Wed. June 26th from Las Vegas, NV:

We have not had internet the last few days. We arrived at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon at noon on Friday, June 21st. Stayed in the NP campground, dry camping only, paid $1.75 to take a 7 minute shower (not quite long enough for lb), took several hikes, rode the mules (Slim and Tom) down 2 miles (2000 ft.) into the canyon and back up, went to a Chuck Wagon dinner with entertainment, drove several scenic drives, listened to ranger talks, drank a prickly pear margariata, attended church on Sunday morning, had a nice breakfast in the 1930s Grand Canyon Lodge dining room, had a campfire, watched the full super moon two nights, and soaked up the fresh pine smells and beautiful scenery. Had a wonderful time there.

We arrived in Las Vegas the afternoon of Monday, June 24th. Friends from Kino, Kent and Louise came to us (we are in RV park of Sam's Town casino) and we enjoyed a wonderful buffet dinner and watched the water and laser light show in the casino. Tuesday we spent the morning at Hoover Dam, most interesting, had dinner at Kent and Louise's home, then drove/walked a portion of the famous Las Vegas strip seeing the Bellaggio water fountain show, the Mirage volcana show, and lots of neon lights and strange people. Toto, we are NOT in KS anymore!

Today (Wed.) we drove up to Mt. Charleston ( 8800 ft.) to enjoy cooler temps and have a picnic lunch. We're going to the Bass Pro shop, have dinner at a Mexican restaurnt (go figure) and see the sights of Fremont Street (the "old and original" Las Vegas, which is being restored), and back to trailer before 1 a.m. which is when we got home last night! We're too old for that two nights in a row.

In the morning we will drive to Three Rivers, CA which will be our base to visit Sequoia NP. Perhaps we'll be able to post some pictures from there.

Oh,  we did have a repair made to the 5th wheel here in Vegas, but thanks to Kent he got us an appt. so it hasn't messed up our traveling schedule.

We're seeing so much that we haven't seen and still having fun on the road!

Life is good.

 

June 19th: One National Park down, eight to go! We have really enjoyed Mesa Verde NP. To think the cliff dwellings  were built 700 years ago with very crude tools and by hand, and are still standing. The construction methods they used are still used today in many structures. Their efforts put the meaning of "hard work" into perspective for me. We took two ranger guided tours of dwellings and toured on our own several others and drove to different view points in the park. At one such view point you could see nine different cliffing dwellings. The RV park we are in is very nice and the weather has been good. Tomorrow we drive to Page, AZ in preparation for arriving at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on Friday. Life is good!

Monday,June 17th, left SJ at 7:30 a.m. and took this picture of B beside the Rio Grande River in South Fork, CO at 4 p.m. MDT. Had very little wind, good driving, I even drove the rig for an hour while B ate his yogurt lunch.  In CO had the usual afternoon rain storm and temps dropped to 58 for a short while. B is cooking dinner and I'm posting to our blog. We are getting used to our "new" trailer but so far no major problems. Tomorrow head to Mesa Verde NP and are excited to do some hiking and look at the ruins. We will probably arrive by 11:30 a.m. so will have the day to explore the NP. Life is good!



June 16th at 8 p.m. Trailer is loaded and ready to go we hope! We are to have heavy rain after midnight, hope that doesn't create problems exiting our back yard. This post is mainly to see if I can post a picture as well as text to the blog. Hope it works. More as we travel down the road.

one  more day until departure, almost done packing, almost done cleaning house.