GETTIN READY TO ROLL. Pre-April 1

Lots of pre-trip checklists. Engine check; battery check; slide out check; tires check; tvs/entertainment systems check. Start the fridge, get the food, clothes for every occasion, and don't forget the bike, tennis racquets and golf clubs.

On the way home, the Roths, Denver

Was fortunate to be able to spend some time in Denver, on the way home, with my nephew, John Roth, his wonderful wife, Susan and their lovely daughters, Sierra and Alexus. Enjoyed every minute. Good looking set of mugs; (left to right) Susan, Sierra, Alexus and John. Having dinner on the deck (beautiful evening).

Saturday got to see both girls in softball action. Here, through the fence (best I could do), Sierra shows her batting stance; getting ready to hit a home run.

Sierra, sprinting home after her home run, amidst the cheers of her teammates (the Mets) and their parents.

Sierra, as catcher, getting ready to peg the ball to the pitcher. She can throw pretty hard!

Alexus, in the second game; check out her professional hitting form. Eye on the ball! She banged out two hits.

Alexus, getting a high-five from the first base coach after a good hit. The girls know how to play the game!

Alexus and Sierra, entertaining us with their latest gymnastic/cheering routine after dinner. They do have a lot of energy! Good time had by all.

The Best of the Rest

Other parks/sites we saw in beautiful Utah. Why don't they just name the entire southern half of Utah as a national park?

Red Canyon. Just prior to getting into Bryce Canyon. Near our campsite, beautiful red sandstone formations.
One of two passageways through the red rocks.

Both of the above in Red Rock Canyon.

Escalante National Monument (Grand Staircase). 1.9 million acres to the east of Bryce. Designed to be enjoyed by hikers and atvs/jeeps. Most of the roads to the interior are unpaved. Recently designated (1996). I called an outfitter to see if there were atv/jeep tours. "No, we primarily teach people to repell down the rocks". There was one 30 mile road (Burr Road) mostly paved to the interior. Definitely worth it.

Me, in a slot canyon along Burr road in Escalante.

Interesting shot of cottonwood tree w/varnished (looks like it was painted) red sandstone in the background.

Shot from above, on Burr road. Road is way down there with red walls on both sides. Wonderful.

Capital Reef National Park.

Located northeast of Bryce, just east of Highway 12 (124 miles of scenic highway that rivals Hwy 1 in Ca (Big Sur etc), a must see if you get out here), Capital Reef shows excellent examples of the different geologic periods. Once again, the rangers are excellent; can we get some of these people to teach in our schools or work in the government; they have great passion and are very knowledgeable.

Bottom layer is Moenkopi formation, formed 200+ million years ago from marine mud flats.

Next layer (some purple) is the Chinle formation, which includes volcanic ash; depth varies in different areas. Next layer is Wingate Sandstone formation; accumulated when the area was desert like; some depths up to 3000 feet (compared to the Sahara, depths of only several hundred feet). Top layer is harder/more cemented, called Navajo Sandstone, looks more like limestone, cemented much harder than the Moenkopi. What then happens is called differential erosion, with the Moenkopi (softer) eroding more quickly than the layers above. The results are frequent and interesting landslides.

Good shot of the Chinle Formation.

With the car, you get an idea of the size of these geologic beauties.

Mossy Cave. Just east of Bryce. Interesting rock formations leading to a waterfall.

Some great formations.

Backdrop behind our last campground in Torrey, Utah.

Marlene and Rags: "It's time to go home; this sightseeing is tiring!"

Beautiful Bryce Canyon Jul 2-6

Bryce Canyon National Park

Another masterpiece. All of these places are affected by the same elements. But the composition of the earth makes all the difference. Bryce Canyon is at the northern most and highest elevation of the Colorado plateau. Again, sedimentary remains and the uplift of the plateau set the table for the earthquake instability from Ruby's Inn Overthrust Fault. The fractures produced a checkerboard pattern. The 200 days/year of freezing temperatures produce expansion/contraction that cracks the rock. Bryce is famous for its "hoo doos", spires that have a hardened rock top (eroding more slowly) than the sandstone below it. The result is a fairly spectacular mix of spires that are magical to the eyes. Once again the rangers are wonderful (recommend you attend one of their lectures if you ever get out this way). These parks offer wonderul hikes from easy to strenuous, and the stars at night are amazing.

A great shot of Bryce, reminds me of a giant natural pipe organ.

Another shot of what they call "differential erosion"

A shot at sunrise point at, you guessed it, sunrise. Lot's of people there, taking pictures.

Took a 5 mile hike down to the base of the hoodoos; quite a bit of up and down; a full 1785 feet down from the top; this is a picture from below, looking up at the hoodoos. Did this early in the morning w/plenty of water. Felt good doing it.

After the hike had to climb back up to the top via a trail called "Navajo Loop", about 1200 feet, almost straight up. In order to get back up you have to go through this slot canyon (notice the steps on the right). As evidence of the instability of the rock, this boulder was part of a landslide in summer, 2006 that closed off the slot for awhile (no one hurt). As I was down among the hoodoos I wondered where I would hide if one of these things collapsed. Probably only saw 10 people along the entire 5 mile hike.

Going up the slot

View from the top of the slot; those little specks at the bottom are hikers who have zigzagged their way down to the Navajo loop (1200 ft down). Don't mind telling you I was a little pooped coming up this thing at the end of an already strenuous 5 mile up/down hike on peekabo loop.

Don't know if you can see it; our last day at camp leaving Bryce had a thunderstorm with a double rainbow; never seen that in my life. Pretty neat.

Cedar Breaks/Cedar City, UT June 25-July 1

Visited the spectacular Cedar Breaks National Monument, 10,000 ft above sea level, again part of the west end of the Colorado plateau, approx 70 miles north of St. George; erosion of a lake bed forms a very unstable amphitheater of eroded sandstone, colors of red, orange, yellow and even some purple. Only open 5 months of the year, while 110 in Vegas, it was 75 at Cedar Breaks with snow still visible on the ground. Perimeter continues to erode at 12mm/year; they have to constantly move the viewing areas back, and eventually will have to move the ranger headquarters. So many different landscapes. One view of the amphitheater; you can see the edge of the viewing area at the bottom of the picture.

Another shot at a different angle. Depth is about 2500 feet down.

Nice spires, huh? Drive up to the entrance was pretty great also.

Marlene, on the edge, feeling brave (and cool).

Lost in America.

Well, we hooked up and were going to Bryce Canyon over a mountain when we got an overheat light. Promptly stopped, cooled off, unhooked went back down the mountain to a town called Cedar City on I-15 about 60 miles North of St. George. Discovered a bad engine cooling fan, and replaced water temperature sensors (they read 15-20 degrees higher than actual). Hopefully will leave tomorrow. In the meantime, spent a few days in Cedar City, another pretty Mormon town (smaller than St. George); they call themselves the city of festivals, and home to Southern Utah University. Shakespeare Festival currently going on, Neil Simon Festival to begin in few weeks, and this past Saturday was "Groovefest", a one day long series of individual and group musical performances at an outdoor park in the center of town. Think a mini-Woodstock with a Mormon flavor (that should scramble your brain). Example: One country group kept saying they would be kicked off the stage if they didn't stop talking about "reefers", much to the crowd's delight. A lot of fun. Some adventure. Got a great haircut for $13.

Me, getting ready to explore Cedar City yesterday morning.

Marlene getting ready to enjoy a dinner of chicken done on the grill, with summer salad and glass of Chardonay. We are roughing it!

St. George, UT June 21-25

St. George is a very pretty Mormon town, about 2 hours from Vegas (the trip on I-15 through the passes is breathtaking). It is continually rated as a top retirement location (I can see why), is in a valley that runs due north up to Salt Lake, bordered by red rocks (Snow Canyon) on the West and Zion Natl Park (Colorado plateau) on the East. Climate a little cooler than Vegas, gets cold in the winter, but very little snow. Happens to be the home of Vic Braden tennis academy (highly acclaimed) and the ajoining well known Green Valley Spa. The tennis academy recently had the Bryan brothers there, producing extensive video of their world class doubles strokes. I couldn't resist and took two lessons from the head pro (overheads and volleys). We'll see.

Area has been overbuilt a bit, but nothing like Vegas; some beautiful homes there at reasonable prices (compared to HH).

Also took another trip into Zion Natl Park; wonderful; can't believe how many folks are speaking other than English; I'll bet 33%, at least. Result of the cheap dollar?
Road trip through Snow Canyon; can you get used to the scenery?

Here we see lava, sandstone and limestone, each produced at different times

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  Better shot of the lava
  
  
  

  
  A community amphitheater and a performing arts high school nestled against the red rocks of Snow Canyon. Picture doesn't do justice to the setting.
  
  
  
  

June 13-21 Side trip to Las Vegas

(Screwed up the blog: this picture was supposed to be further down the page)
Roughing it in Las Vegas; having crabcake eggs benedict at the Cafe Bellagio; right next to the conservatory, great food, great service. I think I could live in this place.




Oops, electrical problem; had to go to Vegas early.



Well, everything was going along on schedule (well, close). We had left Kanab and Zion and were headed to Bryce Canyon (and looking forward to it). We camped overnight just outside of Bryce and discovered we had lost our 110 a/c (alternating current). Could not find any circuit breakers or fuses malfunctioning; called Monaco (they made our RV). "Sounds like an inverter problem, see if you can get someone to check elec input/output". We have an electric inverter that does a lot of things, and has to be working to get 110 a/c. Got an electrician who confirmed our inverter was shot; our options: 245 miles north to Salt Lake City or 245 miles south to Vegas. Viva Las Vegas; we'll just go there earlier than we planned, enjoy the city, get back on track.



Got to Vegas that night, very warm; went to the rv dealer in the morning; they have to order the inverter; will take till next Wednesday (that day was Friday, and too late to send it out that day); so we checked into a motel for a week.



We must have gotten soft, but the heat was killing us (105 +); we did not do a lot of our outdoor exploring and decided we will do Arizona (supposed to be later in the trip) at another time. So most of what we did was inside (visit casinos, museums and hotels), which are very interesting here.



Here is our take on Vegas: the city is constantly re-inventing itself, with each new project more elaborate than previous; they must be making money, or they wouldn't keep doing this. With a background in high end retail, we enjoyed evaluating the designs, customer service and the ambiance of the different places. Frankly, we didn't enjoy most of the casinos (too smoky or too dark, or too noisy). Two major exceptions: both built by Steve Wynn; The Bellagio and Wynn. The man may be an egomaniac, but he sure can build a pleasant environment. I didn't want to leave the Bellagio; very creative/not imitative, music/sound system very pleasant, casino area, wide aisles, not smoky, chairs in front of the slots very comfortable, special feature rooms (conservatory in the Bellagio, delightful), heating/air conditioning well controlled (this is not all that common), casino people everywhere and very helpful (can't imagine their operating budget), great restaurants w/wonderful food and service, wonderful interior design (ceilings, floors, light fixtures, centerpieces, etc.) everywhere. We did visit the Four Seasons and the Ritz Carlton; very nice, but I'll take the Bellagio.



Other notes of interest; did you know that 85% of Nevada is owned by the Federal Government? Sen. Harry Reid has been changing that and with each new land change has been appropriating more water for the Vegas area from ranchers upstate. There was so much overbuilding of homes/condos here that realtors/banks have actual foreclosure busses taking people around showing them houses. May '08 real estate sales up somewhat from last year; 50% of the sales were foreclosures; yikes.



Bellagio was sold to Kurt Kerkorian (MGM Grand) a few years ago. MGM Grand, in partnership with Dubai is currently developing a massive complex right next to the Bellagio (wonder what they tore down to do this). Complex is on 76 acres, has several condominium buildings, 500,000 sq ft retail, casino and a hotel. Build out price? a measly $8 billion; on schedule to be completed by Dec '09. Wow! What kind of money comes into this city?



Saw a few museums (Liberace, sculptur named MacDonald) and went to the Red Rock Canyon on the West side of the city (nice, but after Zion and others, nothing spectacular).



Unfortunately, it was too freakin hot to enjoy anything outdoors. As soon as we got fixed, we headed for St. George, Utah.



Oh, our big gambling effort. Blackjack at the Ritz Carlton; came out ahead $20, whoopee.

Pictures of the conservatory in the Bellagio; big area, model trains running around the perimeter; change the displays often; the clothing on the bears above are all flowers; great music, intermittent arcs of water on the green planted area in the first picture; thought I was looking at Rose Bowl parade exhibits; lots of people there, in spite of it being low season for Vegas.

Bellagio lake right on the strip; dancing fountains w/great music entertain you in the afternoon and in the evening; our favorite restaurant, Olives, in the background; even in the heat of the day, you can sit outside in the shade w/water misters to keep you cool; had some wonderful meals there; great waiters/waitresses.

Reception area, check in desk at the Bellagio. See the check in area in the top picture? Wonderful lit up backdrop behind the desk. Probably can't see it well, but the ceiling in the background of the bottom picture is a fantastic mix of beautiful colored glass protruding from the ceiling; very artistic.

Another ho-hum ceiling treatment, this one over at the Wynn casino; couldn't do justice to these places. He's (Wynn) currently building another one next door called Encore, should be great.

Light fixtures at Wynn that Marlene fell in love with. "John, we could get some big clay pots and do this lighting in our dining room".