We don’t have to do anything interesting today. Our daughter is taking care of that. It’s her birthday. Not only that, she and her family left this morning for two weeks in Great Britain. Here is a link to what we know about her trip so far:http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=205131835882428706345.0004a434b0391f728cec7&ll=50.958427,-29.003906&spn=67.704245,224.472656&z=3 Meanwhile, back here in the states, we discovered we were sleeping (or not sleeping) in the Oven-bed of Doom. They have very expensive pillow-top mattresses here. Custom made with 7 layers of foam! Foam. My mortal enemy. Too hot. I ended up sleeping on top of the covers, trying to get some separation from all that foam. Tonight, they came and flipped the mattress over for us. All the foam in now on the bottom and the unfoamed bottom is on the top. It’s a little on the firm side, but they added some extra bedding under the sheets for us. It’s an involved retrofit, but it should be perfect!
Sunday
Took another early morning drive; this time to Hoover Dam. Not actually to the dam, but high above it on the new Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge! That bridge is worth an exclamation point!
What an engineering marvel.
We’ve watched the bridge being built for years. It’s complete now. We considered driving across it, just for fun. Some of us are not fans of high places though, so we did not approach this bridge driving feat casually. We did, however, screw up our courage and in spite of sweaty hands and feet, ventured out. What an anticlimax. From below, you can see what a dramatic bridge this is. From on the bridge…all you see is concrete barriers! You can’t even tell you’re on a bridge!
We left our “suite” at the Holiday Inn Express today
And checked into our room at the Aria.
There *is* a difference.
Saturday
It’s 100 degrees here. We wanted to go for a hike today, so we got up early. Up and gone by 6. (It’s easy to be a morning person when you’re traveling west through time zones.) It was only 70 degrees when we hit the trail at Red Rock Canyon.
Judy has downloaded an app on her phone called “My Tracks”. It tracked us for 5 miles over the course of 3 ½ hours (we stopped to look and listen for birds a lot), with a total elevation gain of 1,700 feet. A nice hike in spectacular desert mountain scenery. (And it had warmed to 90 degrees by the time we finished.) We timed it just right and headed back down the hill for lunch.
Got some cool birds: Anna’s Hummingbird, Gray Vireo, Western Scrub-Jay, Violet-green Swallow, Juniper Titmouse, Verdin, Phainopepla, Black-throated Sparrow. All unusual for us, but not unusual for here. It’s fun to go different places.
Judy checked in with the dogsitter. Guess what. She says Annie and Henry are the best dogs she has ever dogsat! Imagine that! Annie is quiet and just wants to mooch treats. Henry plays all day. When it was time to go to bed last night, she told them to get in the crate and they both did and slept all night. No trouble at all.
Tomorrow we check out of the Holiday Inn Express, and check into the Aria. That should be different.
Friday
Engine update. The Warranty Company approved the repair. They just haven’t decided what kind of repair yet. They want to see more of the engine’s guts. It’s time for the motor to come all the way out of the motorhome, then discuss it some more. That will take a while. The repair shop estimates 60 hours work just to remove and replace the engine. There is not room for it to come out the rear. It has to go out the bottom. I don’t know how much the engine weighs, but they’ll have to go underneath to unbolt it, then lift up a 35,000 pound motorhome to get it off the engine. South from Cedar City, across the corner of Arizona, through the Virgin River Gorge, into Nevada. Now we’re in Las Vegas. When we’re traveling, we have our rituals along the way. When we stop at a store and Judy goes inside. Henry, Annie, and I stay in the car. We all watch for Mom to come back and practice not jumping out the window. Dropped the kids off at Sleepover Rover. It sure is quiet tonight. Well, it’s quiet in our room. It’s not quiet outside; this is Las Vegas. In fact, it’s not even quiet in the hallway outside our room. We miss the motorhome.
Okay
If you insist. One more Badlands picture before we leave Utah.
