Hey mom and dad,
You won’t believe what I was doing the past week. You know how much I hate going on long car rides? Well I just took a four state journey. Not even sure how many miles I put on the van, but it was four hundred buck in gas to pull it off. It actually wasn’t a bad trip. The plan was to go to Jodi’s and a week with her, but I really didn’t like the thought of driving twelve hours so I added a lot more miles and broke up the trip into stops to see some family. Mom and I had been talking about going to visit Larry and Diana so I made that the first leg of my trip. I left here around nine in the morning on Oct 21st. I figured a little five hour jaunt would warm me up to the trip 🙂
(Some pictures from the first leg of my trip. Pictures of the open road, route 66, stuck between trucks and ridiculous gas prices.)
The destination for this leg was Kingman, AZ. I know that I had been there with you guys before, but I do not recall seeing some of the things I saw this time. Perhaps I was just asleep the previous trip out there. Anyway, I had a really good time with Larry and Diana. Though Diana was not feeling well due to allergies so I did not get to spend much time with her. They have a nice place out there, even if it is the desert. We went out to dinner and talked about the two of you and about the things I planned on doing during my trip. We talked about losing your parents and about how quickly you both passed. You were a topic of thought and conversation a lot during my trip.
After a good night sleep, I hopped on the road for the second leg of the trip. The destination for this leg was Sandy, UT. Unlike the miles and miles and miles of tumbleweeds and sand on the first leg, this one was quite nice and the time flew by. I stopped quite a bit along the way to look at things I had not seen or things that I wanted to photograph. Sometimes I saw things that reminded me of you and stopped just to reflect. I just had to stop at Hoover Dam. Not only because I had to pee real bad, but also because I had not seen it before and really wanted to see it. I didn’t want to pay ten bucks for parking, though my bladder would have appreciated it, so I drove up the hill to the free parking and walked back down to the dam. Do you know how many stair steps there are dad? If you said 70 then you are correct. Here are some pictures of the dam. It was really sad to see now low the water level is (look for the color change in the side of the cliff).
I also stopped to take a picture of the Colorado river and read about how the hills you see in the picture are full of big horn sheep. Bridges were built across the highway for the sheep to move back and forth.
This picture is actually the upper arm of Lake Mohave.
This leg of the trip was by far the best (well except for the part when I got back home of course). There was so much to look at and as I got into Utah, the colors started looking like fall. Strange though that I didn’t really get any pictures of those fall colors. When I got into Sandy, I was driving up towards Sherry’s place and saw this view and just had to snap a quick picture.
My goodness… What a cool backyard to have.
I got to Sherry and Don’s place around six in the evening. Mind you the time has not changed yet so it was still light out. We talked for a bit and then decided to have dinner at a barbecue place called Goodwood. I had a steak and some veggies. It was very delicious. I had told Andrew that I was coming into town and thought it would be a good idea for him to come along to dinner. Did you realize that Andrew has never met Sherry and Don? They live in the same town for goodness sake. I really wanted them to meet and hopefully they will maintain some contact. Winter is coming and Jodi likes to go skiing in Utah so I am hoping that Jodi will get to visit with Sherry as well. It has been many many years since Sherry last saw Jodi.
Went back to Sherry and Don’s place and had a really nice visit. We talked about all sorts of things. Sherry told me that she asked you if you would like for her to do the temple work for you and dad. She said that you told her that you did want that. Sherry asked if that would be alright with us. I told her of course it would be alright. Especially if that is what you wanted. We talked about the two of you and about her family. I had a really wonderful time with Sherry. I sure hope that things get easier for Don.
The next morning I decided to do a little exploring around Salt Lake City. The drive to Jodi’s was only going to take a few hours so I had time to kill. I don’t know why, but it was in awe that there were a number of ski resorts within a half hour drive of Sherry’s place so I wanted to go check one out. There isn’t any snow there yet, but that is perfect. I went up to Snowbird (in the first valley to the east of her place) Ski Resort. My oh my it was gorgeous up there. The air was so clean and crisp and nature was all around. I stopped on the way up to take this picture of Salt Lake City through the valley.
Just a stunning sight! I know this is the sort of place that you and dad would love to spend some time. This is in the neighborhood of seven thousand feet elevation and is breathtaking, in more ways that one. Here are some more pictures of Snowbird.
Pretty country isn’t is?
After exploring the mountains I went into Salt Lake City to look around downtown, but I ended up getting myself a bit lost and couldn’t figure out exactly where I wanted to go. I was also running out of time and needed to get on the road to lovely Winnemucca so I said goodbye to Utah, but not before stopping one last time to take a picture of a place that I remember being with you and dad.
The Bonneville Salt Flats. This picture is from the rest stop looking out towards the Bonneville Speedway. Of course you cannot see it from here as it is about eight miles from where I am standing toward that mountain range. The speedway is where land speed records are attempted and held. The runway is about ten miles long and because of the curvature of the earth, you cannot see one end to the other. Not much to look at, but still a pretty cool place to visit.
After spending a few minutes here, it was back on the road for me and the boring trek through western utah and eastern nevada. The vista was back to mostly tumbleweeds and sand. Though the occasional mountain pass in nevada broke the boredom.
When I got into Winnemucca, I called Jodi but her phone went right to voicemail so I texted her and told her I was in town. She told me the door was open and that she was at the hospital. She thought she was just having trouble passing a stone and would be in and out of there before I got to town, but that ended up not being the case. She actually had a blocked small bowel and was in the hospital for 3 days. This wasn’t exactly how I planned to spend my time with her and I really could have gone without seeing a hospital again for a while yet, but such is life. Caring for you two turned me into a good little hospital visitor. I would have liked to spend more time with her while she was in the hospital, but it was very difficult to see her there. She was upset and was really wanted to have dad or mom to call and comfort her. I was feeling the same way. She got through it though and we ended up with a couple of days that we could spend doing some things together. Of course there were chores around the house to do and my birthday to celebrate.
Jodi made me a cake and gave me a beautiful bed set to make your room more my own now. Still not completely comfortable with that idea, but I suppose like everything else I will get used to it in time. Jodi also took me out to Safe Haven which is an exotic pet rescue center. They take in mostly big cats, but they have some small animals like coyotes and bobcats and they have six Serval cats. I didn’t get any pictures of the Servals as they were quite shy, but I did take pictures of the tigers and lion and other animals. Here are some pictures from that portion of the trip.
One of the days I was there in Winnemucca the wind was blowing like crazy. I know that is difficult to believe, but it really was blowing tumbleweeds and sand all over the place. As a matter of fact, I snapped this little picture hoping that it would capture the essence of a dust storm. The picture is facing west and it is late afternoon so the sun is sort of bright, but had it not been for the haze created by all the dust in the air the picture would have ended up more washed out. Just after taking this picture I noticed that two of the windows in the front of the house where open a hair. They were the windows in the office. I went in and closed them and it felt like I was walking on sandpaper with how much sand came in through those windows.
The next morning (after the dust storm) the temperature has dropped down to the twenties and I took this picture from the deck in the back. You can see the clouds hovering over the mountains and just a very light dusting of snow in the furthest peak (which was melted by midday).
It was time to come back home though and while I had originally planned on breaking up the last part of the drive by going to Bakersfield to see Denise, I was getting really tired of being on the road and just wanted to get home. So I powered through the twelve hour drive, taking 395 out of Reno all the way down. It wasn’t too bad a drive and I was sure glad to be home. I didn’t even unpack the car. I checked email and sorted through the paper mail and then went to bed for a twelve hour nap 🙂
Maxipad wanted to say hi!