Utah Vacation - Day 2

Frisco, Co. to Cedar City, Ut.

Our friend, Carolyn had told us to have breakfast at the Butterhorn Bakery and Cafe.  A delightful place!  While we ate there, it became a full house and people waiting to be seated.  That's how you know it is a good place to eat, right?  Each table had a different salt and pepper shaker.  The owner must have had a collection.



We left Frisco with our bellies full.

The Colorado scenery is so pretty!  I love mountain streams!

We took a short drive through Vail.

Shortly after leaving Vail, the other side of the mountains turned to white rocky cliffs.

Then we went through some canyons with a train running alongside the highway.

There was a little turn off rest area where you could see the Colorado River.  Al commented that since we were past the divide, the rivers were now running west.

Only one?

 I guess they couldn't come up with a name for this town.

We played the turtle and the hare with this vehicle.  We would turn off at all the scenic turn outs and this vehicle chugged along and would pass us.  Then we would pass it again.  Then at one rest stop where we got out to look at the scenery, they also pulled in - to put water in their radiator.  We visited with them and they told us they were a group of 12 who were an auto group from Salina, Utah, travelling across the state that day.  They have travelled across the country before also!  Mind you - no air-conditioning and no power steering.

When the Mormons fled to Utah in 1847, they were looking for a place no one else wanted.  When they settled in this valley, Hannah Olsson Seely was not too thrilled.

"Damn the man who would bring a woman to such a God forsaken country" she said.

But she stayed and like so many others made a home in this harsh and arrid land.

Did you know that I-70 ends in Utah?  It starts in Baltimore and ends here.  I assumed it went on to California, but it doesn't.  It ends at Highway 15.  No more going west at this point.

 Al was pretty excited about this sign!

 

We stopped for the night at Cedar City for a good night's rest before venturing on to Escalante.

Utah vacation - Day 1

Newton, Ks to Frisco, Co

For some time, we have talked about going to Colorado in the fall to see the aspens.  Al began to hear things about the canyons in Utah and we decided that we would go see both states.  This past week we took off.

As we were leaving Newton, I saw 2 contrails crossing eachother.  It reminded me of the cross; which made me think of God's promise "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 3:5).  And as I opened the Daily Bread in the car, the verse for the day was "I will not leave you nor forsake you" from Joshua 1:5! 

We weren't sure this vacation would be a possibility.  Several things happened that made us wonder if it was a wise thing to leave.  But we were encouraged to go and off we went.  With His reassurance to be with us and with our loved ones.

The windmills north of I-70.

When we got to Colby, we were ready for a break.

An oasis along the plains.

I had read about a HUGE Van Gogh "Sunflower" painting off the highway in Goodland and my friend, Carolyn Dewey had mentioned it in her blog.  So we looked for it.  We didn't see any directions to find it, but we had seen it from the highway and figured it out.  It is about 1/2 mile north of I-70, along Hwy 24.  This easel is 80-feet tall, and the painting is 32-ft.x24-ft.!

 It makes sense to have the Sunflower painting in Kansas, since it is the "Sunflower State".  And Goodland is at the center of the local sunflower industry.  Canadian artist, Cameron Cross painted this.  It was dedicated in 2001 during Goodland's Sunflower Festival. 





We ate our lunch along the way.  I packed lunch/snack food for the whole week so that we wouldn't have to stop at restaurants all the time.

We arrived in Denver just before rush hour.  I'm sure if we had arrived an hour later, we would have had to creep along.  Although it was heavy enough traffic in my books, it didn't really take long to get through town.

Mountains!!

Our destination for our first night was:

This store reminded me of our own little bookstore/coffee shop "Pages" in Newton.

Such a cute town!  We found a place to eat our supper.

 Delicious chicken/spinach pizza!

I will show my ignorance.  I saw these in the closet at the place we stayed.  Al asked me if I knew what they were for.  I had no idea! 

For those of you who ski, you probably think I am pretty clueless.  But I have never skied and  have no intention of it so how am I to know these are ski racks?  Al had a good laugh about it.