The Drive to Denver

November 1, 2009
Today I made it back to Denver. We drove the truck back so we took I-70. It seems that no matter how many national parks I've been to nothing compares to the Rockies, especially when there is blue sky and snow on the mountains. The drive went pretty smooth but we stopped in Eagle, CO at a rest area only to find out the "real" bathrooms were closed and they had outhouses/porta potties/biffies...no thanks. We went to Wendy's instead. Maybe some of you have heard on the news but over the past few months mass budget cuts in several states means closing rest areas. Which is OK if they cover up the signs on the interstate so you don't waste time going to a place that is closed. The rest drive was pretty uneventful until the last 10 minutes when there was the moment of panic when I thought I might be getting pulled over for speeding. The cops have this pretty sneaky hiding spot on I-70 east of town and today I wasn't thinking about it. Sure enough a cop was there and as I pass his lights go on BUT luckily the guy next to me was the one getting pulled over. He was in the left lane and I was in the right lane, he was passing me. I have no idea who the person was but "thanks for taking one for the team!" After I dropped off Jeff to get his car (near the airport) I decided to wash the ARAN for one last time before it hibernates for a couple of months. I then took the truck to the office and headed home. What a weird feeling. No more trips in that truck...one last trip will be in February but then all trips after that will be with our brand new truck. I can't wait!

Even though I will not be traveling in the truck over the next couple of months I will still make periodic posts to my blog so keep checking. I will still be traveling over the next couple of months but it will mostly be for meetings (and a couple of vacations I have planned). I am definitely looking forward to less stress and getting things done around the house.

Oh, all of the snow that fell in the Denver area last Wed./Thrus. has pretty much melted. There is still some snow on the grass but the roads are clear and dry. We timed that one perfectly :) !

Colorado National Monument

October 31, 2009
Today we collected all of Colorado National Monument. The pavement computer had a bad morning, I had to restart it three times before it was happy. We also had a campground to collect and since it is off season two of the loops were locked. We had to go to the Visitor Center and track someone down to open the gates. We ended up spending about an hour in the campground that only had 4 routes dealing with the pavement computer and locked gates....that is a long time so such a few number of routes. After that the day went pretty smooth.

This is the last park of our program's cycle 4. This means that this is the last park I had to collect with this truck! The new truck is currently being put together and should be ready in January! I'll write more about that later but I'm pretty excited. Today was a big milestone and it means I've traveled a lot of miles and been to a lot of parks.

To Grand Junction, CO.

October 30, 2009
Well, today is Friday and were are also checking out of our hotel and have all of our stuff in the truck...that is two strikes against us even before the day starts. Yesterday I had some problems with our grade reading in the afternoon, nothing horrible but something needed to be fixed. We took out the grade box and looked at all of the connections and cleaned things up hoping that would help but no luck. This morning the grade readings were still bad. After some pondering I thought it couldn't really be the grade sensor itself so we decided to take out one of the computers and take out the grade timer card. We cleaned things up and replaced the card and it fixed our problem. It was only about a 20 minutes set back. On the way to the South end of Canyonlands the roads were pretty wet and there was a pile of snow in the middle of each lane. It was very discouraging. It was that way for about 25 miles and then when we were about 3 miles from the start of our route it was like magic...the roads cleared up and they were dry! It must not have snowed that much in the park. I can't believe how much luck we have had on this trip. It seems I only have bad luck with the truck and the weather but this trip we have been so lucky and we are getting things done without any real delay...crazy! Maybe this will be how my life is when we get the new truck...little problems and less stress. We finished up Canyonlands today and drove to Grand Junction and will collect Colorado Monument tomorrow.

I posted a photo of an arch in Canyonlands called wooden shoe arch, it looks like a wooden shoe!

Oh, and just an FYI - in Canyonlands the view from the North side is much more impressive than the view from the South side. The North side looks similar to the Grand Canyon!

During the drive to Grand Junction a radio station was asking people to call in with Halloween jokes. I thought this one was cute...
Q: Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?
A: Because he didn't have any guts!

Arches and Canyonlands National Parks

October 29, 2008
Today I woke up to a dry parking lot! I was surprised it didn't snow overnight. What luck. The roads were dry in Arches and the North section of Canyonlands. We collected about 101 miles today which is a pretty good day. We found a few more arches today...not even close to the 2000 that are supposed to be in the park but I might be up to 15 if I'm lucky. The parks here are pretty empty I think because it is so cold. We didn't have anyone ask us about the truck today....amazing.

To Moab, UT

October 28, 2009
Today I expected to wake up to snow on the ground but there was nothing in Flagstaff. The 5 1/2 hour drive North to Moab, UT went well. That is the 2nd time I've driven that same exact route during this job...annoying. There isn't much to look at along the way and only a couple of small towns. There is a pretty big snow storm over Colorado and it was supposed to hit Eastern Utah but in Moab there are only a few flurries and nothing on the ground (yet). I'm happy about that! We arrived in Moab around 3:30 (back to MTN time) and decided to go to Arches to check out the roads. They looked slightly damp so we didn't collect. We decided to take a few photos and go on a short hike...very short because it was cold outside. The park was not really what I was expecting. We only saw two arches but apparently there are over 2,000 arches in the park so I'm still looking. I was also surprised to see a lot of sand. I was expecting more rocky soil. The picture of the snow I took using my zoom. There is no snow in the park but looking South this is what we could see. Tomorrow could be a bust if it snows a lot tonight or it could be a pretty good day...it is too early to predict.