SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

Well, we made it into Salt Lake City.  The KOA campground is very large, over 1000 sites and they give us a pull thru that is supposed to be 67 feet long, ha ha, we overlap so they put safety cones around us.  We set up and are hungry so we set out for the "Red Iguana" mexican restaurant.  However, there are at least 25 to 30 people waiting outside so we drive around and finally end up at an Arby's.

It is Friday Morning, beautiful weather in the 70's, we go downtown to sightsee all the Mormon churches and buildings.  We get to a place called Temple Square which is an area a few blocks square which encompasses all the church buildings and the place where the Tabernacle Choir sings.  We walk around the gorgeous gardens with lots of roses and take pictures of all the buildings.  Then we go to a shopping area called City Creek and have coffee and banana nut bread overlooking dancing waters fountain, classical music and waters dance to the tempo.  Lots of walking, beautiful day and back to campground.  We go out to a wonderful steak house, similar to ruth chris, called Flemings Prime and have wonderful Filet Mignons, salads with lemon vinigarette dressing and fresh made mashed potatoes.  The dinner is fantastic.  We then walk around the little mall the restaurant is in and go to Barnes and Noble.  Joel gets the new Carl Hiacssen book,  "Bad Monkey" and I get a jigsaw puzzle of beautiful butterflies.  Nice evening. 

Saturday, another great day.  I put up some laundry and we get our corvette gussied up and head out for a car show a few miles away.  It is at a place called "Kin Dig It Designs" where they do all the custom cars.  What beautiful cars we see.  They have a big turnout and we get a free lunch, hot dogs with all the fixins, chips and drinks.  Delicious, and we stay for about 3 hours.  Home again, I am doing this blog and Joel is out talking with the neighbors.  Everyone is very friendly here.  We will be leaving tomorrow morning for Rawlings, Wyoming.  We will be there for 2 nights and then go to Buffalo Wyoming to meet our tour group.  I will keep you posted.  Meanwhile enjoy the photos of all the beautiful Mormon builds and of the car show.  The first pic is of our nice campsite, shady, we don't have to use any awnings.

RENO, NEVADA

June 10, we pull into the Bordertown Rv Park after spending the night in Cal Expo in Sacramento.  We lost our mirror as you know going through a tollbooth in California, so we are here in Reno and go to Safari Rv and order a new mirror.  They say it will take about 5 or 6 business days so we dig in for the long haul.  This park is next to a small casino and restaurant so it is not too bad.  There is beautiful landscaping in this park and northern blue grass that you want to run barefoot in.  There are hummingbirds and I am posting a picture of a big blue spruce tree which all the cardinals and two big barn owls live in.

We take a trip into Virginia City, one of the oldest silver mining towns in the United States.  Most all of the buildings have been preserved and now hold gift shops and saloon-restaurants.  We eat at the Sawdust Saloon, food so bad, it tastes like sawdust.  Most of the photos I took are of the campground and Virginia City.  Weather cool and wind blows so strong, the coach moves. 

All in all, we are here for 8 days and today the mirror came in and we went into town to get it.  We also go to a locksmith, found out we never had keys for our deadbolt and now our keys are not working in our regular door lock.  However our key fob electrically locks the door, so we will find out what is wrong with the keys another time.  Tomorrow we will set out for Utah, and stay in Elko, Nevada overnight.  We have about 5 or 6 days to get to our caravan in Buffalo, Wyoming.  Well, Joel put on the new mirror, it works electrically, and we will be sure never to go through toll booths unless we are on the WIDE lane.  So enjoy the photos, and see you soon.  Oh, by the way, the large photo of the lady in the silver dress, the dress is made completely of old silver dollars and is on display at the Silver Dollar Saloon.

SAN FRANCISCO AT LAST

It is June 7, 2013 and we just pulled in the San Francisco Rv Park in the town of Pacifica about 15 miles from San Francisco.  The weather is cloudy and extremely foggy.  We go to an italian place for pizza lunch within walking distance and then get groceries at the Safeway.  Here in california they don't use plastic bags in the supermarkets or anywhere, so we pay 10 cents each for two bags to carry our groceries.  They are a little heavier than expected, ha ha. 

We decide to tour San Francisco, tomorrow on Saturday, boy what a mistake, you can't go on weekends, the traffic is horrendous and hoardes of people.  After sitting in traffic for a long time we get down to a farmers market, fishermans wharf, and have a nice lunch at a place called "Sinbads".  As you can see by the photo Joel is happy he got to eat.  Very upscale place.  We walk around the farmers market, have never seen so many shops and stalls, inside and out and street performers.  We get home in the afternoon and have a simple dinner, sandwiches.  The great thing about the day was the weather was perfect cool and sunny.

Well, it is Sunday, and we decide to go to Muir Woods to see the giant redwoods, about 45 minutes away.  We have to cross the Golden Gate Bridge to get there.  They don't take cash so they take a picture of your license plate and will send you a bill.  I put a picture of that bridge and also the Bay Bridge where we were at the restaurant overlooking it.  Well, we manage to get almost to the redwoods, and find out their lot is filled and we have to take a shuttle there, which wasn't too bad, loads of switchbacks up and down the mountains in a BUS.  I have some nice photos of the redwoods so it was worth it.  We get back early and I make veal parmigiana and brussels sprouts for dinner.  Aah, I love my own food.

Its Monday morning and the weather is horrible, rained overnight, intense fog and biting cold, we had heat on at night.  We get an early start for Reno, and go through a toll booth we thought was wide enough, thats what we thought, a stantion breaks our passenger mirror right off, and it is hanging by a thread.  Try to drive a 65 foot motorhome and cargo trailer without a mirror on your right side.  Joel manages to get us to a Camping World in Vacaville, but they have no parts and cannot help us.  However, an rv salvage yard and repair shop in Sacramento may be able to help us, so off we go to Sacramento.  Yay, we realize we have side cameras which work with our turn signals, so the gods are with us.  We go to a rv park in sacramento to spend the night and the directions they give us are useless, so I plug in our new Gps and we get there.  Tomorrow we will go to the salvage yard and hopefully they can help us and put us on the road to Reno which is only about 2 hours away.  So enjoy these photos, the sea and shore were right behind our rv park on the top of a cliff.

YERMO, CALIFORNIA

Well, we came in yesterday on our way to San Francisco, because this campground is close to a real silvermining ghost town from the 1800's.  This Koa is a nice campground and we have a nice site with oleander bushes on one side for privacy, it is right off I-15 in and out, so it is very convenient.

This morning, Wed. June 5, we take a free shuttle over to the ghost town, it is very hot but wonderful.  We are right in the mountains which you can see by the many photos I took.  We have lunch at a wonder cafe, the town is called Calico and many veins of silver were found there.  We walk around for a while in 100 degree heat and then call for the shuttle to bring us back, all in all a nice day.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

Well, we came in on Friday May 31st and got a real nice campsite with a tree, aah.  That evening we went to Circus Circus and had a real nice buffet, nothing spectacular, fresh carved turkey, roast beef, and ham and lots of other foods and desserts.  We enjoyed the  food, went back to rig and fell into bed.

This morning I spoke to my brother Joel and my sister in law roberta(see photos) and we agreed to have them pick up up on sunday afternoon for a late lunch.  Meanwhile, I booked tickets for Cirque du Soleil "O", the aquatic show for Saturday night.  Words cannot explain this show, we sat in the front row and could almost reach out and touch the performers, high dives, acrobatics, great music, fire, water, earth, oh my, an hour and a half of pure pleasure.  Standing ovations all around. 

Sunday and Joel and Roberta just picked us up.  Loved our rig and the cat and the birds.  They are both animal lovers.  We went to Olive Garden for dinner, close by and had a wonderful time.  Then back to rig and we stayed and talked till about 7:30 pm.  We loved seeing them, it had been way too long, and I hope we will get by again.

Well, we made arrangements to see my niece Faith and her two daughters, Jacki and Traci.  Meanwhile we had lunch at the Blueberry Family Restaurant, and had a great lunch.  Faith called and said they would be over about 6:30 pm.  It was wonderful to see them all.  We went to Sam's Casino a few blocks away and went to Billy Bob's steak house, a fantastic meal and wonderful desserts.  Then the hotel had a free water and laser light show which was so great we could'nt believe it.  I think it is on youtube called mystic waters.  We didn't get back till about 10 pm.  We loved seeing them, and of course I forgot to take 1 picture, oh well. 

Oh yeah, on Monday, before we had dinner joel and I went to our favorite tv shows, Pawn Stars, Ricks Restorations, and Counts Kustoms.  If you watch ricks restorations his good lookin brother ron happened to be outside and we took pics with him.  I didn't take many pics but enjoy them.

WILLIAMS, ARIZONA, THE GRAND CANYON

Well, we arrived at the Koa campground in Williams, which is an old historic town very close to the Grand Canyon.  The campground has adequate sites and we overlook a mountain, however, hardly any trees or shrubs, water is not plentiful here.  They have to truck their water in so we have to conserve all we have, so hardly any water pressure. 

The Koa has a concierge service and sets up tours, so we decide to first take the canyon railroad train into the canyon.  I get tickets for the luxury observation dome, which has no children in it.  We sit high above the tracks and get to see the prairies and forest on the way into the canyon.  It is a two and a half hour trip each way.  They give us a continental breakfast aboard which consists of pastries, all kinds of beverages and fresh fruits.  On the way back we get cheese and crackers, fruit, vegetables and dip and champagne.  It is an enjoyable ride.  I even went to the back of the train and stood out on the open air platform and took a pic of the tracks.  Lots of fun.  When we got into the canyon we stepped out near the old time depot and walked way up to the El Tovar Hotel which has been there since the 1920's.  There are lots of trails to walk on to see the canyon, and so I took lots of pictures.  We went to lunch at the Arizona Room, at a hotel within walking distance and overlooking the canyon.  There is no bottled water for sale at the canyon but you can fill your water bottles at many sites where fresh spring water is available, cold and delicious.  Before getting on the train there was a shootout at the corral and the actors were great.  Then during the train ride, we had strolling muscians, a banjo player, and a woman accordianist.  Just before we got back into Williams bandits stopped the train and we got held up, all in good fun, just looking for dollar bills from the passengers.
All in all a fun day.

Well, get up bright and early and a van picks us up from the Allstar Grand Canyon tour company.  I arranged that the day before.  We are only 4 people on the tour so that was great.  Our guide took us into many trails to look at the canyon which a lot of people never get to see.  He brings a scope with him, so we can see down into the canyon and a tiny green dot turns out to be colorado river rapids.  We see many beautiful sights, take too many pics, so I will give you the best of the best.  He brings snacks and cold drinks for us for the trip up.  About 1 pm we set up at a picnic table near some pueblo ruins, we look at the ruins and come back to find the picnic table set with tablecloth, cloth napkins, china and silverware.  We have delicious sandwiches, pasta salad, fresh fruits and avocados, and drinks.  The we take the long way home and see the town of Sante Fe, which is beautiful,  all in all a beautiful day, we get home at 5:45 pm and go out to pizza hut for dinner.