Today, Tuesday,  was our departure day from spending 5 days in SLC.  We got a little later start than usual at 9 AM.   And just as we were getting in the car to depart, big raindrops were beginning to fall.

We drove about 550 miles to Sidney Nebraska and arrived about 6:30 PM.   We had mostly rain, heavy at times, to about Laramie,  Wyoming.   After Laramie it was mostly cloudy with just a few sprinkles from time to time.

When we arrived in Sidney, we checked onto the hotel (another Best Western) and then went out to get wine to go with dinner from our supplies in the room.  We found a geocache near the Cabela’s store just across the parking lot.  We also walked around the small lake Cabela’s has for holding classes.

I have to say that of the hotel/motel chains we used on this trip, we have been happiest with Springhill Suites (Marriott) and Best Western.  Comfort Inns (& Suites) have also been pretty good.  They meet our travel needa best at reasonable prices.

Tomorrow is another 600 mile day.  Hoping we can avoid the severe weather we’re seeing on the Weather Channel!

Today, Monday, was our last day in SLC visiting Jeannie, Mark and Riley.  We visited Sego Lilly Gardens this morning in hopes of getting a few good pictures.  It was too windy to get many, but we had a nice walk around the gardens anyway.

After lunch, we decided on a hike to see a waterfall that was a short hike–up all the way (but only 0.25 mile each way).  Once again, gravity works…  The falls were pretty small this time of the year.

Jeannie and Riley took this hike with us.  Riley had some homework for which this hike made a good event.  He is studying to be a computer video game developer at the University of Utah.  He had to make some videos as a class assignment.  I was after the waterfall.

We were just finishing up some photography at the falls when a check of the Raindar app on the smartphone indicated a fast moving rain storm was less than 15 minutes away!  We just barely made it to the car when the rain began.  Lucky, I guess!

We returned to Jeannie’s and decided to go the The Bohemian restaurant and brew pub for a nice dinner on our last day in town.  Then it was time to say our good-byes and get back to the hotel to finish up our return trip planning, work on some photos for competition and organize our packing for tomorrow’s departure.

Another great day on our grand adventure!

Our Sunday continued with a hike to Cecret Lake in Little Cottonwood Canyon.   1 mile each way with a 420 feet elevation gain/loss.  Gravity works in both directions!  Jeannie came along for the fun and enjoyment.

Joyce found a cache up there to no one’s surprise.   We got back to Jeannie’s about 7:15.  We fired up the grill for steaks and enjoyed another nice evening visiting with Jeannie and Mark.

Time for nighty night and who knows what tomorrow will bring for fun.

Missed posting yesterday again!  Just too many things happening to pause for an update!

So, Saturday we had made a plan to take Jeannie, Riley and his girlfriend Tia to see the Video Games Live concert with the Utah Symphony.  This was a 11 AM show and we took the light rail Trax downtown.  The concert seemed to be in conjunction with Comic Con and there were a lot of costumed folks on the train and around downtown.  Very interesting!  And the combination music and video made for and interesting performance.

After the show we returned to Jeannie’s for dinner and a movie (pizza & Wall-E).  Then to the Springhill Suites for the night.

Sunday morning was a great breakfast with Pat & Tim Coffey at the Silver Fork Lodge in Big Cottonwood Canyon near Salt Lake City.  We had great views and conversation catching up in person instead of by facebook and email.

On the way down the mountain J&G stopped to collect two geocaches at the bottom of the canyon. Then we did some shopping I. Walgreens and got a car wash to remove road dirt from the Copper Cache Rover.  We then made a stop at the Sego Lilly Gardens to check on their hours for a later visit.  Closed they were on Sunday, but a geocache we have looked for on two previous trips was still haunting us.  Since there were no muggles around we decided to take make another search.  Success!

On to Jeannie’s to make some plans for the rest of the day.

A delay in posting!

Yesterday we got up pretty early so we could take a ranger led hike to the Kayenta Trail at 9 AM.  We got on the shuttle bus around 8 and made one stop at the Court of the Patriarchs to photograph them in the early morning light.  The better photos were rhe cacti with the purple fruit prominent.   Baxk to the bus to get to the Grotto stop for the hike.

Ranger Kim Diamond arrived at 9 and off we went.  This was the best trail we took in the park as it was not all paved like many of the others. Ranger Kim discussed various plants and animals in a most humerous,  but educational way.  She left us at the top to make our own way back down.  The scenery and light on the way up was nice so we decided to return the same way.  Besides,  we had done the other aide down the day before.

We needed to be on the road at 11 AM for the day’s 350 mile drive to Salt Lake.  Mostly we drove to make time and got to our hotel around 4:30 PM.  This gave us a chance to unload the car and get a few things accomplished before going to Jeannie’s for dinner.  Unfortunately we got absorbed and let the time slip up on us.  Just as we were in the car with motor running,  we received the “where are you” call!

Had a nice visit and dinner of pot roast except that I had a GERD attack that kept me leaving the table.  We left around 9:30 for the hotel.  After about an hour, it was time to seek out an emergency room for treatment-successful avoiding more advanced care.

Friday we had a plan to see the new Mormon temple in Ogden and get a cache in Idaho.  The temple visit had to be canceled because of the late night on Thursday.   So we started a little later for the drive to Bear Lake and on to Idaho.  A beautiful ride with our elder daughter Jeannie!  Some great scenery with leaves just beginning to change at higher altitudes.

Had a great milk shake ( raspberry for Gary & Jeannie, banana for Joyce) made with fresh fruit at Merlin’s diner.

Visited Wyoming twice-once by incorrect reading of signs and maps!   Returned to Jeannie’s about 8 PM for pizza and a movie.

Made plans for Saturday to see the Video Games Live event in SLC at Abravanel Hall with the Utah Symphony.

No photos today!

This morning was an opportunity to photograph the features near the Museum in Zion National Park at sunrise.  The alarm went off at 5:25 AM and we got dressed and drove to the museum parking lot to get their early.  We were the first to arrive!

Tripod, camera and cable release set up and beginning about 6:15 started taking photographs of the well known features at this location including West Temple,  Sundial and Altar of Sacrifice.  One can sense the Mormon influence in the naming of the features in this park.  Also, the Beehive formation later as sun touched the rocks.

Breakfast was put on hold until about 7:30.  The Best Western Zion Park Inn had arguably the best breakfast included in the room rate.  Full buffet and good coffee!

We decided on a couple of hikes for the day.  First up was the Menu Falls (about 2 miles)  located between the Big Bend and the Temple of Sinawava shuttle stops.  The bus doesn’t let people off at that location, so we had to walk (hike) up the road from Big Bend about  mile to get to the short walk up to the falls.  They were pretty small this time of the year, but will make a good image when we get time to download, categorize and process the images from this entire trip!  After photographing the falls, we walked up to the Temple of Sinawava shuttle stop for a ride back down the canyon to the Zion Park Lodge.

At the Lodge we took the hike to the Emerald Pools–both the lower and middle. (  We were disappointed at the findings at the destinations (2.5 miles), but the hike up was very nice.  Saw a couple of falls, although they were smaller so late in the summer.  Have some interesting photos of the spray from the falls being blown by the wind.  This was considered a moderate hike.  Since it was close to noon, we had some crackers and water for lunch.  This after that great (big) breakfast earlier in the morning.

After this hike, we caught the shuttle to the park history museum where was soaked up the air conditioning, got some water refills and watched the 22 minute video about the park.  I think my oboe teacher from Salt Lake City (Holly Gornik) was the oboe and English horn player on the music in the film.  The credits were for winds from the Utah Symphony.

Gary needed a nap after all this effort and the early morning!  We retired to our hotel room for a few hours.  We had made dinner reservations at the Red Rock Grill in the Zion Park Lodge to celebrate Joyce’s birthday.  We arrived just in time and were seated outside on the deck.  Great views and nice weather!

After dinner we attended the Ranger talk on the night sky.  This was so different that expected.  She talked about light pollution, where we could still see the night sky and how some places are working toward becoming a certified linternational dark sky community.

This was a great day in Zion NP.  Tomorrow we plan a few early photo ops and then a Ranger led walk Kayenta Trail starting from the Grotto trail head.  Then we’re off to Salt Lake City!

I slept late this morning,  so we didn’t leave Henderson,  NV until about 9 AM.  We opened our bottle of champagne last night  to celebrate the end of the road achieved earlier in the day and this might have xontributed to the late start to the day. Our drive took us through the Lake Mead Recreation Area for about 45 miles. First time ever in this federally managed area. Once again our senior passes saves us an entry fee.  What beautiful scenery!  Red rocks and yellow rocks and many mountains to see. Not too many towns along this route.   The largest, Overton NV, was at the end just before the junction with I-15 that we had to take to get to Zion.  Here the Murano turned over 100,000 miles! Even I-15 had great scenery in this part of the country.   We passed through 3 states-NV, AZ & UT.  Sort of like being back in Delaware!  We stopped for lunch in St. George, UT.   I was really surprised at the urban sprawl and its accompanying traffic headaches. We exited the interstate a few miles past St. George and gradually made our way to smaller and smaller number of lanes and traffic signals on our way to Springdale,  UT just outside Zions where we had reservations at another Best Western.  Immediately aftwr checking in, we headed for the park to make plans for our day tomorrow.  Took the shuttles to the last stop and took a hike of 5 miles along the river to the famous Narrows. Got the shuttle down and stopped at Weeping Rock and took another hike of about 1 mile.  Shuttle once more to the History Museum to check out the views for tomorrow morning’s photo op at sunrise. Enjoyed dinner from our supplies on the balcony at the end of the hall near our room.  Saw bats flitting about getting their dinner too. Earl(ier) to bed tonight hopefully.

Well, we got an early stat today (8 AM) as we wanted to see the other side of Joshua Tree National Park. We drove from the East entrance to the West entrance a distance of about 12 miles.  Our objective was to visit the “Hidden Valley” area.  We arrive at the parking area about 9 AM and got our water and hiking poles for the one mile loop trail.  Back around 10  AM.  It was a nice walk and before the heat of the day!

Joyce in a tree!

Joyce on a rock.

We made a decision to cut off a few miles of the historic route 66 so we could make it to Glendora, CA instead of San Bernadino.  Upon exiting JTNP, we took CA-247 NW to Barstow and reconnected with 66.  Granddaughter Leah would really have like to travel this road!  She likes traveling over the hills where you defy gravity for a fraction of a second.  This road was rolling hills over the undulating terrain of the Mojave desert.  It was a beautiful drive!

Barstow at 11:30 AM.  We tried to find a geocache here, but were unsuccessful.  Did get some photos of a Harvey House hotel and an old iron bridge still in service today.  Other places we passed through were:

Lenwood
Hodge
Helendale

Just before reaching Oro Grande, we paced a BNSF train for a couple of miles.  Joyce couldn’t resist rolling down the window and waving at the engineer until she got a toot from the train’s horn.  What fun!
Oro Grande (here we stopped to take some photos of a place that had been there since 1929–the Iron Hog Saloon.  We didn’t go in!!

Victorville (got lost in this town due to unclear instructions and heavy traffic.  a small detour got us back on track.  We had to take about 20 miles of I-15 after Victorville)

Between Victorville and San Bernadino we exited to take an older section of 66 through the mountains.  It was an area called the Blue Cut and was built as a 4 lane in 1931 and was an improvement over the earlier alignment.  We found a virtual geocache there.  When we got ready to return to I-15 the on ramp was closed and we had a detour.  This required a return to I-15N for about 10 miles to get back on (-15S.  Construction!

San Bernadino resulted in a visit to McDonalds–something Joyce swore she’d never do, but in this case insisted that we stop.  Of course, this was the original site of the McDonalds restaurant.

Rialto (passed the other Wigwam Motel without hardly blinking!)
Fontana (saw Bono’s Historic Orange  (shaped) drink stand.  Closed.)
Rancho Cucamanga
Upland (we stopped for a Buffalo Burger at the Buffalo Inn)
Claremont

Driving across the desert one is reminded of how large the country is. There were many changes in the scenery and vegetation as we made our way.  Traffic was never a problem until we got to the larger cities.  Then urban sprawl and heavy traffic made for slow driving.  Another thing, you don’t have to mow lawns out in the desert!  Of course, I can’t imagine what possesses people to live in this environment anyway.  I’m sure they would say the same about Wilmington though.

We had wind in our hair most of the morning and only switched to A/C around 2 PM for a while.  Later in the day (after dinner at the Buffalo Inn) we changed back to wind in our hair.  It was nice driving in the morning and early evening.

Glendora was the stop for the night.

Tomorrow we get to Santa Monica and the end of Route 66.  We plan on starting our return drive almost immediately.  We still have no plan for that part of the journey other than we will be in Salt Lake City to visit with Jeannie, Mark and Riley for a few days.

Yesterday we drove 230 miles, today only 90 but we ended ip the same place we started!  We decided on two  nights in Twentynine Palms,  CA so we could recover from the Desert Rat Day’s activities and the late arrival.  This was an easy day.

Most of the morning we spent in Joshua Tree National Park.  What was really amazing os the stark change in the plants between the Mohave Desert and the Colorado Desert that come together in the park. We stopped on the visitor center on the way back.  Made good use of our national parks senior pass again.

There was a BBQ place in town. Stopped in for lunch to get Joyce her fix.  The first since Santa Fe! Had enough left over for dinner tonight.  Since it was 103 today this afternoon we caught up on managing the many photos taken on the trip in the A/C.

We discovered another local find on our way out of the park.  A local astronomy club had established an observatory just outside the north entrance.  We stopped in to check it out and there was actually someone onsite since it was Saturday.  We were waved over by Mike who was proud to show us around and talk about their future plans to build a 300 seat observatory.  He was especially interested in explaining the “orrery” they have constructed.   An orrery is a mechanical model of the solar system the illustrates the relative positions of planets and other heavenly bodies.  See www.skysthelimit29.org for information.

We returned to Joshua Tree National Park near sunset to take a few more photos.  Arrived a little late, so am not expecting the images to be very good.  On our way back we atopped at the observatory for their Saturday evening telescope sky viewing program.

zzz zzz…..  on the road tomorrow!