GOFDV Day 2

Day two started with a campus visit to University of Colorado-Denver, which has Music Business and Recording Arts programs Trevor is interested in. The visit confirmed that UCD is a real possibility for Fall 2014. It's an urban campus but still with plenty of green space and personality. The visit was a good one, notwithstanding our student tour guide, Angel, and his penchant for excruciating detail. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to know that a certain building has an elevator that goes from the basement up to all four floors. I probably wouldn't have thought to ask about that kind of thing. 

So, the tour went a little longer than expected, but by midday we were hitting I-70 West to begin our drive through the spectacular Rockies, and the canyons that followed. Awesomeness.

 

Tip of the hat to the arsenal of apps we have at our fingertips. One of my new favorites is Altimeter, which allowed me to fixate on our elevation readings today. Very excited when we hit 11,000 feet!

My other new favorite, which I can't even begin to tell you how much I love, is Megaphone. I connect my iPhone to the van's sound system, talk into the phone mic, and my voice is amplified through the stereo system. Just like a tour guide on a bus!! No more excuses from the back seats that they can't hear me. I've been sharing geography and historical notes over my "PA" system, and while the kids haven't exactly said so, I think they must be enjoying it almost as much as I am.

Today we mostly enjoyed the great scenery, but also made time for one geocache, and a hike to Doc Holliday's grave which sits above Glenwood Springs, CO. A brief biography of Doc's life, including the infamous shootout at the OK Corral, and his death at a young age due to TB, was given over our minivan PA system prior to the stop. 

Enough dawdling-- we needed to make it to Arches National Park before the sun set! With no time to waste, we followed the Colorado River valley to Arches, but the sun was dipping. Initial frustration at not being welcomed by a multitude of arches, and we saw they were going to make us work for it. It is said that there are some 2,000 natural arches in the park. We saw 3. We drove more and looked hard for the other 1,997, but, alas, the sunlight drained out of the sky. Bust. Also, the visitor center was already closed, so I didn't get a stamp in my National Parks Passport. Double bust. 

I think our most enduring memory of Arches will be, after walking back to the parking lot from a viewpoint, when Dennis got into the wrong car... it was unlocked, so he made it all the way into the driver's seat, and spent a surprising amount of time looking for the start button. We watched and laughed.

OK, wrapping up the day... the boys climbed up a gigantic sand hill in the dark, we ate ice cream for dinner, and then finally found our way to the Robbers Roost Motel (I'm not kidding) in Green River, UT. (elevation 4070 ft, btw)  

Today's mileage: 440. Total mileage: 1140

Tomorrow: ghost towns (because I've always wanted to visit one since the Brady Bunch's Western trip), Zion National Park, Hoover Dam, and Vegas, baby! 

Thanks for listening. More to come.

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Rockies

Colorado River

Solar power juicing the iPad!