Utah Roadtrip: The Wrap-Up

After the intense heat at Zion, we were more than ready to find a cool place for a late-late lunch or and early dinner before falling into bed at the Hampton Inn in St. George, Utah.  We found an Olive Garden just down the street from the motel, enjoyed a healthy meal, and checked in and out!

Thursday morning, we headed toward the border, stopping once at an Indian Reservation for me to get one more little piece of Indian jewelry before we headed on south.  I enjoyed watching the older women making things as I made my choice. 

As we crossed into Arizona, the air hazed over, probably some from the forest fire that continues to rage.  We continued to the Welcome station for Nevada at Mesquite.  We had time to do at least one "tourist" thing in Nevada.  When we were there in 1969, Klep had wanted to go to Hoover Dam, but we didn't because of time and our route.  Now there is a new bridge that my engineer also wanted to see.  By the time we got through North Las Vegas and to the Hoover Dam in Boulder City, the temperature was already over 110.

We were amazed with the number of people who were spending their fourth of July to visit Hoover Dam.  There were serveral tour buses parked in the rather large lot and the rest of the lot was full of private vehicles.  We opted not to add ourselves to the hoards of people, so we drove back by the lake and headed to our final destination, Las Vegas.

Late afternoon was spent printing off boarding passes for the trip home, finding a donation box for the trip pillows, cleaning out the rental car, packing the suitcases, getting liquids and gels ready for TSA, and disposing of the leftover bottled water and ice chest.  The desk clerk at Hampton Inn was glad to take both.  We found a restaurant open on the 4th and had supper.  It was actually pretty good Chinese.  Klep's Kung poa chicken was full hot.  Since we had an early flight Friday morning, we considered finding some show to go to, but decided against it.  We were asleep early.

Friday morning we were out of the hotel shortly after six.  We returned the red Dodge Journey to Avis, rode the shuttle to the air port, and stood in line for 45 minutes as we cleared security.  Our flight was a little late leaving, and we weren't able to make up any time because of the weather front that we entered somewhere around the Mississippi River.  Our flight out of Atlanta was over an hour late leaving.  By the time we lifted off from Atlanta, the weather had pretty much cleared over Georgia.  We had s very quick flight to Valdosta where the flight attendant gave me a set of wings for my birthday which arrived shortly after we landed.

By the time we opened the back door and walked into the house, we had traveled over 7200 miles.  We saw a lot of beautiful sights and some glorious rock formations.  Many times, we get home from a trip (like Alaska) and think we would like to go back.  This time, we feel like we pretty much saw what Utah had to offer.  We are glad we went.  We had a wonderful time, but we do not feel we want to go again.
Favorite accommodations:  Cabin at Bryce