Southwestern Adventure 7-23 until 7-31

Hi Everyone,

Just some notes here to document our first Southwestern Adventure together.

Day 1 - Nashville to Atlanta to Vegas - delays, rainstorm, lost bags, - conclusion- never stop in Atlanta if at all possible.

Day 2 -No bag delivered in Vegas, more expense in cabs, bags finally delivered and many of Julie's clothes are wet. Julie has one of her headaches. We pick up our Apollo camper van after having to wait quite some time. We drive to Zion. There is a rain storm and lots of mud, but it is completely breathtaking .Toilet in camper van does not flush. We stop at Lee's Discount Liquor in Mesquite, Nevada. Great selection, great prices. We found a great price on Mum. We drive up to outside Bryce Canyon and camp at Ruby's RV Park.It's very crowded and not private. David is miserable. We find that we have no toilet paper and the toilet still doesn't work. We don't eat dinner and there are fire works at 10 pm which was more disguisting in this beautiful place than we can imagine. How could people need pyrotechnics here? What is happening to America for such an unnecessary diplay such as this? Lovely evening stars and sounds of French and German languages surround us.

Day 3 - Bryce Canyon. It takes us a few hours to make breakfast and use the dump station the first time (we put rubber gloves on the shopping list :>). We drive on into Bryce. Inspiration Point was wasy to see how it received it's name. I can't believe this beautiful place.We hiked Navajo Loop. 1.3 tough miles, but it felt good to work our legs a bit. We stop at an RV wash to get the Zion off our van. David told me to stop as he didn't want me to get dirty and then as soon as he started to wash mud went all over him (add hand sanitizer to shopping list). He has mud all over his TCU t shirt and shorts. We both clean off with the high pressure washer, ouch! We stop to pick up gloves, TP, paper towels and take the right turn on Highway 12 toward Great Basin. It's such a beautiful drive and I an see why David has this highway ensconced in his momory. We head through the Dixie National Forest and touch Grand Staircase Momument on the fringe. David says "Highway 12 has all my favorite scenic food groups in one drive". After Boulder, desert rock turns into Alpine forest with Cedars and White Aspens. The temperature is at least 10 degrees cooler now and we have dropped the windows to smell a while.

Sand Creek RV space #12 in Torrey, Utah is where we stay tonight (this is just outside of Capitol Reef state park). We have a quiet good view. Right across the street from us is an incongruously fantastic upscale southwest cuisine restaurant, Cafe Diablo, that catered to Europeans. Two out of twelve tables perhaps, were Americans. We sat outside and there was an exquisite garden with beautiful flowers including dalias, herbs, and garden veggies. Chef Gary came out to make my meal to order when I asked Diance some questions about low carb substitutions. The owner was a mask collector. That night we sat outside unntil 10:30 with still a little light at our campsite and we look at the stars and have a grand sleep yet again.

Day 4- Capitol Reef - We woke up with the sunrise and headed over to Capitol Reef. We were getting the hang of things and although we still had no bathroom, broke camp much faster. We stopped for provisions at the General Store in Torrey (where David Koelz had recommended we stop to eat initially before we found Cafe Diablo). We went on in to Capitol Reef National Park. We saw Chimney Rock, the Castle, Capitol Dome, GReat Wash, pyctographs, and more. David stopped at a park to make my breakfast. He was pooped on my a bird. This picnic area was about 1 mile from the visitor's center on the Fremont River.He made me a gourmet breakfast. Then off to as far in Nevada along Highway 50 as possible. We go 24 - I70-Hwy-50 and now we are on the Lonliest Hwy in America. We go into Great Basin N.P. and try for the Upper Lehman Creek Campground. We decide to drive on up to the crest of Wheeler Peek which was over 10,000. The highest point above us (still with snow was 13,600. It was raining and cold by the time we came down so we decided to move on. At the end of the day we pull over at the Illipah Reservation, a state park in Nevada. It's just us and one other camper. We were completely isolated. We walked down to the reservoir and watch a lovely sunset. We made dinner and had what we'll just call a potty crisis. Black water was running back in to the floor and David got very very upset in trying ot fix this in the dark. We ended up driving 37 miles into Eureka around midnight. We stayed at a little place called Hillside motel. It was the last room available anywhere and I helped a height challenged Mexican named Charles dry and change the sheets on our bed before we could check in. He wrote David a receipt even though they didn't take credit cards and we didn't ahve enough cash to pay. We paid him the next morning and got our towels washed and dried. We call Peter Shipley and he said we can get our potty repaired at Doc's RV in Fallon, Nevada. We're off , 185 miles down Highway 50 to Fallon, "The Oasis in the Desert". Doc fixes our potty, we get Mc/d's, has, fill up water, pee, and get cash. Doc recommends stopping around Twin Lakes in Bridgeport, California near Yosemite. We drive through the Smith Valley.and across the lovely Walker River. We buy provisions in Bridgeport and stay in Robinson Creek Campground about 7.7 miles up Twin Lakes Road in the Toyabe National Forest. Finally, our night of paradise. We pay $40 for a group spot since that's all that's left (20 is refunding to us by the campground hosts the next day). David cooks up Robinson Creek Steak and we have a loverly dinner and after dinner drink sitting by the River. Clear sky and lots of stars, deer, chipmunks, a hawk, and then the serendipitous knowledge that we are in sight 41. Wonderful evening and a perfect morning with coffee by the river.

Day 5- Yosemite- We shower, break camp, and head for Yosemite. (Note for next time, you can make reservations inside National Parks). Yosemite was beautiful and David again made me breakfast at a lovely picnic area inside the park. We followed Rhonda our GPS, which took us on crazy crooked roads from Yosemite to Sequoia. We went 41 to Bass Lake Rd to Auberry Rd to 163 to 180., through Squaw Vallet on to Wilsonia and stayed at Azalea Camgound inside Kings Canyon National Park. There was a loud Mexican family down the hill from us, but otherwise was a pretty quiet and private campsite. We definitely like staying at N.P. and state campground campsites rather than the RV parks.

Day 6 - Kings Canyon and Sequoia N.Ps. - We woke and quickly went to see General Grant Tree, TN tree and others, and then Generals Hwy out of Kings Canyon N.P. on to Sequoia N.P (our 7th N.P. of the trip) and the General Sherman Tree. We went town to Exeter and 65 after multiple miles of crooked road leading out of Sequoia N.P. There was a forest fire in Kern (where we plan to camp near Lake Isabella) so we call ahead to check out the weather on 155. We take curvy roads and lovely golden landscapes appear. We stay at Riverview RV Park in Kernville on the Kern River. Guy named Don showed us where wecould stay - but unpleasantand ver hot when we arrived. Later, it cooled off and was a nice place to sit and take care of our needs.We have a nice Mexican dinner and talk to fire fighters at the General Store at the top of the hill. Helicopters and emergency vehicles are everywhere.

Day 7 - off to Vegas to turn in our Apollo. Tonight the Luxor and Zumanity. Talk about contrast.

Julie ends up having a terrible headaches on this evening which will lead to a chain of events once we are home....more later.