Yikes, it’s been almost 4 months since we last updated our post and a lot has happened in that time.  We arrived safely to our rv site in Edmonton on the 10th of April.  Though the site had been plowed out, Edmonton experienced snow for a few days afterwards, and we arrived to an almost clear site.  Bryan had to go around the rv park to find a shovel and cleared out a little more snow.   We settled in nicely, and Carol started to work at the golf course shortly after arrival.  Bryan started on the job search, which became quite a long quest.  Apparently, the economy in Alberta faltered while we were away and instead of the “if you are breathing, you are hired” mentality, Bryan was faced with “you are over qualified for this position” mentality.  Thirty plus resumes, five phone calls and four interviews later, he did finally land a job and started on May 19th.  With both of our shifts being strange, to say the least, we seldom had time to do the visiting we had promised ourselves.  We did find time to plant a small garden near the end of May, Yum fresh veggies, we could hardly wait.  Mother Nature had other plans, and on July 1st we experienced a frost that killed the beans and nipped the potatoe plants, which put them behind.  Fortunately, the rest of the garden was hardy enough to survive the destruction.   On the 21st of May our Grand-daughter Alaynna graduated from high school in Medicine Hat, and with Bryan’s new job he wasn’t able to get the time off, but Carol drove down with Jeanette and Madison (other daughter and grand daughter) and proudly watched her walk across the stage to be awarded her diploma.   Without being prejudiced, we think that Alaynna was the prettiest graduate on the stage.  Carol also has had the chance to watch Madison riding, and we both are looking forward to watching Nicholas play football.  Life has settled into a routine but we did manage to visit some of our friends and relatives in between working our shifts.  Bryan’s cousins and aunt came to Edmonton, and we were able to visit with them plus many of the relatives that we had not had the chance to see earlier.  We do regret not updating the blog earlier, but hope now to keep it current.

Last night we made it as far as Helena, another long day.  We got up early this morning, once again, knowing that we had about 4 hours ahead of us before we reached the border. As we got closer to the border there were signs along the road saying the border crossing can be busy during peak hours, be prepared for a delay.  Being cocky, we thought, just how busy can it be, we should be ahead of the rush leaving that early.  As we crested the hill going into Sweetgrass we had to slow down and then stop.  Apparently a lot of snowbirds had the same idea and got up earlier than us, the line up was over 1/2 mile long and it was just creeping along.  Two hours and ten minutes later we finally crossed the border and about an hour later we were in Lethbridge.  Karen and the girls (Alyanna and Kelsey) drove in from Medicine Hat for a visit and brought supper with them.  We were sure glad to see them again.

Wow, it’s hard to believe that we are on our way home after being away for almost 4 months.  We checked today’s weather forecast to see what lay ahead of us, and all seemed good so we headed north.  The drive was uneventful, other than there are a lot of Albertans heading home, we passed quite a few and some passed us.  When we stopped in Ogden, Utah for the night four rigs followed us in.  As we were sitting and relaxing, one of the campers (not an Albertan) came out with his pet cockatoo and brought her over for us to see.  Her name is Peaches, she is quite friendly and Cody didn’t even seem to bother her.  We hope to get as far as Helena, Montana tomorrow, but will keep you all posted on our trip.

What a difference a night makes.  It is cool and windy here, but the sun is shining and the clouds are high, white and fluffy.  We had breakfast, then got ready to move to our new site for the night.  It really didn’t take too long to move and set up once again.  Bryan wanted to take the trip back up the scenic byway we had driven down the other day, so he could stop and enjoy the view and go through the tunnels once again.  The day stayed bright and clear and we got out at a few view points to explore and enjoy the view.  We then drove back past our RV park and found a store called the Virgin Trading Post where we stopped and wandered around before heading back home.  Another perfect day.

We woke up to the sound of wind blowing, rain on the roof and a cool morning.  We spent the morning quietly then decided that a little weather wasn’t going to stop us from sight seeing.  We hopped into the truck and went looking for awesome scenery and found it.  We took the Zion Canyon scenic tour, 6 1/2 miles into the canyon, stopped and went on a 2 mile hike into to where the canyon starts to narrow.   The Zion Canyon is incredibly beautiful even with the rain and cloudy skies.   The cliffs seemed to reach towards the sky with no end, the water falls seemed to fall from the middle of the cliff with no befinning, the Virgin River winding beside the trail made this day perfect.  Once back home, we changed our plans and decided to stay here one more night to ride out the snow storms happening along our route home.  The downside is that we will have to move to a different spot in the morning.

The last couple of days we relaxed and got things ready for another day of travelling.  Today we left Camp Verde at 8:00 am (yup, we finally left when we said we were going to) and headed north towards Zion National Park in Utah.  The countryside is ever changing with the sameness of the plains, the beauty of the rugged red cliffs, coral colored sand dunes and canyons.  We are so blessed that we have been able to see this incredible scenery and are looking forward to exploring the Zion National Park.  The highlight of our day was when we took the scenic byway to Virgin, Utah and found out that we would have to drive through 2 tunnels, one we could get through easily, the other, park rangers had to stop on coming traffic so we could drive down the middle of the mile long tunnel.  This tunnel is 13′1″ high in the middle (our trailer is 12′ 10″ high), runs down hill and we had to navigate curves while in it.  The rest of the highway was narrow with hairpin curves and steep drop offs.  When we reached our desitination, Zion River Resort, Carol had to pry her fingers off the door rest and thanked her lucky stars that Bryan was driving.

This morning we got an early start and  knowing it would be a long day, Cody came with us, much to her dismay.  She has become a homebody dog and not as much of a travelling dog as she used to be.  We started towards the Grand Canyon and took a 36 mile side trip to see the Sunset Crater Volcano and the Painted Desert in the distance.  The volcano erupted about 900 years ago and the devastation is still visible today with the lava flows and cinders the main scape of this area.  The ground cover is black with a few trees dotted through out the mountain side and surrounding area.  We got out of the truck and wandered through a small area to see up close how it must  have looked years ago.  Our side trip continued and took us past more ruins and at last the painted desert was visible miles away.  The near landscape is in greens of the trees, reds and yellows of the fore ground and in the distance the painted desert looked pink.  Once again we were on the highway driving towards the Grand Canyon.  We have never been there before and don’t know what to expect.  Cody has been dejected, sitting in the back seat, and even with walks her demeanor hasn’t brightened.  Poor girl.  Finally we arrived at the Grand Canyon and stopped at the Watch Tower viewpoint on the south rim in the National Park, the first of many we stopped at along the way.  Cody came with us to experience our first sight of the Grand Canyon.  Words fail us.  It is breathtaking.  Each stop along the way was more breathtaking.  It everything that we have read and heard about.  The trip back home was anti-climatic.   The day was long, but rewarding.

We had another wonderful day and we think it even topped yesterday.  Our first stop was to Montezuma Castle National Monument, a cliff dwelling that was constructed around 1100 AD by the Sinagua Indians and it is still a mystery why they left the area around 1400 AD.  It is thought to be the best preserved cliff dwelling in America.  Not only did it house 250 people, they managed to build a canal system along the Beaver River to irrigate their crops.  The dwelling sits high along a cliff wall and was accessible by ladders.  We had only walked 1/3 of a mile and stepped back into the past.  Since the tour didn’t take as long as we expected we started planning the rest of the day.  We had read about a small mining town, Jerome, built half way up the Mingus Mountain and thought it was worth investigating.  The highway took us through some small towns and then we started to climb and climb along switchbacks to reach Jerome.  The town buildings sit precariously on the side of the mountain, the main road is narrow and winds through the town in hairpin curves.  In order to walk from one street to another, steep stairs are placed between buildings.  At one time Jerome was the 3rd largest city in Arizona and had a population of over 15,000 with mining the main industry.  We stopped and wandered through some unique shops, had an ice cream cone then headed down the mountain side.  With some sunlight left, we decided to head back towards Sedona to view the scenery once again.  We can’t imagine how anyone ever would get tired of seeing the rugged red rocks and steep cliffs in the area. 

This has been such a wonderful day.  We left early (for us) and drove north so we could start the scenic loop to Sedona.  The landscape changed as we got into higher elevations and if we didn’t know any better we would have thought we were in the Rockies in Alberta.  There was snow in the ditches, pine trees lining the road and of course we could see mountains in the distance with snow capped peaks.  As we started down highway 89A south to Sedona with our elevation at about 7000 ft,  it was hard to believe that the forest we drove through on the narrow winding highway was in Arizona.  Our first stop was at Oak Creek Vista to overlook the canyon we would be driving down in to.  The scenery was breathtaking and hard it’s hard to describe the beauty.  Our journey took us down into the canyon and into Sedona where we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the town.  It is a unique town with the buildings mostly in the pinkish red color to blend in with the surrounding rocks and the town doesn’t have any tall signs, the businesses aren’t allowed to erect any signs taller than their buildings and the buildings are mostly one story. 

Today we packed up, left Lake Havasu early in the morning and headed towards Camp Verde in Northern Arizona.  We decided not to take the interstate most of the way and were amazed at how many RV parks there are in the small towns along the way, a lot seemed to be placed in the middle of nowhere.  We got a laugh when we saw the sign ”You are Now Beyond Hope” when we left the small town of Hope, Az and were sorry we didn’t see it soon enough to take a picture.  We arrived in Camp Verde early afternoon, found Distant Drums RV Resort and after we got set up, we went into town hunting for a grocery store to stock up our larder.  We are planning on coming back to town and wander around a bit.  It has a lot of character and we think it will be interesting to spend a little more time there.