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Tuesday, January 30, 2007: Leaving
Nelson was difficult, as it always is.
We had a wonderful visit and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. We were up early and dropped Somer at the
Garveys’, giving us a chance to say goodbye to them too. Nicole headed out cross-country
skiing. The roads were still difficult
from all the snow. At the Border we
spent nearly 30 minutes with a very pleasant young woman who was thorough but
most friendly. Fortunately this time
we had no items confiscated. By the
time we got to Spokane the roads were clear.
They stayed good until we had passed Pendleton, Oregon. The pass between there and LaGrande, OR was
really socked in with fog and we crawled through it in company with a lot of
transports. We were happy to come out
of it and find a motel in downtown LaGrande.
Dinner at sports bar next door and an early night.
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Wednesday, January 31, 2007: Woke up to
a clear day and continued along Interstate 84 with the sun rising ahead of
us. Some beautiful mountains and
scenery with layers of wispy clouds.
Quick circuit of the historic section of Baker City, which figured
large in the days of the Oregon Trail.
We had some credits at Borders [ book store ] that expire today so we
looked up the address of the store in Boise, ID Thanks to
good ol’ GPS we were able to easily find it, so took a minor shopping
expedition there – a real treat after going through many areas where we
couldn’t find anywhere to buy books!
Since we crossed into Mountain Time, it was noon by the time we finished, so were tailgated our
lunch right there in the Borders parking lot – Nicole’s wonderful home-baked
bread! From Boise it was more or less a straight run to
Ogden, Utah area. The
changing landscape of mountains and fields was beautiful to watch. We decided to stay at a Comfort Inn in
Layton, but after nearly an hour looking for it, we gave
up, entered the address of another hotel in the GPS and make our way there
with difficulty. No Vacancy! Trying to follow the clerk’s directions
from there to the elusive Comfort Inn, we came in sight of it and then
suddenly we were back on the Interstate.
Yikes! Luckily after the next
exit we could see a La Quinta and were able to find its entrance AND they had
a room available. It’s nice and
comfortable and there’s a good restaurant next door where we had a nice
dinner. Now for a bit of reading to
sleep.
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Layers of Wispy Clouds on
the Morning Mountains
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Thursday,
February 1, 2007: [ First:
Happy Birthday to Logan Dodsworth, who is 4 years old today. Hi 5,
Logan! ] We found
it much easier to navigate once we found a Salt Lake City map. It’s
still a convoluted city with numbered streets working out from
Temple Square [ headquarter for the Mormon Church, worldwide
], It’s possible to be at the corner
of N 300 W and W 300 N – I think.
Anyway, we parked about 3 or 4 blocks from Temple Square, and walked there on falling snow. We were warmly greeted by two lovely young
women – missionaries from Australia and Paraguay - who gave
us a tour . As non-Mormons, we
couldn’t enter the temple, but there are virtual tours. [ as well as tours of
supporting buildings ] It’s just
amazing! We chatted with several people – they are, for the most part,
volunteers or missionaries. All very interesting and friendly. After Temple Square, we crossed the street to the Conference Centre,
an awesome building with an auditorium that seats 21,000 people and has no
pillars or other obstacles, so all seats have clear view. [ we were treated
like VIPs with a private tour guide, much like our 2 little missionaries in
the Square ] The other spaces and the exterior are also wonderful. The snow continued to fall as we walked
uphill several blocks to the state capitol environs. Then back to the Temple area where we found a mall with a food court and a
Macy’s. After lunch we headed back to
the car, successfully navigated our way back onto Interstate 15 and headed
south. We were concerned about the
roads, since we had seen two cars skid into each other at a stoplight;
however, Larry managed the difficult, snowy conditions for the first few
hours after entering the highway. It
had cleared well before we reached Cedar City and found a hotel. Now for Thursday night TV. [ the country-side was
rolling, barren hills, plains with mountains on each side and a few snowy
passes – some spectacular vistas. All
through our trip through Utah
we listened to a 5-DVD narrative about fanatically religiously inspired
murders by 2 brothers of another brother’s family. The narrative of the murders was interposed
with a very complete history of the Mormon Church, from its birth in
New York State in the early 19th century to present day. It was chilling and interesting at the same
time and offered a fascinating juxtaposition with our tour of
Temple Square.]
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Friday,
February 02, 2007: On the way
south from Cedar City we saw many rifts and the land became increasingly broken. The road into
Zion National Park is far tamer than we’ve experienced at places like
Yellowstone and Yosemite, but the
scenery is spectacular. Once inside
the park gates, we stopped at the visitors’ centre for maps and advice. We walked one of the trails that led uphill
from there and enjoyed more terrific views. We walked one more short trail before
arriving at the Lodge. There we
checked in, selecting a cabin with a fireplace. We decided this was a golden opportunity to
do some organizing, so made several trips to the car to bring stuff
inside. We made lunch and enjoyed it
in the cabin, then headed to the far end of the canyon to a trail we’d been
advised was best in the early afternoon.
There are no huge crowds here, but the weather is just about perfect
for walking or hiking, so there were people every where we went. I wore my new winter hiking boots for the
first time and have declared them a success.
We went to the end of the Temple of Sinawara trail and were astonished by the towering red and white cliffs. The trail was paved the whole way and most
slopes were very gentle. Easy route to
wonderful views. We then worked our
way back to the Lodge, walking parts of two or three other trails. This park is a really unique place in our
experience and, although we didn’t see any wildlife except squirrels, well
worth the visit After dinner we walked
across the road to a very dark parking lot to view the stars and the
moonlight on the cliffs. Priceless!
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L & J posing in the
Mormon Celestial Room
Mormon Church
Mormon Auditorium1
Mormon Auditorium2
Mormon Auditorium3
Utah State Capitol
Jan’s Zion Canyon Photos:
Pic1,
Pic2,
Pic3,
Pic4, Pic5,
Pic6,
Pic7,
Pic8
Larry’s Zion Canyon Photos:
Pic1,
Pic2,
A better Pic2 (by Wes),
Pic3,
Pic4,
Pic5,
Pic6,
Pic7,
Pic8,
Pic9,
Pic10 ,
Pic11
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Saturday,
February 03, 2007: Awesome
to wake up surrounded by Zion’s
2000 foot cliffs! They’re lovely in
the early morning sun. We enjoyed a
lavish breakfast at the Lodge and then a beautiful drive out to the
highway. We were “bound for Vegas
baby”! We were able to find easy, free
parking at the Fashion Show Mall, so used that as our base for the day. We wandered through a few casinos, had
lunch at the vast buffet at Treasure
Island and explored the
canals of Venice thoroughly.
What a busy happenin’ place it is!
And what a variety of people – ordinary middle class middle agers in
running shoes and comfort-fit jeans, all the way to a bride in a billowing
train with 2 pink-haired attendants.
After leaving
Las Vegas, we crossed the Hoover Dam and stopped for a
couple of photos looking down on it.
Quite an impressive piece of engineering - holding back Lake Mead. The next
section of driving continued the very “crumply” landscape we’d seen before
Vegas. It’s almost as if someone has
randomly bulldozed and shoveled soft piles of debris hither and thither. Every once in a while there is a small rift
or jaggy hill, and everywhere there are sage brush, mesquite, and sometimes
tumbleweed. Little huddles of trailers
here and there on the desert. We’ve
stopped for the night at Kingman,
AZ, right on the fabled Route 66.
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Janice at our Zion cabin
Looking back
at the Hoover Dam
Jan at Lake Mead side of
Hoover Dam
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