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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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“seemed to enjoy kicking me in the face” |
We leave Zion on Thursday morning with some reluctance. We debate moving just outside the park to a "commercial" RV park, but after looking in the campground directory I spot a better looking park a few miles up the road. So we head about 10 or 20 miles down the road to a place called Virgin.
The campsite is excellent, the best commercial site we have stayed on. There seems to be a difference between National Park owned sites and commercial sites, meaning they cant really be compared. National Park sites are more rugged, tend to be in places of intense beauty, and offer little in the way of facilities (internet, water, restrooms, etc). Commercial sites all offer free or very cheap wireless internet, and most offer sites where you neednt reverse the RV, full water and electric, plus much more.
This site is great for Matthew. We are 5 yards away from the park, which happens to be excellent - by far the best park we have seen in America. It still isnt a patch on those in New Zealand, but as Matthew is only 2 there is enough here to occupy him.
We also have grass (!!!!), this is a rare find on these parks out this way. We are still essentially in the middle of a desert, but the owners have grassed this area we are at (not all of the park is grassed), making a lovely lawn for Matthew to play with his ball on. Lloyd enjoys it too, we get him outside in the shade on a towel for a roll about. Only later on do we realise that many of the "residents" use this area to walk their dog, which makes us think twice about letting the kids run around. Its dissapointing as there is a caged area where owners I meant to take their dogs to do their business, yet very few use it (I saw only one). Now having had a dog recently myself I can understand why people want to walk them on the grass, but I think given the setting its not ideal. Especially as there are places nearby where the dogs can run freely.
Matthew tires himself out good and proper in the park, and me with it! We also have a go at basketball, though Matthew is a little short at present. He seemed to enjoy kicking me in the face when I lifted him up to score though! We meet a girl called Kurin, aged 10, from Las Vegas. I didnt think anyone lived in Las Vegas!! (only kidding!). She is lovely, and she understands us which is a big bonus. She tells me about her 2 dogs, 2 bird, 2 snakes, etc, etc she has (not sure why 2 of everything but she did have a bigger sister). Sounds like she has a farm at her house! Sounds a good life though, she seems happy, and I think she has a good time.
I regret booking us up in Vegas for the weekend. This campsite is so nice we could have stayed longer, Im sure Matthew would have wanted to. But we have paid for the long weekend as I was worried about getting in somewhere what with it being Memorial weekend. So friday morning we depart and move onto Vegas.
The drive is fairly uneventful. The temperature rises steadily as we go along, we are descending fast into the desert heat. I think Las Vegas lies at about 2000 feet elevation, so still up a bit, but much hotter than Zion and Bryce. The kids sleep on the ride most of the way. It seems to me that if you rest them up for a few days it makes the driving easier, they sleep to catch up on the activities of the previous days. May also have something to do with the nightmare time we had getting them to sleep the night before!
At about 1.30pm we spot Vegas in the distance, it looks quite small from afar. I think Vegas has a population of around 4 million, and its growng by 4500 a week (or something like that). Its a vast place, literally in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
previous travel blog entry
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