Posted on

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.




Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.  
Posted on

Thursday

Update from the repair shop. The critical parts of the engine are open for inspection. The warranty representative paid a visit and hypothesized several ways the engine blow-up could have been our fault. None of those scenarios were supported by the evidence before him (as explained by the engine mechanic). The warranty inspector settled on the explanation that we must have over-revved the engine somehow. This engine is electronically controlled. There is an engine log. There were no over-limit records on the engine log. The Warranty Rep left to file his report. We’re supposed to hear their determination in 24 hours. (Of course they’ll cover it. The engine is included in the coverage we purchased. It’s probably a $25,000 decision for them; replacing an engine. They’re just being prudent.)

A drive through the Utah Badlands

Lunch in Richfield. Dinner in Cedar City. (A photo of Cedar Canyon.)


Here in Utah, we’re dealing with the low-altitude suck. You open a bottle, and air rushes in. So much easier to manage than the high-altitude puff we encounter when we first return to Colorado each year. I have the Exploding Catsup Incident in mind. Judy with both hands on the bottle, unable to control the erupting volcano. At lower elevation, we don’t have to struggle to keep contents in their bottles. We just have to keep from being sucked into each container as we open it for the first time.