So... I guess the only place to begin is the beginning. My compatriot for this adventure was my lifelong friend Jeff. We actually took up the game together around age 7 or so and later co-captained our HS golf team. Jeff is currently living the dream and plays on minitours in AZ, but came out to Los Angeles to visit his family and begin this trip together.
Also a reminder, this was back in September, when things weren't as dire Covid-wise. However we're not idiots, so throughout the trip whenever we were indoors or in populated areas outdoors we were masked up.
Day 1: We left around 5:45am in our campervan which I can give some more details on later. It was a trooper and after a minor hiccup on the 8 hour drive where we stopped to consult the owner manual and discover that our tire pressure sensor monitoring system needed replacing (we had brand new tires however) we arrived about 40 min before our tee time at Copper Rock GC.
Copper Rock was a nice gentle opener to our adventure, although the course went a bit off the rails in the last 6 holes or so. It offered great views set against some red-orange mountains in St. George. Green to tee it was a bit standard for most of it with a feel of most courses you might find in a desert environment, but the greens generally were very interesting. The last 6 holes were... well mostly not good IMO. A bit too narrow for such a windy site with extreme elevation changes that were either blind and dangerous or created awkward but not quirky shots. Despite the long drive in the car, we played some great golf for those first 11 holes...
We spent the night nearby and only 5 min from our morning golf the next day at Sand Hollow State Park. While still a bit warm (it was 95 during the day) things cooled down enough for us to enjoy the scenery, take a shower, and get a good night's sleep.
Little did we know, a pretty representative first day of what was to come (except for my golf game, which was fine but did not keep up with Jeff for most of the trip).