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DAY 3 Monday 30th July 2001
Leave Las Vegas and Journey to Zion NP |
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| A Normal Start | Up at the crack of . . . 8:30am all a little tired. Deadline to be out is 11am so lets work to that. Pool first - aerobic swimming for 20mins or so - balmy day, couldn't have been more than 90°F. Managed to dry in the sun. Slow breakfast at same Deli - various different things - getting late. Tried to ring Papillon Grand Canyon to book Helicopter Flights. Girls late back from pool, getting ready etc. etc. Mary wanted a view from top of Ballys so off she went whilst I called for someone to collect our bags. 11:20am in the foyer - Mary already there, she has checked us out - nothing to pay. Strange because I had managed to get thru to Papillon and was put on hold for 5mins Long Distance (and we had used the room safe). Lets go! Tip to the bellboy and wait in the queue outside for taxi to Alamo Depot near airport for our car pickup.
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| A Short Eventful Journey | Taxi attendant and I loaded the luggage as the taxi driver couldn't carry anything on account of his recent hernia operation (he showed me his scar on the way there - actually quite a neat job). Very nice taxi driver - really enthusiastic about Zion and Bryce - going himself in the Fall. On one of the 6-lane one-way streets as we doubled back to the airport, we were in 2nd lane, lady in 3rd lane braked hard and indicated left. She then cut across the other 3 lanes to try to get to the car lot she wanted. Almost made it too - apart from the long minibus taking about 15 people to the airport in the far left lane. After the impact we drove on. Our driver told us to always wear our seatbelts because he sees "between 3 and 19 accidents per day" (Fairly precise right - why 19?) and . . . we were lucky not to be shunted when we braked hard. And me about to pick up a strange car, drive on the "wrong" side of the road with only a small map to guide me. Be brave Stephen.
Reached Alamo depot on Bermuda Drive without further incident. Taxi driver apologised - not allowed into the compound - so he parked nearby, we unloaded our own gear (remember the hernia card he had played earlier?) and bade us a cheery farewell - cheery because a $3 tip and no lifting presumably.
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| Our Carriage Awaits | Dragged our gear into the Alamo Depot and went to join the queue for pre-booked cars. 30mins or so later our keys handed over - by B17 "thanks - bye". Red Isuzu Rodeo 4x4 with tinted windows, automatic, cruise control, AIRCON! and a full tank of "gas". YGS 7419 with Virginia Plates. Noticed a big dint in the passenger door so went back inside to Customer Services (no queue). He just wrote it on my receipt and we were away.
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| Our Travels Begin | Basically hang a right out of depot. At the STOP sign turn right and at the end of that we were on I-15 and heading to Salt Lake City (this is the direction we wanted to go - so an added bonus). Speed limit on Interstate is 75mph. Went around the edge of Las Vegas and lots of other roads joined/split off from us. I had already devised a cunning plan - as Americans can (and do) pass either side, and knowing that you can get caught out by signs saying "Right Lane Must Turn Right" - I stayed in the middle lane until we were well clear of Vegas - simple really.
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| An Uneventful But Longer Journey | Uneventful journey thru various landscapes - gently rising all the time tho. Until - with about 30 miles to go - we started to see signs for Zion National Park and bigger ones for Best Western Zion Park Inn. Followed these signs - all right turns so no lanes to worry about - onto smaller and smaller roads until we reached Springdale mid/late afternoon. Journey of approx 3 hours or so - well within the speed limit.
BWZP Inn is lovely. Again got adjoining double rooms, fairly near the lift on the 2nd (of 2) floor. View at front and rear of building is marvellous as we are only a mile (approx) from the start of the Zion National Park. On the way we had read about the free Shuttle Buses into and around the Park - and had listened to ZN Parks Radio (1610AM) and it did make some sense. Into rooms, get the lie of the land - girls to pool (small - outside) and me for a kip. We are at roughly 6000ft - temp today has been around 100°F - glad we have been air-conned all day. Fresh fruit for a snack - remember the freebies in the room at Ballys?.
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| Our Evening Repast | All refreshed and ready for a meal about 7:30ish so . . . to the adjacent Restaurant - Oh Oh - English Prices! Never mind - food is good - well very good. Girls had salads which they couldn't finish, Mary had trout and I had double pork chops all washed down with quantities of fizzy drinks.
Waddled back to our rooms. Girls chilled out and watched TV and dozed - it being about 8:30pm. Mary and I sat on a balcony in wooden rockers, looking at the views at dusk, and tried to drink the wine from the room in Ballys (remember the complementary bowl of fruit, chocolates and wine in the girls' room at Ballys? Mary had apparently rung Ballys reception mentioning them - but "forgot" to tell them about the wine - they said "eat 'em - no charge" - so we ate the chocs at Ballys and stashed the fruit and wine to use later - leaving the tray outside a room 4 doors down the corridor just in case!). I also started to write the diary.
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| . . And Rest | We didn't get far - by 10 to 10 Mary was asleep in the chair, so I supped up and we went to bed - ready for our early start to explore Zion NP tomorrow.
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Words and pictures © Steve Andrews 2001 - 2012