Today was actually pretty uneventful as first days go. We were on the road by 5:30 this morning and arrived at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada by 12:30. Carol handled her navigation duties until we were heading north on I-15 and then promptly fell asleep. She slept 4 of the 6 hours it took us to reach Valley of Fire. We had our pick of several campsites and chose a HUGE double-wide campsite in Atlatl Rock Campground. The weather was clear and gorgeous. We were ready for our vacation!
The real story of this trip actually goes back a couple of months. We had planned a six-week trip to photograph fall color in Colorado. We would travel the back roads of the central and southwestern Rockies and San Juans. An unplanned but successful surgery cancelled our Colorado trip, so it was time to develop some alternate plans. We finally settled on a 3-week trip to Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, Zion National Park in Utah, and any other areas in Southern Utah that we could fit into our schedule. We've never photographed in Valley of Fire, and Zion is always relaxing for us. Everything looked good...and then the Republicans shut down the government. Technically, we could still go to Valley of Fire because it's a state park, but with all National Parks closed, we were told it would be nearly impossible to get a campsite. For the second time, we had to cancel our fall trip. But then the governor of Utah came to the rescue. He cut a deal to pay for the staffing of the 5 most-popular National Parks in Southern Utah. Utah would pay 1 million dollars to re-open the National Parks, so the Utah economy could start earning the 25 million dollars a week it would normally get in October. Returning 25 million dollars to the economy at a cost of 1 million dollars for 10 days was definitely a win-win compromise. One of the ironies is that it was a Utah congressman named Lee who was one of the most outspoken proponents of shutting down the government. There's nothing like shooting yourself and your constituents in the foot.
Once we confirmed the National Parks were re-opening, we started getting ready for the trip again. We rushed to get everything ready in the yard and to get everything packed in two days. We finally finished last night about 10:00. It's no wonder we were both so tired today. So, today was quite uneventful, but the past two months have been something else entirely.
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