End of the Road

Boulder City to St. George to Roseville.

April 29-May 5.

The Arizona adventure came to a close as we parked the RV in a storage lot in Boulder City, Nevada, where it would remain until we returned at the end of April. The intent was to pick it up, spend a few days in St. George , Utah for Julie’s Ironman adventure, then head to Utah’s national parks and other scenic vistas.

Things changed as Janice’s right knee started acting up after returning to the gym for a couple weeks. The diagnosis: mild torn meniscus and arthritis. The cure: arthroscopic surgery to remove the arthritis, the synovium and fixing the meniscus. This is scheduled for May 13 and pre-op appointments require us back by May 8. Thus, the Utah adventure will be cut short.

So we headed to St. George, arriving at the Temple View RV Park, a place we had last visited 4 years ago, suffering overnight 18 degree temperatures in November. This time the weather was mixed, going from very windy (with a slight rain and dust storm just after the car was washed) to high 60s and calm the day of the event.

St. George is a microcosm of what America used to be like. It reeks of wholesomeness, influenced by the Mormon families making up the majority of the population. One is never out of sight of a white LDS steeple. The steeples sprout in every subdivision and neighborhood. While Brigham Young probably directed the specifications for these steeples, the LDS should really consider hiring a new architect and designing something that blends a bit better with the surroundings. Especially among these red-rocked vistas. Oh well.

The concern for race day was rain and wind, which would be horrendous on the already difficult course laid out by sadistic planners. One story was that Ironman officials were responding to complaints about courses being too flat. This was an over-correction.

After going to the nearby Sand Hollow reservoir with Julie for a swim (her), we explored the 26.2 mile run course in the car. The next day we drove the even more harsh bike course, a 44 mile loop in the outskirts of town featuring hills so steep that some participants actually walked their bikes. (Julie indicated that she pedaled furiously just to maintain a 3 mph speed.

On race day, Janice and I drove 10 miles to the local fairgrounds, where we hopped a schoolbus shuttle to the swim start. The race started with the usual “school of sardines” frothing of the water as 2000 or so swimmers started at 7 a.m. After encouraging Julie as she left the water and began the bike-leg. 

We waited and hour and a half until the last biker departed, hopping the first bus back to the fairgrounds. By the time we got the car and returned to town (leaving a developing traffic jam at the fairgrounds), Julie had biked through town and was headed out into the boondocks.
We intercepted her on the bike leg later, then caught her at the bike-run transition, once on the run course (with Annika) before cheering her across the finish line shortly after 9:30 pm. (Official time: 14:35.20) Julie was devouring pizza when we caught up to her in the post-race area. We headed to a nearby yogurt shop where Julie savored a late dessert. The place was packed with wholesome looking teens, politely enjoying the yogurt and each other, without checking phones/text messages every three seconds. It was a look at America’s past.
A final stop that night: picking up 20 lbs of ice for Julie to take back to her hotel room for an ice-bath (Yeow!).We returned to the RV where Annika greeted us with her usual happy face, despite being ‘left behind’ most of the day.

Sunday morning we hit the road for Valley of Fire State Park, 50 miles NE of Las Vegas, about 2 hours from St. George. Arriving at the camp-ground, we picked out a nice desert view campsite on the edge. Surrounded on three sides by red rocks/hills, this is as pretty a campground as we have visited anywhere, There are about a dozen water-electric RV spots (with a nearby dump-site). If it isn’t the hot season here, it is hard to imagine a more pleasant setting. Just the R&R we were hoping for. Likely will head back to home tomorrow, a two day trip. We will return to the reality of Janice’s upcoming surgery, but we were pleased how well Janice did chasing Julie around during the triathlon.

Julie visited us at Valley of Fire on Monday night, lured by the promise of BBQ'd salmon burgers and a campfire (she brought the fixins for s'mores).
The chocolate/marshmallow and graham cracker combo put Janice and I on a sugar buzz, making sleep fitful.

Nevertheless, we departed at 7;00 a.m., gassed up in LV at the Pilot station on I-15 and hit Bakersfield shortly after 1:00, where we dined on Costco hot-dogs. It was early in the day, so we continued north, expecting to stop at Pixley. Nearing Pixley, it wasn't even 3 pm, so we pushed further. The "smell the barn" vibes were kicking in, so we just kept heading north, arriving home at 7:30 after a day's driving of 655 miles, beating the previous one day drive record of 418 miles. And so ended our spring journey.