15th May - On the road to Colorado

Red Canyon - where we stayed the previous night.

We continued on our drive to Vail, Colorado. We drove through Capitol Reef National Park, which had some beautiful scenery. Lots of high white and red hills and mountains – not the best for poor Betsey though. We drove through a valley filled with fruit trees – at the visitor centre it said that in summer anyone is free to eat the fruit. They are preserving the trees as ‘historical’ as they were planted there by Mormons a couple of centuries ago. We followed the river along this canyon/valley until we came out in the plains.

Driving through Capitol Reef NP.

Now, Will and I are in firm disagreement about this, but the dates correlate with his story. As we drove along we could see lots of ash grey hills, which finally gave way to flat plains with hills and mountains in the distance. We saw something that looked like an aeroplane zipping across the sky – I thought it was a comet, about to end our lives (we hadn’t heard of Rapture yet!). He said it can’t be a plane, as it was curving up rather than heading across the sky. Since then we’ve checked the dates, and NASA said the launch was on the 16^th. Will now believes he saw the shuttle as we drove into Colorado – how I don’t know, considering the canyon was steep on both sides and we were only driving for about an hour. But then…what did we see that day?? Maybe I’ve been reading too many romance-murder mystery stories and have been speculating a little too much…! I wish I’d taken a photo for proof!

Hollow Mountain gas station - in the mountain!
See the cute dinosaurs??!

Will wasn’t feeling too well and suggested it might have been altitude sickness. I did actually laugh at him… and then thought maybe he is right!

We stopped to get fuel at some cute, random place after the scenic drive through Capitol Reef National Park. The gas station was in the side of a rock! It was like a cave inside, but of course with all the goodies a gas station has to offer. Very cool! 

We sat outside Subway at Green River and had lunch then bought a road atlas. And a little magnet of Utah to go with Will’s Arizona one. The collection has begun! 

Next we stopped in Fruita, Colorado where a little old lady and her companions proceeded to give us several trees worth of shiny brochures on Colorado. Will and I should’ve gone through the ‘night entrance’ as all we wanted to do was use the bathroom!! But the ladies were nice enough and explained to us some of the sights of Colorado. We may have been the most exciting tourists to visit their Visitor Information Centre.

Scenery on the way to Colorado.

We continued driving on to Rifle and spent the afternoon in the rest area there. The free wi-fi there was pretty amazing and random!! I looked up altitude sickness on Wikipedia and made Will suitably paranoid. But he did show classic signs such as a headache, loss of appetite and flu-like or hangover-like symptoms! Apparently it only really happens above 8000 feet and can happen to anyone regardless of fitness. I think he was a little scared when I asked him if he had ‘wet lungs’ as this is the next stage and can be fatal (I would’ve taken him to hospital if I thought he were that bad!!). Just teasing!

A quiet night with The Goodwife and the ambient background noise of trucks idling.