Catching up

Haven't posted for a while, in case you were wondering we are still on the road, just that our roads have not passed through Internet country for a while.

After white water rafting in Moab, we had a day at Arches National Park, then headed for the Grand Canyon. We had the pleasure of viewing it from both the northern, and the southern side, and David and I got up one morning and saw the sun rise over the northern side - I think I remember reading that doing that is one of the things one should do before one dies, but as there are still a few more on our list, don't go writing us off yet.

Driving from the North to the South, one has to descend from 9,000 odd feet down to the Colorado River, then up again. As we went, David was concerned that the brakes were spongy, and by the time we got back up to the southern side, he was pretty worried. So we cut our stay in the Grand Canyon short (well, by this stage, Laurie was starting to call it the Big Hole, so full appreciation was being lost), and trotted across to Flagstaff Arizona to get them fixed. Of course, now we were a couple of days ahead of schedule, so to fill the time, we decided to go to Las Vegas.

Driving to Vegas from Flagstaff, we went up further into the mountains, and then descended to the desert. Drove over the Hoover Dam - very impressive. It got hotter. And hotter. We arrived in Vegas at about 7:30, by which time it had cooled to 46 Celsius (about 114 F). We drove around a fair bit, looking for a campground - checked out the phone book, and found one that had tents - all the rest had RV's but no tents. This one though was a complete dived - by this stage it was getting on for 9:30, still hot. So we headed out to Lake Meade, about 20 miles out of town, and set up in the dark. It was still 45 degrees. Sent the kids to bed, and tried to get them to sleep. Not surprisingly, they were complaining that they were hot! Next morning, woke up about 6:30, it was already 37 (close to 98). So it didn't cool down much - I thought it was supposed to cool down in the desert! Anyway, there were no showers at this state park we stayed at, but 8 miles down the road, we could have a shower - for $5 a head. Well, that was enough for us - we went and booked into a hotel!

Circus Circus is a "family oriented" hotel at the northern end of the Strip, in Vegas. It is huge - so big that it has its own rollercoaster, and amusement park, and circus acts running every 15 minutes from 11am to midnight. This in itself was enough to keep the kids amused, so we swam, showered, circused, and went for a walk to Hard Rock Cafe. A mile later, in the heat, we downed three quick beers, and had a meal. Then walked back to the strip, and caught the bus back to the hotel. Next morning, David and I went for a walk around the hotel, while we waited for the kids to wake up. No gambling, although we could have, and we also could have enjoyed a cocktail or two and two beers for the price of one. Why would you leave the hotel?

So now we are in LA - once again, very few tenting campgrounds, mostly RV's - David is just home from gathering food at the supermarket, and time to cook dinner, so will have to fill you in on LA at a later date.

Cheers - the Vealygoods