Vegas to Zion

Here are the rosy fingers of dawn from our hotel room.

We were going to walk somewhere for breakfast, but I realized it would be simpler (and cheaper) to have some granola from the car. So I brought up the cereal and milk, and we had a more nutritious breakfast than is available in Vegas.

I then worked a bit on the blog. Since WiFi is $12.99 at the hotel (in Vegas, it's all about money!), I just worked offline -- writing the text and editing the photos.

I didn't want to, but I figured I should take advantage of the fitness center while we had one. I went up and got some elliptical machine and treadmill in. Then it was time to check out. It took about six trips to get all the stuff and bicycles to the entrance.

I considered having one of these for the road, but we were eager to get out of town.

It was lunch time as we drove off, and I noticed an appealing billboard for a 1 pound NY Strip steak dinner at Terrible's Casino. We dropped in, and split it. A great lunch!

On the menu was an application for the gambler's club, which came with $5 of free slot machine play. You also got a free T-shirt for signing up. "Hey," I thought, "What a perfect graduation gift for Jenny!"

So we signed up and headed to the casino...

...and I plugged in and went to work.
It turned out that I had to add $1 of our own money to start playing, so I bit the bullet and put the money in and made all the maximum bets until the free $5 was used up.

It turns out I have a great talent for the gambling thing, and I turned a 715% profit:

We cashed out and got out of town. I wonder how many gamblers leave Vegas with this kind of windfall?

More praise for Gunilla: We needed a library for Internet access, and an auto parts store for some "Heet" (alcohol that we use for the Pepsi can stove). We just told her what we wanted and she took us there. WiFi at the libe worked OK for Lena but not for me, which was frustrating.

Then it was 75 MPH most of the way to Zion. Great desert driving, with an interesting change at Springfield(?). There appeared to be a wall that the freeway was going to crash into, but at the last minute a small crack in the wall was revealed.

We arrived at Zion National Park at about 6:30 PM and were surprised to find that all the campsites were taken! However, the ranger let us stay in one of the group sites with three other sets of campers. This turned out fine, as there was plenty of room, and we got a dramatic campsite:


Temperature was somewhere between 85 and 95 degrees, which is above the maximum operating temperature for Swedes born in JokkMokk, but it cooled fast, and there was a wonderful breeze.

For dinner, we cooked the freeze-dried chicken stew which has literally been in our closet at home for about 10 years. Coincidentally, it was set to expire on May 9, 2009. It was delicious.


The temperature was now perfect, and we had a wonderful night sleeping from about 10 PM to 7:15 AM. I woke at 3 AM to hear a strong wind and what sounded like rain. In the morning we determined that it was tent catepillars dropping on the tent.

Well fans, I'm burning out on posting to this blog business, so I may summarize a little more. However, we get all these great photos, and it's hard to resist sharing them.