A traveling day
Wheels on the road, heading northwest, our first target of the day was Manchester Airport. A driving rain turned into fat flakes dancing in the beams of the headlights. Snow...
Denise grabbed coffee for us (OK, OK, a decaf Americano!) before we boarded our plane to sit and wait for our turn to have deicing fluid thrown all over the plane. Oh! it was really snowing steadily, and the big bird we are riding in can't fly when it's covered with snow.
I wish I could trace the line of our plane on the ground. We left from New Hampshire, and the pilot just told us that we are a little east of Minneapolis. Hmm... I wonder if that means we crossed New York and then flew over Ontario then back into the states through the upper peninsula of Michigan, over Wisconsin and Minnesota. We're supposed to fly over Rapid City. I think that's in South Dakota, right? Then the pilot mentioned Utah and Nevada - but we can't get to Utah without crossing another state. Denise just pulled out the airline magazine for me so I could look at the map. I think that other state might be Wyoming. I kind of drew a curved line from Minneapolis through where I think Rapid City lives, and then on to Las Vegas. I wonder if that's the path our winged transportation is following.
My friend Gromit lives in Nebraska and I told him I'd wave when we flew over his state. Hey Gromit - I'm waving just in case you can see me through all of these clouds. Maybe the angle from the plane to the ground will let you see me even though I think we might not be flying over your state.
It sounds like we will be about an hour late arriving in Las Vegas. I think I'm going to try to grab a nap now; I told Denise she should sleep too since she'll need to be wide awake when we arrive. After all we do have a three hour drive to complete today's journey.
Denise & I both had nice naps. When we closed our eyes we were flying above the clouds, blue above, and solid gray below. I think we were over Utah when I woke up and bounced over to the window. Oh! I can see snow-covered mountains below us. Beautiful.
We changed vehicles in the afternoon, switching to a car to reach our final destination. Did you know that we touched the ground in five different states today? We started in Massachusetts and popped up to Manchester, New Hampshire to find our airplane. Then this afternoon we started in Nevada, drove through a corner of Arizona, and ended the day in Utah.
Denise even behaved (as a driver). There's a beautiful section of the interstate in Arizona that passes through the Virgin River Gorge. Every time we have driven through there I can hear her thinking about stopping. There are sections where it looks like you could safely pull off of the road, but it is an interstate highway with "emergency stopping only" signs. Hmmm... do you think we could classify the need to take a picture as an emergency? I think I need to find a local map of that corner of Arizona for Denise. Maybe there are some other roads we need to explore.
It was a long day, ending with a welcome to our B&B home for the next three nights. We're staying at the Zion Canyon B&B, and oh! it's really nice. Denise had a good chat with Liz (one of the owners) before heading out for a quick walk. Now we're just relaxing and unwinding from our travel day. Tomorrow? It's time for wandering. It sounds like it's going to be wet; hopefully Denise will find some photos in between the raindrops.
--- Rover
