Picking up the new Lazy Daze, Zion National Park & Cedar Breaks National Monument.

In our last post we mentioned that we sold our Allegro Bus and bought a new Lazy Daze motorhome. A couple of people have basically asked how we could give up the space and comfort of our 40 foot Class A and go to a 27 foot Class C. It’s hard to explain, but when we full-timed we would not have had anything different then the Class A, but after having bought a house again we wanted a motorhome for a much simpler life. Also we wanted access to the smaller campgrounds.
Perhaps these next three pictures of our campsite in Bryce Canyon National Park can give you an idea of what we were looking for.

We got to the factory around 8:30 on Wednesday July 6th and Dave gave us the walk through where he explained all the operations of the motorhome. Then, we finished up the paper work and went to lunch while they fixed a couple of items. When Sandy and I got back to the motorhome they had our pallet of the 14 boxes we had shipped out next to the motorhome.




Even though it was over 100 degrees with 43% humidity, it only took us about an hour and a half to get the boxes unloaded and shoved into drawers and cabinets. When we get to Las Vegas we will go through and reorganize. Of course, I’m sure we will be re-reorganizing for weeks. Our friends Gil and Nancy, from Henderson, NV, were in town to pick up a table they had Lazy Daze make for them and got there at 3:30. After they toured our new motorhome and we finally got Gil pried out of the driver’s seat, (he said it was sooooo comfortable), we went to the Olive Garden for supper. Gil needed fuel, so on the way to Olive Garden we used the GPS to find a station. Jane, have Gill tell you about our GPS routing experience.  Sorry, Gil and Nancy, that we didn’t get a picture of you for our blog.  We’ll make up for it next time.
If you do not pay California sales tax you must be “DRIVEN” out of the state by an ICC driver before you can take possession. So on Thursday Collin, our ICC driver, drove us to Las Vegas where we had to notarize some documents showing that we took delivery out of the state of California. After checking in at the Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort Sandy spent the rest of the afternoon rearranging. Then we went and had supper at the café here at the Oasis.
On Friday we decided to just sit around and enjoy the new motorhome, listening to the iPod, I doing Sudoku and Sandy working the crossword puzzles and some more rearranging. As I was working the puzzle I looked out the back and noticed that we had a view of some Las Vegas Arches.




On Saturday we left Las Vegas and headed for Zion National Park. Nether Sandy nor I have been to Utah other than to drive I-70. Here we are entering the Virgin River Gorge on I-15



Here is some of the scenery before we enter Zion NP.





The Zion National Park Entrance.




Here we are at Watchman Campgrounds in Zion NP. It’s been so long since I’ve had to level by hand I’m not so sure I remember how.  A Lazy Daze doesn’t come equipped with levelers so that will be one of the additions we need to do when we get back home.



Got it level, hooked up the electric, so what have I forgotten?




Oh ya, time to relax.




Here are some pictures from the park.  Pictures don’t do the scenery justice because of the thunderstorms looming in the clouds.







Weeping Rock is an area where the water seeps out of the rock and gives the vegetation a chance to grow on the sheer walls.




The narrows at the end of the riverside walk by the Temple of Sinawava.   As you can see, the river was crowded with tourists trying to cool off from the heat.




On July 11^th, as left Zion NP for Bryce Canyon NP, we had to drive a switchback
area before we came to a tunnel where we had to wait so we could go through as one way traffic. All vehicles over 11’4” tall or wider than 7’10 require one-lane traffic control and a $15 permit.




The tunnel is 1.1 miles long and was built in the early 1920’s.




The rock formations east of the tunnel are different than in the other part of Zion NP.





This is Checker Board Mountain.





On the way to Bryce Canyon we took a side trip to Cedar Breaks National Monument.




Here we saw some remnants of last winter’s snow. There was a lot of tree damage because of the heavy deep snow last winter.



This is the visitor’s center for the park. When we stopped here the temperature was 46 degrees and the high was going to be 56 degrees. The elevation here was 10,350 feet.



Although Zion NP was beautiful and magnificent, we were really impressed with the different landscape of Cedar Breaks.







Before we got to Bryce Canyon we drove through Red Canyon where we ran into our first rain of the trip.  You can see how easily flash floods occur and how erosion formed these canyons.  It didn’t rain very much, but water came pouring down the cliff and over the road.







Until next time,

Dave and Sandy