Zion National Park

Saturday, May 22. As we drove north from the North Rim, we met two semis hauling huge rafts to Lee's Ferry.  Today we drove to Zion National Park -- wow, what an awesome place.  It's sort of like being at the bottom of the Grand Canyon looking up -- just giant walls of rock, one after another.  There was no poor view in the entire park. A rushing river added to the scene.

 I tried to sort through the 120 pix and settled on a few to post.  We did see 3 deer on the way to the Park, and 2 more on the way back.  We called Bridgette throughout the day as she was driving to Tampa to spend the summer, at least, with John. She's hoping she can stay there to finish up her dissertation and just come back to Corpus to defend, and to graduate. We had Mexican potluck for dinner, then watched the NASCAR all-star race.

This rock formation is call "checkerboard"

Thursday, May 20. Well, this morning started out right!  I got up about 5:15 and decided to take a walk through the campground, looking for wildlife.  I saw 8 mule deer eating grass right along side the road.  Awesome!  I watched them for a while, then made a second lap around the park and came upon them again, a little further down.  The guys saw a Kaibab squirrel when they went for ice at the gas station but I wasn't with them, so I missed that. 

We drove into the North Rim today, taking our time.  Lots of snow still on the ground up here.  A lady at the gas station said they got 20 feet of snow this season, and had gotten 5 inches just last week.  We walked out to the first lookout, then had lunch at the Lodge.  Brenda, I had your Navajo taco, and it was very good.  Then we shopped the gift shop (Mazie and I both have new, pink, Grand Canyon zip-up sweatshirts now).  We drove to the rest of the lookouts and hiked out to the observation points.  Words cannot capture the beauty of the Canyon. 

We did drive by about 7 miles of burnout on the way into the Canyon, which is very sad to see.  We did not find out what year the big fire happened, but the forest sure has not recovered yet.  We saw a squirred (not a Kaibab one) in the park, and Mazie saw a wild turkey, but no other wildlife presented itself.  However, on the drive back to camp we saw 4 mule deer, one big one by itself and then 3 more later, which Collins was supposed to spot because they were on his side.  He got in trouble for missing them -- I slugged him in the chest.  He had one assignment and he blew it!  We drove about 150 miles in the dinghy today, but we are still in Arizona. We found a rock for Brenda but it didn't fit in her rock box. 

It was another great day.

Day 3 - to North Rim

Wednesday, May 19.  This was actually the day we had designated as D-Day, but we jumped the gun and got out of town on Monday.  Today we left Fort Tuthill and headed toward the North Rim, taking 89 to the Page turnoff, the Alternate 89 over to Jacob Lake.  We had lunch facing the Vermillion Cliffs.  Awesome sight. 

You do not have to leave the state of Arizona to see beautiful scenery.  We had a very nice drive, got into Jacob Lake about 2:00, and set up camp.  Collins had to try out a couple different campsites before he found the perfect one, but we were all in a little triangle, and it worked out very well.  This is a lovely campground, in the Kaibab National Forest, lots of tall pines, and temperature in the 70s when we arrived.  Ideal weather.  We are definitely LIVING THE DREAM right now.  Brenda sent us on the road with 3 boxes for rocks (one box per couple, appropiately labeled), for her collection.  I have 2 rocks so far in my box.  We saw lots of rocks she would like as we passed the Vermillion Cliffs, but most of them were bigger than the motorhome.  No one else has any rocks in their box yet.  Today was a great day.

WE ARE ON OUR WAY! After 3 years of talking about this trip, and several months of planning, and several weeks of packing, we are on the road.  We left Mesa on Monday about noon, after stops at the grocery store and gas station.  We drove a whopping 69 miles to Payson, arriving about 1:30.  We set up camp in the RV parking area at the casino to wait for the next part of our convoy.  Dave and Mazie left Sierra Vista about 10:30 a.m., after trips to the doctor (Dave) and vet (their dog, Ar'gent.  They got to Payson at 4:30 – Mazie reported that Dave had been driving 60 mph up the mountains.  (Showoff – he knows our Winnebago won’t go that fast up the mountain).  We went over to the casino for dinner and to watch the first part of the Suns game, then retired to our coach to watch the sad conclusion of the game.  Direct TV hadn’t shut us off yet, so that was good.

After breakfast this morning at the casino (their $1.99 special), and a stop at the gas station for Dave, we headed up through Pine, Strawberry and Happy Jack.  We took Hwy 3 across to Flagstaff, stopping at our old camping area on the 229 road to let the dog walk around.  We hit some strong winds around Lake Mary, and it sounded like the roof was coming off the motorhome.  We pulled over and didn’t see any problems, but we have since discovered that the plastic dome over the shower has a big crack in it.  I guess the pressure from the wind cracked it.  Joe and Collins are working on fixing that right now.

Tonight we are grilling steaks (donated by Dave and Mazie) in celebration of the beginning of our big trip.  Tomorrow we head to Jacob’s Lake for a 2-day camping stay so we can drive over to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (in our dinghies).



Haven't seen any wildlife yet -- just a big dead snake on the road.

T Minus1

Today is T minus one. Tomorrow, if all goes well, we begin our EXCELLENT ADVENTURE.  Despite some bumps in the road this week (I had a stomach virus most of the week, and Dave had a flare-up of arthritis in his knee and foot), we are packed and loaded for bear (literally).  Although tomorrow’s plan is to travel only as far as Payson (less than 100 miles) to either meet or wait for Dave and Mazie (coming from Sierra Vista, a 5-6 hour drive for them), we will wait for them at the casino (Yes, what a way to start out) so we can watch the Suns – Laker game.  Then, Tuesday, on to Flagstaff to meet up with the last of our caravan, Collins and Marilyn.  Joe said getting ready to go away for this long is almost like moving – we have emptied the refrigerator and freezer, stored all the patio furniture inside his garage, parked his 20 ft. truck in my
20 ft, ½ inch garage, put Direct TV on vacation mode, and canceled our trash pick-up for the summer.   We have packed everything imaginable and are prepared for almost anything.  We have rubber boots, fishing poles, gold panning pans, travel books, binoculars and cameras.   And we have clothes for all extremes. 

Once we meet up in Flagstaff and have our full convoy of three units (2 motorhomes pulling cars (called dinghies in RV-speak), and a Dodge pick-up pulling a Silver Streak trailer, we will be in fuller trucker
mode.  We have CB’s (breaker, breaker) cell phones, and walkie talkies so communication should not be a problem.  This is important, because I expect every antelope, deer, elk, moose, buffalo, marmot, bear, etc. to be loudly announced SO THAT I DON'T MISS ANYTHING!!!!!   We have been told, however, that Joe and I do not ever get to lead the convoy (they think we will drive too fast), so Dave/Mazie and Collins/Marilyn will have the first opportunity to spot wildlife.  Little do they know, however, that we have learned how to slow way down since January, so we may earn the lead position at some point.  However, since our traveling companions have all been retired for some years now, and their preferred max traveling speed is 57 mph, we will probably have to prove ourselves since in the past we have been known to exceed speeds of (OMG) 70 mph when heading out on vacation.

Happy Birthday Lucille!

Back home again in Indiana...
And what a good time it was. We put 94 candles on a sparklin' cake for our sparkling mom and matriarch - happy birthday Lucille!


You won't be surprised that our first stop after we got off the plane was White Castle in Plainfield. But the second stop too?? Yes we did. In Terre Haute, to TakHomaSak for Fred 'n Judy and Lucille. Nothing says welcome home, or let me out of here! - quite like the aroma of White Castles in a Buick for 55 miles.

Ahh... life is good.