San Diego Bound

Last Saturday I packed up to head out to San Diego.  I thought the kids would be sad to see me go but they were both so excited to play with their friends, Sam with Aaron and Charlie with Braham that they barely noticed that I was leaving.  Beth Ellen was still in San Diego wrapping up her training and I was all alone to finish packing.  Fortunately, Mary was there to give me a hug as I said goodby to Charlie.  I loaded the last of my things into my car and took off.

The drive south was uneventful.  I-15 goes through St George and then when you leave Utah and enter Arizona you go down through the Virgin River Gorge.  It is an amazing 15 miles of rough narrow canyon driving.  The amazing part of it is that you are dropping almost 2000 feet from the Colorado Plateau and not descending a mountain canyon.  So, that was the first time in almost 5 years that my little car had been below 4000 feet of elevation.

Then I made a quick stop in  Mesquite for dinner and onto Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.  This was a beautiful state park that reminded me a lot of Arches.  I barely found a campsite as the sun was going down and decided to just sleep out instead of messing with a tent.  The stars were amazing and the moon was nearly full.  It was a great transition from Salt Lake City to San Diego.

The next morning was cool and I was up before anyone else in the campground.  I decided to take a short hike and found a very cool slot canyon to visit before starting driving again.

This area was also interesting because it had been the scene for a number of Hollywood movies before it became a park.

The rest of the drive, through Los Vegas, past Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show on the California border and into Poway (the city north of San Diego where I am living) was uneventful until the last 10 miles.  I got off the interstate, there was a loud BANG, lots of smoke and my car had almost no power.  I pulled over and called for a tow.  Then I called my landlord and he was fantastic.  Came right over and helped me get my stuff moved into his car, followed me to the repair shop and took me home.  They fed me a great meal and I shared with them a bottle of Malbec.  On Monday was my first day at work.