Sunday - back in GP

Cool in the morning, windows frosted, whats that all about? On the road at a good time, most expensive hotel of the entire trip - High River! It was nice, but it wasn't the Luxor. But we did get breakfast included. As luck would have it were were right behind the enourmous 3 waffle guy with a tube of A535 applied. By the time the waffle iron was free, we will be in GP, lol. Rainy in cowtown, but then it cleared off by Red Deer and sunny through most of the way back. Oh yeh, rain in Fox Creek no surprise there and a bit in from Valleyview. 3,500 km's later and we are back home, chillin' and I mean that in the literal sense of the word. Stay tuned until after Christmas when we repeat the journey only with gusto & snow. ;>)

Saturday - Oct 17

Well had a great dinner in Idaho Falls and spent the nite in a dodgy motel. Comfort Inn, but not like the one in Airdrie - can you say night & day, that's how different they were. It did include breakfast, so not all that bad. Made good miles today, the weather was great - in the 70's and back to long pants. Crossed the border with duty free in hand at about 3:30Pm and kept on trukin'. Will spend the nite in High River Super 8, nice hotel, and had the Boston Royal with a couple pints of Canadian - ahhhh welcome home?? Should make GP about late afternoon tomorrow.

Friday - Oct 16

Early start today. Set alarm for 7:00 AM, but got up at 6 by mistake. Showered and on the road by 6:30 AM. The traffic in Vegas was terrible at that hour. I thought it was the city that never sleeps, but that was ridiculous. Drove all the way to Mesquite where we had breakfast at around 8:00 AM.. Then on to Provo for lunch and made it thru the dreaded Salt Lake City traffic just after 1:00PM. Made it back to Idaho Falls for the nite, where we paid more for a Comfort Inn room than we did in the Luxor. Where is the logic? But we have free wifi, so am blogging again. There will be a big run for the border tomorrow and the duty free at Sweetgrass. Fingers crossed for the passes.

Met up with the Mo'es

Met up with Krista, Chris and the kids for lunch while in Vegas. The kids were really cute. Just luck that we were both there at the same time.

Thursday, Oct 15th

The Luxor is pretty nice, lots of cool stuff. The elevators are like freaky friday, they kind of run at an angle [they're called inclinators]. When you ride them you feel unsteady, like you will tip over, or maybe that was the free drinks in the casino. ;>). Weather was great, hot again, in the 90 area. Toured around the strip, donated at the casinos, walked our feet off.

Wednesday, Oct. 14th

On the road, to Las Vegas with Marg singing -Hey Baby Let's Go To Vegas. Used Expedia.com to book rooms at the Luxor while we were still in AJ. Such a deal we couldn't refuse. Drove hwy 60 from Phoenix, first time on it. It's called a scenic route and lived up to it's name. Right thru the Joshua Tree forest, thru some neat canyons and over the Hoover Dam. They are building a bypass to the hwy over the dam and it is spectacular, especially the arch for to support it at the dam. Awesome.

Apache Junction - Oct 13th

Well back in AJ, at the Carefree Manor RV Park. The park is pretty empty yet, but Curtis said they have a bunch of arrivals this month. Apparently there was a foot of snow in the Dakotas and cold weather in the northern states, so that creates activity. Had a nice drive up from Quartzsite, about 3 hours from here. It's Columbus day, celebration of that eventful voyage in 1492, so a long weekend. Warm on yesterday, car temp read 93F. Went to Camping World, now there is a shoppers paradise for RVers. Bought a bunch of stuff we didn't know we needed. Filled up at the Circle K, $2.33 per gallon ;>). Went to the chinese buffet we discovered last winter. Great food, they must have shrimp 10 or 12 different ways. This will be a catch-up day. For me that will mean washing bugs off the mhome, for Marg the laundry. May go for a dip in the outdoor pool if it gets too hot and even have a cold beer. Not sure about blogging tomorrow as it will be pack up and drive. We plan on meeting Krista in Las Vegas, so will probably spend 2 nites there. Plan on taking the more direct route thru Kingman & over the Hoover Dam. Then the long push back to home, still need to do some hunting. Would all of you Hurtin' Albertans do something about the weather before then as we need clear roads. Will blog as we get opportunities.

Still southbound - Oct 11th

On the road again, left Mesquite at around 9:00AM. Another nice day in the making by that time. Made it through Las Vegas at about 11:00 AM and a lot of the construction zone we saw last spring was much better this time. Took the California side of hwy 95 down to Needles , got gas at Love's and then stopped in their lot for a lunch in the mhome. Then to the Arizona side of Highway 95 down thru Lake Havasau again. The highway has the same number on each side of the Colorado river, it's the old "Route 66", and no we didn't get our kicks. It's really nice along the Colorado River, and is such a marked contrast with the surrounding desert. The only thing negative is that it's mostly 2 lane. Stopped in Quartsite for the nite. At 4:00 PM the temp read on the car was 92F. The park manager said anything in two digits is cool, so we never made it to hot. Checked in to an RV park and the cable never worked. Marg's soap was supposed to be on, so we checked out and went around the corner to another where they even have wifi as well as cable. LOL We're getting better at planning arrival in major cities so it's not noon or rush hour. With any luck we will hit Phoenix at 1 - 1:30 PM tomorrow.

Cedar City to Mesquite

Nice Campground in Cedar City, nice parking lot in Mesquite. We ended up in the Casablanca hotel RV Park. They were almost the only option as the one we used last spring is closed down. You have to see it, hotel, casino, everything. And it was pretty large, larger than any GP hotel, anyway. We gambled a bit, I stayed with it until they got $30 from me, Marg was about the same. They were around with the comp drinks so often, I had to refuse more than accept ;>). The casino had a seafood smorg on, so we beat them at that. It was a great, lots of crab and shrimp as well as fish and the usual assortment of other dishes. But get this beer & wine was included in the $16 price tag. Campground wifi is so poor, it's of no value, so here I sit in the golden arches blogging. The password here is bigmac11, LOL. Also got our old pay-as-u-go phone topped up, it still had $3 on it from last spring. Our no. is still 928-446-4358. Oh yeh, almost forgot, man is it HOT here, in the low 80's during the day. Last nite it got down to about 60, tough life. Heading for Flagstaff tomorrow, but our thoughts are with those of you freezing in northern Alberta, ;>).

Leaving IFalls Day 3

Fuelled up, paid $2.44 per US gallon. I believe that is 54 cents a litre. Weather a bit chilly, so we decided to try and make south Idaho. Spent the night in Cedar City, nice RV Park where I flushed all the antifreeze from the lines and put the hot water heater back in operation. Nice evening, the temp was in the mid 60's , so bought a case of MGD and had a few while bbq'ing. Everyone saying it could get near the freezing mark tonite, so will move further south tomorrow. About an hour and a half south to Mesquite, Nev and the weather is 20 degrees warmer there.

Day Two Leavin Lethbridge

On the road at a good hour, but made a wrong turn in Lethbridge. Same story last year, note to self- send city mgr a note about signage. Made it to Coutts, where the price of Crown Royal was $14.50. Discovered we have no cord for the cameras, so no pics until we get one. Rainy off & on from Great Falls, some light snow in the Elk Park Pass. Lots of snow in the good 'ol Monida pass, not as bad as last year, we could see 150 yds this time. Bright and sunny in Idaho. Idaho Falls RV Park tonight. Most of the other travellers were complaining about snow where they came from. Thanks to the GP'ers on facebook, I was able to compete in the bad weather story contest.

On the Road Again - 2009

Well here we are again. Had trouble remembering how this works. Techno -peasant that I am. We left Airdrie on Tuesday, Oct. 6th after the ceiling repairs! Arghhhhhhh, not to sure about that part of the day. Made it to Lethbridge, where we stayed at the Bridge View RV Park. Stayed there before, it's very nice. Really windy all the way down. Winds in the 80 km/hr range, just what you need when you are driving a billboard down the highway. Had a nice dinner at Dukes, it's in the University area and Marg & I blended right in with the 'Uni crowd', LOL. The forecast is for snow tomorrow, so you can bet we will be travelling south.