Red Rock Canyon, then on to Utah

On Friday we took a short drive to the west side of Vegas to see the Red Rock Canyon which provided some beautiful scenery although frankly we've seen it all before.  Think we are getting a bit jaded?  Perhaps its the Cold medications talking.  The place was kind of busy and most of the parking lots were full so we just stopped and took a few pictures, had a short lunch at one of the picnic spots and finished the scenic drive.  I think some of the hikes would have been good to go on but I'm still feeling a little under the weather so we didn't venture off of the asphalt.

We spent the weekend at the RV park reading and walking Charli.  We did manage one trip into town, stopping at a shop selling metal work and pottery.  We bought a nice wall ornament that will go somewhere in our new place.  Sunday night, since the barbecue was packed up, we went back to Vinnie's Pizzeria for supper.  We had been there for Pizza on our first night in town and the food was great so a return visit was in order.  The decor isn't much to speak of and Lori voiced her concern on our first visit that it looked like the type of place that we might end up in a bar fight.  Once inside the furniture was a bit worn but overall not too bad and my Lasagna was every bit as good as the Pizza on our first visit.  

Monday we started packing up and found that both of our neighbours were heading out as well.  As often happens when you are readying the trailer for departure people wander over and start a conversation.  I'm all for sharing stories with fellow travellers but when I'm interrupted in the midst of packing or unpacking I always have the fear that I will forget where I was at and something important will not get done.  Like leaving the TV antenna up.  Did that on our first trip a few years ago and found that they don't stand up to the wind caused by a trailer moving down the road at highway speeds.  Kaching$$.  

Red Rock Canyon

There was one large outcropping of red rocks right at the
beginning of the scenic drive

Interesting how a mountain can have such a distinct
line of coloured rock running through it.

Trails ran all through this rock outcropping.
Would have loved to have joined the hikers at the bottom of this pic. 

This is an activity I prefer to view from afar. 

   
Monday's drive to Hurricane, Ut took about 3 hours plus losing an hour to the time change from Pacific to Mountain time.  Its a very scenic drive and the road was nice and smooth.   We got into Willowwind RV park at about 2:00 and pulled into our pull-thru spot.  They have nice level paved spots with just enough clearance from the 4 willow trees on both sides of our site.   The sites are a bit narrow and it took a little maneuvering so our awning wouldn't hit the tree branches and our slide wouldn't hit the power pedestal.  While we are in the town it feels like we are in a rural setting with trees lining the streets and horses grazing in a pasture across the road.

Monday evening we had one sick puppy.  Not sure what she got into but her stomach was gurgling and she wasn't looking too chipper.   After a few up-chucks on the vinyl floor in the trailer, thankfully not on the carpet, she started to look a little better and Tuesday morning she was back to her usual self.

Tuesday we drove into Zion National Park, one of 5 National Parks in Utah that are notorious for their beauty.  Its about a 40 minute drive and the grandeur of the mountains increases as you approach the gates.  Its spring break time down here and that means family camping is in full swing.  The parking lot at the visitors centre was full and we were told at the front gate that no private vehicles are allowed to drive through the park.  They do have a shuttle system that runs during their busier seasons and it is free.  It takes you to the various points of interest plus all the trailheads and its actually a great way to manage the huge volume of tourists.  Our trip today was just to get the lay of the land and we will head back later in the week to take the shuttle and do some exploring.

Tuesday was a perfect day weather wise.  Mid 70's and no wind and only a few clouds.  Much better than the 90 degree heat we had in Boulder City.   The next 2 days are supposed to get a little cool and wet but Friday back to mostly sunshine and mid 60's which is perfect weather for hiking.

We hope to run into Mark and Jan here at the park.  They were our neighbours at Gold Canyon and they are the ones that told us about Hurricane.  Based on our initial impressions I think we may want to make this a stop in future years.

I have been looking at our route home and we may run into a bit of a weather issue.  Our departure date from here for our drive home is March 31 and right now there appears to be a system moving through the Rockies that will bring near freezing temperatures during the day with some precipitation.  The shortest routes home are through the mountain pass at Vail and then down to Denver or  a little further north through Provo, Ut.  If the weather is less than ideal we do have another longer option which is to head back south to Flagstaff, over to Albuquerque and then angle north east to Manitoba.  We want to be home before April 7 as that is the date of our walk-thru for our house.  Thats a bit early to be coming back to Manitoba as we could be pushing the weather at home too.  We will be keeping an eye on the weather forecast and probably won't make a decision till the last day.

I'll send another report once we have seen some of the sights in Zion so expect some fabulous scenery.

Till then.

New House almost ready

I haven't talked much about our new home since we left but it appears that it is nearing completion.  From what I've been told by the builder the only outstanding items are installation of the appliances, which should be taken care of in the next week, and some seasonal exterior deficiencies which will be finished as soon as the weather allows.  After repeated request for some pictures we have finally received some and I have posted them below.  I don't think the lighting in the pictures does justice to some of the colours but I think we will be pleased when we see it live on April 7th, the day scheduled for our tour and takeover of the house.  Very exciting.  Next comes furniture shopping and construction of a sun room and patio.

I will say that this hasn't always been a smooth road and frankly I expected a few bumps and turns in our journey.  Being this far away during much of the construction process has not helped and little problems that have arisen have required a lot of trust on our part that our instructions will be carried out.  

Anyways here are a few shots of a couple of the rooms.

Living-room and fireplace.  You can just see one of the 5 in-ceiling speakers.
Now the important question.  How big a TV do I hang on that wall?

Lori got her Farmers sink and the light fixtures with Edison lights.  

Kitchen is a lot smaller than our last one so more culling may be required. 

Mud room provides some additional cabinet space plus room for our W/D and a wine fridge

Ensuite. Lots of room for us to both get ready for work in the morning.
Wait a minute.  We don't have to do that anymore.  

So there it is or at least part of it.  Just enough to wet our appetites and motivate us to get home.  While we have thoroughly enjoyed our trip, despite my periodic complaints about the rain, it is time to get settled into our new place.  If nothing else the last 9 months in the trailer has confirmed that full-timing is not for us.  

DAM. Real big Dam.

On Friday we left the craziness that is coastal California behind.  For all the attractions that California has to offer it simply has too many people and traffic for us.  The wide open spaces of Az, Nv and Ut are much more to our liking.  I could feel the tension in my neck muscles relax every time the highway went from 6 to 5 and eventually down to 2 lanes of divided highway.  Still lots of traffic headed for Las Vegas but the pace was much easier to deal with.  Although some of the drivers down here are crazy, just like at home, they are very accommodating when I was trying to merge into a lane.  I also learned that its legal, at least according to our shuttle driver, for motorcycles to drive between 2 lanes of traffic to get to the front of the line.  Guess that was confirmed when I saw 2 CHIPs officers doing it to get to the front of a turning lane, and their lights weren't flashing.

Pulled into Canyon Trails RV Park in Boulder City, Nv. at about 2:30 after a 5 1/2 hour uneventful drive.   Its a nice campground with wide pull thru sites and after the all night traffic noise in Orangeland RV park the quiet here is real nice.  We are only about 35 miles from Vegas however with traffic and construction it is probably an hours drive to the strip.  More importantly for us we are only 10 minutes from Hoover Dam and Lake Mead.  Red Rock Canyon is about 1 hour away and we plan a day trip at some point in our stay.  We were also thinking of making the 3 hour drive to Death Valley but as we are both fighting colds and temps are in the 90's I think that destination will have to wait for another year.

We went to Hoover Dam on Monday and discovered it is quite the operation as far as processing people.  Since 911 the security at all infrastructure facilities has increased dramatically and given the prominence of Hoover Dam security is very prominent.  On our way in our vehicle had to pass through a security checkpoint where we just got a wave and a smile but some were being pulled over for a search.  I think they had cameras under the road to look for bombs under vehicles as one of the officers yelled "clear" as we approached.  After getting thru that line and then the line to get in the parkade, which thankfully had lots of clearance for my truck, we got in the line for the search of our bags.  Then we had to remove all metal objects from our pockets and our belts and go through a metal detector and wand search.  Not much different than getting on a plane or for that matter, the security at Disney.  Guess that is just the world we live in.

The parking was $10. plus $60 for the two of us to take the Dam tour.  There were lots of people and they had the whole process down to a science.   2 elevators, each containing about 30 people took us down about 500 feet into the bowels of the Dam.  It was quite interesting seeing the inner corridors that run through the structure as well as a closeup of the electric generators.

Here are some shots of our Dam tour and our first few days of activities.

A shot downriver from the Dam.  Took this from one of the
ventilation shafts about halfway down the Dam.   The slats were just big
enough to get my camera lens through.

Some of the different jobs and their wages during construction.
My personal favourite is Powder Monkey although I don't think I'd
take the job at any price and certainly not .70 cents per hour

In its day it was said to be one of the modern wonders of the world.
Its still pretty amazing today.  All the engineering calculations that had to be done
were done without computers or calculators and much of the work was done
under 100 degree sunshine.  

A shot down from the top of the Dam.  The 2 buildings extending out from the
bottom of the Dam each contain 7 generators sending electricity to
Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix and points in between.
The turbulence in the water between the 2 buildings is the water exiting the turbines.  

Notice how the towers at the edge of the canyon are leaning into the canyon.
Thats to prevent the transmission lines from touching the walls of the canyon and shorting out.
The Memorial Bridge in the background now handles most of the traffic. 

One of the generator rooms.

This was the ventilation shaft that I took the top picture from.  The shaft is just under 6 feet in diameter so no crawling required. 

These are 2 of the 4 intake towers where the water is taken in through underwater
tunnels to power the turbines in the generators.  The white line on the rocks is the
high-water mark of Lake Mead.  The current level of Lake Mead is about 135 feet
below this line as a result of almost 10 years of reduced snow-pac in the Rockies.   

This is the overflow spillway.  It has only been used once when in 1983 the lake
got to within 7 feet of the top of Hoover Dam.  As you can see there is no danger
 of it being used for awhile.

This is the tunnel that will take the water in the spillway past the dam and
into the Colorado River on the other side. 

Picture taken from the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.  Football fans will remember the name Pat Tillman.

Even this massive parking garage is built into the canyon walls.
Thousands of people pass through here every day with more than a
million taking the guided tours each year. 

On Wednesday we took the Historic Railroad Trail which followed the route of trains that hauled supplies to the Hoover Dam build site.  It provided some great views and the walk through the 5 tunnels kept us cool.

This is the view just down the street from our RV Park.
Not bad to get up to this every morning. 

The low cloud didn't allow for the full array of colours to show themselves in
 the picture but still pretty striking. 

The tunnels were originally supported with wooden beams and lined with boards
 to prevent rocks from falling on the trains cargo.  Time and a fire destroyed
most of the wood.  These re-creations are just at the entrance to the tunnels where
falling rock is a danger.  Much of the inside of the tunnels are sprayed with
shotcrete, kind of like stucco, to keep rocks from falling on the tourists. 

Lake Mead is the playground for the area.  The paddlewheel cruise ship is just
heading out to take some tourists for a unique view of the area. 

Pretty nice to have these views out your back door. 

Spring has definitely hit the desert and combine that with the abundance of rain
this winter the flowers are blooming everywhere.

Thats it so far for our Nevada adventures.  This cold has slowed me down a bit and when combined with the 90 degree temperatures siting in the shade of our trailer reading a book a about as adventurous as we got today.  Perhaps a trip into Vegas tomorrow or perhaps not.

I did get some pictures of the interior of our house which is now complete so perhaps I will do another short blog to share our new home with you.