On The Road Again

We were barely back in the US when we had to hit up the closest Starbucks, luckily, it was right at the end of the jetway. With our luggage and our Starbucks in hand we went outside to get in line for a taxi in Vegas. Who knew you would have to wait so long for a taxi? It was finally our turn and we got in and told the driver the address and he had no clue as to where to find our home for the night. It is fortunate that I have a built in intuition for directions and we had been to Michelle’s before. I gave the driver directions. He complained the entire time we were driving about how far it was. When we finally got there, he told us the amount and added on the end, plus tip. Pretty nervy, huh?!

We thought that it would be a good idea to clean out the car and try to get the funky smell out of it while we had a place to put everything. It is actually quite amazing how much stuff we can fit in the back of a Toyota Highlander. I was surprised how much stuff we have in there. The car got vacuumed and febreezed. Much better! Everything went back in and actually more organized this time, so we could actually fit more in if we so chose. Which is good, since we were starting the third leg of our journey, it was time that we started to think about souvenirs.

Monday, September 21, 2009 we were back on the road. It felt good to have the wind in our hair, music jamming, and scenery whipping by us. Into Utah we went. Our first stop was Zion National Park. Zion is the most environmentally friendly park that we have visited so far. They make everyone ride the propane powered shuttle bus to see the sights. It eliminates over 240 billion pounds of emissions each year. It is good to be green.

The campground in the park was full, so we camped just outside. This was the first super cold night we had. It went down to about 29 degrees, just a tad bit lower that what we had in Costa Rica (which was in the high 80’s)... And, the campground said that there were restroom facilities, but since we got there at dusk and had to quick set up camp, we did not see them. When we woke in the morning to try to find them, still, restrooms were nowhere to be found. Luckily, there was a little gift shop and café across the street. We broke down camp as quickly as we could in the 29 degree weather, although the sun was starting to peek its face over the mountains and warm our cold bodies up a little, we rushed over to the café for some hot coco.

Bladders emptied and starting to warm from our coco, we hit the road, Bryce Canyon is on the agenda for today. We came across a little apple orchard with pick your own apples and a little market. We stopped in for some fruit and cider. It was quite possibly the best apple cider I’ve ever had. MMM, I could go for a glass right now!

Bryce Canyon is absolutely beautiful. It has the appearance of a giant drip sand castle. There is an interesting folklore behind the formation of the canyon. It goes a little something like this.
“The legend says that a long, long time ago a group of people moved into the area and made a coyote angry with their bad behavior. The coyote put a curse on the people, now called “Legend People” turning them to stone.
Many visitors to Bryce Canyon that have heard the legend, say they can see the images of people sitting, standing and holding each other, when they look into the amphitheaters throughout this captivating national park.”
“The Piute Tribes, who are native to south-central Utah, call Bryce Canyon, Unka-timpe-wa-wince-pockich, which means “red rocks standing like men in bowl shaped canyon.” The red rocks they are referring to are tall spires called hoodoos.”

Continuing on our way, it was just about time for sunset when we arrived at Capital Reef National Park. Watching the sun set on red and white rocks is just out of this world! It was almost like we were travelling on a different planet. There just aren’t words to be able to describe it properly.

Well, we once again waited too long to find a campground. It is now just about completely dark and all the campgrounds are full. As we rounded the corner, just as we decided to find a place to park and sleep in the car for the night, was a giant sign for a campground. How lucky, right?! We pull in and I fill out all the paperwork and ask which space he would like us to occupy for the evening and the nice Christian gentleman told me to pick any spot we would like. Awesome. We got in the car and went to locate our home for the night. Guess what?? We are the ONLY people in the entire place. So, we picked out our spot and set up camp. Quick to get in bed since we did not have any wood for a fire and did not want to be sitting out where everyone could see that we were two females, all alone in the giant campground that was right on the road. After a couple hours of listening to the slowing traffic and the coyotes in the background, I got up the nerve to ask Katie if she was still awake. She replied with a gentle yes. I asked what she was thinking about and here is the answer that I received… “about men with axes slashing my tent and killing me.” Fantastic. I finally put my iPod on and tried to pretend that we were not laying in the desert, alone.

Morning took forever to come, but finally arrived. Again, COLD, in the low 30’s. It takes a while to get out of your cozy sleeping bag when it is that cold out. But once you are out, you move rapidly to get everything put away so you can get in the car with the hot, hot heat.

Today we were on the Arches just outside of Moab, Utah. It was very interesting and beautiful, however, I do not believe that we got the full extent of it. You might wonder why. Well, we were too engrossed in a book on CD, The Black Hills by Nora Roberts. It is a good thing that we did not listen to this while we were in the Black Hills, SD. We never would have stayed even one night. Not really much of a story, but grabbed our attention at the thought of true love and wildlife. Just what we needed.

After the Arches we had a late lunch in Moab at a little Italian restaurant. There was a woman there that order her meal, and additional drink and then took one bite and got up, made a scene and left. We were a little concerned that the food was terrible. Ours finally came and it was just delicious. After our bellies were full and some friendly banter with the waiter, we did a little souvenir shopping. Moab is a cute little town, touristy of course, with cute little shops, also touristy. Nonetheless, we spent our money. This was the first real time I actually spent money on souvenirs. Those of you who are getting souvenirs will be very pleased.

Winding through the canyons and Colorado River, we were on our way to Colorado. A place where both of us have been dreaming about since before we even left Pennsylvania. We finally made it into Colorado just before sunset. We did our little victory dance and pushed on to find our campground. It was absolutely wonderful. The campground had trees with leaves, grass, not just any grass, regular green grass like we have in Pennsylvania, and a beautiful lake. When we were putting the tents up, the stakes actually went into the ground, something that we have not been able to do since South Dakota. It was the most wonderful feeling ever. We both slept like babies.

Since we had barely made it over the state line into Colorado before we had to find camp for the night, we had quite a long drive to get to Boulder. We opted for a few scenic routes so we could get the most out of the state besides the interstates. It was just spectacular. The fall colors, the winding dirt roads, the itty bitty little towns. Just perfect!

We were back on the interstate and headed to go through the Rocky Mountains. Well, it was the end of September and we drove through a for real blizzard. The snow was accumulating on the ground. It was just amazing. So, so pretty, the white snow gently caressing the dark green pines. It was almost majestic. After the blizzard we were presented with a breathtaking rainbow. It was so vivid, a breath of fresh air.

We entered into the GPS that we wanted to go to Boulder. We have been following “Maggie” our GPS for hours and hours and she indicates that we are getting closer and closer to the city and in reality it looks like we are getting farther and farther into the middle of nowhere. Maggie took us down a one lane dirt road that looked as though we were going over a cliff. Then down another. We saw a lady out walking her dogs so we stopped to ask directions and she told us that our GPS had indeed taken us down her driveway. Weird. Damn you Maggie! The lovely woman gave us directions back to the main road and Maggie got back on track. Maggie finally told us that we had reached our destination. The little town that we were in looked like something out of Little House on the Prairie. It was completely cute and old fashioned with a general store and dirt roads. Not, the Boulder that we were looking for. Although in hindsight, probably more of what I really expected Boulder to be.

We finally made it to the Boulder that we really wanted to go to. Who knew that it was such an expensive city?! All the hotels were well over $100 a night. We finally found one for under $100 and entered the address into Maggie and she drove us around and low and behold, no hotel at the address that she thought we were at. I finally called hotwire and they set us up with a decent place for $80.

Celestial Seasonings was on the agenda for today. They offer free tours and all the free samples you can handle. It was a very interesting experience. We ate lunch in the café. We had a butternut chipotle soup that was out of this world. (Remind me that I want to try to find that recipe…) The tour was very unique. It is just amazing at how they do it and how much tea they produce every day. The room where they keep the mint was out of control. Our eyes burned when they just opened the door. The mint is kept in an air tight room with six foot metal walls as to not contaminate the rest of the tea and herbs. If they kept it open you would be able to smell mint everywhere in a two mile radius from the factory. Celestial Seasonings also packages Trader Joes teas. By having Celestial Seasoning package without strings, tabs and small staples, they eliminate 5 billion tons of waste a year. Just from the Trader Joe teas. That fact just blew my mind. Makes me realize how wasteful we really are as society.

Stay tuned… Two more entries on travel. There will also be a summary, route calculator and some other fun stuff coming…

Please remember
>>>>>Reduce, Reuse, Recycle<<<<<<