Lazy Sunday

Happy Father's Day!! We just back from IHOP where the Dad in our family enjoyed some chicken fried steak and eggs.
We are still here in Cedar City.  Looks like we will be here for sure until tomorrow.  If we are lucky someone will come first thing tomorrow and be able to fix our problem so we can leave and go to Park City.
We have developed a plan B, which is to skip Yosemite (supposed to drive there Tuesday) and go straight to San Francisco on Friday.
So you might be wondering what exciting things we have been doing for the last two day - the answer is not too much.  We have mostly been taking it easy, hanging out at the pool and the other day we got the boys' haircuts and went to the movies.  Still can't seem to shake our lazy funk though, the plan for today is to go out to the pool and see another movie.
Yesterday Caleb's friends were all together at a friend's house in Florida and they Skyped him.  I thought it was very nice that they were thinking of him.

From the thoughts of Caleb, age 11

This trip has been many things but boring is definitely not one of them. We have had many setbacks like the air brakes not filling with air, the steps not going in at one time, and the pipes leaking. The many beautiful sights we have seen are the massive grand canyon, the canyons of Zion, and the U.S.S Alabama. My favorite part about being in the RV is having the dogs around, and my least favorite part about the RV is that our cute little cats are stuck at home without us. That's all i have to talk about for now but i will post later......Bye!

Broken down

Zion National Park

Today we went to Zion National Park in Utah.  We had a great time hiking and playing in the river and pools.
They have a shuttle system that drops you at different places.  You can either stay on the shuttle or get off to see different points of interest or get on a hiking trail.  We took the shuttle up a couple of stops and then hiked to the Emerald pools.  The uppermost one was the biggest and the hardest hike to get there.  The boys had a fun time playing in the water and climbing the rocks.  After that we hiked along the Grotto trail to the next stop.
We got back on the shuttle and rode it to the last stop.  We got off to hike on the Riverside Trail.  The canyons narrow until just the river runs between the two walls.  We all walked in the river once the trail stopped.  The water was freezing!! We had a blast though - both the kids fell into the water on accident which of course they loved.  A snake crawled out of a rock right onto the trail we were walking back on - luckily it seemed harmless but it was pretty long! We also saw a deer today.
We are exhausted tonight.  We figure we walked at least 5 miles today.  The boys did great, much better than the day we biked.  Can't decide if I liked the Grand Canyon or Zion better.  They are both beautiful places.  Scott thinks he might prefer Zion.
Not sure what we are doing tomorrow.  We were thinking of going to Bryce but the boys and Scott are leaning towards finding somewhere to go fishing.

Today = rough day

If we weren't in Utah I would say that today was basically the day from H-e double hockey sticks, but since we are, I guess you get the picture.  It started out just fine, left the campground on time and went to Freightliner to get the coolant reservoir repaired.  Had breakfast, went to Wal Mart and Camping
World- still having good day.  Got back into the repaired RV at noon and started heading west on 40.  It sure was WINDY!!!! Weather on iphone let me know that all of Northern AZ was under wind advisory until this evening.  Gusty winds and high profile vehicles do not play well together.  Scott did a great job though of keeping the RV on the road.  After hearing repeated thumps though we realized one of the awnings above our slide kept trying to unwind and there was nothing we could do to fix it.  Luckily, it stayed in place.  Had to pull over on the middle of a hill we were climbing when the engine started overheating.  Later at a gas station the steps would not come out, making the lowest step 2 1/2 ft. above the ground.  When we finally get to the campground in Utah just before 10pm (the stairs miraculously are working now) we realized the car battery was completely dead and Scott could not move forward because he had put the car in park from neutral.  Nice man at KOA jumped the car for us.  Moving the few feet to our campsite, generator shuts off for no reason??? Still not sure why it did that but we are hoping it is ok.
On the positive side - for whatever reason my kids played nicely together the whole way here.  I really don't know what got into them but it was great!!!  The dogs were also very good today:)
Tomorrow we are going to Zion, but I think we will sleep in first!!

Biking at the Grand Canyon

Today we rode our bikes on a rode that ran along the South Rim.  Scott and I really enjoyed doing this, but if you asked my boys (especially Jacob) they would tell you that they preferred the hiking that we did yesterday.  Since we live in Florida the boys have very little experience with peddling up and down hills.  Some of the hills were were pretty long and steep and the boys really struggled to get up some of them.  The best part of course was going downhill!
Tomorrow we leave Arizona and head for Utah.  We will be in Southern Utah for a few days to see Zion and Bryce.  Then we are going to Park City to visit Scott's family.
Our coolant reservoir has a crack so we have to be at Freightliner in Flagstaff at 7:30 tomorrow a.m to have it replaced - as soon as they finish we will hit the road.
The weather has been perfect while we were here! 80's during the day and 40's at night (my Florida friends will be so jealous)  We actually have to turn on the heat in the RV at night!
I would like Caleb to contribute to the blog, but right now he's playing with some boys he met in the campground.  Maybe I can get him to write a few words later.

Grand Canyon

Today we saw the Grand Canyon!! It was truly amazing and my pics do not accurately portray its greatness!  By just walking a short distance along the rim, the angle of what you are seeing looks completely different.
The four of us hiked about a mile and a half into the canyon.  It was a breeze getting down, but we were concerned by all of the people huffing and puffing on their way back up, so we turned around before we got too far down - we had a train to catch.  The hike up was not easy but not that bad either.
To get to the Grand Canyon we rode the Grand Canyon Railway from Williams, AZ.  It was a lot of fun - there was a navajo singer on our car and a train robbery on the way home!
Tomorrow we are going back to the canyon (taking the car this time) and we are going to ride our bikes instead of hiking.  Scott and the boys are hoping to go fishing tomorrow afternoon at a lake near our campsite.
After we got back from the Grand Canyon we ate at a restaurant on historic Route 66.   It was a converted gas station made into a restaurant and it had a lot of cool memorabilia on the walls.  We have really enjoyed the town of Williams, it is much nicer than I expected it to be.
We were able to leave the dogs at a kennel for the day today.  It was great not to feel rushed to come back and let them out.