To Arizona

TO ARIZONA
December 4, 2010


On our way through Vernon, B.C. a bad thing and a good thing happened. We got a sizeable stone in the windshield from the gravel laid on the roads after the winter storm which meant we had to stop in Kelowna for repairs. Turned out to be quick and inexpensive. The other thing that happened in Vernon was that we stopped in a store to pick up a few things. While there we bumped into people we hadn’t seen in twenty years from when we had lived in Vernon in the late 80s and early 90s. We often thought of them as Dan had worked with him and both are great people. Coffee ensued with an exchange of information and off we were laughing that those two friends could only be the ones we would encounter outside a toilet!

The drive through Washington was good until just before Moses Lake where a large storm hit the western US. Heavy snows and strong winds forced us to stop there. We were stranded the next day as well. Even the snowploughs were going off the road! When we did leave the temperature was -25C (the car did not start easily) and never got above -13C all day! Temps continued cold through Idaho (-18C) with icy roads. The weather was not helping a bad cold that Dawn had caught somewhere (we decided to blame our refound friends in Vernon). The roads improved as we approached Salt Lake City, Utah though the traffic was very heavy during the Thanksgiving weekend. The traffic speed was over 120 km per hour when suddenly the entire three lane highway came to a screaming halt. Just ahead three cars had collided which forced us all to jam on the brakes while hoping not to be rear-ended!



Utah is very arid but beautiful. Utah also has some of the most incredible scenery in world famous national parks. We detoured to visit Bryce and later Zion. Both are the result of erosion but are totally different. You look down on Bryce’s cones and steeples while you look up at Zion’s wildly colourful cliffs. Of all the natural beauty we have seen around the world, Zion may just be the most amazing. We certainly plan to spend more time in both these parks in the future. One thing that surprised us was the crush or tourists in Zion. Every turnoff, every parking area, every road was jammed. And that was the end of November. The road itself needs some care to drive being narrow, very crooked with severe drop-offs.

Then it was off to the Grand Canyon. It is as majestic as you’ve ever heard with a massive depth and width and unbelievable erosion. The Colorado River looks very small in the bottom. As impressive as the Grand canyon is from above, it may be best seen and experienced from the bottom. Finally though, the temps were nice. Though windy, +7C was in the right direction! We tried to push it through to Fountain Hills but made it as far as Sedona, about 2 hours north of Phoenix. It is a full-on tourist town with scenery to match.

The next day…ah…Fountain Hills with sunny skies and temps ranging from 18C to 25C. Hotel for two days until we could get into the condo we rented for the winter. Fountain Hills is some 20 km east of Phoenix/Scottsdale. A relatively new town of about 25,000 people with probably half being snowbirds in the winter months. It’s in the desert with dryness, cactuses of all kinds, palm trees, newer homes, rattlesnakes and a type of wild pig called Javelinas (pronounced ‘Havelinas’) which showed up just below our balcony the first evening we were in the condo. We saluted them with our glass of wine already in hand!

The road biking has already started. The off-road biking has to wait until we have our mountain bike tires “slimed”, a process using a new bead on the tire rim and a liquid to seal any small hole. The reason to do this here? Cactus needles are everywhere off-road and will flatten you in…well…no time flat.


We were posed an interesting question by our real estate/insurance contact here. One of the questions on a questionnaire was whether we had ever been arrested or had a criminal record. Before we could answer she asked if that was the reason why we were travelling so much and didn’t have a permanent home. We must have given the right answer cause no one has come to the door yet. Which, by the way, is something you prefer not to happen here. The local sheriff has a reputation for making his convicts stay in tents (remember it gets screaming hot here in the summer) and…wait for it…makes them wear pink shorts!

‘Nuff said.