 Precious and tiny Elizabeth was unhappy and crying. Such a tiny, vigorous voice. The nurse deftly changed her position and popped the pacifier back in her mouth, and she settled down. Carolyn was quietly sleeping. They look so perfect—just little 4 pound versions of a typical newborn—that I was tempted to think they were ready to go home. But then all the monitoring wires, the feeding tube, and the IV tube dispelled that notion. I’m praying they will rapidly complete their needed development. All that was left of this vacation was the long drive home from St. George. For a change, we got a reasonable start, even after stopping at Starbucks for some better than motel coffee. In no time at all we were in the Virgin River gorge in Arizona. Since I’ve not found a cache in Arizona, we made a quick stop at an off-ramp to rectify that. Heading back to the on-ramp, we were flagged down by a young woman who tearfully asked if we had jumper cables. I didn’t think I had packed them, and to verify I would have had to unload the bikes, so I told her no. But we said we’d ask at the pickup parked just down the road a bit. A nice young guy was hauling a big concrete vault on a flat-bed trailer, and he let us borrow his jumper cables. We quickly got the stalled car started and returned the cables with a good feeling. So off we went, zooming along at the posted speed limit of 75 mph until we hit the traffic jam in Las Vegas, due mostly to road construction. After clearing the congestion, we were back up to speed and heading for a planned stop at Primm for coffee and bathrooms. Just before we got there (around 10 am), Dan called with the news that their twin girls were on the way early. What a surprise—we had thought we were taking this vacation early enough to have a comfortable margin before the anticipated early birth. A little after 3 pm (we were somewhere northbound on I5), Dan called again announcing the birth of Carolyn Joy and Elizabeth Grace. Both weighed within a couple of ounces of 4 pounds. What a joyful conclusion to our vacation. No hiking or biking today, just travel and a few stops for sight-seeing (and a couple of geocaches). We headed west on Highway 12 through Bryce, south on Highway 89, then west on Highway 9 through Zion to our motel in St. George. We stopped to hunt down a couple of geocaches along Highway 12, including an old historic cabin site (although no sign of a structure remains). Since we were passing through Bryce about lunch time we stopped again at the Pines Restaurant for a cup of soup. In Zion we got hung up behind a couple of motorhomes again, and had to wait for the one-way traffic escort down the east entrance through the tunnel. We had an early dinner at Oscar’s in Springdale and then a huge Cold Stone ice cream (courtesy of a birthday gift card) in St. George. Vacation is over; now there’s just a long drive home. |
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