Our initial plan was to stay in the motel until checkout time, and then head back to the park in Green River. But, after seeing the forecast (HOT HOT HOT!) we decided to just hit the road and work along the way. We drove for about an hour to get just outside of Grand Junction, where Lover took a call.
The kids and I hiked the Trail through Time, which is a pretty mild trail that takes you past a few sites where they excavated some dinosaur bones. At one of the spots we even saw a diplodocus vertebrae still in the rock! That was cool. The hike was fun and allowed everyone to get tired out and get some space. We loaded back up and then stopped for lunch in Grand Junction. The big kids have been doing the Pizza Hut Book It reading program, and they earned their first personal pan pizza! They were so excited. After that Lover went into Burger King to get the rest of us food, and it took forever! While we were waiting, the AC got a little warm. I figured it was just because we were sitting there idling. We got back on the road, and headed into the mountains. Pretty soon we were driving through our very favorite part of the state – White River National Forest. It’s so beautiful!
Our AC quickly went caput, leaving us sweaty and tired, trying to stay cool in the 90 degree heat. That was so unusual for the mountains! We passed dozens of people on the side of the road – lots of people were having trouble getting through the mountains today! We made it to our friends house with a loud, hot, noisy, smelly van. Looks like this might be the end of the road for our trusty caravan! It’s served us well at 246,000 miles!
We enjoyed a really nice evening with our friends, and after it cooled off we went for a walk and saw tons of deer in their neighborhood. It was so relaxing and we really enjoyed our time with them, as always.