Last Saturday night we attended Duke's fortieth high school reunion in Manchester, Iowa. One of the great things about school reunions is that all the people are your age and many are going through very similar experiences. Even though it was not my class and I only met most of these people one other time it was a lot of fun.
Sunday morning we left Manchester to head home to Reno. We decided to get a lot of miles under our belt on day one of the trip home. After the first day we wanted to take a more leisurely pace through Colorado and Utah and do some exploring. So we drove 723 miles mainly on interstate highways from Manchester, Iowa across Nebraska to Sterling Colorado on Sunday, July 4.
On Monday we drove to Denver and walked around the Colorado state capitol.
From the capitol we walked a few blocks to tour the Molly Brown house. Margaret Brown was married to JJ Brown who became wealthy in mining in Leadville Colorado in the late 1800s. Although she was active as a campaigner for women's rights and other causes and ran for the state senate in 1914, she is probably best known for her being a survivor of the Titanic. She was portrayed as the Unsinkable Molly Brown on stage and in movies.
The Molly Brown House has been beautifully restored. One of the things I liked best about the tour was how the tour guide described that Molly was committed to personal growth. When she died in 1932 she was an aspiring actress Apparently she employed tutors throughout her life and was a constant learner.
Before we left the Denver area we toured the Coors Brewery and sampled the beer. Then we headed west to Grand Junction. The Colorado National Monument which is just west of Grand Junction is one of my favorite parks and it is relatively unknown, We camped there on another road trip a few years ago and it was just as wonderful as ever. The views and scenery are stupendous and there are not a lot of other people.
Downtown Grand Junction is great for walking and we had breakfast there at La Bamba Mexican Dining before we left on Tuesday.
In north eastern Utah we explored some back roads and followed a route through Nine Mile Canyon. I read about the 70 mile route in our guide book then picked up a brochure and map at the Utah welcome center. There were interesting rock art and petroglyphs and lots of beautiful scenery.
We spent Tuesday night in the little town of Roosevelt, Utah. On Wednesday we explored the back roads in the south foothills of the Uinta Mountains and followed one of the back roads up over a 9000 ft plus pass on the edge of the great basin.
Park City, Utah is where the 2002 winter Olympics were held. Visiting a ski resort in the off season is wonderful. We stayed in the Washington School Inn where we have stayed before and had the Inn pretty much to ourselves. We explored the town and ate at some great restaurants. We hiked to the top of the chairlift and rode down. We stayed two nights, took advantage of the Inn's sauna and hot tub and had a relaxing wonderful time.
On Friday we drove the 560 miles home to Reno on interstate 80. I've written before about how Aspen trees in a front yard will spread. The aspen grove that had established itself in our front lawn while we were gone was impressive.
There are 372 pictures in my set on Flickr for this trip. You can see them here.
Marion's Blog 