Left our house on Oct. 11, 2011 * I found out before we left for vacation that I needed to have my Gall Bladder removed, it has been bothering me since April. I told my Dr. we needed to schedule it for after our vacation as we had been planning on going for quite some time. So with pain meds and diet instructions in hand (vegan with no nuts or beans & to drink vegan protein power with juice everyday) we took off. I only had a few flair ups where I needed to take the meds so it worked out O.K.
We headed down I-5 to I-90 over Snoqualmie pass and after entering Oregon we headed south on Hwy 395. One of my favorite areas in Oregon is the Scenic Battle Mountain Corridor. It is high elevation rolling hills with pine tree forests here and there. It is also an historic Indian battle area.
We saw wild turkeys and many deer along the way. After being on this beautiful stretch we switched to Hwy 78. We went on a really long boring stretch of road. I told my husband "I think we're in Nevada, it looks like Nevada even though we're really still in Oregon" To which he replied "No we're just in the United States. There's just no line across that puts us in another state", He had another great quote on this trip "When it gets cold it gets really cold". We saw a herd of cows on the road with 2 people on horseback with 2 herding dogs trying to keep them to the shoulder. There was a lot of cow pies on the road, quite the site. We saw their horse trailer about 4 miles down the road, they had come a long ways. On to Hwy 95 and entered Nevada. Then headed south on Hwy 278. We stopped to rest a bit and walked along a dirt road. Dick was so happy there were pinyon pine nuts all over the ground. He must have spent a 1/2 hour getting his treasures.
Next we went on the "Loneliest road" Hwy 50 then to Hwy 93. We saw a huge herd of pronghorn sheep. Next to Hwy 319 to Cedar City "Welcome to Utah: Live elevated", headed south on to Hwy 15. So far our Chevy Venture was getting 31 mpg. Yay! We drove through Zion, stopped to site see a bit and saw 7 mountain sheep. On to Hwy 89 towards Kanab then entered Arizona. We decided to go to Hwy 67 and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon since we'd never been there before. It's a long 45 miles - one way to the lodge, through high elevation prairies. Thought we'd see more animals along the way, but we only saw one coyote. The North Rim is much more rustic and not as commercialized as the South Rim, with a narrow view of the canyon. There is no paved road along the rim like there is along the South Rim. I found it very interesting to see where the Kaibab trail came up on the North Rim side, as this is where rim to rim to rim hikers/runners come up to before heading back to the South Rim.
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| This photo shows the kiosk situated to show where the trail is to the South Rim. |
After leaving the North rim we went up and over a windy little pass that had a viewpoint for the Vermilion cliffs. Beautiful!
- bicycled on a single track trail (my first time)
- went to Priest draw
- biked the South rim of the Grand Canyon, about 22 miles from Mather point visitor center to Hermit's rest and back.
- found a great build your own salad and soup shop "Mix Flagstaff" that allowed me to eat my specialized diet!
- stayed overnight at the South Rim in Yovapai lodge. There were Elk walking around the lodge parking lot and they bugled at night. Very cool!
- went to Sedona, I walked up a little hill called Observation Point. It's supposed to be a Vortex site.
- rented 2 double sit on top kayaks and kayak'd about 5 hours at Blue Ridge Reservoir. The rock area where we had lunch had bowl like areas in them where the indians had ground their corn.
- drove up to Mt. Humphreys to look at the Aspens that had turned a brilliant yellow.
Then we did our quick dash home in 30 hours. We drove Hwys 40, 93, 95, 50, We saw wild Burros just north of Goldfield, Nevada. Then just north of Susanville we had a deer run right out in front of us. I was so thankful we had our brakes checked and repaired before our trip. We really needed them, and I was also glad no one was driving behind us. Close call, our adrenaline rush of the day. Then on to Hwy 97 north to Biggs, Oregon. In to Washington over Snoqualmie pass and 405 and our last stretch on I-5. Home on the 26th of October after driving 3,782 miles.
* My Gall Bladder surgery was yesterday Nov. 3. They did a laparoscopy, so my recovery will be pretty quick. Yay! I'm a little sore today but not bad as you can tell I'm typing my blog post the day after. They found out that the reason my Gall Bladder had been bothering me was because it was folded in half. Probably since birth and it finally caught up with me at 57 years of age. How bizarre is that.
- calf report - still doing rehab and progressing nicely. I only had one day where it bothered me. I have a feeling it was because we did so many things day after day. It was a nice test for it I guess.
