Photos from top: Hiking group at Bell Rock, Drive up HWY93 to Vegas, Hoover Bridge Construction, Our 1st Dinner after Zumanity, Having Fun w the Fish!, Interesting Vegas Bill-Boards, Zion Landscapes-the sunset one is infront of our hotel. Last two are the casino at sunrise at 6:30amOct 26- Monday...recovering from the weekend.
- travelled down to Cottonwood to talk on Skype with family and friends. worked on my blog at the Jerona Cafe...again had breakfast and late lunch for my spot at the table.
- OH...and I almost forgot ~ I ROCKED at Ladies Poker night because I studied on-line what the best starting hands are :-)... I got half of the $40 pot!...mind you, Mary was not there tonight ...hmm
Oct 27-Tuesday:
AM:
- I start my laundry, pack a quick lunch, and take off for the gym and then join the hiking group
- Before the hike we meet at Lindy and her husband's home...he just harvested his garden of all the green tomatoes and chillies and shares the wealth with us ladies --SO GREAT !!
- We travelled up to the Bell Rock area in the Red Rock Parkland in Sedona. Very interesting and beautiful country side..but getting cold and windy!!! I stay back at the end of the group after our lunch break (Lindy found a spot out if the wind) to take pictures along to way. I need to come back some time soon...
- There's a lot of pessimistic discussions today re the Healthcare debate here in the states as Lindy's husband works as an Anaesthetist Nurse Specialist. I try to assure and also point out that we also do invitro surgeries covered by OHIP to their surprise...he assumed that surgery is only done in the states & was surprised it was covered by OHIP ...heard too many nasty rumours about our healthcare system. My input goes nowhere ...lots of mistrust of the Medicare system and the Health Insurance companies here
- later I pack for my trip to Vegas and get the house ready for Rae's visit ( hide the Kaleidoscope etc!!)
- I make amazing stew of the veggies i got earlier today to take on trip with Rae to Zion Park and get other foods ready for the cooler.
- a HUGE windstorm is brewing and I can see the snow storm in the valley that was forecasted on the radio today
- I travel up to Jerome to talk to Rae one more time and park outside of a closed cafe in the dark night and manage to hook into their WiFi...it is so windy that I worry about my car being knocked off the side of the mountain!
- set the alarm for 4AM!
AM:
- I took forever to drag all my stuff up the stairs in the dark early morning and I leave at 530 instead of 5AM :-( I should have loaded the car last night!
- once in Jerome I set the trip with Matilda ( the GPS lent to me by the Sarvari's in case you haven't read my earlier blogs) When she has me go back down the mountain and up to Flagstaff, I reset to the shortest distance over the mountain to Prescott and travel via the 89 north highway to the I-40
- WHAT A FUN TRIP TO DRIVE OVER THOSE S-CURVES ~ YEEHAW!! Of course the Rollingstones tunes help wake me up as well!
- what amazing scenery!! I LOVE THIS DRIVE: from the crazy mountain turns to desert flat lands past Prescott...into rolling hills and then once on the I-40 going west into the Hualupai Mountain Range joining all kinds of truckers ( I don't mind them at all anymore..I had an original fear of dealing with trucks before leaving T.O.) on the ribbon of highway down to Kingman.
- I turn north on HWY 93 down to flatland desert and a straight bee-line to the Hoover dam
- I watch my speed which is interestingly set at 65 vs the 75 miles an hr on the I-40 GOOD THING!! ...as I come across a paratrooper van parked at the side of the road with a huge 'periscope gismo' sticking out of its roof for photo radar!
- driving into another mountain range and into the construction zone of the road into Hoover dam I hear from Rae who landed at 10:15...I'm about 30 minutes away from the airport. I am stopped for a quick inspection of my car before I drive over the dam....and also do the tourist pit-stop to quickly view the Lake Mead Reservoir ( read an article about the declining water level at the gym last week)
- when I get to the airport ( finally found the right entrance! - it's so HUGE! & I didn't have an address to punch into 'Matilda') I play a nerve wracking game of Cat & Mouse with Rae!
- he says ..."I'm in the terminal"..not realizing there's more than one....Then, i try to pick him up at the Passenger Pick up entrance and keep getting chased off by the security guards who threaten me with a $100 dollar ticket the minute I stop...I honk so he can hear me; we call on my cell phone ...which has no more cheap minutes...several times
- and we finally meet- GOD he looks GREAT!! with his cool hat and a neat vest from Roots
- ah...we stop at the side of the exit road to decompress and hug
- then find out he only has 3 days here due to a mistake during the on-line ticket purchase...whoa...more to just be with-damn! Take-off flight back home is Saturday at 7:30am..sniff -sniff!
- We both commit to being with the "what-is-so" and to have the most spectacular 3 days to soak each other in to last us for the next month away from each other >SCRATCH THE PLAN TO DRIVE BACK TO JEROME! > PLAY IN VEGAS AND ZION INSTEAD TO THE MAX! GOD I LOVE HOW WE CAN JUST SWITCH INTO POSSIBIL ITY ( FROM 'PISSIBILITY' -HAH!)
- First order of business - we stop at a Starbucks to go On-line and book with Hotwire into Caesar's Palace-WHAT A SCOOP: For $100 dollars we got the 2nd biggest room on the 14th floor-huge with gigantic bathroom and a jacuzzi tub in the living room - sweet! Sorry folks ..no pictures!
- PM: after sharing a great bottle of wine ...we book ourselves into "Zumanity" Cirque de Solei's sensual show which explores the different realms of sexuality- it was absolutely mesmerizing and stunning and SUPER!! We buy ourselves some treats from their store and some cool designed T-shirts For more on this show see: www.VEGAS.com/Zumanity
- After the show we treat ourselves to a delicious fillet mignon steak dinner at Gallagher's Steakhouse in the New York-NewYork casino ( where the Show also took place)- a fabulous glass of wine along with the baked potatoe, mushrooms and asparagus dishes we shared made it complete!
- DAY 1 being AWESOME...? Mission accomplished!
- after sleeping in we go down for a Breakfast (Brunch) buffet that was spectacular:.eggs,amazing potatoes, fish, fruit... breakfast delicacies of all sorts..finishing with fresh berries and yoghurt. So much for using the rolled oats i packed ...we deserved nothin' but the best for our 3-Day Adventure!! Our hunger was satisfied for the rest of the day... thru to dinner time.
- we check out late and then hit the road to Zion National Park ...a 2.5 hour drive north on the I-15.
- great drive through Vegas..taking in the scenery - everything is SO HUGE HERE!! Interesting billboards advertising everything from getting your best gun choices to Mega Adult stores...saw tents on the hillsides of the freeway leading out of the city...first signs of homeless or underpriviledged folks ever in the states so far.
- we drive past a Defence airfield and Rae spots 2 fighter jets taking off in the sky
- A spectacular drive north.. as the road changed from flat to amazing foot hills heading north...then suddenly we drive towards a mountain and wonder...where's the road going to go? ...a tunnel? A narrow canyon that was not visible from afar that was absolutely amazing to drive through...huge high cliffs on either side of us. We take a driving video....and I am thrilled to have Rae beside me on this driving adventure!
- PM: with a few pit stops in the towns leading to Zion and for photo ops we make it into Zion at early sunset and find a great lodge to rest for the night in the town of Springdale...
- we drop into a local Outdoor and Hiking store for hiking info and map for Friday - Day 3 Adventures :-)
- dinner is at a cool Mexican cafe for dinner...no room inside because it is so busy so we sit outside under a warm patio heater in a protected corner...but when are we going to eat the soup I made??
- our room was very rustic - a HUGE king bed made of logs ..all the furniture was made with logs. Even the bathroom was made with material using the red sand of the area. Our room faced the red mountain with a sweet little balconey with ..two log chairs. We were too cold to sit out there though.
AM:
- Rae wakes up early as he is still in the Eastern time zone...I do too and we make the most of our day and have breakfast in bed as the sun rises! We have the soup I made together with the left-overs from the steak dinner...YUMMY breakfast! Rae logs onto my laptop in the lounge and gets coffee as i finish getting my things together in the room. He's sitting on a leather couch surrounded by all sorts of stuffed animals...bears...deer and a roaring Cougar! ...wish I took a picture of that!
- then we drive into the park to go hiking...hard to find a parking spot at the end of the road but we do and then walk down into the canyon where it narrows right down to the creek to where you need waterproof shoes to cross the stream ( we opted out of renting these due to our time constraint) so many beautiful rock formations...and Rae always looking, sees all kinds of erotic images in the landscape..he has a talent in this department I say...just like in Costa Rica :-)
- we meet a cool couple from Vancouver who take our photo in front of a weeping rock wall with ferns growing out of the cracks and a fish pond below...one of their children lives in California and they just travelled from there. They highly recommended that we travel the 20 mile HWY 9 going west through the park for the next 20 miles because the park was so different that way...and not to be missed! My camera battery died during the hike-crap!
- we are glad we did...drove through 2 tunnels and very interesting rock geological formations ...interesting striations in the rock layers. Stopped for a little hike through sand up one of the hills and pick wild sage ..see some cool little cactii.
- ANYWAYSSsss.
- ...we had a wonderful trip back to Vegas; Hotwire put us into a Western Style Casino called South Point which unfortunately was VERY "South" of the main drag so us tired travellers opted to hanging out at this place: eating Mexican, me gambling ...and losing by the roulette wheel table. I was fascinated by watching how the others were winning and losing and winning. I was also fascinated by all the cool looking cowboys with their black hats, boots and jeans! ...drove Rae a bit batty..he couldn't handle the cowboy scene :-)
- After an early night we drove to the airport at 5am and while Rae checked in I parked the car so we could have a relaxing good-bye! Was it tough walking away from him :-(
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