Mr. Thumb and the amazing Razor

 Well folks, after our Grand Canyon adventure I (Frans) shall bring some stories and myths about our 3-state-crossing journey. At first, we had to steer the Hoff towards Phoenix again. In a two day journey, including sleeping in the desert under the stars, we arrived in the suburbs on Saturday to skype and team up with Kaylee's mom and colleague who were in town for work. After a huge amount of Mexican food (which I missed because of skyping) we left Kaylee with the two ladies. Kaylee, later that day, got on her flight with some help of her mother, who works at the airline company.

We, in the meantime, drove away as quickly as possible from our city-shaped nemesis, though not after buying another load of books. We spend the night at the foot of Humprey's Peak, an old volcano near Flagstaff. Courageously we started to climb the mountain on Sunday morning but found our Waterloo in the snow which slowed us down and made the trail almost impossible to walk on. Defeated we returned to the Hoff and got on the road again toward the west where we camped at Kingsmen. Miraculously, the Walmart had a quiet parking lot and we slept liked knocked down daisies.

The next goal on Monday was to conquer Nevada with Jaspers wisdom, Sanders looks and my silly dances. First we had to face the challenge of visiting the Hoover dam at border. Before we could drive over the dam we were checked on atomics and bombs. As we proceeded and drove over the dam, Sander and me were largely disappointed by the size of the famous dam. Jasper at first didn’t notice the dam at all as he was occupied by slaughtering a mango. The second time we drove over the dam, Jasper also noticed the miracle of concrete and shared our opinion. Our opinion of the highway bridge near the dam was the opposite though.

A couple of miles up the road, we saw the skyline of Las Vegas unfold before our eyes. Miles and miles of suburbs surrounded the skyscraping casino's along the Strip. Vegas doesn't have many rainy days but we managed to get there on one of those days. After another skype session we headed for the strip, were Jasper played on his pink guitar and we shot movies and pictures of the astonishing wast of energy and scenery the casinos displayed along the Strip. We also got out of this city as fast as possible and slept at a Casino near the Nevada - Arizonian border.

The next day, the Hoff brought us through the desert (with a gray sky!) into Utah toward Zion National Park. We immediately grabbed a back country permit as we planned to hike on Wednesday and Thursday along the West rim trail. That night we had a pancake party. Together with leftover pancakes, sleeping bags and a tent we started hiking up the canyon the following day. Awed by the sandstone cliffs showing crossbedding everywhere, we climbed up the canyon and enjoyed the view. Though up at the plateau it was kinda coldish, actually too coldish for the Grand Canyon diet we brought with us. So, after an emotional discussion in which all three agreed from the start, we decided to call an end to our backpacking trip and head for the Hoff. After a 30 km hike, in which Sander injured his knee, we slept like babies. The following day, Jasper and I decided to hike up the east rim, leaving Sander behind with the Hoff due to his knee. The hike was even better than the day before which washed away the last regrets about abandoning our back-country adventure.

The next day was another skyping day, combined with a small hike in the afternoon in the Kolob Canyons, the northern part of Zion. Sander and I went up to a overlook point to read our books there while Jasper ventured on a longer hike. The evening and night was spended at a rest area where the generators of the trucks contributed to a nice allround environment.

Saturday we headed back to the Kolob Canyons to hike a 20 km roundtrip towards possibly the largest arc in the world. Why the word possibly was added in the description is unknown. The arc was indeed quite big and was located high up one of the canyon walls. A good look at it was difficult though cause the trail was in the forest at the bottom of the wall. During the way back we couldn't resist a nice clean creek and we took a nice bath (without shampoo though) in the cold and refreshing water. Today we are at Cedar City for skyping, again, and for the laundry. Next stop is Bryce Canyon National Park.

To end with a typical Dutch greeting: Ajeto Buur!!