drained car battery

Ooops, somehow itapos;s been a busy week what with back-at-work and pig-wrangling and the feral nature of my existence when Nick is away :)

So, highlights:
Friday (Oct 3): the wacky nature of Vegas, taking the NY,NY roller coaster, strolling through the Strip. We decided to check out each hotel lobby because once you get beyond that, itapos;s all the same nasty slots. Definitely the Bellagio and the Venetian win. We couldnapos;t stop laughing at the indoor gondola ride, and the moving walkway going up and down the Bridge of Sighs. So bizarre However, with late afternoon came the crowds, both of tourists and of the "hot girls NOW" hawkers. So, time to leave. We had dinner and Sox in Mesquite, NV, then remembered the imminent time zone change and got to our campsite in Utah just in time.

Saturday: woke up to rain and the strange smell of red desert sand. Totally gobsmacked by seeing the landscape in the light. Went to St. George to pick up the bikes, have lunch, and watch a bit of the marathon. With the rain, we decided to head up to Zion for the afternoon - spectacular even in the crappy weather We took the shuttle around, took photos, and had a cozy dinner in the lodge. It was brightening up when we returned to the campsite, only to seriously pour through the night.

Sunday: Suddenly it was sunny - wow I called an expert to see if the trails were dry enough to not be an erosion-jerk. They were, so we went to to the Church Rocks trail, which had slickrock. First we had to find the secret portal under the highway to get there. The parking was in a subdivision. It seems like everything is either subdivisions or empty land - nothing is walkable, thatapos;s for sure We went up the worldapos;s steepest bikepath, it mustapos;ve been 20 at the top (and weapos;re sure "bike paths for the kiddies" was a selling point of this subdivision). Finally found the trail. Slickrock was fun, and the scenery had us stopping frequently for photos and wow. I canapos;t say the slickrock drove me nuts with awesomeness, but it was fun. We had lunch at a restaurant during the Pats game, and then hung out and I went to the reservoir to swim - the water was still 74 degrees It was possibly the clearest water Iapos;ve ever swam in, and there were rocks to perch on all through the reservoir (it was a very new reservoir). I brought Nick down to watch the colors change at sunset - wow We had a nice dinner and a peaceful nightapos;s sleep.
Oh: and we saw ravens playing, including one doing barrel rolls in the sky. So cool

Monday: We packed up camp and did the awesome Barrel Roll trail, just a fantastic 6-8 mile loop. Lots of uphill to start, but not steep enough to be awful. Rocks for Nick on the back side, then fun fast coasting at the finish. So great We returned the bikes, did errands, and headed off for the Grand Canyon. It was a pretty desolate drive, up until the area approaching Jacob Lake, when we started to go up and up. Then, after Jacob Lake, it was mountain meadows ringed by Aspen and Pine - but with no mountains to be seen Not at all what we expected from the GC We got closer and closer to the lodge (which is at the end of a 40-mile road), then prentended to be nonchalant as we started to see the side of the road drop off into a canyon. Out of fairness, I didnapos;t look (since Nick couldnapos;t) and we pretended we were driving through Connecticut. Finally, the canyon Words cannot express. It is seriously amazing, as is the old-fashioned and relaxing lodge. We hiked to Bright Angel Point, watched the sunset, and then headed to the campsite.

That was our one bad dinner - the temp dropped to near-freezing, and with the high altitude, our stove was feeling pretty weak. So we had half-cooked pasta with cold sauce, and barely-cooked broccoli. Blaaa. During cooking, I got progressively colder and it took hours to warm up while inside the tent. Brrrr...

Tuesday: Woke up at 5:30 to get out to the canyon for sunrise. We wrapped ourselves in sleeping bags and sat on the back porch of the lodge. Wow. The North Rim has a very relaxed crowd, with only 10 of the visitors as the more accessible South Rim. Itapos;s lovely. Went back to camp for a fantastic shower and looked at the birds - they were everywhere, and very few were ones youapos;d see at home. Favorites were: Stellerapos;s Jay, Oregon Junco, Red-naped sapsucker, Mountain Chickadee, Western Bluebird, and most importantly RAVENS They were everywhere, making weird noises and inspecting campsites. We hiked the Transept Trail to the lodge and then it was Mule Time

My mule was Dagwood and Nickapos;s was Wakota? Switchbacks on a cliff from a muleapos;s back are indeed a bit dicey-feeling, but I was just loving riding again even if we werenapos;t going fast. Nickapos;s mule and one in front of him were very gassy on the walk back up, which didnapos;t fail to amuse We watched more sunset from the lodge and hiked back to camp before dark, where Nick showered and I got progressively colder while waiting for our dinner reservation.

Ooop - more later
drained car battery, drained capers, drained boils, drained battery.