We took some side trips while we were in Tucson waiting out dates for various appointments. We dry camped near Cottonwood, Arizona where we could see the Mogollon Rim, an awesome escarpment that extends for miles, all the way to the Grand Canyon and visited Jerome, an historic mining town perched on the side of a mountain. Sedona has to be right up there on the list of most beautiful places on earth. We did a little bit of hiking around the red rocks and took a biplane ride up for a bird's eye view of the rock formations. Jim loved it but I pretty much held on for dear life and shut my eyes for most of the trip. Good thing the loud engine drowned out my screaming. The picture below shows us in our "Rocky, the flying squirrel hats" after a safe and welcomed landing.
Our intention was to spend a few days camped on the south rim of the Grand Canyon but we changed our minds when the forecast was for snow. Good thing, as just after we got west of Flagstaff a blizzard dumped a foot of snow and the highway was closed. Good call on Jim's part not to head north from Williams up to the campsite as we had a breakdown shortly after and were stuck for two days in a truck stop while repairs were made.
LakeMead supplies water to a number of western States. Unfortunately, there has been a 10 year drought and the lake is down by 120 feet. Although our campsite was supposedly on the edge of the lake, it looked like a creek below us.
Lenticular clouds. Is it any wonder why people think they are seeing flying saucers?
We paid a visit to Hoover Dam. Do you see the white crusted sides behind the dam? That shows how low the water level is in Lake Mead.
On to Las Vegas, one of my least favorite places on earth. Kelly was taking a break from her nursing studies with friends so we took the opportunity to see her. Erin also caught a flight from D.C. and met us all there, so it was another rare occasion when all four of us were together. We snagged tickets to see "Lion King" on stage and what a production it was. Worth every cent. Suprisingly we did very little gambling. None of us were too keen to throw our money away.
The rest of the time we amused ourselves with some people watching and checking out the local fantastical architecture.
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