Could there be a better start to a day than this?

I don’t think so.
We pulled out of Island Christian School early on Friday, heading north. There was a full day ahead of us, and it was truly a blessing to see such a beautiful sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean.
Our first stop of the day – The Waffle House.
Here’s a quick travel tip – Several years ago I had assured Gary that I never needed to go to another Waffle House. Everything I seemed to order was swimming in grease. Blech. But here’s the trick – if you go to The Waffle House, order WAFFLES! They’re really pretty good and not greasy at all. I love it when I finally figure out these basics of life.
Next stop – The Everglades and the Shark Valley Visitor Center.

Although we are basically pretty cheap thrifty when it comes to spending our tourist dollars, we decided to splurge on the 15 mile tram ride that wandered through the ‘glades. (It was pretty darn cold, and we decided to hold off on the whole airboat plan.) The tram ride was excellent – lots of alligators, beautiful birds, and information about the Everglades. The fact that my camera displayed the “change battery pack” message once the tram started moving was not so excellent. Thankfully Gordon and Marlene had joined us for the excursion and Marlene’s camera was busy clicking away.

Great Blue Heron

Snowy Egret

Belted Kingfisher

Male Anhinga (with his beautiful turquoise eyes)

Purple Gallinule

Wood Stork
And then there were the alligators -

Here’s a mama and her babies

A great bunch of them in a pool by the Shark Valley Observation Tower

And there were lots that were just out catchin’ some rays. (Which actually is what they do most of the time!)
Here’s a shot from the top of the tower (at the half-way point on the tram ride)

The Everglades is (are?) an amazing area, where just a couple of inches of “rise” changes the entire ecosystem. It was a very interesting day. And the best part is that after we had some lunch it had warmed up enough for us to indulge in an Airboat ride!

It was fast and loud

but after all, they did supply you with cotton balls for your ears!

This is the canal where the boat ride started, but soon we were skimming over a sea of grass -


The one stop we made was at a “made for tourist” village to represent how the Miccosukee tribe had lived in the past -

and the view from the dock really spoke to me about the beauty of the Everglades -

What a great day! A wonderful reminder of the diversity of God’s creation, a very special day spent with new friends, and a better understanding of an area of the country I have only ever driven through. If you ever get the chance, check it out.
The alligators want to say hello!

If you’d like to see more bird, alligator and boat ride pictures – check them out HERE. And special thanks to Marlene who took most of these, but let me play with her camera for part of the boat ride. She’s a keeper for sure!

but my days have been consumed with board meetings, and my evenings pretty much consumed with letting my brain rest after said board meetings!

But the meetings have finished up and life is beginning to kick back to normal. What that actually means is that today I’ll finally get to the vacumming and cleaning, changing the sheets, and other such interesting chores. This afternoon we’ll be heading to Waco for the weekend – a long awaited visit with daughter Lara. But it will be nice to leave the house in “nice to come back to” condition .
One of the projects I have been slowly working on is my yearly picture book. Yes folks, I try to, each year, put together a photo book (like from Shutterfly) that highlights the places we’ve been during our 6th (yes, 6th!!!) year on the road. And even though the task is daunting, (we visited over 10 Major National Parks/Scenic areas and I’ve taken over 3000 pictures) it’s been quite a nice walk down memory lane. I thought it might be fun to review just some of the headers I’ve used here at rvthereyet.org over the last year, and then in the days to come I’ll try to share some other favorite photos from Year Six.
Here is the header from Glacier National Park -

This one is from our time in the Coachella Valley and was taken on one of our many trips to Joshua Tree Natl. Park

And I really loved the quail in the desert-

But California wasn’t all about the desert -
There were snow capped mountains-

Beautiful cities (San Diego)

Mountain lakes (Lake Tahoe)

and then there’s always Death Valley.

I’m sure you can figure out where this one was taken –
Monument Valley Navajo National Park – Arizona.(one of my very favorites!)

Thanks for coming along on my little walk down memory lane . I’ll have more to share as I keep plodding though the files, but if you have any favorites from the last year, I’d love to hear from you!

Better get back to that vacuuming!

And I mean the Really Big Boys!

We had a beautiful day today as we visited Mount Rushmore and neighboring Custer State Park. And it wasn’t only the bright blue sky that made it beautiful – it was a day spent with our good friends, John and Rosie!

Mt. Rushmore was quite fascinating. We enjoyed a couple of great “Ranger Talks” that helped us better understand this monument – it’s purpose, why the presidents that are there are there, and how this mammoth sculpture was actually accomplished.

It was a very interesting morning!

From there we headed a little south to take in some scenic drives through Custer State Park. We had lunch with the Bison -

Squeezed through some teeny-tiny tunnels -

and I mean really teeny-tiny -

We passed several beautiful lakes


and saw lots of beautiful scenery!

And somehow, before the drive was over, we managed to find some ice cream.

Yep, a pretty darn perfect day!

WOW – I am so glad that we saved Bryce Canyon for the end of our Rock Tour. All of our previous stops were EXCELLENT – but to finish off with something this unique, made a wonderful conclusion for a wonderful adventure.
We camped in a lovely state park not to far from Bryce that had it’s own Red Rock thing going!

How sweet is that!
Since we arrived in the area in the early afternoon, we didn’t do anything too involved that first day at Bryce. You know, it was kind of a “scope out the situation” kind of day. We did the visitors’ center, watched a wonderful video, and then took the scenic drive to the end of the canyon. And then, of course, we stopped at every overlook on the way back. I can’t say that Gary got out of the truck at every stop, but I wasn’t going to miss a thing! Here are some shots from that first day -


Those two are from the farthest overlook point – and what a vista! The ranger said it was a good 100 mile view – and I believe him!
And as we made our way down the road…..

We decided to come back to catch the sunrise the next morning, so after we picked our spot from the many wonderful overlooks (Bryce Point with its view into the main amphitheater) we headed back home. A nice hot dinner, some good reading and another lovely sunset completed our day.

We left the next morning at 5:30 (for a 6:30 sunrise) and waited with these other good folks for the sun to appear!

And let me tell you – IT WAS COLD! and WINDY! I can’t imagine what the wind chill was – but my 5 layers of clothes and jackets weren’t really enough. But enough whining! Ah, the sunrise ……

Well, actually what was spectacular was the rising sun hitting the canyon walls – my, oh, my, how it made them dance!



After my fingers thawed, we had a lovely breakfast at the Bryce Canyon Lodge before we hiked the Queen’s Garden and Navajo Loop trail – “The Best Three Mile Hike in the World!”



It took us right down (and I mean DOWN) to the canyon floor – so beautiful!



And of course, what goes down, must come up! And up we came -

THIS! There were about 4 more switchbacks before we made it too the top. We were certainly out of breath, but we were pretty happy with ourselves. What a beautiful (and heart pounding) hike!
I kept clicking picitures as we returned to the truck (’cause that’s what I do!)-

and I was very pleased to catch this little bird before it took flight!

I think it’s a female western bluebird – but I’m not sure. Anyone out there have a better guess?

After our hike (we did it in just under 2 hours – yes, we were feeling pretty proud of ourselves!) we returned to the campground, got packed up and hit the raod. Since we had such a “nice” early start we were on the road by 11AM! Over three hundred miles later we’re stopped at a nice picnic area and we’re both BEAT! Gary’s already hit the sack, and I’m following close behind. I have a couple of other stories from our Rock Tour, but they’ll have to wait.
Ta-ta!

So. Zion National Park. We’d heard rave reviews about this park – and it certainly was beautiful!

I wanted to give you a taste of this beautiful park, but since I think maybe you’re getting a little tired of rock pictures, I thought I’d go with a slightly different angle. So while there may still be some rock pictures in this post, there will always be at least something else going on!

Hardly a rock in view! We saw lots of wonderful wildflowers in this park. It was fun collecting pictures of them!
One of the hikes we took was the Emerald Pool hike. Oooooo – beautiful waterfalls!

And this park was much greener than the other parks on our Rock Tour. Probably because this nice river – the Virgin River – ran through the middle of it!

We also took the Riverside Hike – which was along side the (you guessed it) river. This hike eventually leads to the Narrows which you then get to hike through by actually hiking in the river. Since the water was still flowing pretty hard and the water temperature was about 47 degrees, the Narrows hike was closed. But it didn’t stop some folks from having a good time in the water -

(She made it to the rock, but we didn’t wait to see if she made it back. That might have been tricky!)
And speaking of people “playing” on the rocks -

Can you find the two people rock climbing in this picture? Ca-rA-zy!
Here are more flowers – probably not wild, but I do love these cactus flowers .

Although there was lots to like about Zion, the very best part of it was that we shared it with some good friends. We were delighted to be able to connect with some dear SOWER friends that we hadn’t seen in several years! It was great fun hiking and visiting and looking at rocks with them!

Stan and Carlie – thanks for joining us and making it such a special day!

We drove back to our campground in a round about way to check out Cedar Breaks National Monument. We had heard was a beautiful spot and were considering stopping there (with the rig) once we started heading west to our SOWER project. We’re glad we did a test run. Not only was the “scenic” drive it was on was not really suited for RV driving, but the park itself hadn’t even opened for the season. (Though we could have skied in if we had wanted to!)

It wasn’t even plowed out!
But we did enjoy a beautiful sunset -

So glad we did that test run!

Stay tuned – one park to go
Bryce Canyon!