Day . . .. 10?

On the way home / Grand Canyon / Monument Valley

This will be the last “blog” on the vacation but I will have a trip report sooner or later. So many little stories.

Anyway at the moment we are in Glenwood Springs CO. Amazing Race was here once at the natural hot springs.

Yesterday we were at the Grand Canyon and I THINK we were the only English speaking people there. Mostly French and Germans it seemed.

I have a few photos (ok a lot of photos) that I have posted below. There was a rather huge fire near Kingman (we went through that town but did not cause the fire) that was making everything hazy.

One thing about the Grand Canyon. I have been told that no matter how many times I am told it is amazing I will not understand until I see it.

YUP! There is no way for a photo to capture this Wonder of the World. It is humbling. It’s surreal. My photos in no way give you the feel of this experience.

In the first photo notice the people on the upper left corner.


Again - to get SOME sort of perspective notice the people in the upper right corner.


This next photo has two things. There is the Bright angel trail that snakes out of the left bottom to a cliff. That is 4.6 miles away. And if you look very closely right to the right of the trail you will see a speck of the very large Colorado river.

DJ and I went down the trail for perhaps 1/4 mile. We saw many people coming back and they looked almost dead. Resting every 50 feet. Easy down, hard up. So many parents were letting their 6 years old's run ahead and so many were going to be in BIG trouble on the way back. Honestly, it is very dangerous. The temp drops dramatically all the way down to perhaps 20 degrees hotter.


As you can see, the trail is not THAT wide and when mules pass you must hug the walls. The mules don’t care, they just plod along looking at the butt of the mule ahead of them. They are actually special mules that come from some other country and spend 2 years in training. They actually have to teach then to be afraid of the ledge.

I'll have more photos sooner or later, but on to Sunday.

We left the Camron Trading Post which is in the middle of the desert, nothing for 50 miles in ANY direction. Great place though.

Our goal for the day was actually 100 miles back but we were feeling so good we drove an extra 100.

The main event was Monument Vally.

Monument Valley is part of the Navajo Indian Reservation. “The scene of countless western movies, the valley has come to symbolize the open spaces and rugged landscape of the American West.”

Amazing buttes. These were part of mesa’s but through time have eroded and have become buttes over 1000 ft tall.



This is from the other side.




And lastly - one of the most amazing things on this trip around the southwest are all of the things that are not talked about. You just come across them. A geology major would have a field day. There were so many times we would come crest a ridge and our breath would be taken away with strange and bizarre scenery.

I could have stopped 100 times today. Below is some arch that we stumbled across. The first shot is so you can see how big it is with the tiny people “inside” the arch. We also climbed up there and the view was breath taking.

Another odd thing was a rock formation that we saw when we crested a ridge. It was perhaps 8 miles away when we first saw it. We kept getting closer and closer and finally stopped for a photo op.

There were so many of these oddities that we did not stop for.

America is truly an amazing place that most people who fly to not appreciate. I wish we could have spent more time as each area needed a few weeks to look at. Colorado, Utah, Arizona. Magnicent.


Yea - driving this far is a pain in the butt (literally) but there are so many breath taking things you do not see from 30,000 feet. Driving America (except Nebraska) is the way to go.

Tomorrow (Monday) we are driving across Nebraska, pray for us. The odd thing about driving Nebraska is not getting tired, heck, you point the car in one direction and go straight for the rest of the day.

It’s actually boredom. You get so sick of seeing the same thing hour and hour.

O’well - Be home Tuesday.

Check back from time to time as I'll have stories and more photos. Squirrels taking matter into their own hands. A panoramic of the GC (hopefully). It just takes time to decompress and relax. Right now everything is just to fresh.


Rod and DJ - on the road.

Day 8 - Re-upping for another hitch - Sedona

Before I get into the days activities there are a few things I wanted to mention.

The first is a restaurant called Carnegies in the Mirage. They advertised over-stuffed sandwiches, not a big deal as we went their for a piece of banana cream pie. Let me be perfectly honest, they were ONE FOOT TALL. People would take photos of the Corn Beef Sandwiches. The waitress said they sell 700 pounds of corned beef a day and throw out perhaps 350 pounds that people do not eat.

OK - I’m all for promotion but isn’t that a little wasteful?

Lets talk about the bad thing next. Our hotel room at the Best (?) Western Arroyo Roble Hotel. $160 a night, “Magnificat Red Rock View”. The photo on the left is what 98% of the hotel guests had to look at when they looked out their window.

The photo on the right is what you get when you book over one month in advance. AND THEN you are told you can not switch. We got a “Magnificat Driveway View”. Now if we were told in advance that our room would be the equivalent to a room next to the boiler room on a cruise ship, OR if OTHER guests had poor views, I would be fine.

But knowing that WE are the only ones is something else. We are cutting our stay here by one day as DJ and I decided we did not want to be 2nd class guests and did not like “The Hole”.

Screw Best Western, and Corporate will be getting a Politically Correct complaint.

As for the day. It was renew our vows day and that went like clockwork. We met the Reverend at the Golf Course and she drove us to a beautiful spot with Cathedral Rock in the background and Oak Creek beside us. We said our vows which were very spiritual and all was good.

I think everyone should have to take their wedding vows every 10 years. People change. I got married 10 years ago and have never regretted it. Here is a photo of us at Oak Creek.

After that we changed back into cooler clothes and did some shopping for tee shirts, jewerly and food. Didn’t get anything real expensive.

Then we came back to The Hole and hung out during the heat of the day. It was a beautiful day for the most part - a little hot in the sun but no complaints. The people around here complain if the humidity gets neat 20%. sheesh - try 60% in Wisconsin.

About 5:00 we went for a drive looking for photo opportunities. The rocks here are so freakishly red, it feels liked we’re on Mars .







Tomorrow (today for you) we will be going to the Grand Canyon where FINALLY we will start to get some nice scenery!!

SIDE NOTE a few years later. As we left the Sedona area there were massive fires. Most of the places we viewed and where we remarried burned down.

Until then
DJ and Rod - have a great day.

Day . . who knows - they all blend together

OK Where do I begin.

Wednesday we awoke to clouds. This was not unexpected as the local News was all a buzz over a 20% chance of thunderstorms. It was the first thing they were talking about. So when we took that very first peak outside and saw heavy overcast it was not a surprise.

In fact it was ALMOST welcome. 111 degrees is fun for one day in it’s uniqueness but we have been over 95 for 5 days. One day in the low 90's is welcome.

After another great breakfast DJ and I went our separate ways. She went to see the Dolphins Habitat and the White Lions Secret Garden. I went back to O’Sheas to play craps.

Of course the Craps table did not open until 12:00. I called DJ and said I was coming back to the Mirage. As I headed to the front of the casino I saw that it was POURING out. Raining sideways. So I hung out and played Video Poker and won $20 and waited for the rain to stop.

I got a call from DJ saying she was coming over. We met and she said she had some great photos using the Nikon but it stopped working. Upon further investigation it was deemed that the flash card WITH ALL the photos had died. One day too early as I was going to switch cards THE NEXT DAY. Yea - I should have downloaded them on the computer but . . . .I NEVER had a problem before. Lesson learned.

The craps table opened up and I lost $50 before my chips even hit the tray. Cold dice and I didn’t like the guys at the table (Greasy, fat, unsmiling used car salesmen types). We stopped but, were trapped by another storm. This one was big and flooded The Strip.

One cool thing is when it did stop raining you can smell sewer gas everywhere. It stank where ever you went. I guess the sewers are not meant for downpours.

We went back to the Mirage and I found a $5 single deck BJ table. As you know single deck is GREAT. Lost $50.

We then went to the Guggenheim Museum and did a tour of Peter Paul Rubbens. Not my favorite artist but still pretty interesting.

Nothing else to do so we just went for a walk around the strip. A L O N G walk. Each block has to be a quarter mile long. By that time we’re wiped out. After a rest period it was down to Fremont Street.

I tell ya - the area between Downtown Fremont street and the Stip is WAY scary. Pawn shops, sex places, Chapels by the dozens, just not a nice place. Not dangerous but not a place I would feel comfortable walking.

Saw the sites downtown, ate the food drove back. Saw several woman going to “work”.

Then ANOTHER mistake. Left the camera in the car, no photos until we would be leaving.

Got back to the room and DJ crashed. I gave her hurting back a back rub and went down to the casino. Everything was packed with an hour waiting line for poker so I continued my search for a good Video poker machine. Even on the strip there HAS to be one full pay machine. Every casino has at least ONE. I had been looking 2 days now and I FINALLY found it.

All by itself with nobody playing it. I won $60 from that puppy.

Gambling total - DJ down $50, and I lost $10 for the three days.

Thursday was take off day and we said goodbye to the Mirage. REALLY liked the Mirage and will be going back. Oddly it was more tropical then St. John in the Virgin Islands.

We get on the road for hour 4 hour drive to Sedona.

If anybody ever wants to move to Las Vegas . . don’t. Move to Henderson nearby. Much better place. Still - I would not move to the area. It lacks the color green. Honestly, if you grow up with green grass and green trees, you will miss it. Brown, dusty, like a desert (which it is). Do you really want to live in a desert?

Went over Boulder Dam. Most people call it Hoover Dam but you will never hear anybody that worked on it call it Hoover. Nobody liked that name but, he was the President and liked the sound of Hoover. The workers HATE Hoover.

You really can not see it that well when you are driving across it. They were filming a movie in the middle so it was pretty slow going. What I found amazing is what they are building over the Dam. About 200 feet ABOVE the Dam they are building a four lane highway. You can see the partially build legs of the bridge in the upper left area.

This is going to be amazingly high above the water. Another thing to note in the photo is the high water line. You can see it in the rocks and a little on the side of the dam.

Then once we were over the dam we on the way to Sedona.

Thunderstorms with cloud to ground lightning were every where. I bet we saw 15 and the photo is of a big storm. We were next to Route 66 in Seligman when everybody was pulling off the road and taking cover at an A&W. I took this photo on the fly. I ran out of the car with tumble weeds rolling across the road with 30 mph winds. Took the photo and ran inside. It was much darker but the camera compensated.

Then we took off again and the scenery changed from rocks to pine trees. Took a right at Flagstaff and drove into the Oak Creek Canyon.

I have to say that this trip is sort of numbing us to beauty. What would have been awe inspiring 6 days ago is now . . pretty. NOT complaining but TO MUCH BEAUTY.

This photo is on top of the Canyon and you can see the road on the left as we snake down to the bottom. The road on the lower left is NOT the bottom as you travel another 10 miles going down hill.

We emerge from the Canyon into red rock land of Sedona.

I have one photo and we’re going on a jeep tour on Friday along with renewing our vows in front of the worlds #1 most professionally photographed object. Cathedral Rock.

That’s it for now. We found a laundry THANK GOD. The temp is going to be 92 so it will be somewhat cool.

More photos tomorrow.

Rod and DJ.

No blog today

Not that stuff did not happen - just don't feel like writing. Lost all the photos on the camera when the flash card went bad.

Street flooding rains thunderstorms - they sure get worked up about thunderstorms.

Lost $50 in craps in 2 seconds.

But there WERE good things. More on this tomorrow.

Thursday is get away day as we drive to Sedona,

Day 5 Las Vegas to . . The Pool

First full day in LV.

We woke up early and walked over to the Bellagio for what Rachael Ray says is the best Breakfast Buffett in Las Vegas. It’s only on the other side of Caesars Palace. To bad Caesars Palace is a MILE LONG.

No matter, it was 8:30 and only 85 so the walk was nice.

I have to admit, it was the best buffet I have ever had and DJ will back me up on that. Every bite I took was a blast of flavor, even the scrambled eggs. The tenderloin tips melted in your mouth and I honestly think it was the best steak I have ever tasted.. We stuffed ourselves for a total of $30.

Then it was pool time.

We scoped out the best place to make base camp and spent the next 4 hours in the water sucking down 32 oz Pina’ Coladas and basking in the water falls. It was 105 but who cares when your soaking wet and . . . . .feeling good.

We took the show inside for a rest period . . . .ok . . . we basically passed out for a couple hours, then we freshened up and went looking for a poker game.

The Mirage only has higher limit games during most of the day and I was looking or a $5 craps game. O’Sheas was just the place. They passed the dice to me and 15 minutes later I walked away $93 richer. A woman on the other end was raking in the money from my rolls as I was the hot roller.

We then went to the Venetian and I got onto a $3/6 Limit game. I won the first 2 hands basically stealing and then went cold for 1.5 hours. I lost one hand limping in with A8s, hit three 8's and lost to a full house.

I then lost a full house to a bigger full house and made a crying call on the river knowing i was dead. The players were pretty poor but, no cards. I lost $50 in a couple hours.

Done with poker we decided to go out to eat. Hard Rock Café or the Rio buffet. Hard Rock. BUT, we took a wrong turn and ended up pointed at the Rio. We walked in and the place we spend our ‘honeymoon” 10 years ago and it had changed, no longer had that magic, plus, the buffet was $24 a piece, screw that.

Went back to the Hard Rock and had a great meal.

Going back to the Mirage we went out to see the volcano and then walked over to the Bellagio to watch the water dancing thing. Pretty cool.

Then to the Forum Shops in Caesars and DJ was looking at a nice purse. It was $900. She didn’t buy it.

We went back to the Mirage and I lost $150 playing Casino War. . . . .JUST KIDDING.

Honestly - WAR? Whoever has the higher card wins. Here is the kicker, if there is a tie you have to place another bet to win your original bet. WHO PLAYS THAT GAME. I wonder what the vig is. Perhaps I’ll have look for online multi-table war!! JUST KIDDING.

Tomorrow - not a clue. I’m going out early to the pool with the camera and take some shots and then a little craps and BJ as the tables are lower limit in the morning.

Then - THE POOL!!! Only 97 tomorrow brrrrrrrr!

Rod and DJ out.

Day 4 - Green River to Las Vegas

We awoke early on Monday to get a early start. Breakfast was free and we sat with an older couple on their way from Denver to Salt Lake City and they told us todays drive would be very scenic.

They were right on with that one.

People who always fly to their destinations really miss out on the sheer beauty of the west. DJ said “Are you going to stop EVERY mile for 200 miles to take a photo?” Well it seemed so.

14 miles out of Green River (Green River is mentioned in a Creedence Clearwater Revival song but it actually is from a soda-pop syrup label he was looking at).

The San Rafael Swell was the first area we hit. We drove from the valley floor and all of a sudden we were in giant diagonal rock formations. Weaving our way through them for 30 miles was a rubber necking experience. The sun was perfect at this early time but all the really nice photo ops were facing INTO the sun.

I did get a few shots though.

We started to climb more and had some wonderful overlooks. This one is from Eagle Canyon. This is where Butch Cassidy, Elsa Lay, Flat Nose George, Kid Curry, Joe Walker and others hid out from lawmen in the late 1800s.

Then once we were out of that area we were in looking at a valley that you just can not capture on a camera due to it’s vastness.

When the Mormons fled to Utah they were looking for a place nobody else wanted. They found a perfect place at the foot of the Wasach Plateau and the San Rafael Swell. One woman said in 1877 “ Damn the man who would bring a woman to such a God Forsaken place”.

Be that as it may - for LOOKING at it is sheer beauty.

And on we drove. We hit the desert about noon. The temperature was climbing and hit 111. The car was doing fine until we had to climb to and we needed to use 2nd gear. All of a sudden the temp gauge started to climb AND FAST. I calmed it down and was more aware.

So - here we are in Las Vegas, it’s about 10:00 and 96 degrees. The odd thing is the last time we were in LV they had record highs, and again, record highs. Two visits in a row. Yea - excellent - record highs IN A DESERT!

After going through massive culture shock from seeing 1 car every 10 miles for 300 miles to the mass of humanity we settled down and toured the Mirage. Great pool!! We then went to a small walk across the street to the Venetian which is very nice looking but pretty stuffy with people wearing suits and being more “upper class”.

Still a nice place and we are going to the Guggenheim Museum and then a little poker. Add in some pool time at their GREAT pool and all is good.

So, it’s 10:00 and we're both beat - tomorrow we start fresh.

Official temp yesterday 111 with 4% humidity.

Day 3 - Denver to Green River UT

It’s Sunday morning and I have reformed DJ from the pile of goo that resulted in yesterdays Nebraska meltdown back into her pre-Nebraska self. All is good.

I’m sure that Nebraska has many nice spots but they certainly do not go near I-80.

We got gas at 2.77 which was the most expensive gas yet and because the pump was not working correctly the owner gave us a free $8 car wash. Then DJ went in to get a banana and she gave it to her free. DJ LOVES Denver.

Today we entered the mountains and it was amazing. I could have stopped every 10 seconds for a photo. Every single turn was another outstanding scenic.

After perhaps 20 minutes a sign appeared. “7% grade Trucks MUST use low gear - next 2 miles”. As soon as we read it we were on a roller coaster downhill. For any of you that read the Virgin Island adventure we all know how DJ reacts to a 25% downhill grade at 5 mph. Well, 7% at 65mph was pretty exciting. She kept telling me “Speed Limit is 55. Speed Limit is 55. Speed Limit is 55" as we cart wheeled down the hill at 65 and 70 with cars catching up to us.

In 2 minutes it was OVER and we both yelled “WHOO HOO!!”

Then we were both talking at once "Look at that, look at THAT, no look over there” just amazing beauty.

We started to climb, and climb. The odd thing was that there is a optical illusion. There were times when I swear we were on a downhill slop, yet I was stepping on the accelerator, HARD. Was I driving in molasses? The steep mountains all around were playing tricks on me. I continued to step on the accelerator as we passed the 11,000 foot mark and entered the 1.7 mile long Eisenhower Tunnel and went over the Continental Divide.

Then “Next 8 miles - 8% down grade”. I loved the “Runaway Truck Lanes” where every 5 miles any truck that lost it’s breaks would roll up a VERY steep hill and hopefully come to a stop.

We past Vail which is a large city that is S T R E A C H E D into a long valley and then a big surprise, Glenwood Canyon.

Glenwood Canyon has been called “one of the most scenic sections of roadway in the country” and is “one of the great engineering achievements of the U.S.” The photo is near the end of the canyon. Basically it is two 16 mile long bridges and is beautiful.

After that we started to get into the high desert area and entered Utah. I am once again amazed at what the settlers had to go through.

NEBRASKA - if they survived that place then they had a hundred miles of mountains, THEN a few hundred miles of 100 degree desert. Lovely.

We entered Utah at 100 degrees and while it was high desert (not a dessert high which is completely different) it was still very very picturesque and we were not complaining. This is from on top of a hill looking back at I70.

We ended today's journey in Green River Utah. A very plain little 1000 person town with a Best Western. We had to “Amazing Race-it” to get a room as 5 cars all hit the exit at the same time and the BW look full. We parked and jumped out almost running to the front desk to get the final room with a queen size bed.

So tomorrow we hit Las Vegas. I won $52 last night playing poker for 45 minutes in a $5/10 game and as you all know, this entire vacation is being paid from poker winnings (not unlike going to the virgin Islands).

I took all of it from one guy. He was being a bully and flaunting his bluffs, I just waited and got lucky when he slow played AA to my 63o in the big blind. He limped in (I would have folded) and the flop was 966. I came out betting as I am SURE he thought "I" was bluffing and he called. The turn was a rag and I checked like I did not have a thing and he bet, I called so I could "spring the trap the next card". The flop was garbage and I checked, he raised, I reraised he reraised and I caledl and won about $100 and felt VERY good.

BUT - this is the wrong blog for that kind of talk.

SO far, 64.431 gallons of gas 2.79 per gallon. We filled up at 2.97 tonight at the last gas station for 70 miles. The car is running great at 27 mpg

Las Vegas here we come.


Rod and DJ - off to catch some z’s.

Day 2 - Just Get Me Out of Nebraska!!

The next time someone brings up the idea to drive to Las Vegas - SHOOT HIM.

If I was a settler in the old west I would have put a bullet through my head halfway across Nebraska. My God. It’s not even desolate, it’s worse. If it was desolate I could laugh at the fantastic nothingness. But this is like booting up your computer, getting the blues screen of death and then staring at it for 12 hours.

The drive started in Des Moines with sparsely wooded fertile farmland that turned into rolling livestock range lands. And THAT was it for scenery for the next 12 hours.

727 miles in about 12 hours of boredom. DJ is laying in bed feeling sick. We were going to stop earlier but we figured that since we were already almost comatose why get that feeling AGAIN on Sunday. We drove on, and on and on. To far in fact as we lost that wonderful numbness of Nebraska (new saying “Nebraska, Land of Mind Numbing Beauty”) and it moved to hunger and in DJ’s case car sickness.

To the right is one of the more scenic parts of the State.

We did go through Council Bluffs and the best thing I can say about THAT town is I bet it looks a lot better in the dark. Council Bluffs as an interesting history in case you are interested.

We also saw the first Pony Express station which was slightly interesting.

Actually the land around Lincoln is OK - after Lincoln, not so much.

No real photos as today was another interstate day, no stopping for photo ops. We did manage to get off I80 for a little while but amazingly enough the scenery was even worse.

Well - we're in Denver now. We had the first glimpse of the Rockies from Fort Morgon, about 74 miles away and they were beautiful. Still a lot of snow on them. Tomorrow we go into the Rockies and hopefully DJ will be feeling better.

On a side note - the wild fires in Sedona are contained to 2000 acres last I heard and all in a wilderness area . . .they were set BY A GRINDER!! AAAH!! LOL

Until then

Rod and DJ - out