Not Home Yet, But It's Time to Say Adieu

Things will be pretty low-key from here until Friday when we get home. Today we're leaving for Denver to have dinner with Gogas and hang out with Hardy all day tomorrow. Thursday we drive to Nebraska to stay in a hotel and Friday we drive home.

For those of you who joined the blog late, you can catch past posts and pictures by using the Archives section to the right of the page. Since this is the last post, I'd like to offer everyone a chance to just say "hi" or let us know what you thought of the trip. To comment you just click on the link under this post that says # comments (# will change). At the next page, you just type what you want to say in the box on the right side of the page. Lastly, you can choose to sign in with your google/blogger ID (if you have one), check "other" and type in your name, or choose "anonymous" (if you do this, please sign with your name in the post so I know who's sending word to us).

Alrighty, well, thanks for joining us and thank you to everyone who helped us out by loaning us stuff, giving us a place to stay, watching our dog, or mailing our old Dish Network stuff back while we were gone. Bye!

Shauna in Delicate Arch (scroll to Older Posts to see all of last 3 days)

Tom Balancing Rock on His Head

Tom & Me at Delicate Arch

2 years and I still resist the urge to push him over the edge!

In a Van Down by the River

Last night was to be our last night of camping but accommodations for the 200+ miles to Arches (from when we decided to start looking for something) were nonexistent. Of course, there were no hotels in sight either. We contemplated driving all the way to Arches last night but it was getting late fast and I think we were both getting tired. Then, like a beacon from above, there were roadsigns encouraging drivers to pull over and sleep if they were becoming drowsy and fatigued, so we did just that. We drove into a little View Area overlooking King’s Canyon and watched the lightning from the approaching storm. Said storm is a large part of the reason we chose to sleep in the van instead of setting up a tent (and no, there wasn’t really a river). Needless to say, we didn’t have a very restful night’s sleep (combination of really hot (80+ at bedtime), very windy, and multiple trucks/other drivers pulling in to sleep or mug us, we were never sure which!)

This post could have easily been titled “Subtleties of Color”; this morning we left our makeshift campsite before sunrise and had the pleasure of watching the landscape and skyscape change before our eyes as we drove toward Arches. The colors of the sunrise were probably the best I’ve ever seen (granted, I’m not one to get up to view a lot of sunrises, but I have seen a few). The color on the clouds and low on the horizon as an orange/pink mixture that looked like what you would get with a very well-made and delicious Mai Tai. In these early hours, the rocks seemed to shine brighter than the sun with their colors of deep red to more subtle oranges and tans. In the distance, it was almost a cliché with the color of the sunrise providing a backdrop to various shades of blue and purple hills. For a while, the furthest hills and lowest clouds were the same color away from the main sunrise, providing an illusion of eyelids for the earth slowly opening up to let the light in (or in this case, out). Once the sun did break through the lower clouds and mountains, the colors changed to a variety of yellows, blues, and purples (both in the sky and on the landscape). It was a truly memorable way to start our anniversary (we won’t count waking up next to truckers in a rest area as the real start…)

As far as anniversaries go, it’s going to be tough to top today. We spent the morning hiking through Arches, we’re heading to a hotel tonight (albeit a Super 8…) and we’re going out to dinner. Not a bad way to close the first couple years of marriage and kick of Year 3 in style. Arches was gorgeous this morning, it definitely helped that we were there early; the light is better on the rocks and it’s not as hot. We stopped at a few turnouts on our way to Delicate Arch. Most notable was Park Avenue, so named because visitors who stood in the canyon flanked by these massive “fin” structures felt like they were walking down a street lined with skyscrapers. After a few more pictures here and there (and Tom’s noted disappointment at the lack of actual arches) we made it to Balanced Rock. Let me tell you, if the video camera would have been rolling while Tom was trying to line up a picture of me balancing the rock, you all would be rolling on the floor laughing watching it. If it looks like I’m crying when I get the picture back, it’s because I was laughing so hard. So picture this, Tom is sitting cross-legged in the parking lot while trying to direct me to stand in the correct spot with my hands: “OK, reach higher. Maybe try on your tiptoes. No? Ok, come toward me. No, away from me. Ok, now move left. Left! (I did move left, he meant right). Ok, right then. No, just your hands, not you. Good, now move toward me. NO! Away from me!” Yeah, it was pretty hilarious.

We capped off our time in Arches with a walk to Delicate Arch, a 3-mile roundtrip jaunt. Thank goodness it wasn’t later in the day. It didn’t help that we were unprepared and out of water. The view up there was OK, mostly just close-ups of smaller structures; but once we came around the corner to see the arch, that wasn’t definitely cool. Delicate Arch sits atop a big bowl that is carved into the sandstone and is actually on the opposite side from where the trail comes up. Walking over there, and especially down into it, is a bit hairy but this is the one time that my worn-out tennis shoes have been much good to me on this trip: with one flat surface they had great grip on the sandstone.

We really have seen some great scenery today, and Arches is a grand enough place to be able to still awe and impress after all that we’ve seen on this trip. It probably helps that the scenery was pretty different from what we’ve been seeing for the past month, but it was a great destination nonetheless. We’re driving to Grand Junction now were I should be able to post these last few days for everyone to catch up on what’s going on. (I know you’re just waiting on pins and needles for the next post!)

Lake in Valley in Yosemite

Tuolomne Meadows River (not sure of name)

Driveway Rocks

The Long Way Home

Today it really feels like we are starting to head home (with a few pit stops along the way). From our campsite we started our drive along Tioga Road in the park. Along the way trees are forced to sprout out of what seems solid granite in the distance. The result is bald or sparsely-covered mountains that look like the whole area is suffering from a severe receding hairline but has a combover or two to show for it. We stopped for a little walk through the meadow to Soda Springs, where carbonated water bubbles from the ground. It was pretty cool, nothing compared to Yellowstone, but that’s a lot to live up to!

At one point we stopped for a valley vista but the interesting thing was the granite that was close to the turnout. It looked like a cracked concrete driveway except for the giant boulders on top of it. We are seeing some unique scenery, that’s for sure.

Now we are driving through Nevada on our way to a campsite tonight. Hopefully with all this nothing and no trees, the stars will be awesome. We just paid $3.89 for gas because there is no one else around and only 3 towns on our trip through Nevada (we’ll still have to stop once).

It’s a short post today, but I’ll end it with a Tom quote:
“I can’t believe there’s a lake out here in the middle of the desert.”
[Mono Lake just east of Yosemite]

Yosemite Valley