Soaking My Head, Part Deux

Four States in One Day!

DAY ONE: SO CAL TO SALT LAKE CITY

I hadn't even finished posting about our little weekend road trip to the central coast when DH was packing us up again for another road trip---a much longer one this time. For the third month in a row, DH has had to travel to Colorado. So instead of flying this time, we loaded me into Big Blue so I could tag along.

I have a very nice super-deluxe pillow chair that goes in wheelchairs, et cetera, to help prevent pressure sores, and Big Blue is a deluxe ride itself. So I was game to try this little adventure. And since I'm still going through the 6 wk of continued cellular ablation from the Cyberknife treatment, soaking my head (really my whole body) at hot springs along the way sounds good to me!

We set off at 0730 and drove pretty steadily, making our first "rest stop" in St. George, Utah. (Mickey D's has made road tripping easier for me now, thanks to the addition of their fruit smoothies and yogurt/granola parfaits.) Once again, I'll let the pictures do most of the tellin' for me...



A whole lot of empty Nevada miles...

Zoom of a Northern Nevada peak.

Oops...I missed the Nevada-Arizona border
Welcome sign. Will this do?

Starting into Virgin River Gorge in Northern Arizona.

Driving Virgin River Gorge in Northern Arizona.

The Virgin River.

After our stop in St. George, we set about navigating to our first hot springs stop, one on private property on a huge ranch. The owners graciously allow people to use the hot springs, and I greatly appreciate their generosity and faith that most of us know how to respect a natural wonder.

Heading further north in Utah.

A natural hot springs pool bubbles up from an
underground tube in the middle of ranch cow pasture.

The water is a beautiful Hawaiian blue.

That dark hole down there is a tube that links to other hot springs ponds.

It's a DEEP pool!

We enjoyed soaking, swimming, stretching, and seeing who could touch the bottom with the people already there (Nebraska and Washington college students and a mother and daughter from Provo). The water was approximately 100 deg; not really hyperthermic but definitely enough to ease the ache of the miles (but I was soaking and dunking my head plenty anyway).

After an hour or so, nearly everyone was gone and we were hyperthermic enough to enjoy the brisk walk back in the wind without freezing. We climbed into the truck and made it back to the Interstate just around sundown. With the hour forward we jumped/lost, we still made it to our friends' home in SLC by 2200.

I SLEPT so well that night!