Las Vegas

We’ve been in Las Vegas for two weeks now. We “moved” here from Lake Powell on Sunday, September 23^rd.

We had planned to spend six weeks here to give the Friendly Ford body shop plenty of time to repair our F-150. We got rear-ended last February in Ft. Myers, Florida in a left-turn lane when the guy behind us didn’t stop. The light had turned green but we had to stop because a guy several cars ahead of us had stopped while making a left-hand turn. The accident damaged our rear bumper and left rear fender. Lucky for us that the guy that rear-ended us had good insurance and they’re paying for all repairs plus a rental car while our truck is in the body shop.

We used the Friendly Ford body shop two years ago to fix the hail damage on our pickup. They did a great job, especially with the aluminum body on our Ford F-150, because it requires special training and tools.

My sister Marcia and brother-in-law Mike came with us from Lake Powell and they spent a week with us. We enjoyed the week, especially going to The Mirage on Wednesday night to see LOVE, Cirque du Soleil’s interpretation of the Beatles legacy. We all thoroughly enjoyed the show.    

We also got tickets to visit the Las Vegas Neon Museum on Friday night. We first went to the Venetian for dinner in St. Mark’s Square. The tour of the Neon boneyard was very good and our guide was quite knowledgeable of the history of Las Vegas and the old casinos.

Mike and Marcia left last Saturday and it felt strange to be by ourselves after spending three weeks with family and friends.

Julie and I decided to go to the Wynn for their Sunday Brunch, voted best buffet in Las Vegas. We usually go to buffets around 3PM because you pay the brunch price and then transition to dinner which starts at 3:30PM. 

We picked the Wynn because they were supposed to have free parking (and the best buffet). Almost all of the casinos on the strip now charge for parking. We later learned the Wynn also charges for parking, unless you spend at least $50 and get your parking ticket validated.

We went to The Mirage last Friday night to see David Spade and Ray Romano at a special 10PM comedy show. It was very good, especially Ray Romano’s stories about getting older, and stories about his wife and kids.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Lake Powell 2018

On our way to Lake Powell and Page, Arizona we overnighted on September 5^th at West View RV Resort, a new RV resort on the edge of Cortez, Colorado. It was interesting to see our neighbor’s custom-built Boss Hoss motorcycles with Corvette V-8 engines. I thought the trike built like a ’57 Chevy was the coolest.  

We got our boat out of storage near Page and drove north up to Halls Crossing, Utah on Sunday, September 9^th where we had reservations at the campground for a week. We met my sister Marcia, brother-in-law Mike, and friends Kris and Jan. We hadn’t been on the north end of Lake Powell in several years so it was fun to go back.

The first day we put the boat in the water at Halls Crossing it overheated and I had to take it to get the sea water pump impeller replaced. The repair shop was at Bullfrog so I had to take the ferry across the lake to get it fixed.

We enjoyed going down-lake to the Escalante River canyon one day. 

Another day we went up-lake to Forgotten Canyon and the Tapestry Wall. We celebrated my 70^th birthday on September 14^th with a grilled steak dinner and Julie made me an awesome Heath Bar cake.

Our last night at Halls Crossing we took the ferry over to Bullfrog for dinner. The sunset was beautiful coming back.

Last Sunday, September 16^th, we all drove down to Page to spend a week at Wahweap Campground. We like Wahweap the best, with its paved camp sites, some shade trees, and great views of the lake, surrounding sandstone buttes, and Navajo Mountain in the distance.

We’re off to Las Vegas tomorrow for a six-week stay at the Nellis AFB family campground. Mike and Marcia are joining us for our first week there. 

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Albuquerque – Colorado Springs

We enjoyed our two-day visit to Albuquerque, NM on August 22^nd and 23^rd. We enjoyed dinner with our friends Kris and Jan on Wednesday night. On Thursday we visited a couple of RV dealerships in Albuquerque to look at motorhomes. It was fun to see the different manufacturer floor plans and available options. We then enjoyed dinner at El Pinto, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants.

We drove north up I-25 on Friday, staying overnight for the first time at the Raton Pass RV Park, on top of Raton Pass. It was a small campground, but had nice views of the surrounding mountains.

We headed to Cheyenne Mountain State Park on Saturday and the campground was full. It’s a good thing we made our reservations six-months prior to our arrival for our 9-night stay. There are great views of the city lights from the campground and it’s perfect for our annual visit to Colorado Springs for doctor and dentist appointments and to visit family and friends.

We met old friends Rick and Diana for dinner on Monday night and enjoyed catching up with them.

We enjoyed seeing my daughters Kim and Jenny and granddaughters on Tuesday evening and catching up with them. My oldest granddaughter Audrey is 15 and a high school sophomore. Hannah is 12 and in 8^th grade.

Last Saturday we enjoyed dinner at Mike and Candy’s home and also met their parents. It was fun, including backing our F-150 up their steep driveway in the rain.  

We hunkered down in Colorado Springs through Labor Day weekend, but left today, September 4th, on our way to Lake Powell for a couple of weeks.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Sequoia National Park

We left Fairfield, CA on Monday, August 13^th and headed to Chowchilla, CA to stay for three nights. We had originally planned to visit Yosemite National Park. The park service reopened Yosemite the next day, after closing for two weeks because of a nearby wildfire. Although they reopened, the smoke was so bad in Yosemite Valley you couldn't see much, so we decided to wait until another day to visit.

We drove south to Three Rivers, CA on Thursday, August 16^th to stay at another campground for three days and visit nearby Sequoia National Park. 

On Friday we visited Sequoia and drove 17-miles up the scenic Generals Highway, from the entrance gate to the summit. It was a scary drive in our F-150 up this steep, narrow and winding road. It had more switchbacks than any road we’d ever been on before. Sequoia National Park was established in 1890 and was well worth a visit.   

The earth’s largest tree, named General Sherman, is here.   

We left Three Rivers this past Sunday and overnighted in Bakersfield. The weather continued to be dry and hot, in the upper 90s. We left early on Monday morning and headed to Needles, CA for an overnight stay. The Needles forecast was for a high of 115-degrees, but it only got up to 113. Walking outside felt like you were in a dry-heat sauna.

On Tuesday morning we crossed the Colorado River into Arizona and as we drove east along I-40 we noticed how green the desert was from recent rains. We had rain overnight at Meteor Crater, about 30-miles east of Flagstaff, AZ. That was the first time we’d seen rain in almost a month.    

We drove to Albuquerque, NM yesterday to spend a couple of days and visit our friends Kris and Jan who live here. We enjoyed dinner with them last night and hearing all about their summer trip to Alaska, driving up the Alaskan Highway. 

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Fairfield, CA

Our 9-night stay at the Travis AFB family campground has been fun but, the sky has been hazy, and then smoke-filled this past Friday night. There was a nearby grass fire.

We enjoyed a day trip last Wednesday to San Francisco with my sister Janet and her wife Nancy. We drove to Vallejo, only 15-miles from Travis, and took the passenger ferry from Vallejo to San Francisco. It was much better than fighting the traffic and then trying to find a place to park in the city. The ferry ride was about an hour each way.

We walked around San Francisco, including a stop to see the Millennium Tower, featured in last week’s episode of 60 Minutes. It leans because the footings didn’t go all the way down to bedrock.

We walked to the Mark Hopkins Hotel, but our favorite Top of the Mark bar didn’t open until 4:30 so we missed the view from the top. The we rode a cable car down to Fisherman’s Wharf for dinner at our favorite place for seafood, Scoma’s Restaurant. 

We drove to Sacramento to have dinner with Janet & Nancy. Afterwards, we went down to mid-town for dessert at Rick’s Dessert Diner and to celebrate Janet’s upcoming birthday. The German chocolate cake was yummy.

Yesterday we met Julie’s cousin Sandy in Woodland for lunch. It was great to catch up with Sandy.

We’re headed south tomorrow to spend three days in Chowchilla, CA. We may go to Yosemite National Park if the smoke clears out of the valley from the recent wildfire.

Steve & Julie Cornelius