Okay...I know I lied but internet is hard to come by these days...good internet that is. Where were we...
We made it to Cortez,Colorado. We drove through Durango on our search for a good campground and ended up in Cortez, in another Walmart parking lot. This time we parked at the back of the lot away from the entry. Much quieter. I slept, which Donovan will tell you is a good thing. The next morning we went to Mesa Verde National Park. We drove up to a really high level...I got a little altitude sick but whatever, we were in Mesa Verde. National Geographic ranked it as one of the top 10 places on earth to visit. I don't really blame them. Super Cool!!!!! We got the boys some little Junior Rangers vests...the sweetest. Now they have a place to put all the badges that they earn while we visit National Parks and Monuments. We walked down to the tree house. A little village from about 1300 years ago. Ah-maz-ing!
After we had a too quick of a visit we headed off for Moab,Utah. The drive was kinda boring except for the weird town names and yards full of old dead cars. Then we got close to Moab. WOW! Massive red rock mesas and hoodoos. Insanely cool and kinda extraterrestrial looking. Donovan needed to have internet access close by so we ended staying at an RV park in town. $50 a night! You have got to be kidding me. Does it come with babysitting and laundry service? No, okay. One night please. Moab is full of self-important trust fund babies. It is beautiful, but the people...and by people I do not mean locals, but other tourists are those people I hate. Young and full of potential but would rather let daddy or the government pay for them to bike all day. They think they are entitled to be lazy. Anyhoo, enough of that. The next morning, we went on a campground scouting trip and found a lovely spot beside the Colorado River nestled between the red rock walls of the Arches National Park. National Forest Services run it...no hookups but $6 a night. And close to town so that D could run in to use the internet daily. That is way more our style. Unfortunately for us, the weather decided to lower itself significantly and thunderstorms rolled in. (I love thunderstorms. Aidan woke up with the noise and got to watch the storm with us. It was the first time he has seen lightning.) Thankfully, we have propane heat. Unfortunately for us, the propane needs battery power to run. Our battery decided to die in the middle of the night. BRRRRR! Not exactly the best way to wake up. Okay, coffee and battery run. We stayed in that lovely little spot for almost a week. We went to the Arches National Park and got caught up on some schoolwork. We then decided to take the long drive to St. George in the Southwest corner of Utah. Apparently, all the snowbirds heading south for the winter had the same idea so we ended up in Hurricane,a short drive away.
Hurricane is pronounced Hurcun. The next town over is Le Verkin. Hahaha. Sorry, can't help myself. We stayed at Sand Hollow State Park. They have lizards and snakes. We stayed there anyways. The first day we were there we drove into Washington,Utah so D could get some work done. I took the boys to a nearby park where they made Mesa Verde in the sandbox. I think they might actually be learning things. YAY! The next day, which was Halloween, we drove to Zion National Park. On the way, we found an apple orchard where we could pick our own apples. Yummers. The park was stunning! We drove up through a switchback through a really long tunnel that we carved out in 1904. It even had viewing windows carved out. Really cool, a little creepy but I am trying to suck up many of my fears and just go with it. Then we hiked the Emerald Pool trail. It was well worth the exercise. Back to Hurcun to go trick or treating. The boys dressed up as Junior Rangers in their cute vests. We did pretty well...Asher got pretty mad when people kept calling him a fisherman but soon forgave them when they gave him candy. He is easy to appease.
We decided to head towards the Grand Canyon the next day. We made it to Cameron,Arizona. A blink of a town just to the east of the Grand Canyon. Full hookups,no internet. $15, sounds good to us. By the time we got to Cameron it was dark and very windy. We set up,had sandwiches for dinner and went to bed. Everybody went to bed that is except me. It was sooo windy that I kept thinking that we were going to land in Munchkinland. For reals. I woke Donovan up in the middle of the night to pull the pullouts in so we would be less aerodynamic. Thankfully, that worked.
Next day, Grand Canyon! When people talk about the Grand Canyon, they tell you how incredible it is. They are not exaggerating in any way. Gobsmacked. Go if you haven't. We stayed at the National Park campground. Very nice campground with very narrow roads and tiny sites. Donovan has mastered driving the beast so with a little manoeuvring the beast fit. We went to Visitors centre. Such a tourist trap. Anything that you could possibly want with the Grand Canyon on it could be yours for a price. We caught one of the free shuttles over to the geology museum. The geology museum had a lovely view of the canyon. We then took the shuttle back to the truck and headed to the little town nearby to check out the internet situation. The next day, we took the shuttle to Hermits Point. The western most part of the park that you can get to from the South Rim. We got of at Powell Point and hiked to Hopi Point. Trails that overlook the canyon. With no fences or railings. One false move. Not my favourite. Beautiful but very tense hike. We got back on the shuttle and got ice cream at Hermits Point. Better. We hit the art gallery on the way back. Aidan,Kiran and I were very inspired by the views and that night got work creating some lovely pastel drawings of the canyon. The boys pictures are now adorning the walls of Terry. It feels more like home now. Kiran decided that he wanted to spend his 7th birthday in Las Vegas. Perfectly suiting for a 7 year old, no?
Off to Vegas we go. We stopped in Boulder City to check out the visitor centre to get some info on the campground situation in Sin City. That night we stayed at Lake Mead National Recreation Area. A little far from Vegas so we decided to get closer to the strip and are now staying at Sam's Town. Close but not too close. They have a shuttle to take us to the strip. I have never had any desire to visit Las Vegas. It is crazy. Way crazier than I even imagined it would be. I think that I would have enjoyed this city in a previous life...prior to kids. It is really quite something to see. Not sure that it will be a future destination but glad that I came and saw it. We took the boys to the “Strip”. We started at Ceasers Palace and walked around for a few hours. The boys were in awe as was I. Donovan has been here before on a business trip so he was just soaking in our reactions. Vegas is not as cheap as I thought that it would be. 3 Hot Dogs and 4 lemonades was $31. Donovan asked the guy at the counter if he was serious. Missed the shuttle back to Sams Town or should I say it never showed up so we people watched for 90 minutes waiting for the next one to show up. At least we could see the Bellagio fountain show,sort of, from where we were. Sunday was Kirans birthday. We went to see Puss n Boots in 3D as per the birthday boys request. It was also Ashersfirst movie in the big theatre. It was great. We all enjoyed it and we also enjoyed the fact that Asher sat still for an hour and a half. We then caught the shuttle to the “Strip”. We walked down towards MGM to see M&M World. It was awful. They wanted $13 a pound for some cute coloured ones. Ya, we didn't get any. The boys settled for small dispenser type thingies. We then walked next door to see the lions at MGM Grand. I felt bad for those poor pretty lions in a glass box. Next up, walking by New York,New York. Then Ashers favourite, Excalibur. He thought the castle was just so cool. We were getting hungry by then so we decided to try the buffet at the Excalibur. If you know me at all, I HATE buffets. They are by far the grossest way to eat a meal. Sneeze guards. Nuff said. After we stuffed ourselves full of bland, standard food we walked to the Luxor so Aidan could see the Sphinx and the Pyramid. We then walked all the way back to Bill's to catch the shuttle back to Sam's Town. We only had like half an hour to get from the Luxor to Bill's. Not an easy task with three whiny tiny legged little boys. We actually made it with a couple minutes to spare but as we were coming down the escalator from Caesars to Bills the shuttle drove by. Crap! Now we have to book it to Harrahs because the shuttle stops there for 15 minutes before heading home. My kids were rock stars as D and I dragged them from one end of Vegas to the other. We made the shuttle thanks to a cute security guard who took us straight to the shuttle spot. The next day we planned to take the boys to the Shelby Manufacturers tour. We missed it the tour due to temper tantrums from brat squad during schoolwork. So after the boys simmered down, we took them to a chocolate factory tour. It sucked but they had a really cool cactus garden there so we learned about different cacti. We then got Sam to navigate us around town to find a generator. We found one at Camping World. It went on sale the next day. Figures. Back the next day to get the generator but first we made it to the Shelby tour. The boys were in heaven. So was my step dad who sent us his wish list when he found out where we were going. We went home after to try out the generator and have some down time. After some downtime we went out in search of some food. We wound up driving to Fremont Street to see old Vegas and then down the “new” strip until Asher fell asleep. Quiet time in Vegas. On the strip. Funny how a three year old can be louder than Vegas.
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