JoNick

Dates: Aug. 17 - 26, 2019 Trip Highlights: Wilmington waterfront riverwalk Airlie Gardens Wrightsville, Kure, and Carolina Beaches Fort Fisher - Southport Ferry Wine Tasting at Wine Samplers Recap of Each Day 1. Managed to set up between periods of rain. Dinner with Lora and Ashley at Cape Fear Seafood Company - no pics but food was delish. 2. Visited Port City Community Church and had lunch with Mark and Bonnie Stebnicki at George's down on the Wilmington waterfront. 3. Lora joined us for breakfast, then Nick left to go back for work. Lora and Joanna spent the afternoon lounging at the pool, then went to see a movie, The Art of Racing in the Rain. 4. Spent the morning at Airlie Gardens, lunch at The Iron Skillet (yummy), more pool in the afternoon. Evening visit ... read more

The POD for Thursday: drive from Zion to the north rim of the Grand Canyon, spend a few hours there, and then head east to Page, Arizona, just alongside Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam. Not so much drama this day, but plenty of beauty to behold . . . To exit Zion Park we drove back through the way we had come in, once again marveling at the sights and stopping to take a few last pictures. Then we headed south to the North Rim. When we made a pit stop about 45 minutes from our destination, we were happily greeted by much a milder temperature. Then we started down the long road that takes you to the north rim entrance. The landscape here was much different than at the east or south ... read more

I said in our last post that Tuesday would be a marathon day on the road, and boy, was it ever! We were up early once again, this time to head off to Bryce Canyon National Park in southern Utah. The visitor center greeter recommended we take the more scenic route through Cedar Breaks instead of using Highway 20, which normally is a little quicker. Apparently the fires further north were causing some traffic to be rerouted onto 20, leading to possible slow-downs. By then our stomachs were calling, so we stopped at a Cracker Barrel, where we also realized we had lost an hour due to the time change. We were quickly getting behind schedule, but Cedar Breaks National Monument enticed us into making stop anyway. We were at an elevation of about 10,000 ... read more

Hi Folks, As I’m composing this, we are on our way away from the Grand Canyon, heading toward Las Vegas. Thanks to us needing gas, we had a nice little surprise this morning when we stopped in Williams to gas up and have breakfast. Williams is about 1 hour south of the Grand Canyon south exit, and it is home to the Grand Canyon Railroad. Williams sits on Route 66 and has lots of old-timey western charm. We had a wonderful breakfast at a cute restaurant filled with local artists' paintings of cowboys on the range, the Grand Canyon, and Native Americans. So now we can add historic Route 66 to our list of places visited. What can I say about the Grand Canyon! Those of you who’ve been there know--there is no way to ... read more

Yesterday we drove from Rio Verde into the Tonto National Forest and up to the town of Payson, about an hour north of here. In Payson we found an all-terrain mountain buggy trip to take. Our guide was Charlie, and he took us on quite an adventure. We met Charlie in a parking lot in town, and followed him to a remote location in the mountains. Here we were following a complete stranger and hoping it wouldn't turn out to be like a scene out of Deliverance. . . as it turned out Charlie was a nice Christian guy who showed us all kinds of neat things, and our only "danger" turned out to be from the weather. The trip's first highlight was a jaunt onto a rough and rocky off-road trail. From there we ... read more