Passing Through Arizona to Utah

3pm The America Asia Tour Bus came on time (in fact they were already here an hour ago as they let the passengers whom they picked up from LA go for lunch)).

The moment I reached my seat on the bus, I made friends with the passenger on my left. She's a Taiwanese, and her parents were sitting behind us. Somehow on trips like these, people are either amazed that a Singaporean like me would be able to speak both English and Mandarin fluently. The thing I like about tours is that the guide would give informative and educational facts along the way. Here's what I learnt: Vegas, we all know is in the middle of a desert. However, in 1905, it became a town because there's water from Colorado which flows beneath the desert.

As we pass by Mohave desert, we were told that God is very "thoughtful" in His creation. As there are no waters underneath the desert, the roots of these cactus do not go deep down. Instead, the roots grow sideways. By growing sideways, these cactuses also help to prevent sandstorms. Such is the "thoughtfulness" of God in His creation. hmm..



Along the journey, we see fences, not tall enough to bar human beings from going over, but there are fences indeed. The guide soon tell us that the fences are to prevent wild animals such as deers and boars roaming in the desert from coming onto the highway and risk being hit and killed. Such is the "thoughfulness" of the United States of America...



Look at the colours of the valley/cliff. Nothing much to me. But he said we needed to see this first so that we'll know the difference later. This is because here we see the rocks as mainly light yellow in clour. Up further North, we'll see that the rocks gradually become brighter in colour.

5.10pm at Arizona

I didn't realise this when I signed up for this 7 day tour. I only knew that I wanted to go somewhere where I haven't been to. Little did I know until at this point that this 7 day tour is bringing me to 8 states in US! We are passing through Arizona right now, and in the next few days, we'll be going to Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Idaho and Montano. What an adventure!

Entering into Utah, we had to shift our watches. Utah is 1 hour ahead of Neveda.

Suddenly we lost 1 hour.. it's now 6.10pm at Utah. This is also called Mountain Time.

We stopped a at a little town in Utah for toilet break.
Along the way, I was told htat there was a southwestern town of UTah called St George which live on tourism industry. It is also a retired town with many parks around.

We stopped at Cedar City for dinner. The guide brought most people to a chinese restaurant. As I was still feeling full after the heavy buffet lunch, I opted out of the dinner and roamed around the quiet city.

Roads in US are huge, but there are barely any pedestrian signs.

Then I saw a stack of bright orange-red flags .. and a sign that says to "carry a flag when you cross the street" Guess what? Shortly after I finished reading the signs, I saw some boys with the flags in hand coming across the road from the other side!

I visited this Dollar Tree shop, which was very much like our $1.99 shop in town. EVERYTHING in it was USD1. I didn't take many photos, but the things were really low priced. There are so many things which I had wanted to buy, but were held back because I had no luggage.. just a backpack..

Next door was a supermarket.

Supermarkets in US are huge.

They sell almost anything.. and they sell my favourite granola bars at really low price...

Sanitized napkins at the entrance of the store for every shopper.

Firewood for sale. Hmm.. how cold would it be? I wondered..

As we continue on highway 15, we saw great views of green fields and mountain ranges.

I learnt that Utah is a state founded and developed by the Mormons. The total population in Utah is around 2.4million, while Nevada's population 2.6 million. That is a far cry from California's 37 million! Heading towards Beaver Country in Utah where we would be staying overnight, I was told that this town used to consists of 99% Mormons. Today, the town consists on about 40% Mormons.

The most pleasant surprise that I had when I entered the Hotel Lobby wasn't the swimming pool provided, but that not only was there internet access, they also provided a PC along with it. So after 4 days, I finally have internet access to check some mails!

The room allocated to me had some problems with the light.

After changing to another room, time for a good rest (Gotta wake up at 5am (Utah time), 6am (Nevada time) tomorrow!)