Bryce Canyon

I am having difficulties with getting internet connections.  There is one here at this new campground but it just keeps dropping me.  I used my Verizon stick to post the last blog but don’t like to do that as it uses up all my bytes.  There’s a hotspot over a bit so will try and upload this one there.  If you don’t see a blog for a few days, it’s because I can’t get it uploaded.  I write them and as soon as I can upload they will be there.  May get a few at a time.

We had to get up early yesterday morning and be on the road by 8AM.  I hate those early starts.  It wasn’t a difficult drive, quite pretty.  I drove again though as we don’t want to stress the rig, but the hills were ok this time.  Next move there’s a doozie up and one down too.  12% grade up, and that’s pretty steep, and a 8% down and that also is steep.  So I’ll be driving again.

I have been having a really battle with Jackson eating Arthur’s food.  He didn’t touch it at first, I supposed because he didn’t realize that he could break down the barrier I put up and get at it.  Since he discovered that he could break down the barrier, every time we go out and leave them, he eats Arthur’s food.  Have strengthened the barrier, nope, he gets it down.  I think where food is concerned, nothing can hold him back.  So now poor Arthur will have no food down when we go out because I am going to have to put it up on the counter when we go out.  We are limited to the places that we can ‘hide’ his food in here.  And Jackson is determined.  So from now on, food comes up.

We arrived here at Bryce Canyon yesterday just about noon and we had a 1 PM tour that was scheduled for us.  So it was a mad rush to setup and get the dogs looked after and get to the bus on time.  We didn’t even get a chance to have lunch, so we had eaten breakfast at 6 AM and didn’t eat again until supper at about 6 PM.  The bus tour was really good, went up to 10,000 feet, what a view.  The pictures today are from that tour.  Today we are going horse back riding into the canyon.  All the caravan is going.  Should make for some really great pictures.  Tomorrow is a free day, so we are going back up to another spot as the view is supposed to be great.  Tomorrow night is a ‘cowboy dinner’.  Not sure what that entails, but I’m sure it will be good.
 

Until later…take care.

Grand Canyon – North Rim

We arrived here yesterday at Kaibab Campground, about 40 miles from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Last night we had a kind of chili dog wiener roast, then you wrapped them in a tortilla, add various toppings like cheese, chili, hot sauce and roll it up and eat.  Actually it was very good.  Then we had smores for dessert.  This was all done around a huge campfire and put on our caravan leaders. 
The campground is out in the middle of the forest, under some large Ponderosa pines.  It’s very nice, dark and quiet at night.  We have full hook-ups, water, electricity, and sewer.  But there is no wifi here.  We do get satellite reception though.  Also do not get a signal on my cell phone.  My Verizon stick only shows 2 bars, sometimes 1, so internet is slow and I’m not going to upload this blog until tomorrow, where there is supposed to be internet.  We are at almost 8000 elevation so days are nice, nights are very cool.  Went down to 3 degrees C. last night.  Furnace was put on, let me tell you.

We left for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon about 9:30 this morning.  It’s a sight that is hard to put into words.  The North Rim is completely different than the south rim.  The south rim is the one is see in all the pictures and it’s where all the tourists go.  The North Rim is beautiful also, but different and hardly any tourists.  We are over 200 miles from the South Rim so we won’t be seeing it, this trip.  We walked around on some of the trails they have there, some, well you just don’t look down, just look straight ahead and keep walking.  We did alot of walking today.  Then we all met at the Lodge and had a excellent lunch.  After that some stayed, but we left to come back to the campground, there wasn’t much more to see and we wanted to get back for the dogs.  There are some mule rides you can take there that take you down into the canyon.  And some other trails that you could take.  But we were walked out as alot of the walking is downhill and of course that means uphill on the return.
                

Tomorrow we are off early to Bryce Canyon.

Until later then…take care.

ZION National Park

It was a short ride in a bus today to get to Zion National Park.  Wasn’t sure what to expect but all I can say was it was awesome !!  They have a shuttle bus that runs from the visitor centre to 3 or 4 various places where you can take a short or very long hike to get a spectacular view.  Some of the hikes were 15 or more miles and are labelled strenuous and take 1 – 2 days to complete.  They pointed out some hikers that were at the top of one of the ridges.  The path can be 3 feet wide in places with a 800 foot drop on one side and a 1200 foot drop on the other.  They said they do have guide ropes along the path.  Yipee !!! Not for me, thank you very much.  We stayed on the short, no drops on either side, trails.  It’s hard to describe such a place.  It’s a feast for the eyes.  Where to look, what picture to take, you can snap and snap and snap and each one is different.  There is so much to see, such stark beauty, a wondrous site. 
After doing the shuttle thing, we had lunch back at the visitors centre then went to see an IMAX film about the history of the inhabitants of the park.  Various people have inhabited it through the centuries.  Both Ken and I just about lost our lunch with the zooming over and down the mountains.  Had to shut our eyes to get back our equilibrium.  Then we boarded our bus, a huge 45 footer and took this itty bitty road way up into the mountains.  There’s a tunnel there that’s over a mile long.  If we had known the condition of the road and how high up it was and how close we were to the edge, we would have waited for them at the visitor’s centre and not gone.  Really, I’m serious.  I hate that kind of thing, that road was not made for a bus that size, especially since it was under construction and only 1 lane was open. 
We got back here at around 5 PM, both dogs were fine but very happy to see us.  Someone managed to get into the little spot I had put Arthur’s food and ate it all.  Poor bugger didn’t have food all day.  I think it was probably Jackson, but then I can’t be sure.  I knew they’d be hungry because they ate breakfast very early today.  I did leave a little snack for the dog sitters to give them, but they were starved when we got home.  Fed them supper right away.
Between us we took over 100 pictures so to narrow them down for this blog was difficult.  Tried to include some that show the size and grandeur of Zion.  But pictures do not do it justice.
Click on photos to get a bigger view..
  

Trip into the Past

Today we went on a small tour of St. George.  They had people who were dressed in period attire.   It wasn’t a long tour but interesting.  We went into the opera hall basement, but couldn’t go into the opera hall itself because they had just had the floors redone and they were ‘curing’.  What a shame, I thought that would have been very interesting to see.

We toured the first Mormon tabernacle build here in 1871.  It’s a beautiful structure, nothing ornate about it, but I found that the building itself was beautiful.  It was built totally by volunteer people who were living here at that time.  Brigham Young had sent several hundred families out here to colonize the area.  And they built the tabernacle.  There is alot of natural building materials in the area except wood.  Lava stone, clay, they made adobe bricks from it.  The wood in the tabernacle came from Salt Lake City.

We then toured Brigham Young’s home.  Old, solidly build house.  My kind of century home except……no indoor plumbing.  He was the Mormon’s first ‘prophet’.  He started the Church of the Latter Day Saints.  He came out here with his ‘flock’ so that they could practise their faith without any interference from outside parties.  

After the tour lunch was at the Pizza Factory.  Excellent pizza and bread sticks. $8.00 each, a bargain.

Weather was great today.  Not hot, overcast which kept the sun’s heat at bay.  Was able to open up the window’s on the rig instead of turning on the AC units.  It was so nice to be able to do that.  Still warm, but not that unbearable heat. 

Tomorrow is a whole day tour of Zion.  The campground offers the services of someone who comes in and checks on the dogs, walks them, waters them, whatever you need.  Jackson won’t be impressed with being left for the day, but at least he gets out to stretch his legs and do potty.

So until later…take care.

Official Start Day

Today is the official start day of the Caravan.  At 1 PM we are having our first orientation.  That’s where we get to know each other (although we’ve had several happy hours together since we’re been here) and talk about the tour.  They usually play some silly little games to break the ice and get people to open up.  We don’t have that problem .    Then at 6 PM they are having a big dinner for us.  It’s right here in the party room at the campground and it’s supposedly catered and they even supply the ‘liquid refreshments’.  Haven’t a clue what is being served but that’s not a problem for us.  We like just about everything.   I’ll discuss more about these 2 events later.

This morning Ken gave Jackson a much needed bath.  So for a little while he’s mostly clean.  This tour has several dogs and there is a 3 month old golden doodle, named of all things, Maggie.  She’s already a fair size and Jackson and her have had a few playful romps.  There is also another lab, chocolate, and another golden.  There is an Australian Sheppard, and she has very pretty colouring.  She appears to be fairly young too.  The rest are smaller dogs.  And there are a few cats also. 

Today is not quite so hot.  We actually had all the windows open till around 10:30 and then shut them and turned on the air.  The temperatures in our destinations are much lower than here.  I’ve been following them via the Weather Network.  Some of the night temperatures in the other destinations have been downright chilly.  Saw some in the 40’s.  I think that will be a welcome relief after what we’ve been through here. 

I will finish this later today after orientation and dinner….

Just got back from orientation at around 3PM.  There is always many laughs at these things.  We all introduced ourselves and talked a little about ourselves.  The leaders discussed a little about what’s going to be happening during the 29 days.  Like pot lucks, happy hours etc.  There was a draw and we won one of them so I picked a rain coat as the prize.  We had most of the other things, backpack, fanny pack, sun visors, but I thought that Ken could use the raincoat if he has to walk the dogs and it’s pouring.  The leaders had provided beer, wine, pop and munchies, meatballs, veggies and dip.  We had a fun time.  There is a tour tomorrow of the town of St. George for about 4 hours.  Dinner is at 6 pm, it’s now 3:30. More later….

Supper was excellent.  They had pulled beef, bbq chicken breasts, scalloped potatoes, salad and baked beans.  Peach cobbler with ice cream was for dessert.  Even better, no dishes to wash.  We are back in the rig now, relaxing and will call it a night soon.

After the tour tomorrow, we’ll all going for a pizza lunch.

So until later..take care.

HOT !! HOT !! and still more HOT !!!

Haven’t written anything in a few days.  Nothing much to write about.  People are arriving in dribs and drabs.  Not quite half have arrived already. We’ve just been laying low because it’s been so hot, you just don’t want to do anything. Even going out in the car is disgusting.

The weather has been absolutely brutal, 107 degrees yesterday.   Our little weather guy said it was 43, and he’s in the shade.  Just a about and hour ago a very brisk wind picked up.  First wind we’ve had since we got here.  It was so brisk that we brought our awnings in.  They tell you here that if you are going out to bring your awnings in because a wind can pick up ‘just like that’.  And I can see what they mean.  We had gone out for a bit and forgot to bring them in.  Fortunately, it didn’t arrive until after we had gotten back.  The awnings really help keep the RV cooler though.  I will be so glad to leave this place next Friday.  It’s like being in Hades.  It’s not this hot in the other places on our tour.  Thank goodness.

Night before last the Wagonmaster held the happy hour over at his rig.  There was only 12 of us.  They put out some munchies and you bring your own liquid refreshment.  It was a fun time even though the temperature was still up around 100 degrees, 38 for us Canadians.  Then last night we had a LEO (let’s eat out) and went to a Chinese Buffet just across the road.  It was very good and there was about 14 of us.  The price was only $20 for both of us.  Thought that was a steal.

We had to go pick up some groceries today, so took a side trip to go see the big Mormon temple here.  It’s quite beautiful.  There’s a visitor centre there so we went in.  You are not allowed to go into the temple.  They have ‘sisters’ and ‘brothers’ there to assist you and give you the history on the temple.  Nice to know the history, but don’t need the sermon.  They have a captive audience so take that opportunity to preach at you a little.  Didn’t need that, but I got some great pictures of the temple.  They have this beautiful statue in the front of the visitor’s centre of Christ.  Now those who know me know I’m not religious but this was a truly beautiful work of art.  So I took a picture. 

Tried to get a good shot of the mountain in the background of the Wal-Mart parking lot.  Don’t think it looks as good in the picture as it does in real life.

and..Arthur, as usual, in my seat…

so until later..take care.

A ‘Do Nothing’ type of day

(click on photo to enlarge)

It was so nice to wake up this morning and know we didn’t have to drive anywhere.  Even though Jackson got us up really early as he usually does, it was just nice to know that we could linger over a cup of coffee and not have to put things back into their travelling position.

Ken managed to get all the duct tape and rope off the awning last night after the sun went down.  Amazing how the temperature drops once the sun disappears.  This morning the temperature outside said 15.  Opened all the windows and enjoyed the fresh air.  We left here about 9 AM to go to the Wal-Mart to get some groceries.  By the time we left the Wal-Mart about 1 hour later, the temperature had already started to rise.  We had left all the windows open in the rig and of course no air on so we high tailed it home.  It was fine in here but starting to rise.  So shut all the windows and curtains and put the air on.  Right now outside it says it’s 35 in the shade.  Hate having all the curtains down and closed but it’s the only way to keep the heat out.  Unfortunately it is way too hot to even begin to think about doing anything outside.  As soon as noon hits it’s time to move inside and you really can’t stand being out for long until the sun goes down.

Yesterday at 3:07 our time..38 degrees outside and it went higher.

Last time I looked out, one of the caravan leaders had arrived.  Right next to us. 

Arthur enjoying the view at our last stop.

Have to call the awning repair fellow later on this afternoon, sure hope he can get it done fast, really need those up with the sun beating down on us.

Map on our bedroom slide out showing the states we’ve travelling in so far.

Forgot to include this the first time I published.  This is a print of the weather forecast for the next few days.