Done with the Desert

I am so over the desert. We are at Lake Mead where I mistakenly believed we'd get some relief (seeing Hoover Dam was cool), but even the water in the hookup is hot. We are leaving in the am for Yosemite and we are all so happy about that! I am sorry for everyone at home stuck in the heat with no electricity. That's worse than the desert in an RV.

The Road to Zion

We kicked off the Zion experience with a trip to the Visitor Center so i could stamp my National Parks Passport and get the Zion viewmaster slide pack (I've started a collection!) and then tubing in the Virgin river. There's river access right from the RV park so we had easy on/off. The Narrows hike on day 2 was the best hike ever!! That was both one of the most tiring and most thrilling day trips I've ever had. It was a fantastic way to beat the Utah heat and was an incredible experience for the kids. Dov was a trooper and actually scared the crap out of me by climbing out onto a high rock and jumping off into a pool. WTH?? He and Doron enjoyed the deep pools where they had to swim. I must say, I did not mind being in the water at all and the scenery was absolutely stunning.  Unfortunately, the neoprene socks we wore ended up squishing Doron and my toes, so we were in a lot of pain by the end of the 7 mile hike and the toenail I had almost lost when running is almost off again. Yuck. But it was worth it! As the runner's bumper sticker says: Toenails are for pussys!  If you ever get the chance to do this hike, do it.

The Wild West

Driving from Bryce is the ultimate wild west landscape Doron has decided he wants to live out west! He wants a ranch and horses. I must admit the views on this drive makes it super appealing.

Bryce is so Nice

Bryce canyon is absolutely amazing and beautiful and best of all, the weather is not immediately death-inducing.  We had a really great hike into the canyon with a wicked climb out on a "moderate" rating trail.  I can't imagine what it would take to get a "strenuous" rating!  Dov climbed like a champ though.  Stunning scenery and really nice people at the RV park (lots of Germans here - don't know why) have made this an especially enjoyable part of the trip (laundry duty notwithstanding).  We even got to take a horseback ride in once of the same Red Canyon trails that Butch Cassidy used during his escapades.  It was Dov's first time on a horse and while he enjoyed the ride, and the guide calling him Cowboy, his tush really started to hurt this evening and he is now dead set against ever getting on a horse again.  Doron, on the other hand, had a fantastic time and is no worse for wear.  He wishes he could ride more regularly. For my part, my butt is only mildly sore. :)

Sedona Vortices

I now know for sure that the desert in summer and I don't mix.  Maybe I felt the wrong vortex.  I loved Sedona, it was really beautiful:  the colors, the shopping, the scenery, but I would like to go back sometime when I don't feel like I'm actually going to die after 10 minutes outside.  I'm thinking fall spa weekend!  I could do some serious shopping damage there.  I had the smallest fish tacos I've ever seen for lunch and Doron got to try cactus, which was pretty exciting.  He is kind of obsessed with cacti now and wants to raise prickly pear cactus at home.  Huh.

It's not a Bland Canyon

Steve is in Albuquerque for work this week so he came out on Friday to join us at the Grand Canyon. We started out with a wild west show and took the canyon line train from Williams AZ to the park. The train ride was relaxing and the characters from the show roamed the train as well. Dov got a huge kick out of that - got his picture taken with the Marshall and everything! Boy was it hot!! We went on a hike down one of the trails to the bottom but Dov got scared (I just kept my eyes on the trail lol) so we didn't go as far as we would have liked. We saw a really cool set of Hopi dancers doing the Hoop Dance too. I got a mild case of heat stroke so the beginning of he train ride back wasn't as fun as I'd hoped but it ended on a high note. The "bandits" from the morning's show rode up to the train with masks, got on, and "robbed" us! Pretty cool.

Is there anybody out there?

Visited the funky town of Roswell New Mexico. I do find the Roswell crash history at the International UFO Museum interesting, especially the latest site "dig" that produced copious quantities of bagged and tagged material that shed no light on the area's history. Hmmmm. The most interesting part of the museum visit, however, is not the model saucer taking off or the video about crop circles, it was listening to the crazy stuff being said by other visitors. Hilarious but a sad commentary on the state of science education in this country.

To the Bat Cave

Had a fantastic time in Carlsbad NM. Started out at the Desert Life Zoo which had a more interesting flora and fauna collection than rescue animals. I do not handle the energy sapping desert environment as well as the kids do though. I'd be the one getting heat stroke in about 5 min if stranded out there. There are also some terrifying huge hornets in the desert. We then went to the Carlsbad caverns and spent almost 5 hrs exploring the ca ea. it is really amazing down there and descending via the 1.5 mi path in from the natural entrance was so cool! At the end of the day I had one of the most incredible experiences in my life when we watched in silence at sunset as hundreds of thousands of bats exited the cave in a silent whirlwind. Absolutely amazing.

Breaking Bad

I was slightly tempted to drive off into the New Mexico desert and doing some "cooking" but I neglected to bring my orange jumpsuit. It was really cool to drive from the west Texas plains to the desert today and I liked seeing all of the oil derricks. Dov said he'd like to live in one of the small towns we drove through on US 180, as long as he could bring his friends lol.

Jurassic Park Mosquitos

I did not believe it possible, but the Mosquitos here in Texas are even worse than in Tennessee. They are the size of small birds but are stealthy. I am covered in bites. :(

Mounds

Today was a driving day.  Drove the length of Arkansas and halfway across Texas.  Staying at a KOA outside of Dallas tonight.  Along the way we stopped to see the Toltec Mounds - at the Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park.  Unfortunately the park is closed on Mondays so we couldn't go in and see the artifacts.  We had to make due with just seeing the mounds themselves.  There are 3 now but there were once 18 of them.

Walking in Memphis

Let me just begin by saying that the mosquitos in Tennessee are vicious!  They attack en mass with no regard for insect repellent.  I saw one of them beckon me with a tiny fist and swear I heard it say "bring it!".  Scary.  Memphis is not exactly a behive of activity on Sundays since much of the city is closed, but we were able to take a trolley ride, walk around downtown, and enjoy some live blues.  Next it was off to Graceland, somewhere I've always wanted to go!  It's incredible how lavish it all was at the time and how many people still visit.  Doron doesn't care much for Elvis' music but Dov does, and I enjoyed seeing his reaction to it and knowing elvis lives on for future generations.

Riverside Trolley

Me with the King

Coal Miner's Daughter

Drive the length of Tennessee today. It looks like much of the low mountains of the east coast, though with thicker foliage, until you get close to Memphis and begin to see the flat Mississippi river delta. Passed by Loretta Lynn's Dude Ranch. Aren't they remaking Coal Miner's Daughter? I have decided I do not enjoy the drives when they get past 7 hrs. Damn construction! Quite a sunset view as we approached downtown Memphis! Walking tour in store for tomorrow.

Hello Dollywood!

All I can say is that today was FAR superior to yesterday.  Of course that could be because I was not in heavy traffic for almost 11 hrs.  Instead we had a great time at the Dollywood theme park!  People here are super friendly and the park is the cleanest I've ever been to (I admit I've never been to Disney).  Dov rode a rollercoaster for the first time ever, and while there were tears at first, once the ride got going he had fun.   I rode all the coasters as well.  This picture is classic so I thought it was worth the exorbitant fee.  Apart from almost tossing my cookies after the wing coaster, I survived, though I'm still not entirely sure I trust the wooden ones - they just can't be safe.  :)  

Day 1 - 6/14/12

Today we began our trip! First stop - Dollywood. It was supposed to be a 7.5 hr drive. We left late (I know, shocker) but were not too bad off until we actually tried to leave the DC area. Why does rush hour start in the early afternoon here?? Then hit construction off and on the whole way. Ugh! Almost 11 hrs later we finally arrived at our campsite. Of course Dov and Doron were wide awake having napped during the drive but I forced them both to bed. On the plus side, the RV handled great!