Bryce Canyon

We wanted to go to Bryce on Tuesday, but the weather forecast said snow for Bryce, so we decided to wait another day. I had seen enough snow on Sunday and I do now understand why people wait until May to visit this area.

So Wednesday we packed a lunch and made our way to Bryce National Park. On our way there we saw these beautiful fields of purple flowers.

I took over 90 pictures at Bryce and it is hard to pick just a few to show in the blog. So you guys will have to wait until Doug puts the rest of them on Webshots. We decided to drive the 18 mile stretch with the car to the most southern end and then start our way back up. I have to say that I was getting a little bit disappointed as we were driving along, since from the road you really can't see any Hoodoos or canyons, or really anything other than a whole bunch of trees. We changed our mind really quickly when we arrived at the first lookout point.






By the time we were back at the beginning of Bryce, we were exhausted. It was a great day and Doug wanted to drive Route 14 one more time, since they say that it is a scenic drive and we really did not see anything while driving on it during the snow storm. It was a beautiful sunny day and not a cloud in the sky. I have to admit that it was a very nice drive, the road was clear and the snow on the summit was actually blinding. It truly was a great day.

We decided to leave Cedar City yesterday and move further north, since there was a high wind warning for Friday. We are now at the Nevada/Utah border, the wind has certainly caught up with us and we will move again on Sunday. There are only 750 miles left to go until we get to our destination.

Zion National Park

Zion National Park is just stunning. I really like the free shuttle system they have, since it allows Doug to also look around without having to watch were he is going.


I was so fascinated with all the different colors of the cliffs. It was so beautiful.



As you can see in the last picture, the sky was getting a little bit dark, but we were not worried yet. We decided to take Route 9 towards Route 89 and see some more of Zion, which is not viewable with the shuttle bus.

It was well worth the drive. The colors of the rocks are just so amazing.



So far so good, the weather seemed to stay to our east on Route 89 and we were going to go west on Route 14.

I saw the sign that said that the top was at 10,000 feet, but I don't think it really registered with me what was about to happen. First we just saw snow on the side of the road, the road itself was still dry.

Then, it started snowing a little bit and it started to stick on the road.

Yet, we are still climbing and I am getting worried. Our car does not have four wheel or all wheel drive, but Doug kept telling me that it would be okay. By the time we got to the summit the road was completely covered with snow, I am to nervous to take anymore pictures and Doug decided to put the car into manual drive, since the engine will act as a brake. We actually had to pass two cars, since they were going way to slow on the downhill. By the time we got to the bottom of the mountain the defrost was running on high, there was ice on the windshield and our license plate was covered with snow.

It sure was an adventures day and I was glad when we got back to the rig.

Kolob Canyon

We decided last Sunday on starting to check out the area around Cedar City, UT. The nearest park was Kolob Canyon. When we arrived to pay the entrance fee, we were advised that the fee was waived for the week, which saved us the $25 we would have to pay for Kolob Canyon as well as Zion National Park. I thought that was pretty cool.

Kolob Canyon is a beautiful 6 mile drive.




Since it was the last day for the free pass, we decided to go on to Zion National Park, since it is smaller than Bryce and it was early afternoon already.

Viva Las Vegas!

Before I tell you about Las Vegas, I have to show you guys the Joshua Tree. I never heard of it, but we saw a whole bunch of them on our way to Las Vegas.

Our trip to Las Vegas was fairly uneventful, until we got onto IH 515. You are supposed to exit right to IH 15 North, but of course I ended up in the lane to IH 15 South towards Los Angeles. Luckily the truck behind me realized what I did and let me back in the correct lane. Once we arrived at the campground Doug just grinned and asked me if I had different plans (very funny, NOT).

We got settled in and started exploring the town. It is amazing how much it has changed since we had been here 10 years ago and there was a ton of people. We went to the Belagio, since Doug wanted to see their water display. The place is just amazing and the water show with music was pretty awesome.



We got to see two different performances and they were very worthwhile watching.

The next day we went to the Pinball Hall of Fame. We both grew up on playing pinball and I can not believe just how many different kind of pinball machines from very old ones to the newest ones they have. We actually played for 2 1/2 hours and had a blast


The El Dorado pinball machine is special to Doug, since his brother actually owns one of them. Here are a couple of more pictures from Las Vegas.


We left Las Vegas yesterday and moved north to see Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park next. It sure is a lot colder up here. The temperature this morning was 45 degrees, which made me put the flannel sheets back on the bed. I am sure looking forward to seeing Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park next week.

North Ranch

This place is beautiful!! For you guys that have not been here yet, you have to put it on your list of parks to visit. It is so peaceful and relaxing here, it was just what I needed.

We arrived here on Saturday with a truck that was overheating and spitting a little bit of oil. Luckily Mike and Pat's RV lot is totally easy to back into and we all started looking for the oil leak. Luckily it was just the cap that had come loose and the truck cooled down again. It is so good to see Mike and Pat again. We got our hugs and then they left us alone to set up. We met up again with them and Tom and Sally for happy hour and had a great time catching up. Pat invited us for dinner and we had hamburgers, Pat's famous cauliflower casserole, Sally made fried potatoes and brought a green salad. Dinner was sooo good and I sure was glad that I did not have to cook that night. We got back to the rig about 8 pm and I was in bed within the next 30 minutes.

We had been traveling for a few days now and I am having problems with the all the time changes we are going through. So be the time we got here I was pretty burned out. I have to say after three days here I am refreshed and ready to go again. Here are some pictures of the beautiful cactus on Mike and Pat's lot.

We spend the last couple of days doing laundry, stocking up the fridge again, having happy hours and just plain relaxing. Now I am ready to tackle the next 1350 miles that we have left to go to get to Vancouver.

Mike and Pat, thank you so much for all you guys did for us!!!

On the road again ... YEAH!!

Last week sure held its challenges. We left Mission on Monday and by the time we got to Brauning Lake near San Antonio, we knew that we had a problem with the truck. Doug had an error message on the dash and changed the fuel filters accordingly. We got up Tuesday and continued our trip. We got as far as Boerne and decided that the truck had to go in the shop before we continue on IH-10. This highway gets were desolate after San Antonio and I really did not want us to break down in the middle of nowhere.

So the truck went into the Volvo shop on Tuesday and we were told that they would be able to work on it on Friday. This is not the way I wanted to start our trip to Vancouver. We stayed in a nice campground and decided on Wednesday to go check out the town of Boerne. We had driven through about four years ago and it looked quaint. We spend a good three hours going to various stores (my favorite thing to do) and stopped for lunch. I took a picture of a very interesting building.


Thursday we went to the movies and on Friday Doug called the shop to find out how the truck was doing. We were told that they would not be able to get it in the shop until Monday. My blood pressure rose drastically, but there was nothing we could do. We got a call from Doug's dad on Saturday that they had returned from California. Since we might not see them for a long time, we met up for a very nice lunch on Sunday at our favorite German restaurant in New Braunfels. So there was something good about being delayed.

We went to the truck shop on Monday to see what was going on. The truck was not in the shop and again my blood pressure was rising. We got to talk to the shop foreman and promised that the truck would go in right after lunch. We decided to find a mall and wait for a while. I did not realize how close we were to downtown San Antonio and we actually ended up at the Riverwalk. We had a nice lunch, did some walking and returned to the truck shop around 1:30 pm. Now our truck was actually in the shop and we decided to wait around a while to see what they would find. They found a faulty sensor, which they had to get from a local dealer and then the truck would be ready to go hopefully. We decided to go back to Boerne, since there was nothing we could do in the meantime. We got a call a couple of hours later and were informed that the truck was ready to go. Of course by now it is rush hour in San Antonio and we decided to wait just a little bit before going back through San Antonio. The trip to the Volvo dealer was interesting, since traffic really backed up on the two loops, but by the time we had the truck picked up traffic was gone and we made it through the middle of San Antonio just fine. I have never been so happy to see our big red truck!!!

So this morning we went on our way again and this time everything is going smooth (knock on wood). We should be able to visit with Mike and Pat by the end of the week.

On the road again ... NOT!!

The whole last week was somewhat crazy with getting the coach house ready for our renters and packing up all our stuff into the RV again, but we managed. It has been getting pretty hot in the valley and we could really only work in the mornings before it was getting to hot. We had a really nice "Good-Bye" dinner with all our friends last Wednesday and started our trip towards Vancouver, WA yesterday morning.

Everything went well until we came to our first rest stop and the truck displayed a fuel filter error code. The truck was started to run rough on start, but as soon as we got up to highway speed everything was fine and the error code went away. By the time we reached George West the winds started up, but we knew that we were driving into a cold front. There was an accident on Route 281 and we got rerouted to Route 59 and made it to IH 37 okay. The wind was now getting really strong and even I had to drive with both hands on the steering wheel. By the time we were at the Brauning Lake area we decided to pull into a campground and call it a day. Doug went to a place to get the fuel filters changed and they did put in some fluid in the fuel filter and the fuel tank, since they thought it might be that one or two of the fuel injectors might be clogged.

We decided to drive on this morning and see if the "cleaning fluid" would help. We got through San Antonio without any problems, but by the time we got to Boerne Doug decided that we can not go on like this. So now we are in another campground and took the truck to a Volvo place to have it looked at. Of course, they are swamped and it will be at least two days before they can look at it to find out what is wrong with it. It feels like the truck is just not getting enough fuel, but we have no idea what exactly is wrong with the truck at this point. So now we sit and wait and maybe do some sightseeing before we head on. At least we were in a bigger town and not in the middle of nowhere when this happened and we have no deadline to meet.