Zion National Park

Just back from touring Zion National park.  There is NO cell service out here so we stopped early this morning at the junction into Zion to make some necessary phone calls.  Seems Discover thought we were not the right people using the card so put a hold on one and cancelled the other.  The cancelled one should be replaced within a day or two, providing they get second day mail out here.  This morning when we got up the temperature was only 33 and we had to turn on the Aqua Hot for heat but by the time we got home the A/C is churning continuously.  At least Teddy was kept cool while we were gone.  We took many pictures today, one more beautiful than the next.  It is a mind workout taking in all the beautiful sights.  The valley already has the busses running and as we couldn't find a place to park we have decided to call this a dry run and return another day to take the bus, this time leaving earlier in the morning and going straight to the first bus stop.  The temp in the park was up to 88 when we left and with no A/C in the van it got hot quickly.  We are watching a rain storm approaching from the north, we're not sure if we will see any of the rain but we can see rain in the distance.  That is one thing for sure, you can see for miles and miles out here.

Catching up!

Here it is Monday morning already and I've not told you about our experences on Saturday.  Seems we were lucky to be in Pahrump for the annual police/fireman/emt relay run.  This race has been run for 60 some years and it is run from Baker, Calif. to Las Vegas, NV, 120 miles through the desert and over the mountains, note that is plural.  The runners left Baker early Saturday morning in waves with the slower runners leaving first so that the faster runners would be able to catch up.  There are 20 runners per team with 20 passes of the relay stick at the 20 check points.  These are spaced apart based on the terrain, some 4 miles, some 6 miles and some 10 miles is distance.  Each runner has to have a follow vechicle driving behind them for medical and to carry the water and to also protect the runner from oncoming traffic.  Remeber, this race is on the highway and traffic isn't stopped and the roads are only two lanes and narrow.  We drove over the pass to Shoshone, Calif. for lunch at a little cafe to wait for some of the runners.  Now remeber, the ones coming though now are the ones that left leater and have already caught up with the slower runners and passed them.  Going back over the hill to Pahrump we passed about 6 runners climbing the mountain into Pahrump.  I couldn't even walk this "hill" no less run it.  (or course neither of us can run anywhere anymore)  We went back to the coach and at Happy Hour fixed a drink and drove down the road to watch a number of the runners come through at dusk.  It was interesting to talk to a couple of the next leg runners as they waited their turn.  We had wondered if there would be any woman runners and we were next greeted with about 7 woman runners, all from different teams, pass us as they slowly climed a small hill.  Now one of the hills is at 5000 feet and they go from sea level as the southern part of Death Valley so this is quite an endeavor.  Not for the faint of heart or body. 

Sunday we packed up the coach and headed towards our great National Parks in southern Utah.  The trip was about 6 hours, an hour longer than we had planned on due to a bridge being out and traffic down to one lane and that took an hour to get by.  We arrived in Glendale, UT and set up camp just in time for Happy Hour and a rest.  This campground should be less dusty than the last one we were in.  It is hard to believe that the coach had started out clean in Pahrump only to look like it had just arrived back in the states from Alaska and thousands of miles or road grime.  We will be taking day trips from this campground into Zion, Bryce and other interesting sites.  The only bad thing is that there  is no cell service and we are both lost without it, something we have become very used to having always. 

One of the places that we wanted to visit was the North Rim of the Grand Caynon but it is closed until mid-May, still covered with snow.  The temp here this morning was 33 (feeling like 27) when Rich walked Teddy but it is supposed to be 84 in Zion this afternoon.  Layer time for sure.

China Date Fame and Seafood night at the Casino

Today was a trip into California to the China Date Farm.  It is located at the sourthern end of Death Valley in what I would call a true Oasis.  We kept thinking that we knew where it must be in the distance but each time we were wrong.  It ended up being down a 7 mile gravel road that turned into a one lane road in spots while it dropped down into this private valley that was all Date Trees and catcus.  We had one of their famious date shakes and bought some date bread and cookies and a small bag of dates.  (Have to hide everything from Teddy so we need to write notes to ourselves to remind up where we have hidden treasures for later.)  On the was back to the campground we stopped at a small bar/brewery for a beer.  I had a Pale Ale that was anything but pale and Rich had a Scorpians Bite and it did have a bite.  (He didn't leave any beer in the glass though.)  This little bar is run by a couple that took it over from his father when he died and they are only there on the weekends, the rest of the time they live in Pahrump, NV.  He brews the beer and she cooks the meals.  Food smelt good but we were staying hungry for the Seafood Buffett at the Casino.  They had Snow Crab Claws and I certainly ate my fill, Rich said that the crab was going to become an endangered speices if I were around.  I probably could have eaten more if there had been crackers but there were not and that meant you really had to work at getting the crab meat out.  They also had Prime Rib Craving bar but neither of us had any of that.

We have been having some A/C problems with the van and had to take it into a small shop here in town.  Yesterday on the way back out of the desert from China Lake we noticed that it seemed to be getting hotter instead of cooler.  Guess we'll be back at the shop in the morning.

We have one more day in this area and then we head out to tour some of our National Parks in the southern part of Utah.  Themps here have been in the low 90's in the day and we are going into an area where the lows are going to be freezing again, should be interesting.  I hope that the ground is a different color as poor white Teddy is looking pretty grey from all the dirt around here.  Good thing he doesn't mind baths as he's already had two and I hope to give him one again tomorrow.

More as it happens.

First Blog

This is a Blog about two people that love the RVing life and both own Monaco Camelots and that have decided to travel this great country together along with Rich's Bichon Teddy.  Our travels started out really the winter of 2014 in Florida where we traveled with two other couples to various rallies and campgrounds each in our won coaches. The summer of 2014 was spent apart while Rich went to Alaska in Camelot House I and JJ went to New England, RI and Maine, in Camelot House II.  In September, 2014, JJ flew to Las Vegas to join Rich for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. We left the Fiesta and headed east to Buford so that Rich could receive a total hip replacement.  All was successful and Rich even walked out of the hospital the same day.  We left in November in Camelot House II for Florida to spend the winter again joining up with friends that we traveled with last year.  We did the usual rallies and even spent a week in Key West.  We had one week back in Buford to transfer coaches from JJ's to Rich's to travel cross country to spend the rest of the winter.  The weather that week didn't help as we had freezing weather and snow, go figure.  We had a stop in Tuscon to spend the evening with Rich's daugher and son-in-law where they were vacationing.  We had a very nice visit.  We then went to Phoenix to spend a few days with my brother who ended up in the ER and long story short, a pace maker was implanted and he is now doing much better.  It was then time to head to Pahrump, NV where we were volunteers for the Monaco International Pre-Rally and we were busy.  We worked hard and I do think that the rally was a success.  Rich is also 1st Vice President so he had a lot more work and responsibilites than I did.  I only was in charge of crafts and they were all provided by the campground.  We stayed another week at the campground to just unwind and we will be leaving Sunday the 29th.  Rich is planning our route now, we plan to do Bryce, Canyonlands and as much as we can.  We have no time frame other than being in Shreveport, LA, the end of April for another Rally.   I hope to be able to post often and also with pictures.