Sunday, March 18, 2018

Up nice and early for services this morning. We worshiped with the church on the northeast side of Colorado Springs, just 3 minutes from the motel. Lots of nights spent camping in a pop-up camper trained us for getting ready in this very small motel room.

This morning, before services, we saw our first views of the Rockies. Working for a company out of Utah allowed me to see similar views, but that doesn’t mean I’d gotten used to it. For the kids, it was truly a sight to behold. Lots of pictures.

Lunch was at Subway and then off to Garden of The Gods. It was the first time any of us had been to the park. Just amazing! It didn’t look like it belonged in the middle of “metropolitan” Colorado Springs.

We were able to meet up with my cousin Vicky and her boyfriend Jon. So good to see her again, to meet him, and for her to meet the kids for the first time.

Garden of The Gods Pictures

Out of Colorado Springs on our 6-hour journey headed to Moab at about 5pm. There’s really no straight shot there, so we opted for the quickest recommended route which was Hwy 24 N to I-70 W. Driving through the mountains was interesting for sure. Sonya did most of the driving today.

We hit a bit of a snow flurry coming up and over the Rockies. Then a little more snow. Then a full on blizzard. Our progress came to a crawl as it was dark, slick, and very unfamiliar. Sonya did a great job bringing us through it.

So what’s the last thing you want to hear during these blizzard conditions and no services around at all? “Mom I have to go to the bathroom.”, from the toddler (which means I’m about to unload my bowels within the next 30 seconds). Nothing around. Literally. So we pulled into the first drive we saw which was someone’s house and we both leapt from the van. We got Vivian out and held her suspended in mid-air while she did her business. #1 and #2 in these fine people’s driveway. At one point she says, “I’m swinging!” which gave us all a good chuckle.

We finally hit I-70 and it was pretty much smooth sailing from there for me to finish off this leg of the journey as driver. We rolled into Moab at about 12:30am and checked into our quaint little cabin suitable for 6. Vivian didn’t mind sleeping on the floor (until some point in the night when she crawled in bed with Sonya and I).