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Guess we're "home" for the duration - our internet was hooked up yesterday! 😂. Now we can catch you up on our adventures since we

 arrived in Beaver UT.

Leaving Beaver Sunday Oct 23

After congratulating ourselves on not being in Calgary on Saturday, winter arrived with a fury overnight in Beaver UT. As we sat playing games at our table, we watched as the temperature took a fast dive to freezing and listened to the wind and the rain. By morning we had 6-8" of SNOW

(and SNOW  is a four-letter word!).

It was a slow start as we discussed whether we should stay put (snow was continuing to fall) or brush off the accumulation and creep south to dry, warm weather. We decided to move and it was a slow crawl (better going south than north because there was little traffic coming out of even worse road condions to the the north) and we saw miles of traffic stopped northbound due to several vehicles in trouble. By the time we reached St George UT, we found what we were looking for - dry roads, rising temperatures and no sign of snow. We carried on to the Hoover Dam area and booked into a campground for 3 nights.

Two Days to Play

Morning view of (what's left of) Lake Mead from our window

Too windy to cycle so we walked the Historic Railway Trail, part of a service line created to deliver supplies during the building of the Hoover Dam in the '30s. Five over-height tunnels were blasted in this section to accomodate the equipment.

Sunset on Lake Mead from our campsite.

The next day we had absolutely perfect riding conditions (calm, about  20C / low 60sF) to tackle the River Mountains Loop, a challenging 34 mile/ 55 km route through the mountains to the west of our campsite. It's all paved, mostly with concrete, and much easier to accomplish with our e-bikes than the two previous times with our regular bikes!!!!

Arriving in Apache Junction  Weds Oct 26

It was an uneventful drive from Nevada to our winter home at Rock Shadows RV Park in Apache Junction, AZ. Arrived with plenty of time to get our site set up for the season.

It's Always Something! Thurs Oct 27

Returning from some errands in our truck, the "over heating" notification started chiming about 4 blocks from home; Bill pulled over immediately and called our Roadside Assistance service. The truck was towed to a local sevice shop we had used before. Thank goodness, this didn't happen in any of the remote locations we travelled on the trip down!!!!

 

The Verdict Friday Oct 28

We picked up the truck today after the water pump was replaced. It's been a costly year for truck repairs and sobering to think/admit that this lovely 2010 vehicle is aging just as we are....

Time to Play Again Saturday Oct 29th and onward

The weather has been warm ( hi 20sC / lo 80sF) so we have enjoyed getting back to our hiking and biking pleasures.

Aptly named Peacock Plant!