We snoozed this morning because we stayed out late last night. Fortunately this helped us avoid the Monday morning rush hour on I-15. Despite having been warned of the perils of the Circus Circus buffet, we go there for breakfast and it's actually pretty good. At least it's hard to mess up scrambled eggs, pancakes and bacon. Lee, my boss, called me from work during breakfast to clear up a situation involving my cubicle in HSBC's new building in Fort Mill... to which I will be commuting on my first day back, August 2.

After breakfast, we stop at one of those "build a bear" stores where the kids use some of their spending money to make their own stuffed animal:

• Matthew selects a frog with a karate outfit and names him "Ribbit Ribbit".
• Dawson selects a dog and names him "Rock Rock". (Our golden retriever is named Rock)
• Madison selects a duck in a houserobe and names her "Quackie".

Headed north on I-15, we leave Vegas and go up into Utah. We were planning to stay at Fillmore, but we encountered heavy smoke from wildfires in that area! So we cancelled our reservation there and proceeded another 40 miles north to Nephi where we stayed at a very nice small campground, "High Country RV Camp". An hour after we arrive, a huge storm hits and we're rained in for the night. Tomorrow we reach Yellowstone, one of our favorite destinations, and we're excited!

Photos:

Typical dry creek bed among rocky terrain north of Las Vegas

Smoke fills the valley near Fillmore, where we chose not to stay