Rangely, Colorado to Loveland, Colorado

Sunday morning we spent exploring some of Dinosaur National Monument. Duke was here in the mid seventies and remembers taking the road to Echo Canyon on the Green River. So we drove the dirt road down to the same spot today. It was an amazing spot and he did a great job demonstrating the echo.

Echo canyon on the Green River
Duke demonstrating the echo

For lunch we had leftover pizza from dinner the night before. Then we drove the length of the park on more dirt roads. It is an absolutely beautiful park. And we didn’t see any other people on the road. It took us a few hours to get back to pavement. But we thoroughly enjoyed the drive.

Lunch
Dinosaur National Monument

From Dinosaur National Monument we drove to Loveland to see our friends Rick and Elaine. We went out to dinner at a great local restaurant, Henry’s. As we got there it started to rain. There was lots of thunder and lightning and it rained hard. The rain gauge back at the house said we got 1.6 inches of rain.

West Wendover, Nevada to Rangely, Colorado

Today we drove across Utah, with a few stretch stops, to Dinosaur National Monument. We parked the car and checked out the Quarry Visitor Center, then took the tram up to the Quarry Exhibit Hall. The Exhibit hall is built right over one of the rock faces with hundreds of fossils still in the rock.

Inside the quarry Exhibit Hall

Next we took the Fossil Discovery Trail back down to the visitor center.

On the Fossil Discovery Trail.

From Dinosaur National Monument we continue on about an hour to the small town of Rangely, Colorado where we are tonight.

Outside our room in Rangely

Reno, Nevada to West Wendover, Nevada

We started a month long U.S. road trip today. It is fun and exciting to be on the road again. We are going to Duke’s 55th High School reunion in Iowa and to my niece’s wedding in Tennessee. If you would like to see our planned itinerary you can see it here.

We drove 405 miles to West Wendover on the Nevada/Utah border. We stopped several times to stretch our legs..

Stop to stretch in Elquist Park, Battle Mountain
Wendover Will in West Wendover

Giverny to home

Friday morning in Giverny we had breakfast in our room. We had a baguette and croissants delivered fresh to our door. The OJ, yogurt, jams and butter were already in the fridge.

Croissants and a baguette for breakfast

Around eleven we packed up and then went to see Monet’s grave in the cemetery.

Monet’s grave
Here rests our friend Claude Monet
On the 9th of June 1944 a British bomber was shot down near Giverny. The crew of seven were buried together in the Giverny church cemetery.
Packing up.

We drove to Orly airport. On the way we stopped for one last picnic lunch. I will miss French bread and cheese!

Picnic lunch

At Orly we turned in the car, checked in, and then spent a few hours in the lounge waiting for our 6:30 flight. our flight was long but uneventful. We landed in San Francisco at about 9:30. Allison picked us up at the airport. We spent the night in Walnut Creek then drove home the next day.

On the way home

It was a fantastic trip. We are tired but very glad to be home. Soon Duke will get to work planning the next trip.

Le Boulay-Morin to Giverny

Today was a wonderful day. We started out by going for a walk in the grounds at Chateau du Boulay-Morin.

That’s the Chateau way in the background

As we were checking out the owner insisted we needed to have a cup of coffee. He told Duke “You can’t drive without coffee!” So we had coffee and chatted a bit. He told us that if he was American he would have voted for Trump. But now no! He said “Trump has made America a 0!”

After leaving the Chateau we went into Evreux, the town where we had dinner last night, and had croissants and another coffee at the Boulangerie.

Breakfast

We got to Giverny too early to check in so we strolled around a bit and bought some souvenirs. Then we had a picnic lunch in the garden of the Museum of Impressionism.

Lunch

About 2:00 we checked in to Sous La Glycine. This B&B has one room in the basement. It’s perfect, cute and very comfortable. We are right on Rue Claude Monet just down the street from Monet’s house and garden.

The entrance to our room
Our room

Monet’s garden and house close at 6:00. A couple of weeks ago we bought advance tickets for 4:30. It was perfect. While we were there the crowds got smaller and smaller. And the gardens!! Oh my goodness they are wonderful! The colors, the light, the artistry. It was fantastic!

In the walled garden. The house you can see is Monet’s house.
More of the flowers
Another picture in the water garden
It’s very hard to narrow down which pictures to share.
I finally tried to stop taking pictures and just soak in the beauty!

We took our time wandering through the gardens. It was surprising how many empty park benches we found. We had to check out each of them.

The view from one of our park benches.
Lots of people wanted to take pictures on the bridge.
The house was fascinating too. This is the view from the bedroom.

The things that surprised us about Giverny was how untoutisty it seemed, in spite of the massive crowds. And when we walked to dinner after everything was closed the streets were empty.

Rue Claude Monet on the way to dinner

As I said at the beginning it was a practically perfect day. Tomorrow we return the car at the airport in Paris and fly home.