I got my days mixed up somewhere along the line, but it is day 29 today.

We woke up to below freezing temps (-4) in our van thankful we’d chosen a powered site and I switched our heater on at 6.30am.

For some reason the data had stopped working on my phone, so I spent the morning talking with straight talk to get it fixed. Two hours later it was fixed and we could finally leave this freezing town in Wyoming.

There is colder weather coming in, and our route north has flood warnings from snow melt, and also fresh snow warnings! We don’t want to risk getting trapped in a snowstorm, so we are retreating.

We searched for somewhere moving forward that would be warmer, but all were expecting sub zero temperatures. So we decided to to backtrack 5 hours to Moab, where we know the weather is nice, and we hoped we might go back to the cowboy camp we loved.

We took the interstate as it was the fastest way and would avoid steep mountain passes. It was still a scenic drive, with snow capped mountains on either side of us.

We stopped at a restaurant stop where there were friendly prairie dogs hanging around. A man at the campground a couple of nights ago said they were pests and carried numerous diseases such as bubonic plague. So I was very wary of them.

As I was filming one on my phone, it came running over to me, clearly used to people feeding them. I’m not sure why he targeted me, maybe he thought i looked like a sucker, maybe he thought I was Alan, who knows.

I tried to shoo him away, but he kept coming at me. The thought of him biting me and having to go for rabies shots didn’t appeal.

He then run under our van and stood up in his signature stance. It looked like he was trying to find a way inside. I yelled at him to get out from under there, knowing I did not want a disease infested rodent in our van. He didn’t listen.

I found a stone and threw it at him, but he thought it was food and came chasing after me again. I abused him, swore at him. But he kept coming.

I threw another rock and he went under the van again, plotting how he could stow away with us. I wanted to get back in the safety of the van but also wanted to keep an eye on the crafty critter in case he managed to find a way inside.

I just wanted to get out of there, but Mike was sitting on the loo doing his business, unaware of the stress I was under.

After running around trying to avoid him, some tourists, whether they saw my distress or not, decided to distract him by feeding it. People are so stupid feeding these pests, but I was very thankful for it at that moment.

Finally Mike finished his business and I was quick, let’s get out of here. Somehow I managed to record the entire incident on my phone.

We arrived back at our cowboy campsite in near Moab and there was one spot free. We’ll stay here 3 nights while we rethink our route. We might have to drive up the west coast and come back down the other route.