Janet and Mark's Retirement Trips

Sometime early this year (2023) Janet, over early morning coffee, asked if I wanted to go to Jordan?  Jordan?!?  That's the Middle East!  She had received an email from her women's pilot organization, The 99's, announcing the 2023 International Conference in Amman, Jordan.  We spent the rest of that morning noodling over flights, details of the conference, etc.  The conference was reasonably priced, and included transportation and lodging from Amman to Petra, Wadi Rum, and Aqaba.  After Indy Jones 3 featuring Petra's Treasury, I was hooked.  We do a lot of independent travel in Western Europe, but I'd think hard before traveling to the Middle East on our own.  So, the prospect of being on a guided tour with tough, independent travelers (you can't say women pilots are timid at all) in a place we'd never see on our own sold us! A few hitches arose: the first was in checking the dates of the tour and my Passport expiration showed my Passport would ex...

  Here are some notes from our latest road trip, starting in Reno with renting a tear-drop trailer: We really love the "bleak" landscape of Nevada, and getting across the state on US50 rather than I-80 is worth it to us. Our first night was at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in the teardrop.  Middlegate has a hole-in-the-wall joint right at the intersection of 50 and the small road to Berlin, NV...great burgers! We then headed south to US95 & 93 to head over to Cathedral Gorge State Park just west of the Utah border. We then (day 3) headed to our hotel (we split about 50/50 teardropping and hoteling) in Springdale for Zion Natl Park. Zion's shuttles start at 7am, so we got to the visitor center at 6:30 and still had to wait a bit (we got on the 4th shuttle)...no cars in the main canyon unless you are staying at the Lodge.  We hiked to the Narrows and the Emerald Pools that day, but still a lot of people on all the trails. An interesting side trip is to the northwest cor...

  November 1, 2020: Drove from Incline to Bishop, stayed at Creekside Inn, dinner at Aaron Schat's Roadhouse  November 2: Drive up to Bristlecone National Forest Visitors' Center at 11,000+ feet.  Incredible drive up from Big Pine: CA168 to White Mountain Road ro the end of the pavement.  A gravel road continues for several miles beyond that to a UC Research Station.  Stunning 4.35 mile loop hike through the forest, with very few people unlike the Fall 2020 Big Five Utah Road Trip ((#5).  Cold but no snow at 11,000 feet.  Came back through the drive on Movie Road below Mt. Whitney, and had dinner at Copper Top BBQ in Big Pine (they were having a soft opening at a new location). November 3: return to Incline after getting provisions at Schat's Bakkery