Sunday we bid farewell to Southwest Utah, an area that had been very good to us. The weather was incredibly mild, the scenery was amazing, and the small towns along Highway 89 encouraged us to come back again and explore them. We might just have gotten lucky with the weather, but I am not complaining. One thing I really came to appreciate about Utah was the ever-present water. I love rivers and streams especially when they snake around the picturesque meadows.
Where our moving house/office has been so far.
Road Trip!
Our road trip to Grand Junction, Colorado was interesting. The first part of the trip on 89 north was amazing. Ever get that melancholy feeling when you depart a place that truly spoke to you? As we first pulled away I remember thinking to myself, should I be feeling sad right now? I was happy, content, and smiling, not regretting the neat things left behind and embracing the indelible memories. The weather continued to be amazing, with windows rolled down we rolled up 89 Northbound with smiles on our faces. The cool thing about 89 in Utah is nearly all of it has a river running adjacent or near it. I enjoyed watching that river grow and grow in size until it became a force to be reckoned with as we descended down to catch Highway 70 east.
A shot of the River we shared our journey with.
70 East Bound was not quite as pleasant weather-wise, and little did I know that was pretty much how things were going to be in the near future (the benefit of being a day late writing this!). There was lots of great scenery, mostly canyon walls, washes, and massive mountains of sandstone.
Random View Stop while trying to catch the World Cup game.
Viva La World Cup, World Cup at a Rest Stop
While heading East Bound on 70 we had a bit of confusion over the time the World Cup game would start. This led to 2 false alarms where we stopped at rest/view areas and proceeded to get everything set up. Once we finally had that sorted, we determined that we had to stream the Argentina v Germany final on my laptop. I pulled out all the stops to deal with an over-heating inverter (can you say ice pack on top? Yes.) and lackluster 4G. My magic bag of tricks complete with a cell phone amplifier turned 1-2 bars of 4G into 4-5 bars of 4G service. So there we were huddled in front of the laptop watching the game…
Our World Cup Setup, don’t laugh, it worked. 🙂
We rooted for Argentina, supporting our South American friends. This of course did not help them as they valiantly held on but failed to find the magic needed to defeat the relentless German team. No tears were shed, perhaps that is one advantage of not having a real horse in the race. The let down is far less significant. 🙂
Mental Prep for re-settlement
One thing heavily on my mind right now is settling back in before the new school year. We are considering all of our options and determine if our “fail-safe” plan will be necessary. When we departed we decided to not let the issue of quickly deciding on what kind of a place we want. In hindsight I love that we did that, it was the right way to do this. There was no way we were going to find a place and still take this trip. Our fail-safe plan made it possible, no matter what we had a plan but we could change it. I’ve shared a lot that I am thinking in many ways about a simpler arrangement. After all, we’ve been living in an RV and we’re only closer as a family today as a result of it. Also, there are so many more things we want to do now, and if we are burdened excessively will they even be possible? After all the priorities are so simple right now, do we have enough water? Sunscreen? Did you charge the camera battery? Does the campsite have good 4G coverage? Oh, the simple things, how I love you.
Concluding with: Farewell Danville and Hello El Dorado Hills
