Change of plan

First of all, in retrospect, the beers with dinner and the wine afterwards were maybe not such a good idea. I'm not feeling really bright and shiny today.
Secondly, our hotel name is Virgin River Casino, not Silver-something. See above for explanation/excuse.
After consulting with Rand McNally, it looks like Death Valley is do-able, but another long drive away. We've decided go to Valley of Fire state park instead, which is practically walking distance from here. I don't expect they'll have Wi-Fi, so if we're out of touch for a few days, you know why.

Snow, rain, sunshine and finally - palm trees!

We got a really late start today, mainly because we didn't really think we were going anywhere. We dilly-dallied around the hotel and then went out for a nice leisurely breakfast and before we actually decided to give the highways a try, it was after noon.

Here are some pictures around Provo this morning:

The highway was pretty crappy, but only for about an hour. The storm wasn't as bad as predicted. They were originally talking about a foot of snow, but it petered out to a few inches. We were on bare, dry pavement most of the day.

This is just a house along the way that I liked the look of.

I know the picture is blurry, but the important thing is that there is still snow on the ground only a hundred miles from Las Vegas. I know, there is snow actually IN Vegas, but this still seems wrong somehow.

Another blurry picture, but this time the important factor is the lack of snow! It disappeared as soon as we dropped down from the high plains.

And look! Palm trees! This is in Mesquite where we are staying tonight. Not exactly balmy yet, but not freakin' cold like it has been so far.

This is our hotel. The Silver something or other. It's a huge Casino complex, but it's clean, cheap and of course, dog-friendly.

This is the bottom of our bathroom door. It would appear that some people leave their dogs locked in the bathroom while they gamble in the casino.

Dan is working on the world's s-l-o-w-e-s-t internet connection. They charge $9.00/24 hrs. You can't buy less than 24 hours because they know that's how long it takes to check your e-mails... And downloading photos for a blog entry? Lots of time to finish a bottle of wine!
We've been living on fast food for a few days now, so to have a real meal in a real restaurant was a treat. Pretty good Chinese food too.
We asked the waiter to box the leftover rice for Taz and he not only put in our rice, but added some more AND some ribs from the kitchen! Lucky dog!


Not sure what our plans are for tomorrow. We're thinking Death Valley, but we haven't actually looked at a map to know if that's do-able or not. We're looking forward to being able to camp. We want to park ourselves in one spot for a least a week and veg!

Greetings from Provo, Utah

We got a late start on Tuesday. Didn't leave the city until after 1pm because we were waiting for the new tires to be installed on the van. Of course while the van was in the shop having tires put on it, we couldn't do any last minute packing. We got as far as Great Falls, Montana on Tuesday. The drive was uneventful with mostly bare & dry roads.

The high level bridge around Lethbridge.

Taz stood between us and panted non-stop all the way to the border.

We finally got sick of it and harnessed her in to the back seat where she continued to pant.

She did eventually settle down but only for a few minutes. Every time a truck passed or we hit a bump or a railway crossing she was back up and panting. She almost hung herself a couple of times when she tried to jump down. Arrived in Great Falls around 7:30 absolutely ravenous. Discovered Taco John's and practically inhaled a couple of burritos.

Checked in to the less-than-deluxe, but perfectly adequate Super 8. Somewhat sparse, but cheap and dog-friendly.
Taz approves the mattress.
Slept in until 7:30 on Wednesday and headed back to Taco John's for breakfast. Yes really!
Why you ask?
Check this out - a $20.00 fill!!!

Not too far out of Great Falls we ran into some icy patches with blowing snow so we pulled into a view point to change drivers (I'm a huge chicken on ice - at the speed I was going, it would've taken all day to get to Helena)

Nice view:

But we got stuck there for ages. For some reason, Vincent refused to shift out of park. After some bad language and stomping of brakes and ramming of the gear shift, we were finally on our way again.
Almost immediately after crossing into Idaho, the weather deteriorated. The roads got worse and the visibility was really limited in places.
It did clear up eventually though. By the time we got to Utah, it was clear sailing again. Blue skies and nice scenery.

We arrived in Provo around 8pm and checked into another Super 8. (Do they all look the same?) At least the internet works in this one. And it's even cheaper than the last one - $47.00 and no extra charge for the dog because the front desk clerk likes dogs and thinks that a $20.00 surcharge is ridiculous. She warned us that if Taz chews the furniture she'll have to charge the extra fee though. The weather forecast is dismal for the next few days. We'll see what it looks like in the morning, but we might just hunker down in Provo for a couple of days until the storm warnings subside.
We have lots of reading material, we stocked up on wine and Taz has her favourite toy so if we do end up staying here, it won't be awful.

'Twas the night before...

And all through the house are little piles of things that haven't made it out the van yet. A couple of hats and the binoculars here, the camera bag and tripod there and oh - don't forget the Milk Bones!
We're almost ready.
The heavy duty tires that were ordered 2 weeks ago are finally here, so they have to be installed before we hit the road tomorrow. We're finishing up some packing tonight and doing some last minute household stuff, but we should be on our way by mid-morning!
It's time to pack up the laptop, so ciao for now.

What's going on?

I'm really worried. The people put my stuff in a box. Then the box disappeared! All those things that they said about me being too big, and shedding too much - I thought they were kidding....

Getting excited!

Tomorrow is my last day at work. That feels really weird - but good weird! We're doing as much packing tonight as we can because the forecast for the weekend is crappy. Highs (?) of minus 23º.
So, we've packed the dog's stuff, the "pantry", the kitchen and the library so far. Just the fridge to stock, our clothes to pack and the electronic stuff to go in. (And I'm not giving up my laptop until the very last minute.)
We still don't know where we're going, but we're almost ready to leave.

Snow slows us down

The plan for today was to pack the van with everything except the perishables. Then it started to snow - and it's still snowing - and neither of us feels like going out in it. You'd think the snow would motivate us to get ready to leave, but it's having the opposite effect. It's just too depressing. Maybe later...

Meanwhile, I've managed to make a sleeping bag liner. The sewing machine & I aren't good friends at the best of times, but now the needle has decided to shift to the side making it difficult to see where I'm sewing. I managed though. In fact if I'd thought that it would go as smoothly as it did, I might have bothered to change the thread to match the sheets, but I just assumed that I'd be doing a practice run first. The hardest part was trying to stop Dan from trying to fix the machine in the middle of the project! Back off - it's working!

Huh???

Okay, I spent hours working on the entry from Chile and Easter Island. I had the pictures all nicely spaced with the descriptions at the side, but when I published it it went all higgeldy-piggeldy. (Yes, Patrick - that is a word!) Sorry, but I'm not doing it again - you'll just have to figure it out. Any tips Melody?

Chile & Easter Island

This was the luckiest vacation ever! Everything worked out exactly as we wanted it to - not an easy task considering there were 9 stand-by flights involved! As soon as we landed in Calgary we bought lottery tickets!

Here are some of the highlights:

Lesley & Dave at the airport waiting for a flight to Toronto. We had a long wait in Toronto - about 8 hours - but when you play the stand-by game you take whichever flight is available, not the one that's most convenient.

The flight from Toronto to Santiago was about 10 hours so they didn't look quite so fresh and perky at the other end.

As soon as we arrived in Santiago, we got on a bus and headed to Valparaiso. It's on the coast about an hour and a half away. This is our B&B.

Valparaiso is built on the sides of the hills so they have these funky funiculars (like elevators) dotted around town to get up and down some of the steeper areas.

The funiculars are ancient and kinda rickety and scary-looking, but they were fun to ride in.
One of the better addresses in Valparaiso.

I'm moving to Valparaiso and opening up a paint store. They love brightly coloured houses!
No, he's not a rock star or a movie idol or even a celebrity athlete (although he does look like a wrestler dude). He's just some guy who came from nothing and made a fortune in mining. Now he wants to be the president of Chile. People were lining the street for hours hoping to catch a glimpse of him. There's a "Farkas mania" throughout Chile, but most people that we talked to think he's a joke. We didn't know who he was and couldn't have cared less, but we ran in to him not once, but twice - lucky us!
Almost as rich as Farkas!

Next stop - Punta Arenas. I arrived first thing in the morning but Dan couldn't get on the flight. He tried to get on the flight that Lesley & Dave were booked on, but that was full too. Stand-by travel often relies on other peoples misfortune (missing their flights) and sometimes it takes an act of God. This time a volcano erupted spewing ash all over a runway and closing an airport midway between Santiago & Punta Arenas. 50 people on Lesley & Dave's flight had to deplane at the last minute freeing up space for Dan....another lucky break.
Then on to Puerto Natales. A 3½ hour bus ride from Punta Arenas. Gateway to Torres del Paine National Park. They say that it's usually so foggy and rainy there that most visitors don't even see the peaks of the mountains. We are lucky again - not even a breathe of wind to ripple the reflection in the lake!

Beside some icebergs calved from a glacier.

Another spectacular look at the "Towers"

We showed up at the cruise office about 6 hours before sailing on the off-chance that they might have space available at a reasonable price on the cruise that L&D were booked on. Of course they did. We got the last cabin!

Dan demonstrating the life-vests for us non-nautical types.

There was always a bar set up at the end of each excursion to serve Scotch on the "rocks" (chunks of glacier)

"Scotch on the rocks" (Carse is a Scottish name.)

A penguin colony.

One of the trickier Zodiac landings.

Another excursion, another bar.

Pia Glacier. It was cracking like thunder and pieces were falling off like crazy.

Cape Horn.

The boat docked in Ushuaia, Argentina. We kicked around Ushuaia for the day, then flew to Buenos Aires, stayed overnight, and back to Santiago, Chile the next day to catch a flight to Easter Island.

A lei greeting at Easter Island. Dan & I arrived without reservations for a place to stay because it didn't look like we would get on the flight. (We got the last 2 seats of course) The woman that owns the place that L&D were staying at took us under her wing too. Sharon took us all on a tour of Hanga Roa (the only town on the island), found us a place to stay, lined up tours, rental car, a guide and generally treated us like VIPs. If you ever go to Easter Island - look for Sharon at the T'e Ora! She's a true gem!!! And so is her business partner Kim!!!

Our first moai. This one is actually in the middle of town. Taken with the camera with the splotches on the lens because the other one broke. Sorry Melody - no good story about the camera breaking. I think it must've gotten splashed on one of our zodiac rides.

An evening's entertainment. Hunky half-naked men and gorgeous scantily-clad women. What's not to enjoy?!

Ahu Akivi.
Our first group of moai.

The top knot guy.

The quarry where the moai were carved was probably my favourite place. There were dozens of these guys scattered all over the place. They're not just heads - the rest of the body is buried.

Still at the quarry.

They're huge!

Paul is the best guide on the island. He made the history come alive because he's part of it. He's been involved in the restoration of the moai since 1968.

He also threw the itinerary out the window and passed by a couple of sites because there were bus tours there already. He got us to the next place so we had it all to ourselves, then he doubled back later to catch the places we'd missed.

Ahu Tongariki, I think.

A truly memorable trip!

P.S.

The strangest pizza ever. Basically a ham & pineapple, but with banana and maraschino cherries.