Greetings from Ogden and the Presidential Suite, UT

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August 5th 2008

Published: August 5th 2008

I am sure some of you have been waiting with baited breathe to find out what has happened over the past few days, thank you for your patience.

We have been doing great in our new RV. What a difference shocks can make on driving in windy areas and having breaks has been an extra special treat. There were some added bonuses as well: I have a closet door now so all of my stuff doesn’t fly out when we round corners (we call those noises our golf clubs), the air conditioner doesn’t freeze up and the sink does not leak all over our precious kitchen floor. Things are definitely smoother in our new ride.

Since we last wrote we have let nothing stop us: forest fires, bears, salt flats and much more.

Our first stop after wine country was Yosemite. We got on-line and checked the National Park Service website for information regarding the fires and discovered that they were still burning but fire fighters were getting them under control and visibility seemed good. The media sure spun the story because the fire was NOT in the park but more people would know Yosemite than the small towns affected by the fire. The local papers expressed the local concern. We could not get a campsite in the park so we stayed about 20 miles from the park entrance (it was another 24 miles to the valley…on curvy, steep banked roads…you can imagine how thrilled Chris was) and traveled into the valley the first day. People were a little nervous because you could smell the smoke in the air but the valley was crowded as ever and I found it rewarding to visit a place I find majestic. I had hiked half dome 12 years ago and did a 5 day backpacking trip in the backcountry so I found myself reliving the beautiful scenery. It should be noted that the valley had been without power since Saturday and it was now Wednesday. As we told the kids it could be worse…since we had showers at Yosemite Pines and electricity. This would be the first night that everyone had dinner out of a box (Shannon, you would be SO disappointed): the fare consisted of Mozz sticks, Bagel Bites, and vegetarian meatloaf. I have to say that it was the worst night I had sleeping thus far, I dreamt all night, including a dream about being a pitcher for the Sox. It was a gender discriminatory experience but I was replacing Josh Beckett…high profile. We did have a fox travel thru our site and we had a great view of some Yurts that firefighters were using. The next day (Friday) we were supposed to stay at the same campground (we even paid) but as we were driving Chris and I decided that it didn’t make a lot of sense to keep driving back and forth so after hiking into a Sequoia Grove we traveled along scenic Tioga Pass and through the park to the eastern entrance at Mono Lake. It is such a beautiful drive and has some spectacular views. We stopped for a while at Olmsted Pass to break the news to Nick that he wouldn’t have a pool that night (you definitely don’t want to be part of these disappointing moments…Nick handled this one stoically) and explained the reasons for our change in plans.

We stayed the night at an RV park looking at Mono Lake, CA and ate at a good BBQ place (Bodie Mike’s) while the Sox played the A’s. We didn’t know at the time that Manny had left Boston because we were not sitting close enough to the TV….Upon waking and eating breakfast we headed north to Lake Tahoe. Note that it is Saturday and we have no reservations. We did this the week before and ended up sleeping on the side of the road We stopped just south of Carson City to get groceries and Chris was pleasantly surprised to find slot machines in the store. During this same stop we found out that Manny was now with the Dodgers and had to lift Nick’s spirits for the next hour or so. We arrived in South Lake Tahoe around 2pm in the afternoon and stopped at the only campground listed in our handy Woodall’s book to find that the people in front of Chris had taken the last room in the inn and that there was no other availability. An on-going theme seems to be not eating and driving through lunch, etc. You can imagine that this might not be great on my mood and state of mind as we hit the road looking for some other place to rest our heads. We traveled just a couple of miles and saw a sign for Nevada Beach state park and decided to wing it. As we drove up the Campground FULL sign seemed to be staring us in the face and we started to contemplate our next move. As we sat there the guy in the golf cart came up to the RV and inquired as to our needs and to our surprise he said that he thought they had a site (Did I mention that Devin bought a lucky Buddha in San Francisco that sits on our dash board and gets rubbed daily?) and he said to follow him. You could feel the excitement in the RV. We had a place to stay!!!!! He came to the site and there were 2 tents still set up. Where there are tents there are sure to be people so he said that site wouldn’t work (we were not as excited anymore) but he continued on and eventually came to a site at the end of the park with a lake VIEW! It was called a premier spot so we jumped on it. The lake was so blue and beautiful; it has been our best site to date. We changed and went swimming for the next few hours in a chilly, wavy lake (a windy day) and then headed back to the site around 6 pm. At this point Nick and Chris took off for the local grocery to get some ice (martini night) and other food since we did not have hook ups for electricity. Nick and Chris discovered the most amazing grocery store, it had; food, slots and a Starbucks. I thought Chris might stay in South Tahoe just for this treasure that he found. We ate, talked about the bear box at our site (had to alleviate some worries), drank and enjoyed the environment. We then went to the beach for sunset and packed it in for the night.

Sunday morning I had a nice relaxing morning reading at the waters edge. I should have been writing postcards since I have been poor at doing that but I couldn’t help but take in the feel of the sand, smell of the air and the activities taking place on the water (water skiing, para-sailing, etc). Once everyone was up and about we headed for Elko, NV. Have any of you driven Interstate 80 or visited Elko? Well Elko was large compared to other towns we went through on Sunday but it was somewhat limited. We stayed at Double Dice Campground (yes, they have a slot lounge…I did not step in to the smoky lounge but Chris did take a peek) and ate at the Red Lion Casino buffet. Trust me when I say we looked around town. There was not a lot available…

I think we all had our worst night sleeping on Sunday night. There was a lot of tossing and turning and tired eyes this morning. The trains did keep coming through and may have played a role in our insomnia, who knows. Today we traveled to Salt Lake City along the same Interstate 80. It was a very straight road with little to see…entering Utah was exciting. We stopped at the first exit to use the restrooms and saw the cars covered with salt from the salt flats. We thought about visiting the Bonneville Track but decided to keep going. I did get to share the restroom with some ladies that frequent truck stops (the stiletto heels were only a fraction of the tip off) and I should say that we have seen a lot of Hell’s Angels out and about in our travels lately. Hmmm….where are we?

We stopped in Salt Lake City to see the Mormon Temple, etc. It was 10s 104 degrees here today. We then decided that we would stay in a hotel tonight because tomorrow we are headed to the Grand Tetons and then Yellowstone and as the kids say we haven’t stayed in a hotel for a LONG time, WEEKS!!! So we are shacked up in a Presidential Suite at Comfort Suites. Don’t get too excited we didn’t win at the slots we just needed a little comfort for a night. We thought we might take a dip in Salt Lake but that seems to be frowned upon and pretty difficult to do, oh well. Tomorrow we will stop at some Lave Hot Springs in Idaho to loosen up those stiff shoulders that come with gripping the steering wheel.

Hope all is well…..

Greetings from Ogden and the Presidential Suite, UT

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