Midway Motel Caliente

... This gets exacerbated when you do find a trail but it has a name that is not even on the trail map.

Thing is, none of this mattered that much. It was a crisp, clear day and the place was deserted. I sort of followed the three ponds trail and when I lost that I just headed up a petrified dune, found the west canyon road and headed for it. From there I wandered for a half hour and eventually stumbled across the lava trail ...

... was supposed to be 2.5 miles but with our meandering ended up with about 3.5 miles. The hike was nice. Parked in the campground and climbed up a fairly steep rise to a point over the campground then descended through a small canyon to a larger canyon with a road through it back to the campground. Brochure made it sound like a nice easy hike. It was ...

... day was a little breakfast. We drove around looking for a diner and could find nothing except the place we ate last night and I felt that eatin' ther twice was a little too much like playing russian roulette with a fully loaded pistol. We opted for the blander but safer McDonalds where Dave made the observation used as the title of this blog watcing some old dude crab across the parking lot. Everybody in Yerington does seem to limp, gimp or otherwise walk gingerly. Even Dave ...

... be precise! To start, the grounds are pretty impressive....but nothing compared to the stores. This is the part of the trip Tom was dreading! A shop-a-holic + premium shopping outlets + VISA = trouble!! So many stores, so little time, but I still managed to spend a few dollars...not near as much as Tom had feared, so he was relieved. Coach, J. Crew, Rockport, Gucci.....oh my! We had lunch out in the outlet courtyard ...

... to Las Vegas was about 5 hours. Add on that hour we had on the tarmac and that makes it 6 hours sitting in a plane! Uggh! Tom slept through the safety demonstration...again...but was awake during the rest of the flight! The descent into Las Vegas was EXTREMELY rocky! We hit a huge bump at one point and everyone went WOOOOH! The pilot said that there were really high winds from the West and since Las Vegas is surrounded by mountains it makes for a ...

... The steps too followed the corner of the pyramid down. And just like the luck we were having gambling, we found that as soon as we got down it was safe to go back up. I always thought that Vegas was a bad idea anyway, tomorrow we're off to the Grand Canyon, of course I'd like to get to The Narrows, but based on our time commitments I don't think we'll have time to get there AND see the big hole in the ground. From Bethany: Staying at ...

... to eat and Jade loved the crab despite having an allergy. View from the top of the Stratosphere tower, showed us that Vegas is bigger than what it looks. It stretches for miles. Just working through the streets looking at all the casinos is spectacular. Walking through the Venetian, watching the Volcano at the Mirage or the trapeze show at Treasure Island was a treat. No millions were won, but we love VEGAS!!!

... flooding is a major deal in a lot of these parks and they cause major havoc in canyons and can approach without warning except for a big sound coming toward you. When we got out of the canyon we hitched a ride back to fruita as we had started out there. The next morning we packed up and drove back to our country-bumkin mechanic who was really slow, but friendly. He changed out the fuse in 3 moves and then we were charge $75!!!!!! Oh well at least we got free popcorn.

... into rock, rose up by 6000 feet along with most of mid West America and turned on it's side - I said it was complicated! Next, we drove many more miles to the Canyonlands / Arches National Park area. Wow! Out of endless boring scenery you come upon amazing canyons and crevices, red sandstone cliffs and gullies, and the most beautiful red sandstone arches. We hiked, clambered over many rocks, saw stunning Arches, Mesas, buttes (yes, really) and needles. We even got up before sunrise (it ...

DD and DS stayed in Vegas with the family while DH and I drove SS to a ski trip outing he had at Brian Head. The drive was nice. We got him settled in with his group at The Lodge at Brian Head and then DH and I went skiing. The skiing was ok. Came back to the lodge and had a great nosh dinner (bar food) in the lounge in front of the fireplace. Then DH and I drove back to Vegas.