June 9: Home At Last!

Well, we made it home safely, and it feels good to be here. Looking back, this was a highly memorable trip in so many ways. Me met some great people, and saw so much of our great and highly diverse country. The regions all have their own unique characteristics, from language dialects, to customs, religious beliefs, and physical environments. The different states have developed aspects that make them in many respects like separate countries.

In a three month trip, one has to expect some adversity, and we dealt with ours, from the tornadoes, drenching rain, and tick-borne disease, to brake failure and the flat tire. There are several issues with the trailer that need to be dealt with, including an abnormal tire wear problem that likely has to do with alignment and suspension problems. We have just about worn out the trailer tires, which should not be happening just yet. The solar charging system on the trailer is also broken and needs to be fixed. Everything else still works!!

The truck (Toyota Tundra, 5.8 liter V-8) performed flawlessly towing the trailer over 9,000 miles, and over more high passes than I can count. (Altogether, we drove around 10,000 miles, including sight-seeing without the trailer in tow.)

We are now dealing with the aftermath – unloading and cleaning the trailer and the truck. It just feels good to be home!

Thanks for following this blog! Over and out,

Don and Donna

June 7: Made it to Bishop!

We checked out various routes to Bishop, CA from Las Vegas. The Death Valley route looked the best, as there are no one lane roads and 7,000 foot high passes involved. We had driven this route last year on our Death Valley sojourn, and were aware of the 9% downgrade heading out of Death Valley towards California Highway 395 which runs along the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It was as steep as I remember it! I kept the truck in second gear and used the brakes intermittently. We also had to negotiate two 5,000 foot passes on narrow two lane roads. Gas mileage was terrible on this leg of the trip – less than 9 miles per gallon. (When we filled up in Death Valley, gas was $5.45 per gallon – by far the most expensive fuel on this trip. We needed less than 5 gallons.)

Death Valley was around 90 degrees, which is very cool for this time of year. The main lodge had already closed for the summer season, as temperatures can go as high as 130 degrees.

Bishop is a pleasant 78 degrees. Tomorrow, we will drive to Susanville, CA, which is another 300 miles or so. We are almost home!

June 6: Vegas Redux

We visited the southern half of the Strip today, taking in the Luxor, New York New York, the MGM Grand, and the Excalibur. Although there are many tourists roaming around, not many are gambling in the casinos. The New York features the city's unmistakable skyline, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Statue of Liberty. Inside, there are mockups of city streets that are quite realistic, minus the traffic, of course. The MGM features a glass enclosure with two live lions inside. Two guys were playing ball with the kitties as busloads of tourists crowded the glass busily snapping pictures.

The highlight of our morning was an outstanding lunch at Il Fornaio Cucina Italiana inside New York New York. The Vegas restaurant is an outpost of the original in San Francisco. We need to do a lot of walking and exercising to work off the calories we consumed today. No more eating out for a while!

In the early afternoon, we drove north on Las Vegas Boulevard to the old Fremont Street downtown area, which was the original “Glitter Gulch” of the 50s and 60s. The area has a somewhat depressed feel to it, as it is crowded with pawnshops, cheap, old motels, and tawdry looking clubs. We were planning on going down there this evening to catch the “Fremont Street Experience” with its millions of lights arching over a covered street, and the old original gambling halls of yore festooned with acres of neon lights. I guess it's old age, but we are tired, and the area looks kind of run down. Instead, we will prepare the trailer for an early departure tomorrow.

Tomorrow, we will drive 315 miles to Bishop, CA. The route through Death Valley looks like the easiest, as other alternatives involve very narrow, twisting roads with 7,000 foot passes. (I have driven through Death Valley before, and it is a very good road.) Almost home!!

June 5: “It's Vegas, baby!”

That's what we heard a guy say shortly after we arrived on the Strip this morning. Our objective was to walk through several of the famous casino/hotels and have lunch before Cooper exceeded his waiting ability in the air conditioned trailer. We got a fairly early start and picked up our tickets for this evening's performance of Cirque du Soleil's Mystere at Treasure Island. The Vegas Strip has changed positively since I was here about 5 years ago. There are several pedestrian bridges with elevators and escalators that have eliminated the high risk crossings of 8 lane Las Vegas Boulevard. More over-the-top casinos have been built since I was here last. This is definitely the land of hype and excess – a shrine to the power of money and the false ethos that expensive things make one happy. It is an incredible mix of humanity, with beautiful women, limos and Farraris juxtaposed with shabbily dressed casino denizens, and those who are obviously down and out.

The highlights of our morning were the Wynn Resort with its extravagant floral displays and elaborate flowing water falls, and the Bellagio's dancing fountains. The interior of the Venetian was like walking down city streets under a blue, cloud-bedecked sky. On the second story, there is a canal, complete with gondoliers who sing arias as they row. The Paris Hotel features smaller scale replicas of the Tour Eiffel and the Opera Garnier.

We enjoyed a great lunch at the Sugar Factory at the Paris. A cold coffee drink I ordered was wonderful, which consisted of 3 espresso shots, and coffee ice cream topped with a cloud of whipped cream crowned with lemon zest. There was also a strawberry milk shake that was indescribably rich. I won't go into further detail. Reality is just around the corner – we will be home in 4 days, and are looking forward to it.

This evening, we arrived at Treasure Island for the Cirque du Soleil show. No sooner had I parked the truck when my glasses frame broke at the bridge. Murphy strikes again!! We managed to do a jury rig repair with electrical tape, which was practically useless as it wouldn't stick well to the metal. All through the show, I held my glasses on my face.

The show is one of the most incredible things we have ever seen. Mystere is a combination of athleticism that has to be seen to be believed, ballet, comedy, and live music. The costumes and lighting effects border on the unworldly. The abstract sets and multi-level, ever changing stage floor must have cost millions. There must have been 40 people in the cast.

Getting back to the trailer was a challenge. We devised a way to tape a plastic wire tie across the top of my glasses with electrical tape. It managed to hold together long enough to make it back. Luckily, I thought to take along a spare pair of glasses, “just in case”. All's well that ends well.

June 3: Cliffs, Chains, and Dropoffs

This morning, we hiked 2 ½ miles in Zion Park from the Weeping Rock trailhead to Hidden Canyon. The trail ascends about 850 feet in a little over a mile on an incredibly engineered trail that dates from the early 1930s. Most of the trail is blasted out the cliff wall, with multiple switchbacks and supporting stonework. A sign at the beginning of the trek warns of steep drop offs and sheer cliffs. It wasn't lying. Much of the trail is narrow, steep, and clings to nearly vertical sandstone cliffs. Safety chains are hung along the most precipitous stretches. We made full use of them! The trail ended at a narrow slot canyon with a sign that said to go further involved rock scrambling. We decided to stop right there.

The views of the canyon and the surrounding mountains were memorable as well as a bit hair raising. Footings were slippery in places, especially where fine sand was lying atop the sandstone surface. From the trail, we could look down on the zigzagging track we had just traversed. We were able to take lots of great pictures, but you really have to be here to appreciate the full magnitude of the scenery. (I think we burned all the extra calories from last night's dinner!)

Next, we hiked the paved Pa'rus trail on the valley floor to the museum. There are many breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains from this trail, which can also be accessed by bicycle. You can even take your dog on it!

Later on in the afternoon, we drove the truck on the Mt. Carmel Highway to the east entrance to Zion park. The two lane road starts on the valley floor within the park and switchbacks steeply up a canyon, then through a 1.5 mile long tunnel that climbs as well as twists and turns its way through Mt. Carmel. The tunnel is very narrow and is only 13.5 feet tall. All RVs must drive down the center of it, and this requires that all oncoming cars wait outside the tunnel until the oversized vehicle has driven through. (It costs $15 to drive an oversized vehicle in the tunnel.) There are windows carved into the tunnel wall to admit light and air. The whole highway is a remarkable engineering achievement that was completed in 1930.

Once through the tunnel, the terrain changes drastically. You are now in a land of sculpted sandstone that has eroded into a checkerboard pattern. Some of the stone has the appearance of flowing mud.

This evening, we have dinner reservations at the Zion Lodge. Tomorrow we head for Las Vegas. It should be an easy drive on I-15, and is less than 200 miles.