Day 6: April 13, 2000
Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Zion, and drive to Las Vegas

While we were paying for the room the night before, I noticed some postcards for Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, which was close to where we were staying, so we decided to go there first before heading into Zion. It was around 10 or so when we got there, so the sun was reasonably high in the sky and we couldn't get much texture out of the sand.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes

Also, there was a busload of kids who were traipsing across most of the dunes, leaving footprints. Still, the dunes were pretty impressive, so we headed off to the far end of the dunes where there weren't kids. We both did our best to get some good shots, but it was hard with those conditions. Libby could come with us on a leash, and she had fun. At one point, I was high up on a dune over a peak from Walendo and Libby. They couldn't see me, but suddenly Libby's head snapped around and she was sniffing like mad. She'd caught a wiff of my scent and was looking for me. Shortly after that, I came up over the hill and called out, and Walendo knew why Libby had been so interested. Having gotten our fill of the dunes, we went back to the car, poured a few pounds of sand out of our shoes and went back on our way.

Walendo & Libby

We went into Zion from the east, and quickly came to some huge striated, swirly rock formations. We stopped at one of the pulloffs and I went crazy on a steep hill full of swirlies with bushes growing out of them. There were some bright red desert flowers next to some of the bushes as well, so there was a lot to work with. I had trouble finding just what I wanted, but I think a few of them may come out well. Eventually, I came down from the rocks. Walendo had finished earlier and was reading in the car, which was a frequent pattern. It was nice that he made sure I felt like I had plenty of time to take all the shots I wanted. I liked how we'd tried to cover less ground on this trip, so we felt freer to stop more often at things that might be promising, even when they didn't always pan out.

Rock formations in Eastern Zion

We drove into the park, which was still quite impressive the second time (for me), especially after driving through so much interesting terrain all week. Once again, the operative word was "big." We drove slowly through the main canyon, taking in the bigness and especially liking the bright green trees against the deep red rock. We stopped at one point for a little lunch, scrambling down into the little valley along the stream with Libby, who technically isn't allowed out of the car in the park, except for one tame trail. We decided to walk along the trail where she was allowed, which went for about 1/2 mile from the foot of the canyon to the visitor's center. The path was even paved most of the way, though it did cross back and forth over the river a few times, which was neat. It was a pleasant walk and gave us a little more sense of being in the environment. At the visitor's center, I went to the bathroom and back we walked to the car. It was a beautiful, hot day with a breeze, so we were both happy.

Flower in the rocks Eastern Zion

We drove out of the park through the South entrance and through all the little towns leading up to the park. It's a pretty area. Finally, we made our way onto highway 15 heading toward Las Vegas. It had been a while since we'd been on a genuine Interstate. Just before we'd gotten to 15, though, I'd gotten a craving for a Dairy Queen ice cream. We passed one shortly after I'd gotten the idea (I think I'd seen a billboard), but Walendo didn't stop because the road had just opened to 2 lanes and he was trying to get around the annoying car we'd been following for a while. I was sad. After a little while on 15, we came to a big town full of stores and I saw another sign for Dairy Queen, so we got off. I had a "Blizzard," a really thick shake and Walendo had some chicken nuggets.

Ellen with Harry Potter tapes (yippee!)

We though there might be a Costco in the town cuz it had so many stores, but the woman at the counter said there wasn't. (We were still looking for those Harry Potter tapes for the ride home.) Walendo saw a Kmart down the way, though, so we decided to check it out for Harry Potter tapes, just incase. In that same shopping center was a bookstore, so Walendo checked that out while I went to Kmart. I had no luck, but Walendo came out smiling. They didn't have the tapes there, but the woman at the counter had been really helpful and called a few bookstores nearby and found them for us. One exit back, the Little Professor Book Center was holding them for us! Woohoo! We drove back to get them, and sure enough, there we were. They had a whole section of audio tapes, which we checked out, but decided to get just the Harry Potter ones, since they were so expensive. The price of the second and third tapes at retail was the same as ordering both of them and having them shipped "overnight" from amazon. Of course, they hadn't gone out overnight, so there you go. Still, it's amazing how much books and tapes cost full price - we just never pay that anymore. We took a snapshot of me in front of the store with the tapes with a big smile. We were very happy.

On we went to Las Vegas, listening to the second volume all the way. In no time, we were there, and we got off on Las Vegas Boulevard. After a little circling around, we found a Howard Johnsons that took dogs and got a room. It was a little seedy but not too bad. Within minutes of bringing in our stuff, Walendo noticed that Stomp was playing at the MGM complex that night at 8pm. We've been wanting to see Stomp for a couple of years. It was almost 7pm, so we decided to call to see if we could get tickets. We got some, changed as fast as we could, and rushed over, gawking at all the elaborate hotels on the strip along the way. We parked in the huge lot, and rushed to get our tickets and then to the entrance. The doors were closed and no one was around. Puzzled, we found some people at a nearby booth, and we realized that we were back on Pacific Time, that it was actually 6:45, not 7:45. Doh.

To kill time, we wandered over to New York, New York to check it out. On the way, we passed by a live tiger in a big enclosed area. It was very cute, but I felt bad for it living in that environment. New York, New York was interesting, but not as big as I'd remembered. Walendo got a (chewey) pretzel and we saw a bakery with black & white cookies, just like in NY. We wandered back and got to our seats. It turned out we were at an 8-person table that was arranged perpendicular to the stage. We took the seats closest to the stage, but Walendo was worried about blocking people. Later four more people came, one of whom was a little kid, but they seemed to be able to see well enough, so we were okay. The show was lots of fun. There were eight performers and they went non-stop for two hours. It was really creative in its use of regular hardware items (brooms, barrels, trash cans and trash can tops for cymbals, and so on). At one point four of the men came out literally wearing huge metal barrels on their feet, stomping them on the ground. At another point, they were swinging back and forth from the ceiling along a wall filled with metal and glass stuff that they banged away at. They also had a few segments where they involved the audience, getting us to clap in the right way, using humor when we screwed up. Walendo was a big dud spud and didn't clap along, even though he would have been better than all of us, being the drummer that he is. Ah well. It was a bunch of fun, I was really glad we'd seen it. Everyone was bopping along as they filed out of the theater.

After the show, we went to the fast food area and I got a slice of NY pizza and Walendo got some really yucky looking Chinese food, choosing it over McDonalds, interestingly enough. It turned out to be pretty yucky. He also got Libby a McDonalds hamburger so she wouldn't howl when we got back (which she tends to do when she's excited to see us). Then we went back to New York, New York to get some dessert. Walendo got the B&W cookie and I got a brownie. We wanted to get back to Libby at the hotel, so we headed back. That place is amazing. It would be fun to go back there for a weekend and walk along the strip, taking a closer look at all the sets at each of the hotels. Back at the hotel, the hamburger trick worked. Once again, we were really tired, so we feel right asleep.

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