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!

Mesa Temple
Orange tree
Arizona ditch and head gate into hay field.

Searching for Sunshine Part II

Monday, February 2nd we headed for Las Vegas. Along the way we passed some big Saguaro cactus and went through the Joshua Tree Forest. It didn't look like any forest I've ever seen and I was never really sure what a Joshua tree was now I know.

(Note the very blue sky and lack of snow!!! This is definitely not Idaho!)
Monday evening we got into Las Vegas. The traffic on the strip made me very nervous. We were probably rubber necking looking at everything and the taxi drivers kept honking and there was so much traffic. I was ready to go home then. After looking at the hotels, Roger decided on Mandalay Bay. He was tired of driving up and down the crazy strip and the price was fair. I couldn't believe how swanky everything in Vegas is and how large! I bet we walked a half a mile from the parking garage on one side of our hotel to the elevators then to our room on 34th floor on the other side of the hotel. I was tired before we ever decided to walk down the strip.
Our Hotel
View from our hotel room on the 34th floor. All their pools or as they called it "The Beach". They have a large wave pool, a lazy river and a few other pools with real sand around them but only one of the outdoor pools was opened. The rest open at the end of February.
The casino at our hotel
Here Roger is standing in front of the pond across from the Bellagio Hotel & Casino while we were waiting to see the dancing waters. That was neat to see.
Dancing waters.
Las Vegas' Eiffel Tower replica
Gondola Ride at the Venetian. This canal was inside with little shops lining the water. Pirate Show at Treasure Island
When we started walking down the strip headed for the Treasure Island Pirate show we didn't realize how far it was. Over two and a half miles and several hours later of looking around we were tired. We found a seafood buffet that Roger wanted to try out and ate and rested for awhile then we headed back for the hotel. It was still quite a ways away and our feet were sore and we were really tired. After a block or so Roger said he'd had had it and waved down a taxi. It was the best ten dollars we spent in Vegas. The taxi driver told us it was really slow for February, not many people. We thought there were a lot of people! I'd hate to be there when it was busy.

Tuesday Morning we headed back to St. George. On our way out of Vegas we stop at a restaurant for breakfast. There were a group of motorcycle cops there having breakfast. They had parked in formation. We parked next to them. I had to take a picture because it looked so neat. Our little green Camry was parked safely next to them.
We arrived in St. George in the afternoon. Our friends, Mark and Paula Boam had invited us to spend a couple of days with them at their time share. I didn't take any pictures but there were two pools and the condos themselves were very nice. We spent three days there with them hanging out, visiting, shopping and seeing the sites of St. George. Basically, just having a great time. The weather was perfect...mostly 65-70. Roger was able to go golfing every day. Paula and I joined Roger and Mark on the course one day. I had never golfed before but I really enjoyed it. They didn't seem to mind I was really bad and didn't know the rules and the golf carts were really fun. The golf course was beautiful and had a lot of hills we drove up and down on. That was a great day in the sun! Ah ha! We had found the elusive sunshine!

Its a good thing it was raining the next morning when we headed home or it wouldn't have been so easy to leave. We came home through Zions National Park. I had never gone that way before. It was beautiful The rocks and mountains in that area are so unique.
We didn't hurry to fast to get home. One the way home we stopped and looked around Cabela's for Roger and Hobby Lobby for me. We got home about 9 p.m Friday February 6th. Roger says I went into convulsions when we turned off the freeway at Osgood and saw all the snow again. It was more like a strong shiver and sigh. Hopefully our trip will carry me through until Spring.
Oh, and Roger proved us all wrong. We were gone nine days and he enjoyed every minute of it