It is August 15 and we have to vacate our
apartment, as the students are ready to move in for
the
school year. The old touring car is loaded and ready
to take off. We aren't in any hurry to get home. It
is still pretty hot back there. When we leave here,
we go to Jane's son's home for 2 nights, then on to
my
stepdaughter's home for 2 nights. We then head off
for a
slow journey back. We usually take about ten days to
get home, after we leave the apartment.
I am going to tell about places that we have gone in
the past.
One year we went to Grand
Junction, Colorado and stayed 2 nights. We
toured the Colorado
National Monument at the edge of Grand Junction.
This is a fascinating place and well worth the visit.
Check out the Grand Junction link above to see other
activities around Grand Junction.
Two different times we went to Bryce Canyon in Utah. This
is a park of spectacular scenery. Here are four
pictures out of the many that we took. These pictures are in slide form and will return back to this page.Pictures If you
want reservations in or near Bryce Canyon, you
need to get them months in advance. Zion National
Park is in the same area and is well worth taking
a side trip to see.
There are several National Parks around Moab, Utah.
Check out the National Parks
link to get a separate link to each of the parks.
The 2 that we visited were Arches National Park and
Canyonlands
National Park. The Colorado river runs through
Moab and there is a river ride that you can take that
is spectacular. You get on a river boat and go
upstream. The trip starts out in the evening. All
the way up, the river boat captain points out
interesting places on the rock walls along the river.
When you get to a certain point, the boat stops and
you wait until it gets dark. They have a truck on
the road that runs parallel with the river. The
truck has a powerful light on it that they shine on
the rock walls all of the way down. It is the
prettiest light show that you have ever seen. This
picture shows what
the light show is like. Along with the light show
the captain relates a story that is interesting.
This riverboat trip is worth coming to the Moab
area.
In 1996, we headed west on I-70 to Glenwood Springs
and then south to Montrose where we stayed overnight.
The next day we kept on going south taking the long
way around to D
urango, Colorado. We stayed 2 nights here. I have
a friend that owns La Boca ranch just south of
Ignacio, Colorado. He raises llamas. Picture 1. Picture 2. La Boca used
to be a town in the late 1800's. He bought the old
ghost town and has made his quarters in what was the
Post Office. There are other out buildings that he
uses as Guest quarters. If you want a thrill, take
the "Million Dollar Highway" from Ouray, Colorado to Durango. The city of Ouray and the surrounding country looks like Switzerland. It is sometimes referred to as "Switzerland of America". That takes
you through Silverton, Colorado, which has a
lot of history. There is a narrow gauge railroad that runs
from Durango to Silverton and return. From Durango,
we took two days to come home.
The fall of 1998, we didn't do anything special. We
just wanted to stay in the mountains for a few more
days before going home. So we went west on I-70 to
Dillon and Frisco then turned south to Leadville.
This is the highest incorporated town in the USA.
From there we traveled south to Buena Vista and on to
Salida, Colorado where we stayed overnight. The next
morning we headed south to Taos, New Mexico where we
spent the night. While in Taos we visited some of
the shops, went out to the Taos Pueblos, and the Millicent
Rogers Museum. The next morning we headed on south,
went through Santa Fe, New Mexico. We didn't stop
because we have been to Santa Fe numerous times.
There are loads of things to see and do in Santa Fe, if you
haven't been there before. We went on south to
Socorro, New Mexico. We have been to Socorro several
times in the past, but never explored the area. This
time we had a whole afternoon, so we drove around the
area. The next morning we got up and were supposed
to stop in Snowflake, Arizona, but decided to go on
home instead. We
arrived home about 3 PM on August 23. We were gone
about 5 days over 3 months.
Our wanderings weren't over for the summer. Around
the first of October we went up to the Show Low,
Lakeside area of Arizona. This is a beautiful
community in the White Mountains of Arizona. The way
Show Low got it's name is that two ranchers were
having a land dispute. They decided to settle their
differences with a cut of the cards. Mr. Cooley drew
the deuce of clubs, so he said "Show Low it is". The
name stuck. The main street in Show Low is called
the Deuce of Clubs Ave. We stayed up there two nights
and three days.
