Houseship the end

Well here we sit in Las Vegas airport waiting for the redeye back to Atlanta and Greensboro. We got to the airport about 6 hrs early, but it certainly eliminated all the stress of normal airport arrival. Last night we rode "The Duce" which is what Vegas calls their double-decker bus line down to Fremont Street to see the light show. Fremont Street is an incredible happening every night from dusk to midnight in downtown Vegas. The street is covered by the world’s largest video screen. The show runs every hour on the hour, and is different every time. In the meantime, the street is lined with casinos that seem more liberal than the ones on the strip. Also there are various other attractions going on between the light shows. We had a nice diner in one of the casinos at an oriental buffet that was quite reasonable. We watched a motorcycle stunt show where three guys rode wildly inside about a 14-foot steel cage ball. It was unbelievable. We also saw a guy that played piano from the back of a semi at light speed tempo, a fellow playing various jazz saxophones, and a pretty good rock band. We also spent some time wandering around the various casinos and shops. We rode "The Duce" back to the Tropicana and turned in for the night. This morning we enjoyed a good breakfast and packed everything up for leaving at 11:00am. We hauled all our stuff down to the Previa, and packed up. I had looked up how to get to Bob’s Original Country Steakhouse. This is an old restaurant (started around 1955) that Vickie and I found the last time we were here. When it was started it was out in the desert from Vegas and had a flashing blue light so the folks could find it driving across the desert. All the food is prepared on a Mesquite Grill inside the place. The walls are covered with autographed pictures from celebrities like John Wayne, The Lone Ranger, The Rat Pack and many others. It has been a Vegas staple for years. Now days it is surrounded by housing developments and a freewa y, but still has all the flavor and great food of the past. We had a great lunch there. Afterwards we made the scenic drive up to Mt. Charleston and it’s National Recreation Area. The road leaves Rt. 95 North of Vegas and goes pretty much straight up for 5000 feet. We had a great time visiting all the scenic areas, and used up some of the time we had to wait till our flight. We then headed for the Vegas airport, and now here we are.

Later—the return. As always the red eye flight home leaves you disoriented and tired. We arrived in Atlanta on time (the next morning) and the same at Greensboro. Our luggage arrived concurrent with us, which is always welcome. We were met by our good friend Chris who had benevolently stored our autos for the two weeks we were gone. He lives in close proximity to the airport and was very helpful in managing our cars. We were soon loaded in our own cars, and enroute for home. As wonderful as traveling is, arriving home is always wonderful beyond description. So around noon Saturday we were back in Eastern Daylight Time at our respective homes. There is always the 2 weeks worth of mail, newspapers etc to deal with, but there were no tragedies in our absence, a great feeling. I decided since it was a nice day, I’d do some work outside. Since we got some serious rain in our absence, the ground was soft, and a prime target for my 930 # roller. I hooked up the Kubota, and spent a coup le hours taking the humps out of the yard. Toward the end, the steady lull of the diesel overtook me, and I just had to go to sleep. I stopped the tractor, but left the engine running and put my head down on the steering wheel to sleep. I woke up when Vickie shook me after running from inside fearing I was dead from a heart attack. I guess sleeping on the running tractor was a little uncommon. I hate that I scared her so bad, but I just had to go to sleep. Later we thawed some nice tenderloin we scored at Kroger a couple of weeks ago and celebrated my birthday with steak, baked potato, and some sparking wine. For desert there were some great vanilla wafers, and bed was soon on the horizon. All in all what a wonderful adventure. And now we have a wonderful cohesive group of three couples we can plan future adventures with. Our next scheduled adventure is Alaska in February to see the Aura Borealis. Until then or some other spontaneous adventure, thanks for sharing this with us.

Cheers,

Wes

Houseship #12

We arrived yesterday from Zion National Park to the Tropicana in Las Vegas after what was at times a harrowing trip. We left Zion yesterday afternoon after touring the park. One of the cool things we did before leaving, was a hike to the overlook where the entrance road comes in through this huge canyon of switchbacks and a long tunnel. Just where you enter the tunnel coming in is a parking area where you can get on the overlook trail. It is listed as an easy hike with 165 feet of elevation change. My knee was feeling pretty good, so I decided I could make this hike. Jerry and Brenda lent me their walking sticks, and Vickie declined to go. It turned out to be more a moderate difficulty hike, and often quite scary as you traversed smooth sandy rocks with drop-offs and no railings. But I was determined, and made it up and back. Nothing stopped working, and other than a sore hip joint, I survived quite nicely. After the hike, we headed back out of the park through the Springdale Ut ah exit. Along the way we stopped at the park visitors’ center and took advantage of the picnic area to have lunch from stuff we had brought from the boat. After our picnic, we headed out for Las Vegas, eventually joining I-15 for the trip into Vegas. The drivers were pretty crazy on the interstate, and Jerry did a good job of getting us safely to our destination. We saw one incident where a tractor-trailer accidentally cut off a small car. The driver of the small car went into a fit of road rage, and drove up beside the truck and threw a full can of liquid at the window. He then got in front of the truck and pulled off and dared the driver to stop and fight him. The driver didn’t so he rejoined the fray and harassed the trucker again for several miles. Oh and by the way all this was going on at about 80 mph as the speed limit was 75. Also during the trip, we experienced the "Nevada Lane Change". What this consists of is, you turn on your turn signal and change lanes after about tw o blinks, even if there isn’t any room to move over. The other cars just have to get out of the way. (all at 80 mph)

After arriving at the Tropicana, we checked into 3 adjoining rooms, and made plans for the stay. It was decided that Jerry and Brenda would take Judy and Jimmie touring today since they had never been to Vegas. Miss Vickie is pursuing her love of gambling, and left me to catch up on my writing and such. We had a great (if expensive @ $11.99) breakfast buffet this morning. After that I retired to the room with a beautiful overlook of "The Strip" to communicate. During breakfast today, we had a discussion, which leads me to a soapbox topic.

Las Vegas has really changed. The days of reasonable rooms and reasonable food in Las Vegas are past. In the past, Vegas wanted to get you here to gamble, so they enticed you with amenities and good prices. Today just the opposite is true. They know folks will come, so they stick it to you every chance they get, just like any other resort. The rooms we are staying in are nice enough, but nothing special for the price. There is no in room coffee, no complimentary continental breakfast, and even a tiny TV with very few channels. (and no curved shower rod) Breakfast at the buffet was $11.99, and dinner last night at the Garden ala Carte restaurant was quite high. To get a cup of coffee this morning, it was $4.95 at some special coffee restaurant, and then Internet access is $11.99 per day. It is free most every where else. A soda from the machine down the hall is $2.00 but then the machine does take AMEX. I’m sort of disappointed. I used to think Vegas really wanted me as a tourist , now I feel like it is just another resort tourist trap. Wish I could snap my fingers and go back about 25 years and be here. Oh well the joys of being a "Boomer" tourist.

I’m going to take a shot at uploading some pictures from the week.

More later,

Wes

Houseship #11

The morning of our docking dawned bright cool and calm. We got up, ate breakfast leftovers and whatever. We did some research, and found that Wal-Mart, would take back all the food, liquor, and mixers we hadn't used. (good old Wally Mart). We came up with a plan for some of us to take the return stuff back and the others to stay and return The Ship. I was required as the small boat captain, so I went with the return crew. Prior to leaving The Ship, we packed everything up, and reordered her in preparation for docking. After de-anchoring, and stowing the anchors and lines, we headed in. We arrived early in the small boat, unloaded it, gassed it up and turned it in. While we were off at the Wally Mart returning the stuff, Capt. Jimmie arrived at the dock, and astutely had the young fellows at the dock land The Ship at the gas dock and then unloading dock. We ended up putting about $500 of fuel @$3.95/ gal. in The Houseship. We were way under what the literature predicted we would use. We did all the riding we desired, and ran the generator as much as we needed, so we were pleasantly surprised. We attributed it to Captain Jimmie and I having small boat experience, and knowing that medium speed on outboards is much more efficient than wide open or near wide open. The Houseship was equipped with twin 115 hp Mercury 4 stroke outboards. Normally while cruising, we ran them about 3200-3400 rpm for 7.5 mph forward progress. Max speed was about 5200 rpm, but we didn't use that. We found that as expected, the speed increase of the boat vs. the speed increase of the engines was definitely much smaller as you got over cruising speed. I.E. the boating law of diminishing returns. Also, I had brought along a refrigerator thermometer, and I could monitor the temp of our stored food. I only ran the generator as much as necessary to keep the food safely stored. We kept all our ready access drinks in a cooler, and avoided opening the refrigerator constantly. (this was suggested in the boat literature) The return crew got back from the Wally Mart, and we proceeded to haul all our stuff up the hill back to the old Previa Van. After a somewhat sad parting with good old S76, we headed off to Zion National Park. Zion was about 2.5 hrs away across a great 2-lane road through the desert. We arrived at Zion about 5 p.m. and checked into the Zion Park Lodge. The Zion Park Lodge was very nice, and we secured dinner reservations for 8 p.m. at the restaurant. We watched the deer gather on the front lawn of The Lodge to graze, and then had a festive evening celebrating Jerry and Brenda's anniversary. We ended the evening in the rocking chairs in front of the huge fireplace in our lodge foyer, planning our seeing of Zion tomorrow.

More Later,

Wes

Houseship #10

All during the night last night, the wind howled past the rear of the boat. I got up once to check the anchors to see if they were pulling out. But our anchor team and the size of the anchors did the job. This morning dawned calm, cool and bright with the boat still securely attached to the shore. We had a hearty breakfast and are now preparing to up anchor and head downlake.

The de-anchoring went without a hitch, and we headed back toward our home bay with speedboat in tow. Everyone settled down to the routine of cruising. Some read, some played cards, and some napped. It is a very scenic slow cruise moving The Ship around on the lake. We got back into Waweep Bay, and went up creek past the marina to a great anchorage we had found. Captain Jimmie beached us smartly and retook the refrigerator punting record. We got anchored, and were fortunate to find a significant amount of driftwood to collect for a fire. That along with the supply of wood we had brought allowed us to have a nice fire that evening. The previous very windy nights had pretty much precluded beach fires. We had a dinner of leftovers from the week, and had a little beach party till it was time to go to bed.

More later,

Wes

Houseship #9

This morning dawned bright and cool. All the wind yesterday really changed the weather. The sun is bright today but the air is cool. We have had to run the heat on The Ship routinely for the first time. As it turns out we made an excellent decision to hole up from the high wind. The folks got back from visiting Rainbow Bridge and the marina guy told them he spent yesterday dragging folks off the lake to shelter. (and later when we checked in at our marina, they said they had boats wrecked on the rocks and adrift everywhere in the lake) The hiking crew took off in the small boat to go and see Rainbow Bridge, similar to yesterday’s plan. I settled down with Tom Clancy to await their return. The trip went off without a hitch this morning, and after a 19-mile boat ride (one way) and a mile and 1/4 hike, they saw the sight. They said it was definitely worth the trip. It was about a 4-5 mile ride up a narrow canyon from the main lake to the boat parking area. They were early enough th at they were the only ones there until a tour boat arrived as they were leaving. Today I started a list of the things we had and needed for the Ship Trip. We intend to document things carefully so we can do this better if we try it again. When they got back, we had some lunch and de-anchored (I invented this word). Jimmie and Jerry offered to let me pilot this leg of the voyage, and I jumped on it. I told them I’m the kind of guy that will jump on anything with a throttle and steering mechanism and drive it. I smartly de-beached us and drove down river heading for Padre Bay. The wind was fierce the whole way, but I figured out how to use the huge side area of The Houseship as a sail to improve our speed. We arrived in Padre Bay and our scouts found us an anchorage in Right Fork Cane Wash. I got to make my first attempt at a beaching. After my beaching in a horrible side wind, I now hold the record for moving the refrigerator the furthest across the kitchen. I think in the process I managed to have the engines wide open in every configuration but neutral. Like the book says 5 tons and no brakes. We ended up on the beach with me frantically fighting a crosswind with the engines while Jerry and Jimmie tried to get the anchors buried. We ended up safely anchored to the beach and I was very relieved. Now we are starting dinner and the girls are playing cards. We are having the classic hot dogs, hamburgers, and beans for our meal. Tomorrow we have to move down stream about 27 miles and get near by the dock where we have to return the boat Tuesday morning.

More Later,

Wes

Houseship #8

The computer says it is 09:17, but that is Eastern Standard Time. That makes it about 06:17 here in Utah on Arizona time. Go figure. The Navajos don’t recognize Arizona time, and Arizona doesn’t observe Daylight Savings time. But Utah recognizes Daylight savings time and the lake is in Arizona and Utah. But all the marinas operate on Arizona time, even if they are in Utah. (I think) Then my cell phone keeps changing towers between Utah and Arizona, so I never know what time it really is. But then on this wonderful trip, we don’t care. We sleep when were tired, and wake up when we want to. I’m an early riser, so I monitor the sunrise and let everyone know when it is starting to get beautiful. This morning it is a little bit cloudy, and the sky isn’t as pretty as yesterday. But then isn’t as pretty here is still stupendous. We beached last evening in Rocky Creek Canyon amid a setting of buttes that looks like something out of the Roman times. Just above us is a rock formation that looks like an ancient roman ruin. Oh the sky just went fiery pink as the sunrise is on its way. It’s 0: something: 26. We were talking yesterday while exploring Navajo canyon: this day in age, there is no way the environmentalists would let them build a dam and flood a canyon like this. I am in favor of protecting the environment, but this is a whole other environment unto itself. Yesterday when Brenda and I scouted this landing location in the small boat, we commented, we might as well be on an alien planet. This place is that remote. We are in the middle of the desert on a boat. Sounds strange doesn’t it. It’s had to imagine what our forefathers found when they discovered this area. With the water, many of these canyon walls are 5-800 feet high. Without the water they would be like 1600 feet high. We keep looking up on the tops of the canyon walls expecting to see a Navajo raiding party preparing to attack us. Today, the hikers are going to take the small boat and head for Rainb ow Bridge, which is the largest natural arch in the world. When Glen Canyon Lake is full, you can boat to the arch, but with the current water level (90 feet down from full pool) it is a 1 plus mile hike to see it. Well everyone is stirring and it’s time to start the generator and make coffee.

Later...they all came back early because the weather report called for high wind warnings. They gassed up the small boat that took 21 gallons for our use so far. (@ $4.135 per gallon) We proceeded to double secure our anchors and batten down anything that could blow away. Our preparations were not in vain. The wind picked up to gale force and buffeted The Houseship far into the night. We cooked dinner and enjoyed the comfort and safety of our home away from home. We are staying at our anchorage tonight again and we will repeat the attempt to see Rainbow Bridge tomorrow.

More later,

Wes

Houseship #7

Woke up early this morning since I had left the drapes open on purpose. The sky prior to sunrise was unbelievably beautiful. While we were still in relative darkness, the rock canyon walls looked like a black cutout against the colored backdrop of the sky. As the sunrise got closer, you could see more and more detail of the rocks, until the sun finally popped up over one of the promontories. While awaiting the sunrise it was so silent you could hear the ducks muttering to each other along with a loon and the small waves lapping on the shore. After watching the sunrise I headed in to start the generator and breakfast. We had a great breakfast, folks had showers, and we’re headed off in the small boat to explore Navajo Creek. Navajo Creek was an incredible experience. We rode 12 miles up the canyon with walls of often 500 feet on each side. The canyon twisted and turned, with new unbelievable vista at every turn. It took us a couple hours to make the round trip to Navajo Canyon in the small boat. When we got back it was time to unanchor the Houseship and head up the lake. We proceeded back down Warm Creek and turned upstream headed for Rock Creek Bay/Canyon. We had to do some serious time distance figuring to see if we could make Rock Creek before dark. We ended up raising the Houseship speed slightly and made it with half an hour to spare. As we approached Rock Creek Brenda and I jumped in the small boat and scouted ahead for a landing spot for the Houseship. We rounded the pump-out station, and turned up Rock Creek. Because of all the houseship traffic on this lake, they have pumpout stations where you can stop and pump your holding and grey water tanks. This keeps the lake pristine and the water close to drinkable. About 4 miles up Rock Creek we found a cool beach complete with fire pit. We couldn’t reach the Houseship on the radio, so we ran back down the canyon until we could talk to them. We reported our discovery of an acceptable beach to Captain Jim mie and awaited their arrival. We did the compulsory anchor digging with great care as the weather is forecasting 30-mph wind gusts for Sat night. We intend to keep the ship parked for the next 2 days and use the small boat for sight seeing. We fired up the grill tonight and cooked steaks with salad and baked potatoes. We sat around the diner table telling stories of the most famous people we have shaken hands with or been close to. It was an amazing list of folks that included some very famous people. Watched a movie and turned in for the night.

More later,

Wes

Houseship #6

I woke up early this morning. Got up, made coffee, and watched the sunrise. This is an incredibly beautiful place. We were still at the dock and the sunrise/scenery was unbelievable. We had planned a classic bacon and eggs breakfast for our first morning on the water but since we never left the dock we made a collective decision to switch to the second day抯 plan of a light breakfast and save the killer breakfast for our first real morning on the water. We got everyone fed, washed, brushed, and dressed, and were ready to leave the dock. The wind was still blowing but significantly less than yesterday. Vickie and I took the speedboat and stood off in the harbor awaiting departure of S76. Captain Jimmie backed our houseship smartly out of the slip and pivoted toward the harbor exit. Vickie and I slipped out through the exit to take pictures of the maiden departure. Captain Jimmie handled the wind and unfamiliarity with the boat and made it safely through the exit buoys. We headed up into the wind and soon secured the powerboat for tow behind the houseship. After that we turned downstream keeping the appropriate buoys on the appropriate side of the houseship. Forward progress was at approximately 7.5 mph and we motored down the lake toward the point where we had to disconnect the tow of the speedboat to traverse "The Narrows". The Narrows is a passage through the rocks with 100-foot cliffs on either side. Vickie and I drove the powerboat followed by Captain Jimmie and S76. When we reached mile marker #9 on the other side of "The Narrows" it was time to reconnect the tow. We proceed up the lake observing the incredible scenery heading for an anchorage in Warm Creek. I commented to friends "This is like the Grand Canyon only full of water" and that抯 what it抯 like. If you built a damn and filled the Grand Canyon full of water this is what it would be. We proceed up Warm Creek and found a likely looking place to land. About this time the guys from the marina s howed up with a replacement speedboat. On our original boat I had noticed an ominous looking puddle of oil under the steering wheel that reappeared every time I wiped it up. In the middle of them arriving, we beached the houseship quite smartly. It being our first time The Captain wasn抰 sure exactly how fast we should approach the shore. We know now we were going a little faster than we should have been. I believe the guys from the marina had a good story to tell their friends when they went back. But then they have probably seen it all in the boat rental business. A little while later Jerry said, "Does this kitchen seem smaller?" Turns out that a full size household refrigerator, slap full of food ice and drinks, combined with having wheels and a fast beaching, equals forward motion. In essence the boat stopped before the refrigerator did by about 5 feet. We proceeded to bury the 4 huge anchors in the sand as we had been taught in the training video. Quite a bit of manual labor w as involved for Jimmie and Jerry. We had to dig four holes in the sand 3 feet wide and about a foot deep. This is necessary to keep the ship from being blown off the beach by the wind in the middle of the night. Idea is you don抰 wake up floating in the middle of the channel as a navigation hazard. After we had securely anchored, we extended our bow ramp, and hung out on the beach. Jerry and I decided to try out the water slide the boat is equipped with. (well actually Jerry first) The water temp was about 2 degrees above stopping your heart when you splashed down. However, after you were in for a while, it was not all that bad (to me). I got Vickie to get me the bar of Ivory soap and I had a lake water bath. Later I slow cooked a ham on the grill, made some scalloped potatoes, and we had a fine dinner. The hikers in the group went on a nature hike while I cooked. After dinner we had a small fire on the beach and turned in early for a good night's sleep.

More later,

Wes

Houseship #5

Getting the ship and getting all the supplies yesterday was quite a memorable event. We arrived at the rental office soon after 8am and were assisted by a very nice knowledgeable girl. She processed all the paperwork, and we headed down the hill (because the water level is 90 feet below full pool) to The Ship. We found our ship which was #S72. We inspected it for necessities i.e. Coffee filters, pillows, paper towels, ice bucket, and ice cooler capacity and soon our instructor arrived to teach us how to houseboat. Jerry & Vickie left and drove the van to the loading dock. The rest of us stayed with the instructor as we went to the fuel dock to fill up the tank. We filled up the 290-gallon fuel tanks and moved to the loading dock. Vickie & Jerry were waiting on us with carts full of luggage. We loaded the luggage onto the ship realizing immediately there was no place for luggage on the ship. We said we’d worry about that later and sent the shopping team off to Wall y Mart. With knowledge and lists in hand Jerry, Vickie, and Judy headed off for supplies. Brenda, Captain Jimmy, & I stayed for houseboat training. The young houseboat dude whose name was Will from New Zealand proceeded to take us through the indoctrination (of course Will had only been working houseboat training for 6 mos. of the 10 mos. he’d been in the US). When I asked Will why the lights on the right side of the AC electrical panel were not on he said "Oh they are just burned out". After I proved to him that there was no juice on that side of the panel, he called the electrician who took the screws out of the panel and condemned the ship to the repair dock. We then moved all of our stuff across the dock to our new home #S76 which had a functional electrical system. Jimmie, Will, and I proceeded through the training. It was soon obvious that we knew way more about the boat than Will did from studying the DVD that they sent us. As soon as we had had all the compulsory CYA in doctrination we tipped the young boy and sent him on his way. I called Vickie on the cell phone at the Wally Mart and she reported the shopping was proceeding and I informed her our new ship number was S76 so they would not put the groceries on the wrong ship. Jimmie, Brenda, and I sat around on the new ship awaiting the arrival of supplies. In the meantime, Brenda and I went through the training on the powerboat we had rented to tow with us. The training involved.... here’s the boat....here’s the lifejackets....here’s the throttle...here’s the key....you push the throttle forward to go fast....end of story. The crew adjourned back to the boat to await the supplies again. Finally I got a cell phone call from Vickie that they were in route with supplies. I stole a cart from another houseboater who was not using it and stood prepared in the parking lot for unloading. Vickie said they were 3 minutes away 15 minutes before they arrived. Jimmie and I stood with the dock cart in the wind driven sandstorm in the parking lot awaiting their arrival. After we were thoroughly sand blasted the overloaded Previa came waddling down the drive. We proceeded to unload the contents of the van into the rolling dock cart. The first load was so heavy Jimmie and I tandem pulled it. Finally all of the supplies were transferred to old S76. Jerry told me that his first trip through the Wally Mart checkout was $576.00 (of course he had the liquor list). The girl at the checkout asked him if he was starting a business but he said no it was just a good party. She asked him if she could come. He said only if you have a boat. We proceed to stow the supplies in every available orifice in the kitchen, which is very large by boat standards including a full size stove, microwave, and refrigerator. Something I forgot to mention was that the wind was 15 mph gusting to 24 mph on our inaugural boat day. We astutely decided that since it was already 3pm (dark coming at 6:15) that we would stay ti ed up to the dock and shore power the first night. All of the folks we talked to on the dock said that that was a wise decision considering the wind and water conditions. We festooned the vessel with our four strings of Flamingo hanging lights. We then fixed dinner consisting of slaw and Mario's’Salmon Tailgate Packets then watched a movie and went to bed planning an early departure.

More later....

Wes

Houseship #4

We got up this morning to a pleasant surprise. The continental breakfast here at the Page Quality Inn is superior to most. It was almost like a breakfast buffet minus bacon and sausage. They also had this porridge like stuff called Blue Corn Mash. It was Smurf Blue, and the cook said this was the only place you could get it. All served in a dining room overlooking the most incredible view you can imagine. This particular Quality Inn goes high on my list of value for the money. The people were great, ambience was stupendous, food was good, and they even got the curved shower rods right. As we ate breakfast with 2 busloads of tourists from Russia, Vickie and I commented we had paid 3 times as much to stay places with about ¼ of the coolness. When Vickie and I stayed here 4 or so years ago, this was a Ramada. Since then it has joined Quality Inns and Choice Privileges.

We made all our shopping lists etc last night, and are on our way to The Ship and Wally Mart this morning. Hopefully we’ll be headed out this afternoon. Probably won’t hear from us for a while because I don’t expect any Internet connections to be available on the lake.

More later,

Wes

Houseship trip #3

The plan was this morning, Wes was supposed to get up early to write and then wake everyone for breakfast at The Lodge restaurant. However, Vickie decided to wander down to The Lodge for coffee and while there was informed by the nice boy that if we wanted breakfast, we better get there cause "the food was going fast". She came back and got everyone moving. We just pulled on clothes and went as we were. The breakfast was good, and eating overlooking the sunrise on the Grand Canyon was priceless. (AMEX took care of the rest). After breakfast, we did the clean up and shower thing. One of those interesting ironies awaited us in the bathroom. There was a cool placard proclaiming how Xanterra Parks and Resorts ^R was protecting the environment by using bulk soap and body wash dispensers. Also how they were conserving water and protecting the environment by not changing the sheets and towels unless requested. Then it happened I got in the shower and they blew it all. There s hould have been a line on the placard that said "Oh and by the way, we have diverted half the Colorado River through your shower for your cleaning pleasure". I have stayed in motels where the showerhead put out less water in a week than these put out in a minute. Had me a little conflicted about the whole conservation issue. (but I really enjoyed it) After clean up, Jimmie, Judy, Brenda, and Jerry went for a short hike (complete with our new stupid hats and walking sticks) on one of the trails. It was especially cool since Jimmie and Judy have never been to the Grand Canyon and Jerry and Brenda have not been to this side. Vickie and this old gimp decided to hang and prepare our gear for departure. I used the time to download the pictures from the camera and catch up on my writing. When they get back it’s off to Page and the Houseship Adventure. We drove out of the North Rim and stopped at Point Imperial overlook. The view was stupendous. As we continued out of the park, we had to s top and take the luggage off the roof cause it was snowing. It snowed/sleeted for quite a while as we exited toward Page. We made the trip over the mountains and across the high mesa to get to page. The scenery is like nothing you’ve ever seen. We stopped at the bridge across the Colorado River, and the Navajo folks had stands set up selling stuff. The girls shopped, and Jimmie Jerry and I stood and admired the Colorado flowing through the gorge. Finally we arrived at Page, and found the Quality Inn where we had reservations. We stopped at the Super Wally Mart and picked up some chicken to eat at the motel when we landed. We had 3 adjoining rooms, and I set up the laptop so we could work on our planning for the Ship Trip tomorrow. After much wrangling and discussion, we ended up with a shopping list for tomorrow. We can access The Ship at 08:00 tomorrow, so we are planning to get an early start. Continental breakfast is included here and starts at 06:00, so we are planning for that .

More later.

Wes

Houseship trip #2

We had an excellent breakfast this morning at the buffet at the Stratosphere. It was $10.95, which seems pricey for breakfast, but the spread of food was unbelievable, and the quality was high. We loaded up the Toyota Previa and realized the amount of luggage and people we had was a little over the internal cubic capacity of the vehicle. We came up with a plan, to stop at a Wally Mart and transfer some of the "stuff" to the roof rack so conveniently provided. Wally Mart in Nevada is truly your one stop shopping spot. We got bungee cords, liquor, wine, batteries, limes, cups, mixers, and a cold drink. I was surprised they didn’t have a casino in the Wally Mart. Heck they even have slot machines in the gas stations. With a couple of our rolling adventure bags safely lashed to the roof, we were on our way. The elevation at Las Vegas is around 1900 feet, and the lodge here is around 8700 feet, so it is a climb the whole way. The route out of Vegas follows I-15 and then we cut off ne ar Huricane Arizona toward the Grand Canyon. Along the way we passed through Nevada, Arizona, Utah and back into Arizona. Also according to the cell phones we passed in and out of a couple time zones. The Grand Canyon is on Mountain Standard Time. Arizona doesn’t observe Daylight Savings Time. When you make the final turn off to get to the North Rim, it’s about 50 miles through the wilderness to get there. Along the way we stopped at a meadow and observed 2 animals the driver (Jerry) had astutely spotted. We stopped the car, broke out 2 sets of binoculars (one HUGE set), and proceeded to have a lengthy discussion as to what we were looking at. Jerry says it was bears, Vickie thought it was a skunk, I thought it was a ground hog at first, but then settled on porcupine. Jimmie and Judy decided it was a badger. The debate continued for the next 30 miles and we passed numerous herds of deer and finally reached the entrance Ranger Station. The ranger informed us there were no bears in t hese parts, and said it might be a badger. Everyone agreed it might except me and I still insist it was a porcupine. We arrived at the North Rim Lodge just in time for sunset. We scurried around changing cloths in the parking lot. Reason was it was 80ish when we left Vegas. It was 48 and the wind was blowing at The Lodge. We made it down to the outdoor deck on The Lodge for the last 45 minutes of the sunset. The scenery was indescribable and even the digital pictures can’t do it justice. The whole scene at The Lodge was kind of party like since it was the last night of operation for the season. All the kids who are seasonal employees here were looking forward to starting vacation tomorrow. Most of the folks staying at the Lodge were here because it was the last night. Out on the lower deck was a fireplace you could park a car in, and it was blazing away. All in all it was the kind of night you just can’t pay money for.

We had a dinner reservation for 8:00 p.m. so after the sunset we checked in and adjourned to our assigned cabins for a while. The ladies headed off for the gift shop where they were having a 20% off end of season sale. We guys sat around a sipped a beverage and enjoyed the ambience. The cabins we were staying in are called "Frontier Cabins" They have one room, are made of logs, have no television, and are totally cool. The bathroom is reasonably modern, and well equipped. We had two that adjoined each other with a door in between. We used those two as the gathering place. At about 7:45 we rounded everyone up and headed to dinner at The Lodge. We had to wait a little while, but were soon seated in the huge high-ceilinged dining room. Our waiter was a gem and he told us to make our food choices quick since the availability was going fast. The menu wasn’t extensive and we quickly choose. Jerry, Jimmie, and Judy opted for the pan seared Mountain Trout. Vickie went for the North Rim Pasta which combined pene, crisp bacon, peas, pine nuts, Alfredo sauce and romano cheese. Brenda had a salad, and I decided on the Free-Range Meatloaf. (exactly what a free range meatloaf is is a good question) At the last minute, I decided to switch to the trout. It was a good decision. The trout was very delicious topped with a diced tomato and pineapple sauce I am going to have to figure out how to duplicate. I was worried it was going to be one of those trouts that look up at you from the plate, but it was a filet. All the food and drink was excellent and the ambience was beyond compare. Thanks to Jerry for the excellent planning. We wandered back to the adjoining rooms after dinner to contemplate the universe. We sat around and chatted until Brenda broke out one of those unexpected joys in life, a whoopee cushion. She first caught Vickie unaware, and things degenerated from there. We took turns seeing who could get the best result, and belly laughed like a bunch of teenagers t ill late in the evening. We planned our exploits for the following morning and snuggled to our respective cozy cabins for fine rustic sleep.

More later,

Wes

Houseship trip #1

Well here we sit waiting on our fellow travelers. It is Sunday afternoon, and we are ready about 1 hour early. We have to catch a plane in Greensboro. Catch a plane that is the key phrase. Yours truly hates planes. There is so much hassle involved with flying, and they have made the coach area seats of the planes so small, I genuinely hate it. I remember when I was young, and flying was a treat. Seats were big, you could smoke, (and smoking didn’t make you a social leper) no "security", no crowds at the airport, and happy airline folks. Now that is all just a faint memory. I get my Dr. to give me what I call "flying pills", something generic in the Valium family. I take them when I leave the house and right before I get on the plane with an adult beverage of my choice. I end up blissfully unaware that I am crushed into space a midget couldn’t enjoy, hurtling through space at 560 mph. at the mercy of an air traffic control system that is precarious at best. My favorite airplane j oke is "Damn, he would have survived that 600 mph. fiery crash into the ground if only his seat back and tray table had been in their full upright and locked position." Vickie really fusses at me when I say it. (I think she’s tired of hearing it) Many of the airline folks are very nice, but the percentage of grumpy troops is much higher in this age of pay cuts and airline bankruptcy. I use the wheelchair service available from the airlines with my continuing leg issues. They are very kind (especially when you tip them well) and it makes moving through the airports and changing planes much less stressful for this old gimp. When the flight is far away, they ride you in one of those electric carts. I like to sing harmony with the beep, beep, beep the carts make. Vickie pretends she doesn’t know me.

Well now we’re here at the airport, the whole arrival check in process was made greatly less stressful by Brenda’s Delta Medallion status. Since we were traveling with her, we got to go to the special check in reserved for the Medallion and First Class passengers. One of our good friends that lives very near the airport is babysitting our cars, so Jerry and Jimmie took off to ditch the cars as soon as we checked in. I was a "Primary Alarm" at the walk through detector at the security gate. Never been called that before. It involved the usual wanding with the metal detector and body search along with rubbing my hands and knee brace with the little wipey thing that goes in the explosive detector. I wasn’t explosive and didn’t have any concealed weapons, so I got through quite nicely. In reality, it was one of the better experiences at security I’ve had. Vickie rounded me up a nice iced coffee and we’re settled down to await boarding.

Later.... all in all the flights on Delta today were uneventful. (slam ass full, but on time and well run) We arrived in Vegas, got our severely overloaded mini van, and made our way down the strip to the Stratosphere. We had booked rooms at the Stratosphere as it was the most reasonable, and we were really only crashing for one night. The stories we had read about lines at check in at the Stratosphere were true. However, we discovered an automated kiosk that let us check in with no line and very little fuss. Only problem was we were supposed to have adjoining rooms and they were the exact opposite. Each couple was in a different tower and floor. After we figured out the curious room numbering system (our room was 03-10-46, which stood for building 3 floor 10 room 46), the rooms were serviceable and we had landed. We did the Vegas night stuff till about 2 Vegas time, then crashed with plans to meet for breakfast. After breakfast it will be into the mini van for our trip to the G rand Canyon. Just discovered the Internet here costs $9.95 per day, so this may be a while going out. Good old Vegas, never any coffee in the rooms, and you pay for Internet. I’ve stayed at cheap rundown strip motels, but they still had wireless Internet and a coffee maker in the room. Jerry commented on how few channels were available on the TVs in the room. His take, "they don’t want you drinking coffee, watching TV and surfing the Internet in your room". They want you downstairs gambling. After all I added all these fancy casinos and hotels didn’t build themselves, it took a lot of folks losing a lot of money. More later.

Wes

Houseship Trip Itinerary

Sun, Oct 14
Delta GSO→ATL
Delta ATL→LAS
Lodging – Stratosphere Casino Hotel – 2000 Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV, (702) 380-7777

Mon, Oct 15
Drive to north rim of Grand Canyon National Park
Lodging – Grand Canyon Lodge – North Rim, AZ, (928) 638-2611
Dinner – Grand Canyon Lodge Dining Room

Tue, Oct 16
Drive to Page, AZ
Lodging - Quality Inn at Lake Powell - 287 N. Lake Powell Blvd, Page, AZ, (928) 645-8851

Wed, Oct 17→Tue Oct 23
Onboard the ship!
Leave from Wahweap marina (available at 8am).
Houseboating.org, (801) 487-7206

Tues, Oct 23
Drive to Zion National Park.
Lodging – Zion Lodge – Springdale, UT, (435) 772-7700

Wed, Oct 24
Drive to Las Vegas
Lodging – Tropicana Hotel and Casino – 3801 Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV (702) 739-2222

Thu, Oct 25
Lodging – Tropicana Hotel and Casino – 3801 Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV (702) 739-2222

Sat, Oct 27
Delta LAS→ATL
Delta ATL→GSO