Amazing

Days and days without WiFi is killing me, but every national park here in Utah is more jaw droppingly beautiful than the last. Perfect weather but wicked hot. Ride our bikes in Moab yesterday, and 4x4 d down a killer switchback in the truck today - as the locals would say - totally sick! Kids aren't seeing much - prefer to sit in the truck watching Mickey Mouse - so mostly rob and I tease off and do hikes individually, pulling everyone out for visitors centres and short hikes only! Onto monument valley tomorrow and the road trip continues!  Gotta go, rob is pulling out of gas station with free WiFi!

Final day in zion

We are sitting around a campfire at our site outside Zion National Park recapping our first 4 (11 for Rob) days of the trip. "Most amazing sight" is shockingly a total draw - the grand canyon was fantastic, no doubt (it was Brendans pick), but the plateau east of the Zion park tunnel was also like nothing I've ever imagined and I saw a big horn sheep, so that holds a real soft spot for me. For Rob, exiting the Zion tunnel after 6 loooong days driving across the plains and desert - the 2000 foot tall sheer red rock faces of the Zion canyon rising all around him runs a pretty close second to the grand canyon he said.

Awesome, awesome, awesome. In the original sense of the word.

We've been fitting in lots of fun and adventures too, hopefully not so many we burn ourselves out early. The twins are doing very well on out hikes so far. We got off the shuttle bus at a trail head with a gentleman with a walker a few days ago, and joked that we should at least try to keep pace with him. He beat us soundly. We've set some ground rules: no hikes after 11 am (the sand radiating the midday heat back from under your feet is sort of similar to feeling like you're in a convection oven, I would think), no hikes "with a number before the zero" (ie. longer than 1.0 miles), and everyone who makes it to the end without falling over the edge gets 2 Oreos (we added that one at the grand Canyon yesterday).

We move on to Bryce Canyon National Park for a night tomorrow, and then onto Goblin Valley State Park for a night of boondocking (camping on public land) somewhere in the San Rafael Swell. The next night we make it Moab, mountain biking capital of the world, where we should have WiFi again. Rob is fighting with the awning as we speak, I should go help him. If I eat one more toasted marshmallow ill probably burst anyways...

Grand Canyon

Rob made it to the grand Canyon yesterday, and finally to the campground in Utah where we will call home for 5 nights. It's been long days on the road for he and bob, he sounded relieved to have finally arrived when I talked to him. I don't know if my phone updates. o the blog will work once Brendan and I leave Canadian airspace tomorrow morning, so this could be the last update for a bit. B and I fly out to las Vegas tomorrow at 9, let the next part of the adventure begin

Hello from Utah

Well, my mental images of effortless blogposts from Utah has not turned out to be a reality, so this may turn out to be a one time event.  I picked Brendan up from school yesterday and started "the great migration westward. We made it to Toronto with no hiccups and had enough extra time before picking up my Mom and Dad at Terminal 3 that we rode  the new monorail train at Toronto airport a few times. Their dog Dougald was thrilled to be reunited with Mom and Dad and we went out for a delicious dinner out and stayed up long past a sensible time catching up about their 5 week adventure in Europe. Brendan's journal entry for Day 1 - Today hour I ate a bun.

We were up at an unspeakable hour this morning to catch our flight to Las Vegas. New kiosks made the whole security check in and customs process all much faster and we were at our gate waiting 2 hours before the flight departed.  We got ahead on homework, and played with hot wheels cars until the plane boarded. Once settled in, Brendan asked "how many days are we on this plane?" He really seemed pleasantly surprised when I explained we'd arrive the same day. 4 1/2 hours later we had arrived and were ready for the next part of the adventure to begin.

Bob headed off to his departure gate to fly home to Toronto YYZ before we got through security, but has texted to say that he made it home safely. Rob had all sorts of stories of memorable miles with his Dad on the trip out and it sounds like it was a very worthwhile trip. Harrison was very excited because he was wearing a sweather (he gets easily excited about fairly mundane things). Heidi refused to make eye contact with me for 20 minutes and cried when I tried to touch her.

We cruised the strip from end to end in the truck, just to show it to Brendan and reminisce about our seperate weekends here, and then hit the interstate across the barren desert. An hour later, we stopped for a picnic lunch and hike amongst some of the most spectacular terrain I have ever seen in my life at Valley of Fire State Park. An astounding way to begin a trip that I think will be punctuated almost every day with phenomenol natural sites. I took 148 pictures today, and we didn't even get out of the airport till noon!!

Our campground has an amazing view of the mountains, and we have a very nice corner site with our trailer tucked in between lots of others. After a dinner of microwaved quiche and a cold Bud Light Lime from the fridge while the air conditioning hummed in the background we agreed - this will certainly not be like any other camping adventure we've done before!

The great American Road trip

Well, they're off! Rob, the twins and Blaze have headed off down the highway for our most epic road trip yet (and that's saying something!). They met copilot Bob (pictured below preparing for the journey) in Cambridge and are heading ever westward in the truck and 28 foot camper trailer down Route 66. Pictures have already started rolling in - it looks awesome! The trip is going fairly smoothly, but has not been easy driving - traffic, rain, wind etc., but the babies have reportedly been perfect! Brendan and I are lagging behind to maximize the time in school and at work and look after my parents doggie Dougald till they return from Europe, but will eventually be flying out to Vegas to meet the whole gang (and trade places with Bob, who will joyfully fly back on that same day). We'll do the grand canyon and parks of southern Utah and then ride route 66 back eastward! I'm sure there will be lots of pictures when we get back, and a few colourful stories too.

Talk to you soon!!