Roger & Ann Clark Family: In Search of Sunshine!

One of the benefits of having grown children who can feed the cattle is that Roger and I finally got to take a long road trip. Knowing the cattle and Rachel were in good hands we set off in search of sunshine. Sunshine has been very absent here lately. This is what it looked like out our side door the day we left on January 29th.

We left with no plans of where we were going or staying other than we were headed for Phoenix whenever we got there and for ever how long Roger felt like staying. I told him I was just along for the ride. The kids were taking bets on how long Roger could stay away. Personally, I didn't think he would last a week.

We drove to Cedar City, Utah before we ever got out of the snow. I thought we would never find sun. We spent the first night in St. George. It was fun to get up and not see snow and yes the sun was shining! I threw my winter coat in the trunk and never wore it the rest of the trip.

The next day we drove past Las Vegas and went and played tourists at Hoover Dam. It was nice to be able to walk around without a jacket in the sun. The dam itself is awesome.

The last two pictures are of the Colorado River Bridge. They are constructing a 1,060 foot twin-rib concrete arch. Construction on the nearly 2,000 foot long bridge began in January 2005 and the completion of the entire Hoover Dam Bypass Project is expected in June 2010. When completed, the bridge will span the Black Canyon (about 1,600 feet south of the Hoover Dam), connecting the Arizona and Nevada Approach highways nearly 900-feet above the Colorado River. This is so they can get the traffic off the dam for security reasons. The road over the dam is the main road. There is so much traffic besides the tourists on the dam. It will be neat to see it finished.

We made it to Phoenix that night. We checked out the town and surrounding areas over the next few days. We walked around Old Town Scottsdale which is a lot like Jackson Hole, Wyoming; drove out and found a few dairy farms on the outskirts; checked out the Peterbilt dealer (this is how farmers vacation)even stopped and walked through a swap meet and went by the Mesa Temple. I really liked the orange and grapefruit trees all over the area. I had always wondered what people went south for and where they stayed. We saw a trailer resort in Mesa and they were having an open house on some of their trailers so we went to take a look. Some trailers were pretty fancy and some were plain. One gentleman saw us looking around and gave us an unofficial tour of the trailer park and the rec center. He was so nice. It was amazing what there was available to do there. I don't know if that is what I would like to do every winter but it was fun to see how people live. Super bowl Sunday was also our 29th wedding anniversary. That night we stayed at a hotel in Mesa, had dinner and watched the Superbowl. It was a nice anniversary. The three days we were in Arizona the temperature was 65 to 79. It was perfect!