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This year's trip to Las Vegas was totally different, we drove. It was a two day drive down and back. Cheryl and I took turns at the wheel. Originally, Cheryl had planned to fly back, but after the drive down, we decided she needed to help drive back. She called her boss and got an additional day off. The drive south started on Wednesday with several traffic jams due to construction here in Washington. Then we found lower speed limits in Oregon with even more construction. Finally, when we got into Idaho the speed limit was raised to 75 and we used every bit of it. Our planned 12 hour first day turned into over 14 hours as we arrived in Ogden, Utah to spend the night. The last few miles were on restricted lanes of Interstate 15 because they were replacing bridges and ramps. Not fun driving in the dark. The second day, Thursday, was a beautiful driving experience. A newly rebuilt freeway through Salt Lake City sped us through town and we cruised south with ease. Only one 17 mile stretch near St. George had us driving single file on the shoulder while they were repaving. I drove down through the Virgin River Canyon and was awe struck at the beauty. Cheryl was yelling at me to slow down and quit passing trucks while on the curves. She was trying to take pictures. There was plenty to do in Vegas. We had tickets to three shows for the evenings and both days were scheduled with Mom and Jumpy. We worked on her computer and helped with several projects she had on her to do list. Both Friday and Saturday we all enjoyed dinner out together. Sunday morning, anticipating a very long driving day, we left Vegas at 6:30. With Cheryl driving the first leg of the trip, I had the fun of getting to videotape through the Virgin River Canyon. The only other excitement that day was the storm in Boise. We could see it as we got closer to the motel, big, dark, roiling clouds that looked very bad. Just as we drove up, the wind and clouds hit. With a lot of whirling winds we waited in anticipation for the rain. It never came. In about five minutes the clouds moved on and the winds began to die down. What we though would be a heavy rain storm turned out to be a quick dust storm. We took a drive through the very nice looking city of Boise on Monday morning. The town is very scenic and pretty with the mountains as a backdrop. After stopping at Starbucks we were on the highway again. We did finally get the rain as we approached home. Cheryl took many pictures of the dramatic clouds as we approached the Snoqualmie pass in the Cascade Mountains. We pulled into our garage and were met by a loudly complaining cat. He sure wanted some attention. While our neighbor was kind enough to feed and care for him, it just wasn't the same. It was great to do the drive. You just don't know what you miss when you fly. The visit was great and both Cheryl and I had a lot of fun with Mom and Jumpy. |