We were supposed to meet at the Petro Gas Station near the Las Vegas Speedway.  Turns out there is a special event at the Speedway and traffic is CRAZY.  I got rerouted off the main road onto the the large and rocky parking lot of the speedway.  Strike two:  LOST!!  I asked a police officer where the station is....he had no clue.  Finally, after some frantic texting and driving, the Petro station is found.  Theresa was there, sans Tony.  We waited for Bruce and Kim to arrive.  Once they got there, we were off and running with the tops down (heaters on, of course)!

The drive was smooth and easy except for those crazy truck drivers who just swerve out of the right lane to pass slow vehicles.   ALL WITHOUT SIGNALING!!  Feels like Highway 99 in CA all over again!  We arrived at Zion without incident.  Weather was amazing.  Almost 70 degrees which is higher than the average for this time of year.  Mostly clear skies with just wisps of clouds here and there.  Theresa and Bruce bought a year’s pass to the park and I paid the $25 day fee.

As we drove through the park, we noticed that the colors are just starting to change.  Normally, there are more oranges and reds by this time of year, but it has been a warmer autumn and the change in colors is late this year.  There were lots of yellows which looked amazing against the red and orange colors of the canyon walls.

We climbed the switchbacks to the 1.1 mile tunnel that leads to the east side of the Park.  We drove to Carmel Junction and ran into a bus load of German tourists who seemed very fascinated by the fact that we were all driving the same cars.  We had questions like, “Eez zat a shtick shift or ottomatic?”  “How much horsepower does eet have?” “Vare are zee paddles on the shteering veel?”

We decided to have lunch/dinner at the Buffalo Grill just outside the east side of the Park.  They served bison as the meat of choice.  We all partook in the feast of bison, except Kim.  She had chicken.  Maybe it had something to do with our view of the herd of bison from our table in the restaurant.

We walked out to check out the siblings of our dinners and then took off to head home.  We drove back into the Park to see the amazing colors created by the sunset.  I think that Zion looks its best at sunset.  The colors of red and orange are so deep and rich.  It is so breathtaking.

With the sun setting, we are approaching dusk in Hurricane, UT when disaster strikes!   Strike 3:  Jazz 2.4 (Tony and Theresa’s car) is attacked by a 7 inch stone!!!  A truck driving in front of Theresa hit the rock and sent it spinning under Jazz causing a serious problem with the radiator.  We knew it was bad when we pushed the car into the parking lot and saw the wet mark on the asphalt where the coolant had spewed out.

We spent some time trying to figure out a way to get it fixed without calling Tony, who was home sick.  Call AAA?  No.  Call a tow truck?  Not unless it had a flat bed truck. The call was made to Tony.  I heard him scream from the ear piece of the phone, but I really believe that we could hear him screaming all the way from Vegas (without the phone).  Ultimately, Tony decided to make the 2 hour drive all the way to Hurricane, UT from Las Vegas to take care of Jazz 2.4 himself.  We were not about to leave our lead driver alone in Hurricane, so we stayed and waited for Tony to arrive and fix the car, despite the fact he felt like crap.

We left Hurricane and stopped in Mesquite to have dinner again (At least Tony and I had a dinner.  Theresa, Bruce, and Kim ate breakfast.) around 10:45 p.m. Nevada time.  We took off  about 11:30 p.m. and I arrived home around 1:00 a.m. 

It was a great day to see Zion and I had a great time despite the car issues.  I look forward to our next drive!!

To view more photos, click here for the gallery, or click here for a slideshow .