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The Adventure Continues….

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

Well, anyone who knows us well is aware we’ve been having a tough time adjusting to being back in the reality of being home. So, we decided to combine job hunting with traveling! It’s our good friends Vicki & Darin’s fault, really. They just moved to South Carolina and suggested we come and visit. So, we are! Jim has never been throughout most of the US and I haven’t been on a road-trip since I was young when my family went. We are probably going to stay in the Portland area, however, we are also open to other things so are going to stop in Ogden, Utah , Ashville, NC, Santa Fe, NM, Colorado, etc. and have our resumes with us and check on relocating somewhere new potentially. Plus, we’ll continue to get on monster.com and other search engines to look for work here at home while we’re gone.

I had started this post last week so now time for an update! We left Portland on Tue., 22 July and headed to Ontario, Or. After a brief night there we headed into Utah. We had read so many great things about Ogden, Ut. we had to check it out for ourselves. I will say that the town and surrounding area is great, very small town feel but with everything you would want or need. However, damn…Utah is barren! I have driven through before, of course, but had forgotten how much of the state is just almost desolate! We spent 2 nights camping by Pineview Reservoir right outside of Ogden, which was gorgeous. Lovely people and a fun parade at the Pioneer Days celebration..although it lasted for HOURS (literally).

From Ogden we drove down to Bryce National Park where we camped for 2 nights. What an amazing place, the hoodoos (rock formations) are astonishing and we spent hours hiking down into the canyon and along the rim. It got quite chilly each night but was hot during the day. A norm in summer is afternoon thunderstorms and we did have that everyday. While there we did buy great tee shirts that say “All who wander are not lost”…boy, if that isn’t a perfect thought on how we’re feeling these days.

After Bryce we made the short drive to Zion National Park. Zion was equally stunning, although in a very different way. Whereas Bryce is all about the rock formations, Zion is huge cliffs of varying shades of yellow, white and red and it’s very easy to see all of the different levels of sediment and rock. In Bryce we camped at the top of the rim but in Zion everything happens in the valley floor meaning it was hot hot hot. We just spent 1 night in Zion but it was about 104 degrees, ugh. One very nice thing at both parks is the free shuttle service to the different viewpoints. At Bryce it is optional and a nice way to break up the long rim walk. In Zion, however, for the majority of the park cars are forbidden so the shuttle is mandatory. The drivers are all pretty informative and it’s a great way to get around and save the planet from all those cars driving about. In Zion we just did one fairly short walk as it was just too hot..then we stopped at Zion lodge for ice cream under a huge oak tree. Nice.

From Zion we headed south to Kanab where we stopped at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary (bestfriends.org) We have previously donated money to this organization and it was really nice to stop by and see where the money really goes. They are the largest no kill animal sanctuary in the US and have hundreds of dogs, cats, & horses as well as a few bunnies, goats, pot-bellied pigs, etc. It’s a huge place..they own 3800 acres and lease the surrounding 30,000 of BLM land to create a barrier for the sanctuary. It’s a really great set up and they have so many great animals up for adoption.

Then, on to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We had recently been to the 3rd largest canyon in the world at Fish River Canyon in Namibia and it was amazing to see the largest canyon at the Grand Canyon. For anyone who has never seen it .. it is absolutely enormous, 1 mile deep in some areas and averaging 10miles across (227 miles long) it’s awe inspiring. One of those places that truly does live up to it’s reputation. It was, of course, packed with day trippers. Bryce was lovely as there were view people there. Zion was more crowded, and Grand Canyon even more so. Luckily, the camp sites are really large so even though it was mostly full you didn’t feel crowded in. We hiked around 5-6 miles or so and actually decided to cut our time down to 2 nights there instead of 3. It’s much too hot this time of year to actually hike down to the bottom of the canyon and back up in 1 day so we felt we’d gotten enough time in during our 1 1/2 day, 2 night stay.

One BIG gripe we have about the national park campgrounds….we have now camped in New Zealand, Australia, & Africa and must say the facilities at the US national parks are the worst of the bunch!!! Truly, we had an occasional crappy camp or so in the other countries but for the most part they were all great with loads of bathrooms w/ showers attached, camp kitchens, etc. At Bryce we found a spot where we could hike to the showers in about 10minutes (they were by the general store instead of in each camp area), at Zion you had to drive 4 miles OUTSIDE the park and pay $5 pp for a shower and at Mather campground at the Grand canyon there were 300 camp sites and 8 showers for men/ 8 for women and were located near the camp entrance instead of at the bathroom facilities. We have been astonished how limited facilities here are..especially compared to African countries for goodness sake! No wonder more American families don’t camp!

Today, 30July, we drove from the Grand Canyon to Sedona, Arizona. What a gorgeous, gorgeous place! We had gotten all rave reviews from friends & family who’ve been here and we can see why! We are in a hotel for 2 nights. We plan to camp as much as possible in interest of saving money on this trip but we truly wanted a nice shower (that we didn’t have to drive to!), a good bed and air conditioning..it is hot hot hot. Tonight we’re just going to be bums, get a pizza and a good bottle of wine and rent a movie on pay preview. Tomorrow morning we’ll get up early enough to not roast and go explore all the amazing looking art galleries and shops around town. There are some nice hikes in the area but we’re fairly sore from all the miles we’ve hiked in the last week and in this heat I think we’ll stick to the galleries! And, of course, hit the local brewpub to do some sampling in the evening. From there..on to New Mexico!!!

I hope you all follow us along on as our dream continues. Today or tomorrow we will be getting those Africa pics on line and will update our US photos as we go along as well. Hope you are all having a great summer and we’ll see you again soon! Love, Jim & Rhonda

Pics of Egypt

Sunday, July 20th, 2008

As promised , here are the pictures of Egypt…enjoy all the amazing art & architecture

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimandrhondartw/sets/72157606283091741/detail/

Pics of India!

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
Finally!!!! Here are pics of India. Enjoy them and we promise Egypt and Africa will be up very shortly. Cheers, J&R http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimandrhondartw/sets/72157606064259559/

Back in Portland!

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
Unbelievably, we're back!!! We only told 3 people that we were returning early, our friends Ron & Dario, who picked us up, and my brother who needed to make sure our money was available so we have been surprising loads ... [Continue reading this entry]