2008JeffJourney

June 10, 2008: Our Salt Lake City Adventure

Location: Ely, NV  KOA of Ely  This would be a pretty place to stay a few more days. The view of the valley and the mountains are awesome. Though the boys are ready for another wilderness camping experience and this is not it.  The sites are level and large - filled with yet, more gravel.  The well stocked campstore is filled with RV and fishing supplies.  The kids enjoyed the playground and donkeys.  The whole place was so neatly groomed.

Weather: Hot, Dry and Windy through the valley (high 80's) to Windy and Cold with Dark Clouds looming (high 50's-Low 60's) in Salt Lake City

Audio Book:  Henry and the Clubhouse by Beverly Cleary

We thought since we stayed hooked to the car we'd have an early take off, but instead we took our time with the morning routine and devotions before a departure of 9:15 a.m.  The itinerary said we'd be in Salt Lake City in 4 hours. This would be perfect because we'd have plenty of time to get settled at the KOA in Salt Lake City and then tour the local copper mine.  We had to do all this before picking N up at 4:30 p.m. and heading to the Great Salt Lake for the floating experience.

***L working on her maps.  Car Schooling.

Sigh. The hours ticked by as we passed miles and miles of flat land - sometimes with shrub, sometimes with green fields, sometimes with salt flats and sometimes with sand dunes.  Dust devils became common as the wind picked up and began to pull the camper around.  The excitement today was seeing two real live cowboys rounding up a herd of cows, driving through some old mining towns that were full of character, photographing some unique trees by the roadside and eating lunch at a pulloff in the middle of a salt flat with the winds whipping around us.

***K&I stopped to photo some interesting trees outside of the Little Sahara Recreation Area.  They appeared dead and there were hundreds of them on the hillside.

By 3 p.m. (we lost an hour with the change to Mountain Time) we realized we may not even make it to SLC before N's plane arrived!  K's comment was, "Dad really does drive faster than you, doesn't he?"

Not only were we late to pick N up at the airport, we were directionally challenged as we tried to navigate around SLC to find our little KOA.  By 6 p.m. we were rushing to get the camper unhooked so we could quickly drive to the Great Salt Lake to look, but not to float since it was 56 degrees! Brrr..  Another redirection came as we realized that our sick hitch crank to raise and lower the camper on and off the car became a dead crank.  Now what were we going to do???  K went to the KOA office and they contacted a RV business that said they could get to us by the 19th.  All the other businesses were closed.  By this time I just wanted to cry.  I went to the car, prayed and began looking through my KOA pamphlet for inspiration.  An add for Mr. Moblie, an RV fix it man who comes to the camper, came to my eye.  I called and he was there in 30 minutes offering hope that he'd fix the crank in the a.m. when the parts store opened.  He helped us get the camper off the car so we could salvage the night.

**E&A in front of the Salt Lake City LDS Temple

Rumaging through the cupboards we were able to pull together a snacky dinner.  Then we were off to explore the Temple Square in SLC. We racked our brains to remember the information about the founding of Salt Lake City from a library book we read months ago.  J says we must have read that book when he wasn't there.  Hmmm..  Arriving so late in the evening our tour was cut short but we were able to see the gardens and outsides of the buildings.  We also enjoyed the exhibit in the Visitor's Center explaining how the temple was constructed.  It is amazing what can be accomplished with a vision and minds set on excellence.

K reminded me in my frustration with the day that we have been able to see much of what we planned on this trip, so an occasional mishap day is o.k.  Proverbs 16:9 The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

June 9, 2008: From Two Capital Cities to The Loneliest Road

Location: Sacramento, CA to Ely, NV
Weather: Warm, Sunny 80's mostly, though 60's in the Sierra Nevadas
Mileage: 6444
Audio: Finished Jonathan Park, Beverly Cleary's Henry Huggins and The Paper Route

Fun Travel Find: http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/our_company/community/Summer_Reading/Summer_Reading_Program.html

Yesterday while shopping at Barnes and Noble a store clerk gave us a sheet for their summer reading program.  What a flurry of reading it has sparked!  They are all trying to find eight books that they can read so that they can pick out a free book from the store's paperback list.

Our first day out in five weeks without C's vision and direction.... He is very missed by us all.  In the a.m. we wandered about trying to set up the new routine and had to recheck things to make sure we weren't forgetting anything.  To our knowledge we did it all.  We even remembered to pull in the slideout and the stairs.  Our hope was to get on the road early anticipating a long ride, and we were on the road by 9:15 a.m.  Not too bad.

One thing about C is that he does catch the vision of our goal location and we aim straight toward it.  I on the other hand am reading the tour books and signs as we go along and am willing in an instant to change direction and throw our well thought out plans to the wind for the hopes of a better adventure.  Well today, I'll have to say, I was well controlled.  Our goal was over 400 miles of driving on Route 50 to reach Ely, NV.  We didn't even stop to get photos of the beautiful scenery as we drove over the mountains!  It was like only what I have seen in the picture books with the tall, majestic pines towering over head and the rushing rock filled stream that the kids said, "You can tell it is cold just by looking at it."  They were looking at the mountains with snow peaks and thinking that snow had melted and was now rushing down that river.  No one wanted to go in it.  As we made our way around the bends and up and down thousands of feet in elevation changes, I kept saying, "It is just so beautiful!"  We did bring up several times the scenes of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in The Long, Long Traileras they drove their "rig" over the Sierra Nevadas carrying Lucy's rock collection.

We drove right by Lake Tahoe (though did stop to pay $4.59 for gas), into Nevada (where we saw gas for $3.99, grrr!), through Nevada's Capital, Carson City and out onto what Life Magazine entitled in '87, The Loneliest Road in America.  It would be fun to take time to explore the road, but instead we drove by signs of the Pony Express, petroglyphs, an old shoe tree, sand dunes (the kids chimed in here - Can we PLEASE stop!), salt flats where people had taken stones and wrote words by the roadside, and abandoned mining towns.  At lunch on a scenic pullout, I read about many of these things in our guide book so we had a taste, but our view was only from our windows.  I was also imagining the Reed family and their discouragement as they came upon the salt flats after journeying through the Rockies. It was here that they had to leave many of their possessions. What a struggle it must have been to continue on in such conditions.

Our next gas stop was in Eureka, NV - a quaint mining town that K was able to photograph in the setting sun.  We finally arrived in Ely KOA at 7:30 p.m., set up camp and prepared our last Dinner A'Fare meal. The kids got some of their energy out at the playground, playing tether ball, scootering and watching the donkeys, but still had a hard time settling down after a long day sitting in the car.

This is our last "connected" stop as we'll be in many state and national parks over the next several weeks, so we'll post when we can.  We are all excited that N is joining us tomorrow! 

May 22, 2008: A Light Day of Travel

Location: Las Vegas, Rhyolite, Death Valley

Audio Book:  Once Upon A Marigold and One More Valley, One More Hill.

We have been getting slack about getting off our sites and on the road, but today it didn’t matter since our goal was Death Valley, about 175 miles away.  We got on the road by 11 a.m.

After reading the library book, Rhyolite: The True Story of a Ghost Town we really wanted to see the remnants of this once flourishing town.  It was only a town from the time gold was discovered in 1904 through 1910 when people abandoned their homes.  (http://www.amazon.com/Rhyolite-True-Story-Ghost-Town/dp/0618096736)  Today there are many walls, but few intact houses.  My favorite is a small home made of glass bottles. 

Someone actually lived in it after 1910 and made a little replica of the town in the yard.

***Each of those circles are the bottoms of glass bottles.  It would have been fun to see the inside.

Actually if anyone is interested in purchasing some desert property the little original general store is for sale.

The drive to Panamint Springs from Rhyolite took us through Death Valley.  We drove into the park at over 4,000 feet and descended to sea level in the valley then back up and out again.  Before our trip we read the book, Lost in Death Valley: The True Story of Four Families in California’s Gold Rush, by Connie Goldsmith.  After looking at the ground they traveled on it is hard to imagine taking covered wagons over the rocky terrain let alone withstanding the heat without water. As we drove over several of the mountain ranges the view from the other side looked like water.  Actually it was salt flats or sand.  I can not imagine walking through this desert! The people in the story were an inspiration.

When we pulled up to Panamint Springs RV Resort, C looked at me and said, “And whose idea was it to camp here?” K said, “Maybe we should just go on to the beach.” From the road the place is not too impressive (kind of like pulling into White’s City, NM).  But now that we are settled in a site with a tree that is actually taller than our camper and a view of the mountains beyond the desert, we are quite happy.  We had our traditional quick dinner of make your own flat bread pizzas and watched National Treasure 2 for movie night.  After the movie, J&D decided to explore and to their delight they found a several inch long desert scorpion.

***Our view until an RV pulled in and blocked it.

May 21, 2008: Hoover Dam and the Strip

Location:  Circus Circus RV Park.  This a KOA campground that bears with it the price tag. For your money you get to stay on a black top parking lot.  We paid extra to be near the end with a grass strip.  Little did we know this is the spot that everyone brings their dogs to do their business, so we get to look but not play on the grass.  We found it amusing that they were upfront with C in explaining they do not provide cable because they would rather you'd be in the casino gambling than watching t.v.  All in all we would not make this our vacation destination, but it has met our needs for a spot to rest in Las Vegas.

Mileage: 3500 miles

Weather:  70’s-80’s today.  Hurrah, it has cooled off!

Though slow to get moving this morning we were finally up and out of the camper heading toward Hoover Dam.  This massive concrete structure is quite impressive.  We took the Discovery Tour which brought us down into one of the tunnels built to shunt off the water to allow them to build the dam back in the 30’s.  The tour guide told us the process of how the dam was built and then led us to the room where the Nevada electricity is generated. The museum did a great job of combining stories of the lives of those who built the dam and displays on the technical side of building the dam and generating the electricity.  The kids enjoyed a computer that had them spinning a crank generating electricity to power electrical appliances in different rooms in a home. J says, “I’m glad we don’t have to do this to get electricity!”

***Overlooking the Hoover Dam generators

What visit to Las Vegas would be complete without a visit to The Strip?  According to Fun with the Family: Las Vegas, the guidebook says, “The Las Vegas Strip is indeed scenic, historic, recreational, and cultural, and anything but natural.”  Though we prefer the natural, we still wanted to experience it for ourselves in a very abbreviated version. Taking a suggestion from the book, we began the afternoon with The Mac King Comedy Magic Show.  The woman who seated us strategically put the kids in the front which allowed E to be picked to go on stage as Mr. King’s assistant.  I have to say she was the most talented assistant that I have seen.  She did a great job helping him set up a campsite, guessing hand shadows, fishing in midair and holding a water glass that eventually held goldfish appearing from …? … his mouth?  For her hard work she was given an autographed T-shirt as a remembrance of the show.

***Mac King signing E's shirt

 

K has always wanted to go to Venice so the Venetian was the next place on our list. We were impressed by the shopping area that was modeled after the Venetian streets.  The ceiling looked like the sky, the shops were modeled after those in Venice and gondola boats floated through the center of the shopping mall streets.

Lastly we walked to the Bellagio to see the fountains.  In our long walk we encountered much of what Vegas is known for.  Where else could one find the world’s tallest and largest volume of chocolate fountain? Or a replica of Mount Rushmore? Or perhaps enormous animated eaglets? Or The Eiffel Tower? And even, Pirate Ships? We discovered much, closed our eyes to some, and sadly, were unable to see the famous fountains due to the high winds.  We made the long trek back toward our car in search of reasonably priced food.

***Posing with the Eaglets

Once fed and back home, the older girls and I tackled the laundry mounds doing 8 loads.  We began to turn our thoughts to packing up and heading to Death Valley.

May 20, 2008: Traveling about Las Vegas

Location:  Las Vegas, NV

Weather:  Who would have known when we planned our trip to Las Vegas at this particular time that we would be here during record breaking heat?  Today was another record breaker.  Our car recorded 109 degrees in the afternoon.  But “they” are right – it is a dry heat.  At this temperature it doesn’t matter – you don’t want to be in it long!

The air conditioner ran all night trying to keep our camper at a pleasant temperature.  We woke once in the night to go out and put in the awning that was blowing around in the wind.  I guess soon we’ll learn about the southwest Spring winds.

The plan for today was to see some of the Las Vegas sites that we read about in Springs in the Desert (a 4^th grade history text for the Las Vegas area.) while C clocked in some billable hours to pay for the gas we are voraciously consuming on this trip.

***What an office!

The kids and I headed out into the morning (already registering 95 degrees) toward the Old Mormon Fort.  The Mormons were the first to settle Las Vegas (Spanish for the meadows) as a stopping point in the desert between Salt Lake City and California.  They made a fort in an area that was a desert oasis due to some springs that created a creek.  A small portion of the original fort is still standing today.  At the museum there are artifacts from the time of the forts beginnings and also from the Stewart Ranch – the family who owned the property later. Also the fort as it looked as it was being built was recreated from drawings and journal entries recorded by the settlers. The kids busied themselves with a scavenger hunt that took them around the property hunting for items such as a milk can, petrified wood, a bell, an organ, etc.

***At the fort

Next we moved into the air conditioning at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum.  In line with many natural history museums, it is full of stuffed creatures from around the world.  They even have a robotic dinosaur display that amused the kids.  A’s favorite was the sand pits where junior archaeologists can dig for fossils.  She decided to climb right in like it was a big sandbox.

After a call to C, who was quite pleased with his day of work so far, we decided to explore some more.  We made use of the Google search on my phone and found a Panera Bread in the area. Everyone was quite delighted to be in a “familiar” place. 

The restaurant happened to be near Ethel M. Chocolate Factory and Botanical Cactus Gardens which had a “free” tour.  We went through and watched as the chocolatiers put chocolate in molds, wrapped apples in chocolate, wrapped chocolates in fancy packages and gave out yummy samples of chocolate.  I say the tour was “free” because at the end you are hit with a store where by then, all you want is chocolate so cost is no object.  We all picked out either candies or ice cream and happily enjoyed our snacks before going outside to tour their cactus garden.  After spending 2 weeks in the desert we were becoming familiar with some of the cacti, but seeing them all labeled in this garden was quite helpful.  M’s favorite was the Rabbit Ears; though he did think they were fuzzy and got quite a surprise when he got a finger full of thorns.

***Mmmmm...that chocolate is good!

 

More practical matters absorbed the rest of the afternoon as we found a grocery and Walmart to restock the cupboards.

One of the best things about this trip is popping in on people that we haven’t seen in years due to distance.  Tonight we caught up with a woman who was a friend of my Mom from 40 years ago. I enjoyed hearing about her family and travels around the area. It is amazing how easy it is to resume relationships.

May 19, 2008: 10th State - Nevada

Location: AZ, Grand Canyon National Park, over the Hoover Dam and into Las Vegas

Weather:  sunny and warm (J says, “It’s boiling hot.  You could roast an egg…”, by 5:30 p.m. our car thermometer registered at 111 degrees!

Mileage: 3300 miles

Audio Books:  One More Valley, One More Hill, The Story of Aunt Clara Brown and Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

***View at the Trail Head.

4 a.m.: J, D and C were stirring and getting ready for another trek on the Bright Angel Trail.  The goal of watching the sunset was thwarted by the delay in the bus system, but they made it down and back from the 3 mile rest house all before 10:00 a.m.

***Picture: D, C and J on the way up

K and I rode our bikes on the trail, to get exercise of course, but we didn’t resist doing a bit of souvenir shopping as well.  When we joined back up with the guys we were able to pack up and get off the site by 11:00 a.m.

Onward to Nevada! We were quickly back into the desert landscape that we had seen so much of in the past weeks. As we tackled school work we watched the temperature on the car thermometer shift from the 90’s to the 100’s.  Stopping at a gas station we asked if our reading was indeed correct.  It was.  The attendant said this high temperature was not usual this early in the year.  He laughingly said he expects 130’s to 140’s this summer.

At 5:30 p.m. after successfully passing the inspection of the camper, we were rolling over the Hoover Dam.  All the kids imagined the Hoover Dam much bigger than what they saw.  What fascinated us was the new bridge that is being built.  They have some of it done dangling over the river.  There are cables and braces everywhere.

The kids thought we were joking as we pulled into Circus, Circus RV Park on the Las Vegas Strip.  They said, “It’s a parking lot.”  Oh but never fear.  Dad paid an extra $12/night to have a strip of grass next to our parking space.  As I sit here typing by the flash of neon lights, most of the kids are in bed after a refreshing dip in the pool.  Our a/c is cooling our space down and we are happy to have a solid place to rest our camper – with full hook ups, no less.