We promised you snowboarding!

We promised you snowboarding and here it is. We have spent the last 10 days in Park City Utah in order to get in a bit of snowboarding. Symi, as you can see has taken to it like a duck to water - complete with snowboarder attitude.

We spent the first day at Park City Mountain Resort where Symi continued to work on her turns - having had less than a day and a half on the snow to that point. Fiona was happy to stay with developing her confidence again. As you can see in the photos Fiona has purchased a helmet. This has been great as now she doesn't feel she is about to concuss herself when she falls off. Interestingly when we last snowboarded (about 13 years ago) very few people, apart from kids, wore helmets. Now nearly everyone does. 

Next, after a rest day/school day, we headed off to the Canyons which is the largest resort in the Park City area. By the end of the day Symi had her turns sorted on the poetically named "Snow Dancer". The following day we

headed out with Rob to explore the wider area. Symi found some of the runs a bit steep but was able to slide down pretty much anything. Her traversing is excellent due in part to her skill and in part to the boards being much more forgiving than when Rob and Fiona learnt. After those two days we were all pretty tired and needed a break. Not to mention needing to get a bit of school work under our belts. We quickly discovered that school work after snowboarding is not a viable option!

 

During our rest days we visited the excellent Utah Olympic Museum. The highlight of the visit was a tour around the ski jumps and the bobsleigh track used for the 2002 Winter 

Add $200 and you can do this for real!

Olympics. It was very impressive standing at the top looking down the K120 ski jump. It was enough to put butterflies in your stomach. The atmosphere  must have been incredible for those about to jump with an audience of 20,000 waiting below. Since 2002 the distance the jumpers are attaining has increased so much that they would have to extend the jumps here if they were to host the Olympics again, which they are hoping to do.

Looking down from the top of the K120 ski jump, scary!

Day three and there was talk of powder. We were up early and waiting in line for the lift to open at 9am. We don't wake early here as it's already 'summer time' and it only gets light

Early for the lift, civilised waiting!!

at 7.30am. We have become slow in the morning and it takes a little while to breakfast, pack up and drive the RV the 4 miles to the slopes then park in the back area of the parking lot (note correct term) where they relegate the RVs to. Symi and Fiona did a warm up on Snow Dancer and then met up with Rob on Boa - a very long run which had a great surface with bits of powder. We all had a long and very enjoyable day exploring the resort.  One memorable run was Harmony which weaved through an enclave of very expensive houses. Some of these houses were up to $21 million. Come evening we were all very ready for bed.

 

Thursday and another day on the slopes with lots of powder. We drove up through a snowstorm - great driving thanks Rob. Had some early difficulties in that the boards would not 

Fresh snow, let's go!



slide in the powder - quickly fixed with a wax buff for $5. But only after all the Waller's had to come back down on the chair lift as we could not get our boards sliding down the hill. Lovely snow and good fun but only a short day as  Rob had come down with some sort of stomach bug in the night and was not feeling the best and Fiona and Symi were just plain tired by early afternoon.



Fiona carving on Boa



Yesterday we dragged ourselves away from the slopes and are spending a couple of nights in Salt Lake City. This morning we went to the famous Tabernacle to see the Choir and Orchestra perform it's 4411th weekly show that is

broadcast around the world. The choir and orchestra sounded amazing and we were lucky to hear an infrequent performance of the bell section that was surprisingly enjoyable and interesting to watch. Last night we escaped sub-zero temperatures for the first time in three weeks, this afternoon it is currently dumping snow here! Tomorrow we are off to Moab, we could just as easily drive the 30 miles back to the snow/fresh powder, this life is tough.

 

'Rest'day, awesome dry singletrack. Notice ski jumps in background.

Bryce Canyon

After leaving Grand Canyon we had a very windy drive up to Utah and Rob worked hard to keep the RV under control across a flat windy plain. We stopped for lunch when we

Navajo Bridge and Colorado River

crossed the Colorado River at the spectacular Navajo bridge. It was so windy that it slammed the door back when Symi tried to open it and we now have a slightly bent door. Down in the river we could see people starting what we think was a 10 day rafting trip down the Colorado River and through the GC. As we were freezing in down jackets I don't think any of us had aspirations to be down in the river.

We then drove on up through the National Staircase - another geological wonder to Kanab - our first stop in Utah. This was an overnight stop to do washing and some shopping (including an oil heater and thermometer with an outside wireless gauge).We stayed at the Crazy Horse RV Park - no crazy horses or Neil Young backing band to be seen!  

Next morning it was off to Bryce Canyon. First stop was the visitors centre to collect a Junior Ranger Activity Booklet for Symi to complete. We then completed a 4 mile circuit of the Bryce Canyon Amphitheatre on the Queens Garden and Navajo Circuits. Bryce Canyon is an amazing example of erosion at work. It is full of hoodoos which are towers of rock left by erosion. Bryce Canyon is not really a canyon as there is no river. All the erosion is by ice, flash floods and wind. They have amazing slot canyons caused by flash floods.

We went to watch the sunset our first night - about a 2km walk - and then headed straight back to the RV as it was really cold - or so we thought. Next morning it was -9C

Bryce Amphitheatre: too many photos to choose from!

outside the RV (we were camped at 8000ft altitude)  and -4c inside. We could not use our shiny new oil heater as we had no power. Lucky we have a gas heater in the RV and we had filled up with propane. Despite the cold we were up to walk to the rim to watch the sunrise. Luckily, due to daylight saving, sunrise was 7.26. We had another great walk and even managed to walk up a slot canyon Fiona had seen a picture of last year and stated she wanted to see. The

Slot Canyon, Navajo walk

afternoon was filled with school work and a trip to the ranger's station for Symi to be sworn in for her second Junior Ranger Badge.

Following morning we had a very early start to drive further north in Utah - to the SNOW. We passed through the town Orderville and we have never seen Fiona more relaxed. Following this was the interestingly named Provo which was a very Mormon town. Next instalment we will be able to tell you all about snowboarding in Park City - home of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

 

 

Power walking into the Hoodoo's

Grand Canyon

After the family dragged Rob away from riding paradise, well

Condor talk and tracking device

we really didn’t book for a Saturday night and have to leave, we made our way to the Grand Canyon. There was a quick side trip to Camp Verde and Montezuma Castle, a Pueblo cliff dwelling. Then an easy drive up the road to a place we all dream of visiting. Except maybe for a nine year old who really had no idea what it was all about. We arrived mid-afternoon, did the usual 10 minute RV park, connect and level, and quickly jumped on the bikes for a ride to the rim. The drive to GC from the south is flat and basically is on a slowly rising plateau, you would have no idea what is hiding in the distance, then all of a sudden there it is. The first sight of the GC was impressive, however there was so much to take in

Trying to take it all in, day 1

and it was hard to fully appreciate what we were observing. We were very impressed (particularly Symi) with the rangers talk on the Californian Condors. These amazing birds with a 9.5ft wingspan were down to 22 in numbers in 1987 when they were controversially all captured and put into a breeding program. This has been a success and they started releasing them again in 1996. They are now breeding in the wild and they number 410, both in the wild and in the breeding program. We have been on the lookout to see one ever since but so far with no success.

It wasn’t until the next day when we had a chance to get orientated and truly understand the geological nature of the canyon that we really began to appreciate the scale and amazing history that we were observing. As the information

Another scenic shot

said “Grand Canyon is a landscape not a chasm”.  We did the ‘walk of ages trail’ on the rim trail from Mather Point to GC Village, along the way there are polished rock samples showing the different rock layers of the canyon and their ages in millions of years. The deeper you go, the older the rock. However it’s amazing to realise the GC has only been carved over the past 6 million years. It was at this point that Symi became truly excited by what she was seeing.

The following day we did what you need to do to truly appreciate the GC, which is descend into it. We chose the South Kaibab Trail that starts at the rim (rock 270 million

South Kaibab Trail

years old) basically follows a ridge down, down, down. We chose the longest recommended day hike on this trail which was 3 miles down from 7200ft (we measure in American now!) to 5200ft. Along the way we passed Ooh Aah point and Cedar Ridge (where we lost about 90% of the other people on the trail) before arriving at our turnaround of Skeleton Point. At Skeleton Point (rock now 370 million years old) you still can’t see the Colorado River which is down another amazing 2600ft. Rob was immediately captivated by the trail announcing that he wants to return later in the year to do a three day hike down to the river and back out. Amazingly Fiona and Symi were also captivated enough to agree. That night we all slept well.

Next day we spent doing some school work in the morning as it was windy and cold. In the afternoon we did a bit more exploring of the village. There is a lot of interesting social history to read about and interesting architecture to see. The evening saw us braving the cold as Symi was very keen to attend the Nocturnal Animal Talk. It was freezing up on the rim at night. Too cold for any nocturnal animals not to mention humans. On a completely different tack – we love our RV and its gas heating – talk about glamping (glamour camping for those who don’t know). Anyway, the ranger was very interesting and once again we were pleased with how much we learned. Anyone else know the origin of the expression – “lets hightail it out of here”? One nights free accommodation in the RV for the first correct answer. The talks and hiking all contributed to Symi becoming a Junior Ranger at Grand Canyon, she has been sworn in and has a badge.

Day three at the Canyon and Rob is feeling the need to “spin the legs”. Bikes off the back of the RV (for Symi and Fiona) and out of the warm comfort of the front seat of the RV – for Rob) and we were off on a 13 mile rim ride out to Hermits Rest. Symi was lured with the promise of Hot Chocolate at 

Bright Angel Trail to Plateau Point

the end and a shuttle ride back (the shuttles have bike racks on them). It was one of our colder days. We had to keep getting off the bikes to warm up but every mile or so there was another amazing view to give us a reason to do so. We were riding west along the rim and this area has some very good views of the Colorado River which we all enjoyed. The hot chocolates were very welcome and were consumed in front of a fire in a lovely historic building overlooking the view. In Top Gear tradition, Rob raced the shuttle bus back and lost – only just.

Last day in Grand Canyon was another hike down below the rim. This time on the historic Bright Angel Trail which has been used since prehistoric times. Symi and Fiona

Top of Bright Angel Trail

completed a similar hike distance and elevation change to the last hike. Rob decided to double both and try and hike out to the edge of the Plateau Point. His hike was 12 miles in total and descended about 3600ft. He was a little tired by the end and did admit to heavy legs the next day.

Our last night in the GC Symi found kids! She had a wonderful time with two girls from Phoenix. They spent their time bike riding and Mule Deer spotting. Symi was very sad

Tunnel, Bright Angel Trail

to leave them the next morning. We headed out to the east of the park stopping for some more spectacular Canyon views on the way as well as an interesting visit to the watchtower at Desert View where we had some of our best views of the Colorado River.

Grand Canyon has exceeded all our expectations. We have had a fantastic time and know that the pictures we have taken can never do it justice. Definitely a bucket list destination – and one that we felt needs a bit of time to fully appreciate it.

After the Rain: Sedona sunshine

How to describe Sedona, like a cross between Ubud and Margaret river with great red rock scenery, fantastic mountain biking and walking. On thinking about it, not sure there is aura photography and vortexes in Ubud. We have been reading up on Vortexes and have found a definition in


Notice vortex site in the middle of picture

Cosmic Rays Tales and Trail book, ''a supposed region of electrical/magnetic (masculine/feminine) energy of angular velocity emanating from the earth at various Sedona locations." We found a vortex sight at the top of a very steep climb up to Cathedral Rocks. It was probably a vortex sight due to the very different rock arrangement (see photo). Rob spent some time feeling the energy. We also appreciated the vast view and prepared ourselves for the very steep decent.


After the Cathedral Rocks walk, Rob decided to ride the Hiline Trail. It had rained for nearly 36 hours until about 5am that day so the trails were wet, no longer dusty and very grippy (hero grip is the mountain bike term, except for some of the rocks that were still wet!!). Hiline is a double black trail and starts with a fairly sedate climb before basically 


Top of Hiline, smile.

traversing a cliff for 2 km. Plenty of exposure here but nothing that would be fatal, still don't look down and concentrate 100%. The trail eventually arrives at an amazing high point (see photo). The initial descent blasted some singletrack, then slickrock before going into some stupidly steep prolonged descending. All sort of rideable with the right brain off attitude (rode all but a very short section today :)). Eventually the trails comes out at the Baldwin Trail that was a fun end to the descent that was like the perfect last mouthful of a meal (Adam!). The ride was so good Rob repeated again two days later and today.


Hiline: Slickrock heaven

The next day (Monday) was a family ride up to Submarine rock then Chicken point. We followed the many jeep trails up to Chicken point then descended the Little Horse and Lama trail. Symi and Fiona were definitely learning the 'momentum  (speed in Rob's language) is your friend' and enjoyed the 

Chicken Point, enjoying the sun's warmth

flowing nature of the trails. These fitted Cosmic Ray's definition of moderate trail
'guaranteed to get the dead laughing and singing again. 
Interesting terrain with some healthy exposure to risk. Good sweaty, stinky, hard work, but still not killer'.

Yesterday to the great delight of Symi she found a fellow nine year old traveller, Rose from Nova Scotia. She is travelling with her three siblings and Mum. They are all 'free schooled' which seems to require a very relaxed attitude that Fiona is not sure she could ever attain. They were all wonderful children who seemed very artistic with the older kids being very articulate (see their blog http://starjourney.org/ for examples of their eloquent journal writing). Symi and Fiona spent the afternoon doing another ascent of Cathedral Rocks with the family and Symi enjoying showing the way. Meeting the family made us think about ways we could incorporate some of their values with ours.

Wednesday was the typical wake up late (Symi has been waking at 8am, does anyone who knows her believe this?) and do some school work. Symi then enjoying some lego time with Rose before she moved on. Rob decided to finally ride the Hangover trail and had the company of some riding friends he has made from BC, Canada. Hangover is a big step 

How many views like this? Simon get out of the way.

up from Hiline and is the premier ride here. Like Hiline it's double black but much more fitting of Cosmic Ray's extreme definition 'caution, may set off low self-esteem panic attack. Possible bloodbath. Parents would not approve. Nor your insurance agent, doctor, spouse or bike if it could talk'. The ride started with a long climb (rough++) up Schnelby Hill Rd to the Merry Go-Round rock enjoying sweeping views to the west. Following this was a fast descent down Munds Trail to Cow Pies and some serious climbing on slickrock. There was definitely plenty of walking on the way to the highpoint where the true Hangover Trail starts. Apparently the col is another vortex sight, Rob was feeling the energy here but this was probably the 

Get your Hangover here.

adrenaline of the climb followed by looking down basically what is a cliff and wondering how you could ride off this. We did and the reason for the hangover name revealed itself, this comes from the many rock overhangs that protrude over the trail. On this section of trail falling was NOT an option. Re-assuring was the news that no one has actually died on this trail, all great but who wants to be the first. Eventually the cliff ride lets go into some fun descending and the thought that it would be good to ride this again and conquer more of the technical challenges.
Another two more days and it's time to move on to the Grand Canyon just up the road. 

Oh no, now I need to ride down (Hangover)



Hiline, wallride with front tyre finding the white line marker first time.




Little Horse Trail below Chicken Point, smiles to wake the dead!

Slow Cooking in an RV

Last week on one of our shopping trips I decided to splurge and spend $19 on a slow cooker. I have one of these at home which I often use for batch cooking. My first two efforts were a British Raj Curry from a recipe by Rick Stein and a batch of Chilli con Carne from a recipe by Gordon Ramsay - I must have been having a celebrity chef day! Anyway, over a couple of days I cooked both these up and after we had taken a meal from them I bagged up the remainder in trusty zip lock bags. These store really well in the freezer as you can see in the picture below.

Staying with what I now realise is my obsession with celebrity chefs I then decided a pot roast was the way to go. In my Paprika app I stored a lot of recipes that I use before leaving home. I really like this app because you can access your recipes off line. So looking for a pot roast I remembered Jamie Oliver's Pot-roasted Pork in White Wine with Garlic, Fennel, and Rosemary. Bit disappointing not to have my own rosemary from the garden anymore but I suppose you have to make some concessions if you are going to galavant around the USA in an RV. I found all the necessary ingredients and then managed to roast potatoes and pumpkin in the RV oven - all very satisfactory. I have tried roasting veg in the convection microwave but it was nowhere near as good. I so suspect that the problem may be with me rather that the convection microwave. Results are below.

You may notice that I am photographing food on the breadboard. This is due to having inherited blue plastic plates. I have come to realise this is not the best colour for taking pictures of food. Looking at my published effort it also occurs to me that the fennel does not look anywhere near as good as it tasted.

Now for my most recent effort - no celebrity chef this time I am pleased to report. Slow Cooked Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani. I figured that biryani is very slow cooked and that someone must have tried it in a slow cooker and after a bit of searching around I found a likely looking recipe. I did not have all the ingredients so improvised a little. I liked the idea of not having to cook any vegetables separately so added pumpkin and green beans with a couple of handfuls of spinach thrown in at the end. I also decided to layer it chicken, veg, rice, chicken, veg, rice to spread the flavours through a little more. And the result? 

Well, it took a while to cook so we saw ourselves through with a glass of red and a few nibbles.

Then it was time to peek into the slow cooker and see if the experiment had worked. All was good and the result was enjoyed by Rob and I. Not so much by Simone who found the coriander seeds I had substituted for cardamom pods a little much. I must admit I think I may have been a little generous when adding them.

Wet Sedona

 

We are having a lazy day as it's raining. The rain has been falling all night and today. As always in the desert it's a welcome relief and an excuse for a rest day.

It has been a busy week with our first visitors to our RV. Symi was really excited to meet her Grandma Rae (Rob's step Mother from Connecticut), and two uncles Scott and Pilo.



Another shoulder ride, below the Chapel of the Holy Cross

Symi was spoilt with endless attention from Pilo who was helping with the art content of her schooling and gave her endless shoulder rides. We all visited the Chapel of the Holy Cross which was spectacular. We also did a tour of the shops and visited the New Age Superstore to try and enlighten ourselves. Symi discovered what a singing bowl is, think about playing a wine glass but there is a long after-sound with sound waves that you could feel. Just add money!

Slim Shady looking at Bell Rock

Other activities have included a beautiful walk around Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte. A family ride in North Sedona to the Devil's kitchen. Symi and Fiona impressing with their riding, getting used to the many rocks, exposure (traversing steep hills) and steep dips/roll ins. Of course Rob continues to make a pig of himself and finally ventured to South Sedona yesterday starting up the Broken Arrow trail to Chicken Point. Following this was endless singletrack via Lama Trail, Bell Rock Pathway (with a singletrack alternative for bikes, very good too) and the iconic Slim Shady. Following this was a explore of Hog Wash (first double black, not too bad) and back down Broken Arrow exhausted with the clouds looking very threatening.

Spotto Kokaburra!

Walking around Courthouse Butte

Pre-ride Coffee uptown Sedona, always scenery to die for

Chicken Point, more awesome riding

Cooking in an RV

Things I have found out about cooking in an RV:
1. You can always remember what you had for dinner last night because your clothes smell of it.
2. Batch cooking is good because when you come home from snowboarding so tired you can hardly stand up you can just heat something up.
3. Flour tortillas are very useful as they can be used for wraps, quesadillas, and dipping in things and the take up way less room than bread.
4. My daughter is always hungry - although this is not limited to when she is in an RV!

It is quite amazing how much food we can squirrel away in the RV. When I did our first big shop I purchased way more that I meant to. This was mainly because of all the special where it was actually cheaper to buy two of things than one?

Our meals have been quite simple so far. We have cooked up a batch of beef curry and a one of chilli con carne. We purchased a cheap slow cooker from an overwhelming large Wallmart store which has turned out to be a great investment for soups and stews.  Other than that we have been eating salads and stir fries.

Last nights dinner was a Mediterranean eggplant and barley salad from a website called Smittenkitten. I am sure her picture looks a lot better than mine, particulary as mine is of the leftovers as I keep forgetting to photograph food before we eat it! Anyway I will put a photo here for comparison. We added feta to ours and everyone enjoyed it.