Chilly and Rainy

When we drove by a sign on Wyoming's I-80 stating "Continental Divide: 7,000 feet," Jim said "No wonder it's so freaking cold."  Why it's so cold everywhere else in Wyoming and Nebraska, I guess it's just a cool spring. In fact, on the TV news in Lincoln, Nebraska last night, the weatherman said it has not been this cold in parts of Nebraska for 100 years.

As for our journey: After our first night at the Rocks Springs KOA, we drove to Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, where we stayed a couple of years ago. The military RV camp there is treesy and charming, if a little messy. The base itself is pretty, with huge red-brick-Civil-War-era-looking buildings.  As we're on a roll to get east, we stayed in Cheyenne just one night.

Our third night we stopped at a private and also tree-filled campground with very level sites just off I-80 in North Platte, Nebraska. We didn't even unhook our tow car, so I can't tell you much about North Platte, except the nearby Platte River is encroaching on homes and a golf course.

After a night in North Platte, we headed east again to Lincoln, NE, where my brother Don and his wife, Trudy, have lived for many years. We had a nice evening at Don and Trudy's home last night and will see them again tonight. 

Driving in and out of a rainstorm near Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The road that leads to the Warren Air Force Base RV Camp in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  Apparently it's been raining a lot. A well-marked detour got us to the camp.  

What we did on our Salt Lake City "vacation"

We have a house in Salt Lake City and stop there about three times a year -- usually in the spring (grandson's birthday), fall (granddaughter's birthday) and Christmas. Our daughter, SIL, and the aforementioned grandchildren live in the house while we are on our grand RV tour, and we are there all together the few weeks every year Jim and I are home. We're about to start Year Number Five of doing this, and it's worked out well.

As of early yesterday afternoon, however, we are back on the road. The plan is to barrel east though tornado alley to see Bev's mom in Ohio.

While in Utah we spent time with friends and family, got two cars and the RV checked over, sorted through the various detritus that collects in the RV while on the road, made trips to the doctor and dentist, and took Cooper to the vet. At age 16 Coop got a clean bill of health minus some achy joints. We checked out about the same.

Anyway, we left Salt Lake about noon yesterday, got on I-80 eastbound, and spent last night at a KOA in Rock Springs. We've stayed at a couple of nice KOAs in years past (Bear Lake, Utah and Montpelier, ID), but KOAs are not usually high on our list of campgrounds.  There's usually not much ambiance. The Rock Springs KOA, for example, is a big gravel parking lot; after a night of rain it was a big, muddy, gravel parking lot. But the staff was nice, it's right off I-80, and for one night when you are not planning to sight-see, it really doesn't matter.

I always wonder what the grand kids will grow up to be interested in.  Five-year-old Mia seems to like photography (or maybe she just likes using the camera Grandma wants to use) and took this photo of me at a park.  I liked it so much I used it as my Facebook profile picture. That's a glimpse of my daughter Ashley, behind me.

Five-year-old photographer Mia, who had her tonsils out while we were home.  Can't say enough good things about Primary Children's Hospital, where two of the nurses wore Wonder Woman outfits instead of scrubs.

Three-year-old Marshall will climb anything. He also rescues horses from the mud (he says).

Mia walking to the entrance of the new, beautiful Museum of Natural History near the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.  Like her Grandpa, sometimes she just doesn't want to face a camera.

Brunch at Wasatch Brewing with Salt Lake friends John, Deb, Thelxi and Steve.

Home in Salt Lake for a few weeks

We are now at our house near Salt Lake City for a few weeks. We got here Friday, after leaving Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and then spending one night in Fillmore, Utah. Fillmore was the first capital of Utah. It has great little RV park called the Wagons West. If you are on I-15 in Utah and need a spot for an RV, it's a tidy park that only cost $18 with our Passport America membership.

While in Utah we'll see friends and family, and take care of the "stuff" we always do while home -- doctor appointments, vehicle repairs and maintenance (like replacing the rig valance that a coyote, may he rest in peace, collided with last fall) and other chores.

We're experiencing a big spring snowstorm today, but it's supposed to be sunny by the weekend. The wind that blew in the storm yesterday picked up our grand kids' plastic swimming pool and sailed it a couple hundred yards down our street. It was really windy. And today is very snowy.

How the view from our front yard looked Friday while we were unloading the rig. You can see some tulips near the bottom of the photo but it looks like deer got the vast majority of them. I usually have several hundred tulips blooming. Not this year.

The view from our front yard today, except that I took this photo this morning and now the snow is even deeper.  I also stood back a bit so the photo shows how much snow piled on our planters.

Unfortunately we had not yet unloaded our kayaks.

Staying out of the wind in Page, Arizona

It was windy, windy, windy all day last Wednesday, which was our last day in Page, AZ.  So we did a little sightseeing/picture taking, drove around Page, got some groceries, and Jim stocked up on beer since we're headed to Utah and Jim is not enamored of my adopted state's alcoholic beverage offerings. 

No kayaking, unfortunately, even though we can see beautiful Lake Powell from our campsite.  It was just too breezy.  Hopefully next time.

Our campsite at the Wahweap Campground at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.  We've got a great view of lake Lake Powell.  When we got to our camp site early Monday afternoon there was hardly anyone in our section and our entire row was empty.  By the end of the day our section was full.  It's expensive here -- we paid $44 a day -- but OK for a short stay.

Glen Canyon Dam was completed across the Colorado River in 1964 and created Lake Powell by flooding the red/brown/beige/pink rocks of Glen Canyon. The lake is named for explore John Wesley Powell, who took an expedition down the Colorado River in 1869.

Bev on the swirly red rocks not far from a view of Glen Canyon Dam.  Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is comprised of 1.25 million acres set aside by the National Park Service in 1972.  

Jim did not go quite as close to the edge as it looks. The Colorado River is directly below him.

Glen Canyon is known for its dramatic rock formation. When John Wesley Powell explored the area in 1869 he called it "A curious ensemble of wonderful features." 

Cooper is 15  and doesn't hike with us anymore, but he did manage a stroll on Lone Rock Beach. That's the beach's namesake rock behind Coop.

Antelope Canyon: You can't take a bad photo

We left Prescott, Arizona, Monday amid "Red Flag" wind warnings. As usual, the wind was to get worse (gusts of up to 45 miles an hour) as the day wore on. So we quickly got on the road and headed to our next stop: Lake Powell on the Arizona/Utah border. The wind "shoved" the side of our rig a few times as we drove, but the worst gusts didn't hit until afternoon. By then we were at our campsite at Wahweap Campground at Glen Canyon Recreation Area.

That night we went to a restaurant at the Lake Powell Resort where we watched Wisconsin play Duke in the NCAA finals. It was a very pro-Wisconsin crowd, including us. Guess we didn't cheer loud enough. 

But here is what this post is really about: Our Tuesday morning tour of Upper Antelope Slot Canyon on the Navajo Nation just south of Page, Arizona. 

We were part of a crowd that drove to a parking lot on the Navajo Nation, bought tickets, were put in groups of 14, assigned a tour guide, and climbed into pickup-truck-type vehicles with bench seats in the beds and tarps on top. Our guide was a Navajo named Lance, who said his grandmother owned the land we were about to tour. 

Slot canyons are created when water rushes through rock and wears part of it away. More water, plus wind, sand, and time help complete the job -- which is really never finished as erosion always continues. The day we were there, sand flew through the canyon several times. 

It was definitely not a private tour -- people filed in an out a canyon so narrow that sometimes you'd have to step into a groove so people could pass by. And it wasn't cheap -- tickets were $40 each, plus $8 per person for parking. But it was simply gorgeous. 

I usually put captions under my photos, but after the first few pictures below, words are not necessary. In all of the captionless photos, I aimed my camera toward the top of the rocks.  The colors, the shifting patterns caused by light breaking through from above, and the erosion-caused swirls and grooves were amazing.

Our Navajo tour guide Lance giving us instructions before he took us on a bumpy ride to the canyon. Hang on tight during the bumpy 3.5 mile ride, he said, and then be kind to the land when you get there.

People entering the slot canyon. Lance said a thousand people a day take the tour. Including the ride to and from, the tour took an hour and a half.

Tour guide Lance took this photo of Jim and me. Despite how it looks, there were dozens of people all around us. 

Our tour started at 10 a.m.  At 11 there was a special (and more expensive) photography tour and these folks were obviously part of it. Shortly after 11 a.m. is when beams of sunlight start to hit the canyon floor to beautiful effect.