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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Beginning at the End

I know...it's about time. Right?

We took an extended road trip during the latter part of September and early part of October, and it's taken me awhile to get back into blogging since our return. We were on the road for 24 days and covered a lot of territory...probably more than we should have tried to do in that length of time. Our minivan accrued roughly eight thousand miles during those 24 days.

Anyway, I'm back now, and I thought I'd share a bit about our trip. Ha! A bit? You're going to get it all, you know, just not all at once.

You're welcome.

Our travels took us through part of Colorado, and I've already shared some of that in my post about Rifle Falls. From there, we went to Utah, where we visited four national parks plus the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Next was the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. And then we went on out to California to visit Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, wrapping up our our vacation with a visit to Yosemite National Park.

I thought I'd begin at the ending with my blog posts, telling you about our trip home. You see, we had traveled through a lot of desert in Utah, Arizona, and California; and Doug really didn't want to drive through the desert again on our way home. So we decided to come home on I-80, through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois.

Well, winter came early on Highway 80. It had begun snowing while we were in Yosemite. That should have been a clue to head south. But we didn't. We wound up driving in snow for three days. On the third day, between Laramie and Cheyenne, Wyoming, it got so bad that traffic on I-80 slowed to about 30 miles per hour. So we made the decision to get off that highway at Cheyenne and drop south to I-70. That was a good move. Within fifteen or twenty minutes, we were out of snow and into rain. And it wasn't too long until even the rain cleared up.

Here are a few photos from that three days in the snow. I figured, if I waited and posted them in a couple of months, the snow wouldn't impress anyone.

In Nevada, the snow wasn't accumulating on the roadway...just on the mountains.

At a rest stop in Wyoming, a trucker scrapes the ice and snow from the grille of his truck.

A group of antelope in the snow alongside the highway, with a big snow fence in the background.

The view out our windshield before we turned south at Cheyenne.

We were talking with a friend this week, who was thinking about taking a trip out West. He asked if we had any recommendations to share with him. Doug said, "Yes. FLY!"


9 comments:

  1. My goodness,that looks so wintery.a
    glad you made it home safely.

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  2. I can't believe snow already! So you probably drove right by my home town of Lincoln, NE. I always smile when I think of that looooong, straight stretch of I-80. It's home to me, but kinda boring to everyone else. :) Can't wait to hear more.

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  3. I am envious of all the National areas you visited.It has been lonely not hearing a lot from you.That is a major trip. It is still snowing out there according to weather today.

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  4. Ruth - It was definitely more wintery than we wanted, but the surrounding landscape was beautiful. At least, what we could see through the falling snow.

    Elizabeth - We missed going through Lincoln since we decided to drop down to I-70 to get out of the snow. It would have been fun to find the street that your dad named after you; but that wouldn't have happened anyway. When Doug is homing, he doesn't stop for things like that. :)

    Steve - National parks are our favorite vacation destinations. There are so many that we haven't visited yet, but I don't think we've ever visited one that we didn't enjoy.

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  5. I'm with Doug. I hate driving in that stuff. And the best thing about being retired (well, Top 5, anyway) is I don't have to, if I don't want to.

    Glad you made the right decision and got home safe n' sound. :)

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  6. I loved that first picture of the sagebrush with the mountain in the back ground. Sounds like a trip of a life time. I am glad you had the opportunity. NICE!

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  7. I do like travelling with you, I rarely go more than 50 miles! Wonderful photo's as always :o)

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  8. Ack.. snow. I'm glad you're home safe and sound. Are you going to take us on the trip in reverse? :)

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  9. Frank - That's one of the things I love about being retired, too. I don't mind snow nearly as much as I did when I had to go to work in it.

    Thanks, GQ. It WAS a wonderful trip. There was so much more we would have enjoyed seeing, but that's a long time to be away from home, no matter fun things we're seeing and doing.

    Thanks, Deborah. You're always welcome to travel along with us.

    I agree, Hilary. It did seem early for snow, but I suppose it was right on time at those high elevations we were driving through. I haven't decided yet how to do my "trip report." Reverse could be interesting. :)

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