November 23, 2005

November 23, 2005

Las Vegas, Nevada through NW Arizona to Hurricane, Utah

YEAR 2 DAY 159

 

Today was sunny and warm.

Poor Joanne. She was sick last night and this morning with food poisoning. Who needs California's colonic cleansers when you can just eat at a Las Vegas casino buffet ?

We were slow preparing to leave Las Vegas this morning because of how ill Joanne was. This morning I phoned Camping World Road Care to subscribe to their Emergency Roadside Service starting December 1. My Good Sam RV Club Emergency Roadside Service expires November 30. I'm angry at Good Sam about this campground host fiasco, so I took my ERS business elsewhere. Then I phoned Bank Of Montreal Direct Banking and paid my U.S.$ MasterCard. Apparently it's not possible to arrange to pay my U.S.$ MasterCard, from my U.S.$ bank account, online. I have to do it by telephone. Okay ! We prepared to leave, drained holding tanks, refilled water, hitched up, and left the Main Street Station RV Park about 11:00 A.M. heading northeast on I-15 out of Las Vegas. On the outskirts of Las Vegas, we stopped at Flying J to fill up with diesel. We didn't really need fuel yet, but Flying J's diesel price is always the best price around.

At Mesquite, Nevada, near the Arizona border, we stopped at the Nevada Tourist Information Centre to pick up a Nevada map and campground book. This is not the first time we've picked up the information we need, on our way out of a state, as opposed to on the way in. Hey ... better late than never. We also went to a supermarket in Mesquite to replenish our groceries. We continued northeast on I-15, crossing into the northwest corner of Arizona, and crossing from the Pacific time zone into the Mountain time zone. We were only in the corner of Arizona for about half an hour, but it was a spectacular drive through the Virgin River Canyon in the Virgin Mountains. Today's drive took us out of the fairly flat desert area of Nevada into the canyon lands area of Arizona, then Utah. The cliffs and canyons are all red rock, and the valleys are red soil.

As soon as we crossed from Arizona into Utah, we stopped at another Flying J to fill with diesel again, in the city of St. George, Utah. Saw Mormons for the first time. Seventy percent of Utah's population are Mormon. At Hwy. 9 we turned east towards Zion National Park, tomorrow's objective. We stopped for the night at Zion's Gate RV Resort, in Hurricane, Utah, just as it got dark.

Joanne was feeling better by then. We had a simple supper, then I worked on downloading and processing all my Las Vegas photos. That took up quite a bit of the evening. Next was today's accounting, and the MasterCard payment accounting. Then I did today's journal entry while Joanne baked cookies.

DSK