We discovered Yellowstone Bear World quite by accident, but enjoyed it immensely. It is a drive thru nature park, not associated with Yellowstone, where you can get up close & personal with deer, white elk, bison,mountain goats, a moose, wolves, strange chickens & over 45 bears! Of course you are supposed to always keep your windows up as these are wild animals, we were reminded of this fact only twice! There was an low electric fence between the grizzlies & our car, but otherwise the animals were able to come right up to us - one bear tried to bite my bike tire a couple times!(bikes are on the bike rack, we aren't that crazy to do this on bikes) There was a petting zoo with a young deer with a taste for people's clothing which he happily tried to chew, my shirt included. You could bottle feed the bear cubs or just watch their antics. A pleasant morning out.
We stopped for a soak in Lava Hot Springs, a bit warm - 104-112F. We couldn't get over the speed limit in Idaho - 80MPH! We stopped for flu shots at Costco in Salt Lake City, which Robin grudgingly agreed to, then he proceeded to have quite an unpleasant reaction. Won't be getting one next year! He's fine, by the way.
The US is actually behind us in a few ways - they don't take Mastercard yet at Costco, they don't know what a "chip reader" is, but the gas is only $2.81/gallon here in Arizona.
We found a great RV park with full hook-ups & WiFi for $15/night near Bryce Canyon, quite the improvement over Walmart parking lots. We spent 2 days hiking & touring in Bryce Canyon & Red Canyon, amazing scenery. I filled my 16G camera card there, obviously taking a lot of pictures! We woke to a frozen water hose the day we left & by afternoon when we arrived in Mesquite, Nevada it was 30C!
We stopped at Moqui Cave along the way, a huge natural cave turned museum.It was used as a bar & dance hall, then a teen party place & now "cleaned up" for tourists. Everything from old movie memorabilia (westerns filmed nearby) to dinosaur tracks to fluorescent rocks to Mormon history.
We spent 3 nights in Mesquite at the Casa Blanca Casino - great RV area under shade trees, we had a pomegranate hedge beside us! I blew $25 in the slots but it was a nice escape from the 30C temperature, we still aren't used to it.
We drove thru the Virgin River gorge, downhill for 11 miles with steep canyon walls, glad we won't be heading north that way. Some good hiking along the river & in the desert, saw signs to watch out for tortoises but none spotted. Bought myself a pair of good hiking boots, all set now!
Onward to Las Vegas - we got around on the local buses (yes we are still cheap), went up & down the Strip & to Freemont Street. Still the "strange sights" - everything from a contortionist to Michael Jackson to people zip-lining above the crowd to the balloon guy. Even stranger are the people who dress up (or forget to get dressed) to entice you to tip them for the "honor" of taking a photo with them - the KISS guy in the G-string & 6 inch heels, a woman with the "world's largest breasts", typical showgirls with the feathers, girls in short skirts with band-aids over their nipples (honestly all they had on) & girls with G-strings & body paint everywhere else. All this & it's not even Halloween!
We had to check out Ethel M's Chocolate Factory ( of course the free samples drew us in) but we were surprised at how much is done by hand. They had a huge table of nut brittle & they were hand packing Valentine chocolates. They also make M&M's, every color imaginable, even a birthday cake flavor. Overhead were planes headed for Vegas, an average of one every 2 minutes!
We haven't stuck it rich yet, not really trying, too "cost conscious". Our luck is with us, though. we noticed a screw in the car tire, not even low yet so we headed straight to Costco where they had us on our way in just over an hour & no cost!
We are now settled in an RV resort in Bullhead City, Arizona for a week - complete with pool, hot tub & gym. We are parked on the hill overlooking the Colorado River & the lights of Laughlin - casinos & buffets await! The weather is hot, 27-30C with not much cooling at night, but we are very happy to have no snow. We had a lovely visit with some friends from Penticton yesterday, hope to catch up with folks from Vegreville as well.
