and made Smores. At dinner, Abby was adamant that she get a Bacon Cheeseburger. As soon as she got her dinner she took the bacon off and then ended up putting the bacon in her to go box. I asked why she didn't eat it on her burger. She explained that she liked bacon and wanted it later, but really isn't a big fan of it on her cheeseburger. I have never considered myself to be an overly cheap person or someone who is obsessed about how every dime is spent, but this was a bit much for me. I explained to Abby that her Bacon Cheeseburger days had officially come to an end.



Over the next two days, we fished and hiked and hiked and fished or else did absolutely nothing. At night we enjoyed good food and then would play games until bed. We were sorry to see it come to an end.

Jerry enjoying a homemade Smore

But end it did and soon it was Thursday and we were packing up for the drive home. It rained on us most of the way home so we were glad we were leaving the day we left. One interesting thing we saw on our travels was a sign for a business in Orderville, Utah. First off, can anyone think of a name that sounds more Brigham Young inspired than Orderville. Shannon pointed that out and I have to say, I think she has a point. Anyway, in Orderville there was a sign for "Hoyt's Sporting Goods and CHAINSAWS". The emphasis on chainsaws is not my addition, it was emphasized on the sign. First off, you just can't beat the name Hoyt. Second, you hear a lot about the dangers of chainsaws and the number of accidents that accompany them. Well, if there is a large market for people who consider chainsaws to be sporting equipment, I may have found part of the accident problem. Moving on, we stopped for lunch in Kanab at a place called Denny's Wigwam. The food was good and the picture opportunities were even better. Below are a couple of the pictures we got during our stop there. When Braden saw the picture of Shannon standing behind the plywood cutout, he said, "Look mom, you are wearing your party dress." My only comment is, may I please have an invitation to that party.





After another night in Flagstaff, another van transfer and a visit to Ocean Blue (self-serve Frozen Yogurt place in Mesa...Highly Recommended) with Danae and Lamar, we finally arrived home on Friday evening. We were exhausted and ready to be home, but definitely glad we went.