First Day

Here's a picture of our family at the observation deck overlooking Hoover Dam, which you can see in the background.

Day 1

     Well, here we are in St. George, Utah, on the first day of our road trip.  This morning at about 8:20, we left the house, but ended up turning back for the maps so didn't get on the road till 8:40ish.  We drove east through California for about 4 hours and crossed the border into Nevada at about noon.  Our first stop was Hoover Dam.  

     Getting there was a bit of a difficulty, though.  Since we had both a GPS system and printed directions as well as a map of Nevada, it shouldn't have been a problem.  However, the GPS continually sent us the wrong way, tried to get us off the freeway at every exit, and didn't recognize several new roads.  (It was only after we left Hoover Dam that we realized it was on the pedestrian setting, lol.  That might explain why it didn't want us on the freeway :) Finally, though, we got to the dam.  After eating lunch and lathering ourselves in sunscreen (it was around 115 outside) we stepped outside into the blistering heat.  We went to the visitors center and walked through the exhibits telling about the Dam. I learned today that the Hoover Dam, built to control the flooding and droughts of the Colorado River, is one of the Seven Modern Wonders of the World, which is pretty neat.

Then we went upstairs to see the dam from above.  It was absolutely gorgeous!!!!! And huge!!!!!  I'll put some pictures below of us there.  From outside looking over the edge it was a bit unnerving though to see.  It looked a bit like a giant upside down cement bowl with a power plant and a bit of water at the bottom.  Behind the dam rose steep reddish brown mountains and either the remains or beginnings of a bridge, we weren't sure which.  At one point though they had a cable system running across the dam, and apparently the dam still has the largest cable system running in the country!

We left the Dam about 2, and by that time it was about 119 degrees outside.  Yuck!!!  On our drive, we passed out of Nevada into Arizona before crossing into Utah.  If I can find one, I'll try and post a map with our route marked out so you all can see where we drove.  After crossing into Utah about 4, we drove into St. George a half hour later.  We ate dinner here at Cracker Barrel, a restaurant we enjoy in Michigan, and everyone agreed that the food was delicious.  Then we walked across the parking lot to the Fairfield Marriot which I'm in right now.  Fortunately they had a pool here which was one of our top three priorities for a hotel.  (The other two were complimentary breakfast and wireless internet, in that order.)  After swimming for about a half hour, we came back to our rooms.  

All is now quiet in our hotel rooms in St. George.  So far this vacation has been a big adventure in trusting God and will continue to be in the next few days.  Tomorrow after spending a few hours in Zion National Park, we're heading up to Colorado.  However, we don't quite know yet how far we'll get or where we'll stay, and that's been a bit hard for me since I draw some security from knowing what'll happen next though.  We're trusting God though that He'll provide for us like He did today, and I'm sure that whatever happens, it'll be a wonderful adventure!

Some more pictures from today will be coming in the next day or too.

God bless,

Elizabeth Bush