2S2G - Phoenix - Day 3, Sun., June 15

Here we are, on our third day and mostly we've been driving. Whew! Hours behind the wheel for both of us. Doesn't sound very exciting, but we want to be in Oregon for Volksmarching's Columbia Gorge Biennial Walking Weekend. The driving is worth the reward of the walking/hiking.

View leaving Aunt Sally & Uncle Skip's home

We woke up around 4:00 a.m. when the sun came up over the mountains. After breakfast at Aunt Sally and Uncle Skip's, we headed out for our first state capital Volksmarch. For the state capital stamp in our Volksmarching record book, we need to do one of the walks in the capital city (it does not have to be the actual capital walk). On Aunt Sally's recommendation, we decided to walk in Encanto Park because there was some shade along the route. Good choice. We started our 5K (3.1 m) walk at 8:30 a.m. and finished at 9:45 a.m. when the temperature was already up to 89 degrees.

The Encanto Park portion of the walk was lovely with a lake, bridges, geese and lots of palm trees. The second portion of the walk was through a beautiful neighborhood. Here are the photos...

Norton House, built in 1912.

A family fishing in Encanto Park.

A family swimming in Encanto Park

Fish in the lake

Encanto Park

Susan M.

Neighborhood around Encanto Park

After our walk, we headed northwest through a saguaro scenic drive, through the Joshua Tree Parkway, Kingman, Arizona, and on to Las Vegas.

Joshua Trees in background.

In Henderson, Nevada, a suburb of Las Vegas, we had lunch with Bob's mom (Louise), sister (Laura) and adopted sister (Kristin) at Marie Callendar's. We had a nice time conversing with them, but needed to hit the road so we could make it to our hotel to watch the San Antonio Spurs in what turned out to be the final game of the championship. Yay, Spurs!!

After the game, we went to the cafe and had dessert to celebrate - a chocolate fudge brownie sundae for Susan M. and lemon meringue pie for me.

Tomorrow we will be up at 6 a.m. again. We will drive four hours to Carson City and do the 5K capital Volksmarch before heading over the Sierra Nevada to Stockton, CA.

See you on the flip side. Travel Bug out.