So, what time is it anyway???

August 22, 2008
Lake Powell, AZ/UT Border

Today was a travel day and it was a wonderful day for it. We left Durango this morning and were fully ensconced in our new "home" at Lake Powell by mid-afternoon.

Yesterday, I puttered around with the blog and associated pictures (this is the part that can be time consuming) and "ran out of runway" in terms of getting some of the travel preparation dealt with the night before departure. Since we had a relatively easy day of driving, I opted to not worry about it and pick up the slack in the morning. This was a good call, especially since the "ace in the hole" was that we'd gain an hour due to the time change. This is because Arizona doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time.

We reset our departure target from 9:00 to 10:00 AM, and actually beat the target by 40 minutes. We were up at 7:00, got most of the inside stuff done, and then walked the pups. Since we were in a relatively narrow valley, the sun was "up" but not actually shining on us since it was behind the mountains. Man, was it chilly! As soon as the sun crested the mountain, it warmed up considerably.

I packed most of the outside stuff while Geri bought us a take-out breakfast from the park's kitchen. We then wrapped up the prep work and were actually on the road by 9:20. It was a beautiful day for driving, without a cloud in the sky in any direction. We fueled up as planned in Cortez, and stopped for a break at the "4 Corners" monument (the only point in the US where four states actually join). We followed US-160 out of Durango for most of the day, before taking the CO-98 shortcut to Page, and then over the bridge by the Glen Canyon Dam to our stopping spot at "Wahweap". The Glen Canyon Dam is a hydroelectric power plant similar to, but nowhere near as famous as, the Hoover Dam at Lake Mead further downriver.

It's warm here, and will continue to be in the mid-90s for the next few days. We're located in a very new section of the park, with all paved roads and concrete pads. It looks like the power will be good (it darn well should be, with the hydroelectric from the dam and a large coal-fired plant just outside town), so running the A/C shouldn't be an issue. We overlook the extreme southern end of the lake (it stretches for miles from here). We'll get out for some local pictures tomorrow.

One interesting thing is that we're probably 100 yards from the Utah border. We're a little time-confused, since my phone shows one time and Geri's is an hour later. The only thing I can think of is that her phone is picking up a Utah tower (Mountain Daylight Time) and mine is getting Arizona (Mountain Standard Time). So, who knows what time it is? More importantly, who cares - it's nighttime. And I'm done for today!