Our first destination on our return to the States was Las Vegas, where Barb’s dad Cliff and sister Audrey live.  We stayed in one of the many hotels associated with a gambling casino, but did essentially no gambling. Instead we focused on visiting our relatives and on looking for a camper.  By coincidence, cruising friends Janice & Steve (nee Sailacious, and now owners of the camper they’ve named Sloth) were temporarily staying in a campground at Lake Mead, so we drove out for a short reunion and to get their advice about campers.  (More about the camper in another post, but I will say here that we were so impressed with their choices that we upgraded our own desires.)  After a fruitless search in Vegas, we learned of a private offering to the south.  We spoke with them on the phone, and ultimately met at a “half-way” point in Searchlight, NV.

And then we drove north into Utah to visit Barb’s brother Mike, who lives in Parowan but has a cabin high above Brian Head near Cedar Breaks at an altitude in excess of 10,000 feet.  Audrey came too. Barb’s son Jeff subsequently joined us in Mike’s commodious cabin.  We had a number of enjoyable walks and drives in the area.  But all was not peaches and cream, since Barb and Audrey suffered from altitude sickness and had to return down to Parowan for some spells until they could get acclimated.  But the landscape and wildlife and the visit were great.