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Sun - May 08, 2011
Happy Mother's Day, first to our own mothers, then to the newest mother in our family, Amanda and then to all of our family and friend mom's who we are blessed to have in our lives!!!
We started our Mom's Day by attending the United Methodist Church in Page. I received a carnation and some hand lotion as a gift for being a mom.
After church we spent a couple hours reading our books and working on the blog. After the last few exciting days we have had, we felt we needed some time of not seeing or doing anything much. But.... at about 2:00pm we jumped on the bike to check out the Glen Canyon Dam that is near Page on the Colorado River. The Glen Canyon Dam is just 16 feet shorter than the Hoover Dam near Las Vegas, so it's a BIG one. We were going to take the tour, but when we got there we were told the tours were cancelled because of the high winds. Yes the winds were crazy!! Just the quick 5 minute ride to the Dam was intense on the bike. I couldn't even keep my eyes open
in the wind and at one point Rene's buttons came undone on his shirt. I laughed out loud!!!! He was slightly embarassed to be riding down the road with his shirt wide open. He felt kinda like a redneck I think. We walked around inside and out of the Vistor'Center and then to an even windier overlook.
Then it was time for dinner. Now for several of years I have had a family tradition on Mother's Day. I buy a KFC meal,(Kentucky Fried Chicken) have all the kids over and have my first picnic of the year. If it's nice out we sit outside, if it's not nice weather I still get out the picnic basket and blanket and make everyone sit on the floor with me. One of the things I love the most during the summer is having picnics. When Scott was playing baseball we had many, many picnics inbetween his ball games. Anyway, no kids for the annual Mother's day picnic and KFC was shut down in Page, so Rene and I decided to go out for a steak dinner. We have not had a steak dinner in many months and were both starting to dream of
Monument Valley
Sand blowing all overeating a big juicy steak. Bashful Bob recommended this great little steak house so off we went.
Both of us had a great steak with all the traditional sides and were more than satisfied. I guess we will have our KFC picnic when we get home. I can have it then with all the kids sitting on the picnic blanket with me. More fun that way. And I can have an excuse to have 2 Mother's Days!!! Brilliant I think!!!
After dinner we came back to our room and watched TV for the rest of the evening.
Mon-May 09, 2011
Well I guess that was our last night at Bashful Bob's Motel. It was a cozy little room for a couple of nights and Page was a great place to visit. We packed our gear and headed towards Monument Valley. The wind didn't seem to be blowing nearly as hard when we left town, but after going a couple of miles, we realized how windy and therefore how COLD it was. We stopped on the side of the road and put some more clothes on. The wind continued to pick up as we motored down the road. We drove
Monument Valley
One of these statues look real!!!! through the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservation. Monument Valley on the Navajo Reservation was another amazing attraction. This great valley has sandstone masterpieces that tower at heights of 400 to 1,000 feet. Huge red sandstone pinnacles. Other than these huge pinnacles there is not many houses or anything but hills and SAND!! The sand was blowing everywhere. We drove through the sand just about all day and when we finally stopped in Blanding Utah we had sand everywhere!! Yes, I mean everywhere. Our shower water looked like someone threw mud in the water with us. It felt so good to be clean again.
Tues- May 10, 2011
We woke up early and off we went towards Glen Canyon. We rode through the Canyon just about all day and marveled at all the beautiful vistas and deep valley's. As we neared the end of the day the weather colder and colder and pretty soon we saw snow!!! We rode in sleet for about an hour before we found our next destination, Bicknell Utah. We stopped about 4:00 pm in Bicknell and by the time we stopped we had snow, real snow on the windshield. Rene wasn't able to look through
Monument Valley
So incredible!! the windshield, rather he had to look over it. We arrived in Bicknell, happy to have a warm place to stay. We went for dinner at the Sunset Motel where we were staying and had a light dinner, because one of the resturant's specialities was the desert which was a sample of 4 of their homemade pies. They had pickle pie, buttermilk pie, oatmeal pie and pinto bean pie. We of course had to try it!! They were all quite tasty. The pickle pie tasted like pumpkin pie, with a hint of dill pickle, (not real great, but not horrible) the buttermilk pie tasted like lemon pie,(yummy) the oatmeal pie tasted like oatmeal cookies (really yummy) and the pinto bean pie, certainly tasted like beans with sugar and coconut. (very different and really really yummy). After our interesting dinner we sat in our room and watched as the snow continued to fall frojm the sky. It went from sleet to big fluffy snowflakes. Really quite beautiful The temperature was not cold enough so thank goodness it didn't stay.
Wed - May 11, 2011
The day started out cold. We each had several layers on. OK, 3 layers on the
bottom (long johns, jeans and chaps) and 5 layers on the top. (t-shirt, 2 pairs of long sleeves, fleece jacket and our leather coats). Yes it really was that cold. Shortly after we left Bicknell we headed up into the Dixie National Forest and up. up. up we went. Although it didn't snow, there was still snow on the road from the night before. When we hit the summit at 9293 feet, there was not just snow on the road, but there were 6 foot snow packs on the side of the road. SOOO COLD!!! As we desended down the pass, the weather improved greatly. We stopped in the morning at Bryce Canyon. Again, how incredible. This canyon was much different from the ones we had been through yet. Despite its name, Bryce Canyon is not really a canyon but a giant natural amphitheater created by erosion along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Bryce is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos, formed by wind, water, and ice erosion. The red, orange, and white colors of the rocks provide spectacular views. We rode up to the park gate and the attendant was so impressed we were there on
Monument Valley
Looking back on the valley our motorcycle. He said something about having big b&%#'s. I laughed and thought "I got none of them, I think they froze and fell off back at the last pass at 9293 ft. (hee, hee) He waived the $24.00 fee and told us to go enjoy the canyon. We stayed for only about 1.5 hours because it was still cold and windy. After Bryce Canyon we headed to Zion National Park. Yet another deep and narrow gorge canyon we got to drive down into and look up at the beauty. Zion National Park is at some points about 3000 ft deep.
We left the Park and it steadily got warmer and warmer and when we finally stopped at St. George Utah, it turned out to be a warm, pleasant evening.
Thurs - May 12, 2011
We woke up to a HOT!! morning. The temperature in St. George by 10:00 am was about 80 degrees. Rene had called the Kawasaki dealer in the city earlier in the week and made an appointment to get the back tire on the bike changed. He left at 9:00 am and while he was gone I watched some TV and had a lazy morning.
Mexican Hat, Utah
I wonder why it's called Mexican Hat??? He returned at just before 11:00 am and had not just changed the back tire, but the front one was well. It turned out that the front tire was in desperate need of changing.
So with 2 brand new tires we set off towards Las Vegas. We were meeting up with our Lacombe Alberta friends, Rod and Lil. They were in Las Vegas for a vacation and we had connected a while back and they had invited us to join them at thier condo. We arrived in Vegas about 1:30 pm and it was about 92 degrees!!! We brought our gear up to the room. really it wasn't just a room, rather it was a whole suite that we had to ourselves. Rod and Lil had a whole suite and we had a whole suite. What luxury for us!!!! We spend the rest of the afternoon sitting by the pool, visiting and deciding on a show that we should see while we were in Vegas. We found that Jay Leno was in Vegas for the weekend and we all agreed that we wanted to see Jay, so we booked 4 tickets to Friday night's show at 10:00 pm. We had
a great BBQ for dinner and spent the evening chatting and laughing!!!
Fri - May 13, 2011
We decided we were going to spend the day sitting by the pool. It was nother screaming hot day, so we lounged in the sun and had a few dips in the pool to cool off. We went up to change and get ready for our night out. We went to the Vegas strip about 7:00 pm, walked around and had a burger before the show. At 9:30m pm we went to find out seats and then for the next 1.5 hours we were entirely entertained by Jay Leno. He was hilarious and one of the best parts of his show is that he doesn't swear, doesn't talk dirty and just makes people laugh. We had a great night and fell into bed about 1:30 am.
Sat - May 14, 2011
Happy Birthday to our 24 year old Scott and Happy Half Marathon running to our Cyndi who is in beautiful Canmore to test her ability as a runner. I was in contact with Amanda, who was cheering her on, on the trail, while Rene and I cheered her on from
a distance. She finished in 2 hours and 15 minutes. YEAH CYNDI!!!!! We spend some time on Skype wishing Scott a happy birthday and catching up on the news in his life. So great to talk with all 3 kids today.
Rod and Lil had left earlier in the morning to go to a Harley Dealer. They were renting a bike for the day and we were going on a ride together. They returned about 11:00 am and off we went on a bike tour. We started off by checking out the Hoover Dam. The new bridge is now completed and we wanted to see it as we were at the Dam 2.5 years ago, with other friends and the bridge was just being built then. Well, I can tell you Mark and Tracy, the bridge is completed and it is truly a beautiful bridge!!!
After checking out Hooover Dam, we headed off to the Valley of Fire. A beautiful valley with more bright red rocks jutting out of the ground, really looking in the valley, against the dark mountains, like fire.
We went to a little town called Bonnie Springs, where ''Old Nevada'' is. We had a bite to
eat there and then back to the condo.
What a great ride and a great day with great friends!!!!
Sun- May 15, 2011
We had to check out by 10:00 am, so by about 10:10 we said our thanks and our good-byes to Rod and Lil and headed out. We were headed back to the West Coast, to continue our west coast journey north, back to home. We had a pretty uneventful, long ride on I-15 in the high desert of California. We had to stop along the way and put more clothes on, as the temperature dropped again and we were cold once again. We decided we would check out a little town called Arvin to stop for the night. As we turned off the Interstate, we dropped down into this beautiful fertile valley. we then spent the next several miles driving through vineyards, orange groves and vegtable fields. So wonderful to see GREEN after spending so much time (almost all of the last 2 weeks) in the desert. We ended up driving right through the little town as there were no accomodations and ended up stopping for the night in Bakersfield, California.
We are getting closer
and closer to home with so much yet to see and experience. And in the words of VanHalen:
(Right now) Hey! It's your tomorrow
(Right now) Come on, it's everything
(Right now) Catch your magic moment
Do it right here and now
It means everything
And so we remain......
In The Grip of Grace
Rene and Crystal
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Jodi
non-member comment
Love it!
What incredible diversity in so many ways. You go from freezing to sweating all in one day and dessert to greenery.....amazing! Thanks again for a great blog!