Catching up.

Here it is Monday morning already and I've not told you about our experences on Saturday.  Seems we were lucky to be in Pahrump for the annual police/fireman/emt relay run.  This race has been run for 60 some years and it is run from Baker, Calif. to Las Vegas, NV, 120 miles through the desert and over the mountains, note that is plural.  The runners left Baker early Saturday morning in waves with the slower runners leaving first so that the faster runners would be able to catch up.  There are 20 runners per team with 20 passes of the relay stick at the 20 check points.  These are spaced apart based on the terrain, some 4 miles, some 6 miles and some 10 miles is distance.  Each runner has to have a follow vechicle driving behind them for medical and to carry the water and to also protect the runner from oncoming traffic.  Remeber, this race is on the highway and traffic isn't stopped and the roads are only two lanes and narrow.  We drove over the pass to Shoshone, Calif. for lunch at a little cafe to wait for some of the runners.  Now remeber, the ones coming though now are the ones that left leater and have already caught up with the slower runners and passed them.  Going back over the hill to Pahrump we passed about 6 runners climbing the mountain into Pahrump.  I couldn't even walk this "hill" no less run it.  (or course neither of us can run anywhere anymore)  We went back to the coach and at Happy Hour fixed a drink and drove down the road to watch a number of the runners come through at dusk.  It was interesting to talk to a couple of the next leg runners as they waited their turn.  We had wondered if there would be any woman runners and we were next greeted with about 7 woman runners, all from different teams, pass us as they slowly climed a small hill.  Now one of the hills is at 5000 feet and they go from sea level as the southern part of Death Valley so this is quite an endeavor.  Not for the faint of heart or body.

Sunday we packed up the coach and headed towards our great National Parks in southern Utah.  The trip was about 6 hours, an hour longer than we had planned on due to a bridge being out and traffic down to one lane and that took an hour to get by.  We arrived in Glendale, UT and set up camp just in time for Happy Hour and a rest.  This campground should be less dusty than the last one we were in.  It is hard to believe that the coach had started out clean in Pahrump only to look like it had just arrived back in the states from Alaska and thousands of miles or road grime.  We will be taking day trips from this campground into Zion, Bryce and other interesting sites.  The only bad thing is that there  is no cell service and we are both lost without it, something we have become very used to having always.

One of the places that we wanted to visit was the North Rim of the Grand Caynon but it is closed until mid-May, still covered with snow.  The temp here this morning was 33 (feeling like 27) when Rich walked Teddy but it is supposed to be 84 in Zion this afternoon.  Layer time for sure.