into the great wide open

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!  We left Breckenridge this morning, and as we began descending the mountains we were glad to be getting rid of our high altitude headaches, but sad to leave the mountains.  We didn't actually have to leave them, though. Pretty much the rest of our drive from Breck to Moab, Utah has had some sort of mountain range.  Gorgeous drive!  We were able to stop at Colorado National Monument in Fruita, CO. on the way to Moab.  It was amazing! Beautiful scenery, Bighorn Sheep, and free ice-cream at the visitor center because of July 4th! Jackpot!

Next, we entered into the state of Utah.  To say it was desolate and barren would be a disservice to it's definition in the dictionary.  We saw no signs of life for 60 miles.  We passed several "towns" that had signs that said No Service.  When we Googled the towns such as "Cisco, UT" we learned that no one actually lived there and that it had been a ghost town for nearly 100 years.

We kept driving.  The temperature reached 104 on the interstate.  We could only imagine what it would have been like had we broken down somewhere in the middle of that drive.  Luckily, we made it to Moab & Arches N.P. around 2:30pm.  We drove around a bit & decided it would be best to do our hiking in the morning when temperatures are around 70 degrees.  Speaking of temperature, it was 50 degrees in Breckenridge this morning, meaning we experienced a 54 degree change throughout the day.  It's still 98 degrees as I sit in this McDonald's parking lot.  We wont have internet access for a few days because we're camping in the desert, so we're not sure how regular our updates will be.  We are currently using McDonald's wifi to write this.

On a funny note, we had the iPod on shuffle as we were driving through the desert of Utah, when "Holiday Road" from Family Vacation with Chevy Chase came on.  It seemed quite fitting, especially being in the desert at the time.

Anyway, we hope you've enjoyed your 4th of July as much as we've enjoyed ours!