Today was our longest driving day yet, I think. We've come approximately 1500 miles so far, and almost 500 of that was today. We started the day in Vernal, Utah. We were out of the campground by 8am, and went through our typical morning routine of stopping at the grocery store and buying ice and drinks to refill the cooler. Having cold drinks on hand is a great way to maintain on-the-road sanity.
It's a short drive from Vernal to the National Dinosaur Monument, and we were there just as they opened. The exhibit there is amazing -- the building butts up against the excavation site, and many fossils are visible on the wall. You can even touch the dinosaur bones that are still sticking into the rock formation.
The most interesting parts, though, were the ranger talks. We sat through a quarry talk and learned that the reason that so many of the dinosuar bones ended up where they did is because the dinosaurs would die in the river, then their bones were washed downstream where they lodged in the sandbar. After a long time, the ground pushed up and formed a mountain from the original sandbar, and that was what made the bones part of the outside of the mountain rather than a layer in the mountain.
After the talk at the quarry, we went on a walk with a ranger who was going to lead us on a half-mile walk back to the parking lot (we'd taken a shuttle from the parking lot to the quarry) and tell us interesting facts along the way. I'm pretty sure the walk was a lot longer than a half-mile, but it was very cool to get out into the desert a little bit and see things up close. We found lots of neat rocks, and saw a bunny hiding in a little cave. The girls both completed the Junior Palentologist booklet and got patches to prove it.
Then, it was on to Colorado Springs were we were going to find Debbie. The first stretch of road was a two-lane highway, the kind where it's far too easy to get stuck behind a really slow driver, or a big truck that can't make it up the hills with anything resembling speed. The first stretch was nice, because I was really all by myself out there, but then we got into a more heavily used area, and there were some slow times. I was really glad to hook up with I-70.
On the first highway we drove on in Colorado, we entered an area where all the hills were brown and dotted with sagebrush, stretching out as far as I could see, and then, in all of that was forests of power poles. It seemed like the power poles were running away into nowhere, but there were so many of them, it was hard to figure out what was going on. Eventually, after driving by several oil pumps, I did figure out that they were drilling for oil, but I'm still not sure what all the power lines were for.
My favorite driving so far was the stretch we did through the Rockies today. I was getting sort of tired on the way up, but when we hit Vail, I saw signs for Starbucks, and I jumped off the road and managed to find a Starbucks on the second exit (apparently they have some sort of building code where you're not actually allowed to place your sign where it's actually visible, which makes finding places more challenging than usual) and after I had my double-latte, I was definitely good to go. It's been a while since I've had even a single latte.
Right around the time we left Vail, it started raining, and it rained pretty much all the way down the mountains. But it was so pretty. All the mountains were covered in a soft sort of mist, and the trees blended together and the whole drive had a sort of cozy feel to it. For a lot of the drive, a river was running right by the road, which made it really pretty. Abby took a bunch of pictures out the window of the car while we were driving.
We stopped a lot on the way down, not long stops, but short stops, to take pictures or get a snack, and managed to arrive in Colorado Springs shortly after 9. Mapquest told me it was a seven hour drive, and we made it in just over eight hours, which, considering all the stops we made and the times I drove really slow due to hydroplaning on the freeway, is pretty good.
Tomorrow, no driving at all! That will be a nice break, although I don't really mind the driving as long as I know where I'm going. I do not enjoy driving at all when I'm lost, especially when I have places I need to be. The girls have been playing a lot of gameboy, and watching movies too. So far, they haven't complained of being too bored. When we were climbing into the Rockies today, I pointed out the beauty of the mountains to the kids. Katrina said that she was going to pass the next half hour by oohing and aahing at the mountains, and she did, for about five minutes. Then Mario was calling her again, and she answered his call.
When Debbie and I were seventeen, we went on a road trip with her parents and grandparents into the Canadian Rockies, and we were perfectly happy to entertain ourselves by playing cards and endless other silly games, or just reading. But that wasn't enough. We were supposed to be having a cultural experience, which seemed to mean looking out the window a lot and the unchanging view of rocks, snow, and trees. So I'm trying not to do that to the girls, but it is nice if they manage to look out the window once or twice per state, so that when they discuss their summer vacation there's more to it than how many states they played super mario world in.
Posted by Rachel at June 28, 2004 01:42 AM