May 2012: The “Super” Full Moon In Bryce Canyon

Since the “Super” May Full Moon was 14% larger and 30% brighter than normal Sandy and I decided to venture out of state to Utah to celebrate. As life goes things never turn out the way you plan them but I think I will let Sandy tell you about it in her own words:

Well, our May Full Moon Adventure did not turn out exactly as planned. This month’s full moon they were calling a ‘Super Moon’. I heard someone on the media say that it happens about once a year or so, when the moon comes closest to the earth, it then appears to be much bigger and brighter. Besides the full moon, Saturday was also Cinco de Mayo and Kentucky Derby day.

We left on Thursday and after an overnight stop in Primm Nevada we drove to Zion National Park in Utah. The plan was to see Zion on Friday, check into Ruby’s Inn a mile from the entrance to Bryce Canyon, see Bryce Canyon Sat. morning, watch the Derby in the afternoon and howl at the moon that night. Sunday we would check on a couple of ½ acre lots that Ed bought in 1974, they are ½ way between Bryce Canyon and the little town of Panguitch UT. We would then head back stopping in Las Vegas for 2 nights.

Larry had never been to Zion or Bryce and he was especially looking forward to exploring Bryce Canyon. I had not been to Utah in many, many years and wanted to see if there had been any new developments in the area where the 2 lots are. Larry had a fun idea to plant a tree on each of the lots. I looked on the internet and found that there was a new restaurant near the lots named Harold’s Restaurant and I could see on the website that it had a few trees around it. I sent an email asking what kind of tree I could plant there that would grow with no care. Harold himself emailed back saying, “There are no trees that will grow with no care here in this God forsaken cold place”. Sooo, we decided to abandon the tree idea and thought it might be fun to bury time capsules. My friend Connie and her daughter Terri gave me some good suggestions for that.

Zion was awesome. We hiked to a pool and water fall, saw the lodge and took a lot of pictures. Then we drove to Ruby’s Inn at the base of Bryce Canyon and checked in. Shortly after we got into the room and unpacked I started feeling dizzy and then my heart started beating way too hard and too fast. As time went by I felt worse and Larry called the Paramedics. They loaded me into the ambulance and Larry rode in the front, by this time it was dark and Larry does not drive at night. It was a 22 mi ride to the little town of Panguitch, thankfully they have a very nice little hospital with a wonderful staff. I spent the night going through every kind of test you can imagine and finally around 2:00 we were put into a room. Larry had to sleep on a pull out chair in my room.

Everything checked out OK with my heart and the diagnosis was altitude sickness. Bryce is over 8,000 ft. and the doctor said that 8,000 ft is the altitude at which a lot of people (even mountain climbers) start having bad problems. I could therefore not go back to Bryce. Larry was taken back to the room at Ruby’s by a nice local young man in an old beat up car, there are no Taxi’s in Panguitch. He packed up our things and picked me up and we headed to lower ground. So Larry got as close as one mile from Bryce Canyon and he will no doubt never get to see it. He did get to see the moon on the way to the hospital  I felt lucky to be alive and back on the road and Larry was very relieved and happy that all was well again.

I felt fine and the rest of the trip was fun, we got to Treasure Island in Las Vegas in time to see the running of the Kentucky Derby and I got to see half of the “Super” moon from the hotel room window as it rose partially covered by the side of a LV high rise.

Many Happy Full Moons to all of you and a Very Happy Mother’s Day to all of the wonderful mothers. Love, Sandy

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Larry Trusley