Hi, I'm back!

It has been a few weeks since I've added to my blog. Mainly, I've been busy with Christmas stuff. Our Stake does a "Night of Nativity" every year, and Jeff and I were call to serve as Co-Chairman. It was a lot of fun, very stressful, and ultimately wonderful. There were about 250 nativities, and we had almost 400 people come to see them.

Besides that, I've been reading. My daughter introduced me to Brandon Sanderson - a great fantasy writer - and I've got to recommend him! If you like fantasy and/or science fiction, you will find him intriguing. His style is fresh, his stories very inventive and different, and he leaves you waiting for more. I've finished his first novel - Elantris - and now I am starting in on his first trilogy - Mistborn. Check him out. (Oh, and by the way - he is LDS, and teaches at BYU.

Here's his website - www.brandonsanderson.com

DAY 6 cont. - Utah and Idaho

Here we are on day 6 headed north.  We've already traveled through Arizona and Nevada.  The goal is Idaho Falls.  Can we make it in a day?

If you could zoom in on the green sign, it says "Utah State Line".  Yes we are almost in Utah, yea!

St. George

Of course, if you are coming up I-15 in Utah you have to stop at St. George.  The town is great and the temple is magnificent.  I have always loved the St. George temple.  Built by early pioneers, this was the first working temple in Utah.  (Correct me if I am wrong.)  I know that my own ancestors traveled there - it is written in their journals.  What a peaceful and serene place!

One last look and we're on the road again.  Our goal is Idaho Falls, so no stops are planned from here on out.  For the next few hours we see lots of red rock mountains and desert.

At this point I drove for awhile. It was getting dark by the time we rounded the mountain and looked over the valley at Nephi.  I was overwhelmed at the vast expanse of city lights before me.  Little Nephi was a huge metropolis!  Now granted, it has been many years since I've gone this way, but still it was the most astonishing sight.  Absolutely incredible!  From Nephi, there were solid city lights all the way up I-15, through "Happy Valley" and the Salt Lake valley all the way to Brigham City.  The lights twinkled everywhere.  The only dark spots were the lakes and tops of the mountains.  Those dark spots seemed all the more spooky, too.  It felt like they could reach out and swallow you up.  But they were far away.  Between the freeway and the dark were millions of lights going on and on and on....

And the freeway construction!!!!  Well don't get me started on that.  I'll bet the natives are real tired of it.  New lanes and exits and on ramps and walls.  Just not the same old place anymore!

I finally pooped out as we passed Brigham City.  At that point Jeff took over the wheel and took us into Idaho.

IDAHO

We had to make it to Idaho Falls before Jeffrey headed for home (Rolla, Missouri).  He had been doing an internship at Idaho National Laboratories and was only there for another day and a half.  Jeff drove through the night, watching for deer in the road and enjoying the silence and peace of true wilderness.  There were very few lights here.  At some point I dosed off.  We finally arrived at Jeffrey's apartment at 3am and slept in the car till morning broke.

End of day 6

DAY 6 - ARIZONA, NEVADA, UTAH, IDAHO

After spending the night at Jeremiah's and a wonderful breakfast by Hillary, we headed out through endless desert.  This time, thanks to Jeremiah and Hillary's dad, we had air conditioning! Just for the day.  See, the problem is that we have a leak, and the freon doesn't last but a few hours, but we were happy to have it.  Thanks guys!

Once again we are on the road.  For a short while, we are in Arizona, but soon we cross the border to Nevada.  Destination - Hoover Dam!

Ya gotta read the sign real fast...

And here we are!  What an amazing site - the dam, the river, the people!

We actually stopped for this picture! ;-}  

Note the sign, upper left!

Just the sheer magnitude of the structures and massive power lines is overwhelming!

Lake Mead

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Mead

Soon, we realize that yes, we are definitely in Nevada!

And this folks, is Las Vegas...

Bye bye Vegas!

Easy come, easy go :-)

(to be cont.)

DAY 2-5 ARIZONA

Yes folks, we are in Arizona now and headed for Phoenix, by way of Flagstaff.  It is the evening of our 2nd day, and we are getting really tired.

Friday

Yay Phoenix!  We arrived in the evening at my brother's home.  It was so good to see them!  To top it off our 2 dogs got along great with their dog Macy. (Well not at first, exactly, but they warmed up after an hour or so.)  We stayed up and talked, then headed for our hotel, which my older brother had arranged for us.  Ahhhhhh, a soft comfy bed, and YES! wonderful AC.  It was definitely hot in Phoenix - but a drier heat than we had in Kansas.  That made it a little more bearable.  But 100+ is just plain hot no matter where you go.

Saturday

We got up at the hotel - Hampton Inn - and had a great breakfast.  We like to stay at Hampton - the food is great and the beds are comfy.  Jeff and Jaimie went off to help clean the church with Steve and I stayed behind to rest and charge up my phone and stuff.  Then we all got together to hang.  I love hanging with family.  It's the best.

That night we went out for Thai food and it was so good.  We shared several different dishes.  Both my brothers came with their wives and some of the kids, too.  Thanks for the dinner, guys!

At this point I wasn't taking many pictures, because I was too busy catching up!

Sunday

We had a great day - attending Steve and Karen's ward in Phoenix.  It was a very friendly ward and we felt welcome.

That evening we all got together at Dan's house in Queen Creek.  Wow, his house is big!  We had dinner and played games and laughed.  Thanks you guys!

Time for bed...

Monday

Monday morning KaLee took us to the Queen Creek Olive Oil factory.  They have a small grove of olive trees, and they press olive oil there, as well as serve up delicious food.  We got to taste many different flavored oils and sampled some of the food too.  I would definitely give these out as gifts.  If you love olive oil, let me know.  I'll put you on my Christmas list.  (When we get a job, that is :o)

It took some time for us to get the car loaded and get on our way, but we finally left in the afternoon.  Our destination - Kingman, AZ, where Jeff's nephew lives. 

On the road again!

These are my favorites.  Remember, we had no time to stop, so I was taking them on the fly.  Arizona is really very pretty, isn't it?

DAY 2 cont.

NEW MEXICO (cont.)

We stopped in Albuquerque to get some food and cool air in Walmart; we called a good friend who lives there, and then headed on down the road.  Now, in case I did not mention it, we were travelling in a 1991 GMC Safari Van with no air conditioning.  That's right people, I said NO air conditioning.  [I leave to your imagination the fun we were having about this time.]  No, we were not walking much of the way like the pioneers, but we did have a few inconveniences of our own to endure, and I think we endured it well.

Bye bye New Mexico!

HELLO ARIZONA!

We cheered as we entered Arizona, for that was our first destination on this trip and where Jaimie was going to stay.  Phoenix, AZ is where my 2 older brothers live.  

We headed for Flagstaff on I-40 then downhill to Phoenix.  And man, it is really downhill.  Flagstaff's elevation is about 7000 ft. and we descended down to Phoenix's 1000 feet.  The best part of that was the cool breeze we enjoyed for awhile, but be assured we could tell when we were getting closer to Phoenix.  That place is HOT! (in more ways than one)

But we enjoyed the saguaro and pine trees as we headed southward and got to Phoenix hot and hungry.

Seeing the country is great - but seeing family is even better.  We got to Phoenix and enjoyed seeing everyone, then headed to bed - our first real bed since we left Kansas.