Day 9 Nevada

Wow! When the border makers (real official title, eh?) drew the border between Nevada and Utah they must have waited until the salt flats ended then drew the line.

It was such a difference after driving for over an hour looking at fields and sometimes roads of white salt. Yes, Glenn is still behind the wheel.

The temperature rose steadily all day, as did the dust in these little dust wind tunnels.

And a long drive on I 80 to Winnemucca, Nevada where we planned to stop at the Flying J for the night.

It was so crazy crowed that we opted for Wal Mart just up the hill from the Flying J...

But after the RV reached over 95 degrees with windows and fans going, we changed gears again and called an RV Park so we could hook up to electric so we could run the the AC.

Ahhhhh.

Day 9 Utah continued

We picked up a couple of Utah postcards today that touted Utah as a state of contrasts. From these pics I'm sure you'll agree, it is definitely just that...

Again it looks as if we are in the canyons, in fact a DJ on one of the few radio stations we found along the way called the area the "canyonlands."

I really liked the pinkish stone walled mountains.

Glenn thought the green haze of some of the mountains was interesting.

Utah has snow caps.

Salt Lake City

On the way out of the city and towards Salt Lake we saw this wall that guarded a nice bike road. That is the lake behind it, too

The Salt Lake

Farm lands

Salt Flats A strange structure out in the middle of nowhere

Still in the salt flats, looks like snow, huh?

Day 8 Utah part 1

Welcome to Utah! We really thought we were out of the mountains once we got out of Colorado today.
But the mountains in Utah were less claustrophobic than the Rockies in Colorado.
Utah has black rock mountains,

as well as alot of land between mountains,

not just mountain and canyon and road.

Some rocks just seemed to hang in mid air.

After 279 miles we stopped at the Budget Inn & RV Park in Price, Utah. Yes, it was as bad as it sounds, but there wasn't a Wal-Mart or Flying J where we could crash for the night. And it was also the only campground in that area of Hwy 6. See how close we were to our neighbors!

Day 7 Gunnison, CO

I woke up with a migraine type headache, I think from the pressure of going up and down the mountains. It was so cold we couldn't leave windows open and my headache from yesterday had escalated. Glenn & I rode into Gunnison to do laundry this morning and then went to the Gunnisack Restaurant. We had seen an ad for them in a visitors book we'd gotten about Gunnison. Glenn got fish and chips and I got the nachos with chicken. YUMMY. This cowboy salt and pepper shaker holder is made of horse shoes. Pretty cool, huh?

My headache was so bad though I couldn't eat it all. I went home, put laundry away and slept for an hour or so before we went to Mom & Dad's for dinner. I felt so much better after my nap!

I tried not to whine, since this sign was above our table at the restaurant.

Day 6 Black Canyon

Dad drove us around the canyon looking for elk and mule deer.

We saw those and a whole lot more.
...a blue grouse

...a herd of elk

and a hawk.

What a sight!
Of course I didn't go too close to the edge, but Glenn did and he took some fabulous pictures.

I wandered off down a trail and took this (below) as the sun was setting and reflecting off it.

Isn't it awesome!?

Dad & his buddies actually carry a boat down the steps to the right of this waterfall to fish on the river in the fall. They catch alot of salmon.

Me and my Mom.

Day 6 Visit with Tonia's parents

We arrived in Gunnison, CO on Thursday. We were both surprised at how big it was, we really expected it to be a little hick town of sorts. You know a little Wal-Mart, bank, post office, laundry mat and grocery store...it was much larger and very nice. In fact all the towns in Colorado that we went through were so clean looking and had really wide streets.

Mom & Dad met us so they could take us to the State Park where we would camp for the next 2 nights. This was really cool. It was how you check in at the state parks here in the Black Canyon. It is like an ATM machine. We had to pick our site from those that were not reserved already by driving around the D-loop which was the only section with electric hook up, then come here with a debit or credit card to pay for our space. Really neat idea!

Our car was covered in mud. It looked like we had gone muddin', as we say in NC. I couldn't see out the windshield to move it until we cleaned the windows. (Scott you would be so proud! LOL)

We got settled in then went to have dinner with Mom & Dad at their mountain cottage on the lake. Check this place out!!!

From the outside it's just a park model cabin, but the wood work my Dad did inside is gorgeous. And he did it from scrap tongue & groove wood panels.

He's very proud of it, and he should be. He really likes it here in Colorado.

This old stove was on one of the lots they purchased on the side of this mountain. The people who came here for the summers before dad bought the property cooked on it outside, but Mom cleaned it up as only she can (she is a cleaner...somehow she and my Granny used to find old junk and spit shine it to look like new!)