Day 7 - Tuesday

Overall, Crys and I did okay in Vegas. I think we gambled nearly $200 between us, and brought back all but about $40. We had fun - the slots experience was basically new for both of us so it was a bit of a learning experience along the way.

This morning the girls got to swim, and Acacia got to ride a number of rides in an indoor amusement park. I think she had fun, but you could tell she was tired and wasn't fully enjoying herself.

We made it out of Vegas around 3:00pm, and other than two very short stops for gas (if there's one thing I've learned about the American Southwest is to never pass up a gas station...) we drove non-stop to our "cabin" at Jacob Lake. The drive was about four hours, and all but the first hour was quite pretty.

North of Las Vegas, we crossed over the Virgin River on Interstate I-15. Right after that, we entered the Virgin River Gorge, which basically put us into the mountains for the rest of the trip. The gorge itself was very pretty (although dry), and the girls enjoyed looking at all of the caves in the side of the mountains.

The sun set along our journey, and the last 20 miles was windy highway, along what I think was the side of the mountain, but it was too dark to see. I told Crys to keep her eyes open for deer. About 5 miles down the road, there was a warning sign to watch for deer. Another 2 miles down, and there was a sign to watch for cattle, which I instructed her to do.

All was good until a few miles from the cabin, when I spotted a large black rock on the right side of the road. Black rocks are fine, until they lift their heads up and look at you. I yelled at Crys then that she should have warned me.

We made it here just fine, and didn't hit any deer, cattle, or rocks for that matter.

The cabin that we're staying at tonight in Jacob Lake is leaving a little to be desired. I think it's beautiful outside - I can't see anything but there's trees all around and they smell like pines. Unfortunately, our "2 room cabin" looked like it was built in 1900, and has had very little upkeep since then. It's kind of a bungalo style conctruction, with a tiny bathroom connecting the two rooms. As I walked in the room for the first time, I flipped on the light and it immediately burned out. I walked through the bathroom (watch your step!) to find the other door being kept closed by the chain, so I wound up searching under the bed for surplus animals.

There's a room heater in each side, and one of them won't run, apparently because the pilot light went out. I think the one heater will keep us going just fine, but it's kind of annoying to spend $100 for a dingy little place with leaky faucets when our very nice and clean room on the Vegas Strip cost less than half that.

Tomorrow we'll drive the hour down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I'm sure I'll have plenty of photos then. Given the sunset time and the temperatures, I'll probably get them uploaded tomorrow night. The Alltel modem card is working quite well here, which is nice because in Phoenix and in Vegas, it was constantly disconnecting on me, and occasionally refusing to connect at all.


BTW, several of you have asked and yes, the two girls are doing great on this trip. The DVD player has definately been a blessing, but they've been very good otherwise. We received two compliments from people in two different restaurants today alone saying how well behaved they are.

Total miles traveled: 1800