Neither of us slept particularly well; we were ready to go home. We popped out of bed at about 6;30 and began our packing process. Although we originally thought we might leave about eight, instead we were pulling out of the driveway at 7:15. Our gracious host, Valerie, came and waved us away into the morning from her driveway. This is been a great stay, and now we were ready to be home.
A beautiful highlight in the beginning of the drive was the Virgin River Gorge. This was in the extreme north west corner of Arizona. Here the highway cuts through an amazing gorge. The Virgin River is the same one that cut the Zion Canyon, that we had seen several times the day before. This is one of Dick’s favorite drives and we enjoyed the beautiful colors and interesting towering rock formations.
The two hours to Las Vegas went quickly, as we ate our sack breakfast. We were a little nervous as we went through Vegas at 8:30 that we might hit some rush-hour traffic, but traffic was just fine and we went through without incident.
However, not too far outside of Las Vegas, as we approach the California border, ominous dark clouds appeared on the horizon. As we continue to drive towards them we could see these were storm clouds filled with rain. As we reached the town of Primm, traffic suddenly slowed down nearly to a stop and the rain begin to fall, almost as a wall of water. We both reflected that we had never driven this stretch of highway between Vegas and home when there was any rain falling, let alone hard rain with scary dark clouds. The driving took a lot of focus from Dick as his ability to control the car was at times difficult and sometimes we were even hydroplaning on the highway.
We drove for nearly 2 hours in the rain… Most unusual in the areas where we live in Southern California.
You might ask, what ever happened with that license plate game you all were playing? We are now down to only two states that we hadn’t seen the plates for: Hawaii and New Hampshire. Looks like this time we’re going have to go with having found the license plates for 48 states, and due to the border closing with Canada, no Canadian provinces.
Shortly after 1:00pm, driving through fog, but no more rain, we left highway interstate 15 for the final time of this trip. It was a wonderful trip with the opportunity to see a lot of family, friends, national parks, other interesting sites. And, we can both feel deep in our hearts, it’s great to come home. So we pulled car into its parking spot outside our house in Oceanside, California. Hey it’s good to be back home again even if some of the plants had turned the yard into a jungle. Some plants really grow when you leave them for six weeks and still keep them watered. After unloading we will have to tame the yard.
No comments:
Post a Comment