There is a Denny’s next to the campground, so we figured we’d pop in for breakfast before heading out. Food w
as good, but service was slow. Given that fact that our waiter was sporting a blue Mohawk we were happy that it arrived at all and was surprisingly accurate. Sarah, our picky eater even tried something new and actually liked it, so I guess all in all things wound up in our favor. We headed out for Moab, Utah.Before we left civilization (and lost Cell service), we called to check in on Tony’s mom. She gave us some pretty disturbing medical news. She had seen her doctor upon returning from her trip and he was pretty convinced that she had walking pneumonia – Yikes! Needless to say we were a bit worried not only for her, but for ourselves as well having been in such close proximity the last week. I put in a call to the pediatrician and he called in some additional medicine for AJ’s nebulizer so we could try to keep his chest clear. We are all coughing a bit, and will cross our fingers and hope for the best. Tony let me drive a little today so he could grab a rest. As I drove through
no man’s land New Mexico, I was struck by the landscape. The terrain was a lot like the back drop for the Disney/Pixar movie Cars. This scenery gave way to desert landscape with huge rock formations in the distance that looked like the city of OZ (maybe I’ve been on this road trip a little too long). Tony and I were trying to decide if we should make a side trip to 4 Corners National Monument. We decided that we would push on. While I was snoozing, Tony decided, “what the heck” and detoured over to check it out.Four Corners is located where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah intersect (sort of – it’s a really long story, but suffice it to say that is where the US geological survey marker is). It is the only place in the United States where 4 states come together. This land is owned by a local Native American tribe. Once again we had to shell out a few dollars a
person to enter the land. Once again there were many stalls/booths set up displaying mostly handmade Native American jewelry and pottery. There were also a few t-shirt shops and concession stands. It was sort of like an Indian version of Trader’s World. In the center of all of this was the survey marker along with a small monument. People were waiting patiently to take their turn to sit or stand on confluence point of the four states. After we took our turn, we walked around a bit and checked out what the locals had to offer. The kids spotted snow cones at one of the concession trailers so went over to get some. While we were there, I decided to try Indian Fry Bread. It was sort of like a cross between a funnel cake and an elephant ear. I got mine topped with cinnamon and sugar. You could also get powdered sugar or honey. We enjoyed our treats and looked at the surrounding scenery before heading back out again.Our route today took us through northern New Mexico, extreme south western Colorado and then into Utah. We would have liked to have had more time to stop in Cortez, Colorado and to visit Mesa Verde National Monument. I was there when I was a kid and I remember it being really cool. But hey, there’s only so much time so we pushed on.
We have traveled a pretty far piece this trip. We have encountered many different kinds of terrain and have even been on some desolate stretches of highway, but this drive truly took us out into the middle of nowhere! We were on some stretches of two lane road that felt like we had fallen off of the face of the earth. We went many miles without passing another car or a house or business. It felt a little odd that even with as crowded as our country has become, there are still places where you can really be that isolated. Living where we live you can’t throw a rock without hitting a Wal-Mart, McDonald’s or a Starbucks. Here, there isn’t anything around for hundreds of miles. I think it would drive me nuts to live that far away from what we call civilization.
The drive was taking its toll on Tony even with my help. It was getting very late and AJ was really starting to
cough and wheeze and we were starting to re-think our decision to stop at 4 Corners on such a long driving day after getting a late start. As we approached Moab, the scenery started to change again. The rocky terrain changed back into red rock formations. There were a few formations that had been named. They were pretty cool looking. We were beginning to get pretty excited about what we were going to see. Then we spotted our first arch – Wilson Arch about 45 minutes south of our destination. We had never seen anything like it. An archway carved by wind and rain out of solid rock. Very impressive! We finally made it to Moab, but unfortunately the campground we had chosen (Archview RV Resort) was several miles north of the city. We had chosen it because it was the closest campground to Arches National Park as well as the northern entrance to Canyonlands National Park. The campground was nice looking, but the amenities were only OK and the sites are very small. The view however was amazing. You could see in the distance a large section of Arches NP along with north and south window arch. It was really neat and it made us even that more ready to explore the park tomorrow. We got set up and ready for bed so we can get ready for the parks in the morning.
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