Day 5: A Dairy and More Driving
We woke up and departed for Zion National Park, a 5 hour drive away. These are the brutal days where the Google Maps estimate is much shorter than reality because we are doing 62 on 80 mph roads. How do we keep the kids entertained? A huge perk of the RV is that they get to ride in the front. This means tons to see and talk about. It is also a known rule in our family that if you are in the front seat, you have to talk to me to keep me entertained. We have been listening to Brains On podcasts, listening to music, discussing random topics, and of course hours upon hours of Minecraft talk. I may be proficient after this trip even though I haven’t played more than an hour at this point.
Before realizing what a long drive day this was going to be, I’d already booked a tour of Heber Valley Artisan Cheese. First, we got there nearly an hour early for the 11 a.m. tour, which made it so much more relaxing. It also allowed for morning ice cream before the tour. Cooper got Aggie Blue Mint, Nicolas had huckleberry and I had Aggie Spirit which was huckleberry with raspberry swirl and chocolate chunks.
The tour kicked off with a hay ride out to the farm, where we met a 5-day- old calf, a bunch of other cows, and saw equipment including the automated poop scooping machine, the Roomba-like device that moves the hay closer to the cows, and automated milking machines.
It was so interesting, covering nearly everything about the process up to the making/packaging process (which we’ve seen at a bigger scale at Tillamook). Only two of the original 150 dairy farms in the Heber Valley remain, due to consolidation and increased land values. This particular dairy has made it because they’ve been successful in the artisan cheese business.
We also learned a reality of the dairy industry is that they take the calves away from their mom’s after 3 days to maximize the milk they can get from the cows. The first few weeks of milk go into a different chamber so the colostrum can still be bottle fed to the calves.
After the dairy, we filled up at Costco, had lunch at In-N-Out, and headed further south. While Rob drove, Nicholas and I played a few games of Monopoly Deal (when I wasn’t resting my eyes). During one of my driving legs, Rob scored big time by randomly opening his computer to see that the highly-desired cliff dwelling tickets became available unannounced. Getting those tickets made our day. We now have two cliff dwelling tours scheduled, which both look really fun.
Entering the mountainous area of Zion is breathtaking. Every turn was even more beautiful, and the campsite Rob found for us is incredible. We are excited to have four nights here, allowing us to settle in for a bit for the first time this trip. Our 7:30 p.m. arrival meant quickly-prepared hot dogs and peppers for dinner.
