Utah was just amazing. I think one of my most favorite moments was stopping along the 70 somewhere at a vista point and just seeing God. Seriously. When you see the absolute magnificence of these huge canyons and mountains, I think you can't help but feel the spirituality of this planet, and conversely your own smallness. It was JUST amazing - the rocks were so red, and green, and brown, and white, and so on...you just can't imagine so much earth was carved by so much water. I had to run to the edge of the vista point to look down, to take pictures - all the while Hasan was trying to get ahead of me to scout for snakes and other creatures. He's my Emergency Erwin (safety expert) :)
I'd love to put up the pictures now - but our only digital pics are the few we took with our phones, which don't come out that great. Yes, we're still in the film camera age - but we've decided to save up for a digital camera now...finally!
We arrived at Arches National Park in the early afternoon - it was a 100 degrees! We quickly went into the Visitor Center to change into lighter clothing. As I walked out of the restroom and into the heat, I felt like I must be doing something right in making this move cross-country if I am seeing temperatures like this. I absolutely LOVE hot weather. It felt invigorating. Anyways, after the drive on the 70 in Utah, I kind of wondered whether this Arches National Park would be much more than what we'd just seen. But my friend Matt had suggested it, and we were there, so might as well go in and check it out.
Oh my God. What an AMAZING place. I highly recommend anyone who has a chance to check this place out to do it. Again, I was just amazed at what nature had carved out. How millions of years of rocks were right in front of me, in such strange formations, surviving such harsh elements for so much longer than humans. I was so awed. Even when we hiked up close to the arch formations, I just couldn't believe it was real. At one point, we were driving up the path, and there was this rock formation that looked so precarious that I sped up to pass it. As though this set of rocks, that have been there for so long, would suddenly drop on me - sounds silly, but the formations ARE pretty precarious. See this one.
My favorite formation was something called the 3 Gossips. Ha!
We're still talking about how beautiful Utah and Arches was. Thanks Matt for the recommendation!
We stayed the night in Moab, Utah. Moab is a small lively town that was obviously built up for tourism to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. We just happened to be there the weekend of a motorcycle gathering/convention. I think the experience would have been a lot more pleasant had there not been the sound of motorcycles constantly buzzing and whirring by. And looking like we do, it's not the most comforting feeling when a group of rather menacing-looking motorcycle riders pull up to the gas station and stare at you. It's even worse when they start talking to you about where you're from. I was happy to be out of there. Although we said it's a town we'd like to come back to - when we know there is not a motorcycle convention.
On to Colorado on Sunday. More beautiful driving. And yes, Matt - we saw the Kum n Go. Even stopped at one to eat lunch outside next to the Colorado River. Can you imagine - THE Colorado River that cut the beautiful canyons and mountains we hiked the day before. It was just so cool.
One more thing I'll say about Colorado - they have more cops on the highways than all the other states we've driven through - COMBINED. Driver beware. No - we haven't been pulled over yet.
We stayed Sunday night in Sterling, Colorado. Not much to say about it. Drove Monday through Nebraska and into Iowa. Saw a lot of this - which is beautiful and contrasting to the mountains of California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado. But I think it'd be boring if I had to do it again. There are NO cities in Nebraska - even Lincoln is a small town type of thing.
We made it to Iowa City, Iowa last night and happened onto a really cute college town here. University of Iowa is here and the town surrounding it is really cute. The fraternity houses are so gorgeous. It's weird to look at college students though - they still haven't grown into their bodies, so their heads are out of proportion with their bodies. And everyone is pimply-faced (although I am not one to talk about pimples right now). Ha!
We're up and off to Chicago today. I'm so excited - I get to see Tanu who I haven't seen in almost 3 years and who was a great friend in hard times in Miami.
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