Days 10-12

Have been busy, and are just now catching up on our posts. Here's 3. Also I'm still having a few camera issues which I hope to resolve when we unload in Kansas City tonight, so there may be additional pictures still to upload.

Day 10

This was an uneventful drive. Driving through Utah was, however, very scenic. Not a whole lot of anything else. We stopped and made sandwiches midway at a scenic overlook and headed to Moab.

As we approached Moab we saw signs for Canyonlands National Park, as well as Arches National Park. Not for the first time we were both saying how we didn’t have enough time to see everything we wanted too. I suppose though at least we were/are able to see more than others.

As the campsite approached we saw the entrance to Arches and decided to make camp and then go for a drive into the National Park.

The campsite was…unimpressive. I think the worst thing was we were back on gravel. We had been spoiled at Beaver with a grass campsite. Beaver was the first night thus far we had been on grass. And we missed it. There also were ants EVERYWHERE. Unfortunately the grasshopper that had hitched a ride in our packed tent from Beaver wasn’t too impressed either. And hopped off.

The sunsets at Arches, indeed all of that area, are supposed to be gorgeous, so we picked up some snack foods, decided we would have a junk food dinner (no restaurants in the park), and headed to the park. It turns out I had broken the kindle when I accidentally closed the trunk lid on it when packing in Beaver.

Wow!

I was expecting to see more Arches. The visitor guide stated there are over 2,500 arches in the park. Of course we weren’t biking, hiking or 4x4’ing, so I suppose you can only expect to see so much from the car. We did take a short hike to the “Windows” but honestly we weren’t planning on going to the park anyway, so what we did see was a pleasant surprise.

To give the park a bit of reference, to those who are familiar with Garden of the Gods. Imagine the Garden on a significantly grander scale. Glad I hadn’t been here before we moved to Colorado Springs as the GOG would have seemed lame by comparison. Like the Grand Canyon the Arches were formed by the erosive power of the Colorado River, (unlike GOG).

The skies were cloudy and we were tired and hot. So a sunset picture was not going to be a choice for us so we headed into town to get dinner anyway (After Ryan proclaimed he wanted something “healthy” to eat) Oatmeal pies and Pringles just didn’t cut it I guess.

Back to the campsite we went. It was still about 95 degrees as the sun was setting. I should have taken the fly sheet off, but chose not to. That was a mistake. We roasted all night.

Day 11

Since it was still so bloody hot, and buggy, we packed ASAP and headed to a diner. I decided on a different route back to the Interstate than we took in to Moab yesterday. It followed the Colorado River. Again, spectacular views.

After rejoining the Interstate, we had a straight shot to Glenwood Springs.

After crossing back into Colorado we stopped for lunch and tried a Best Buy, with no luck, for our older version of the kindle. Guess we will try online, and have it shipped to a future destination. Again we had beautiful scenery, and were even “chased” by a tornado! At least now our car, festooned with bumper stickers, made sense!

(Behind the rocks in the mirror is a thin, dark, vertical line - Tornado!)

I was glad that as we drove through the town of Rifle the mountains were not close to us. As mentioned in a previous post I was a rock climber. When/if you look in climbing magazines (or other magazines for that matter) and you see pictures of people climbing, Rifle, CO is often one of the places these pictures are taken at. I have always been mad at myself for not visiting a climbing mecca when I was climbing, and had I seen the “rocks” as we drove past I feel I would have had similar feeling as I did when we drive through Ouray on day one of our trek.

Our campsite was again gravel. Oh man do I miss being in Beaver! We pitched the tent, found all our dirty laundry, and headed to the Laundromat.

Five loads later, a stop at the grocery store and back to camp. By now it had started raining and the wind had picked up. Mayzie cooked dinner in the rain, and we hung out in the tent till bedtime. First time we've all been cold since we left Colorado.

Day 12

Bacon and eggs was for breakfast. Did some organizing of the clothes and the car, we then headed to the hot springs.

The hot springs pool was huge, stupidly we didn’t take a picture. It was very crowded, and although I prefer the more serene atmosphere at the Cottonwood hot springs, they certainly would not be suitable for our little noisemaker – Tim. The “therapy” pool at 105 degrees was very soothing, and certainly relieved some of the aches and pains. We enjoyed the water till a thunderstorm began rolling in. Even though the pool stays open in all weathers, we decided it would be best to head out. It was about 3:30PM.

Our plan was to spend the night at Glenwood Springs, rise early and try and make Kansas City in a day. Since a storm was rolling in, and we knew what that would entail following last night, and we had visited the hot springs, we decided to head back to camp, pack up and leave early. We would be forgoing our camping fee or the night, but we would ensure we would get to Kansas City Friday afternoon/early evening.

By the time we got the car loaded and headed out it was about 4:45 PM. Mayzie drove first as we headed through the Rocky Mountains. I am still a bit confused however. As we headed down through some of the mountain passes, at some very steep grades, 5% - 6% in places, the river we were driving parallel with was also flowing downhill, but towards us. Yet the river always stayed below us.

As we drove past the exits for Aspen, Vail, Breckenridge, and Ski Cooper (Where I learned to snowboard) I started to feel the realization of what we will be leaving behind. Sure we have seen lots of great and beautiful places on our road trip, but that has kind of felt like a vacation. But now, as we leave behind places we have known about and visited for the past 13ish years, this saddens me.

We changed drivers after a quick gas fill up and drive through for dinner. Through the Eisenhower tunnel and down into Denver. We had discussed whether we should detour through Colorado Springs, so we could sleep for free in our house, but decided it would be too emotional, so we just kept heading East.  

As we left Denver and the Rocky Mountains behind us it really hit me that we are leaving. I again had that feeling of we are not just on a vacation. Not that we would have, but if we had decided to abandon our plans and stay in the USA all we had to do was continue on our journey till we reached Colorado Springs. But now we would have to turn around. I think we just reached another crossroads. And kept going.

My goal was to leave Colorado. Partly so we would only have a 7 or so hour drive in the morrow, but also a psychological one. Somehow leaving Colorado helped. Maybe these emotions will return again when we reach New York City and Jeffersonville, as we have lived there prior, but till then we will continue to enjoy our vacation.

Cliff