Monday, November 5/2012

I heard Kay up and about at 5:30 this morning and she was gone by 6.  She is thrilled to be done work and heading home for the winter.  With only two "close calls" this year, she considers herself lucky.  No one was hurt by passing traffic (no reduced speeds here) this year so that is always a good thing.
It was chilly in the bus this morning so I got the big heater going and because we are plugged into power, I had the little electric heater going as well.
I have been up for an hour now and the sun is shining and both heaters are off.  Life is good.  With freshly brewed coffee in hand, I finished off this blog and am now totally up to date!!  Woo Hoo!!
I took a pic of the picture Johny B gave me yesterday so everyone can now see my latest treasure.  Johny B did mention that he would paint me a picture of a cardinal as well so hopefully I am able to connect with him again and get a matching set of Johny B paintings.  Now THAT would be awesome!!  In the mean time, I will be more than happy with the one I got and gloat daily to Ray!!  Just Kidding Ray!!
John got up and headed outside to sweep off the slides on Kay's trailer, then finished off all the last minute details of closing it up for the season.  With that done, we too headed down the road.  Today, we should be out of Utah, catch the very edge of Arizona and enter into Nevada to stay somewhere around the Valley of Fire road tonight.
We fuelled up then it was down the I-15 and further south.  The ride was good and we sure appreciated Kay's work on the new patch of highway she and her crew had worked on.  Smooth sailing up the hill for us!!

The painting by Johny B

Heading down I-15 South

Interesting mountains in the distance

Joshua Trees at out campsite

Hogan, knowing something is there....just not seeing it

Each one of those nice feathery looking tuffs are armed
with a not so nice sharp needle!!

Tonight's campsite - Virgin River Gorge

Hogan and I went for a short walk and found this birds nest
cuddled into a very sharp, imposing cholla

SHARP thorns on the end of this green

Took me an hour to get rid of all these thorns!!

We passed a few police cars along the way and I must say the one does not expect to see a cop in one of the new fancy Mustang Boss or Charger cars.  It was awesome.  A phenomenal ghost car if I do say so myself!!
We passed a truck parked on the side of the road that had ("had" being the magic word) been pulling a load of cars.  It appeared to have been on fire and the cars were not as pretty as they had been when they were loaded.  The fire was out by the time we got there but the emergency crew was still around.
Before we left Utah, we stopped at Beaver where, I went into the souvenir shop and got a few more "I Love Beaver" (the love, being a red heart) bumper stickers for some of the kids back home.  The year Jace had to come and drive the bus back home after John's accident, we had stopped there  and he bought a few and ran out of them a while back.  Now, he will have a few more to give to his buddies.   I know Dave, our neighbour (who totally hates beavers), will get one for sure!!
We stopped for the night at the south end of The Virgin River Gorge.  We have used this spot a few times now and it will do again tonight.  We are currently sitting in the very north west corner of Arizona.  We have to cross into Nevada tomorrow to get to the road that will eventually get us back into Arizona and eventually to Wickenburg.  There are a few mountain ranges in this area and so the highway skirts them, thus leading us into Nevada before cutting back into Arizona.  A road through these ranges would probably be an engineering nightmare but can you just imagine the views!!
Once we got set up for the night, we got the chairs out and sat for a refreshment.  The sun was going down but, being this far South certainly makes a difference as we were no longer running for our bunny hugs or jackets.  It was quite pleasant out.  Hogan and I went for a short walk so that I could get up close and personal with a Joshua Tree.  As in Arizona, much of Southern Utah is desert and I chose not to remember that everything around here either bites, pokes or stings you!!  By the time we got back, Hogan was on three legs and my flip flops were loaded with cholla thorns (big ones that poked through my soles!!)  And I would ask....how does one spell LOSER!!
I spent the next hour pulling the thorns from my flip flops and Hogan was not in any hurry to go exploring past the immediate vicinity of the bus!!
I was in the mood for grease tonight so made home made french fries for supper along with pan fried chicken breast.  Kay had bought me some seasoned rub before we left Nephi (the stuff Johny B used on his ribs) so I tried the peppercorn one on the chicken and it turned out awesome.
John settled in to watch the football game and Hogan and I watched The Voice.  Life is Good!!