Monday, 7/11, Travel from CO to Moab, UT

The hotel in Grand Junction was really nice.  It's a new hotel and has a very
modern, sleek decor.  It was very comfortable.  It's right on Main Street in
downtown Grand Junction.  Downtown consists of a few "avenue" blocks and a few
cross streets.  Main Street has a bunch of shops and cafes.  We took a walk this
morning to find a souvenir shop since we didn't get any Colorado memorabilia in
Denver.  We found a shop a couple of blocks down and bought the requisite shot
glasses (complimentary of my father - btw, if anyone speaks to him soon, tell
him his endowment for the family shot glasses has run out and needs replenishment! 
Maybe Shani can deliver it on Wednesday in Las Vegas when she arrives?) and
bumper sticker.  Downtown seems like a very artsy neighborhood.  Interesting
(??) sculptures on many street corners.

Main Street, downtown Grand Junction, CO

A sculpture on Main Street, Grand Junction, CO

 So, of course we (well, me) got to chatting with the proprietor of the shop and
he suggested taking a different route to Moab than the freeway (I-70) one the
GPS would put us on.  He said to get off the freeway at Cisco and follow the
road for a bit where it meets the Colorado River.  It runs right along the river
up to Moab.  He said it is a really picturesque drive and most tourists don't
ever get to see it.  He said it would be about the same time to Moab.  So we
packed up and checked out of the hotel and decided to take his advice on the
alternate route.

On the road out of Grand Junction, CO

Entering Utah from I-70

The freeway route would be about 1.5 hours, but it takes you a bit further out,
then you have to take a road to come back towards Moab.  So we drove for the bit
of the freeway, then saw the exit we needed for Cisco and got off.  The GPS only
added on another 10-15 minutes.  This route is a two-lane road thru ranch
country.  Not as smooth as the freeway, and hilly and twisty.  The kids thought
we could have skipped Cedar Point in Ohio and instead just drive this road a
bunch of times.  I almost squooshed some kind of animal that was sitting in the
middle of the road.  Not sure what it was, but looked like a rodent family
member.  I went right over it and saw it running away in my rear-view mirror. 
Phew.  I'm used to seeing deer crossing signs, but this road had cow crossing
signs, saying it was open range.  Didn't come across any crossing cows.

UT-128, off of I-70 towards Moab

Eventually, the road led to the canyons and we met up with the river.  The
storekeeper was right on!  The scenery was amazing.  Huge cliffs made out of
what looked like clay rock on both sides and other mountain ranges in the
distance.  Big boulders that broke off the cliffs littered the sides of the
roads.  The road got real twisty at points, again with no barrier between the
road and the steep drop to the river.  They do the river rafting stuff over
here, and we saw a bunch of rafts going down the river.  There were parts that
looked a little rough, but nothing crazy.  The road went on for 20-30 miles, I
think.

Colorado River alongside UT-128

View from UT-128

Mountain in background looked kind of volcanic

We made it to the crossroad we needed to take.  Right at that intersection, we
saw a cool pedestrian bridge that went over the river.  There's a little
park/campground there.  So we pulled off and took a walk over the Colorado
Riverway Bridge.  It's only three years old, so it was in better shape than the
Dewey Bridge (historic) we passed earlier.  That bridge looked like one
of those in the cartoons where the floor is made up of wooden planks, and then
each plank starts to snap off as someone traverses it.  This one still had one
or two planks left.  Just the cables were still hanging for the length of the
bridge.  I looked it up later and found that the wood portions were destroyed in
a fire a few years ago.

Historic Dewey Bridge in background

Colorado River from Colorado Riverway Bridge

As we were on the bridge, I tried setting up the timer on the camera to take a
family picture, but then along comes a couple, and the guy sees us and says,
"Efshar L'tzalem etchem??"  (Hebrew for, "Would you like me to take your
picture?")  Wow!  We come out all the way to Utah to find Israelis.  They didn't
live here, but were visiting from Israel.  Funny, since we were originally
thinking of taking a trip to Israel this summer before getting sticker shock. 
So maybe this meeting can count for that too!

Family picture taken by the Israeli couple

Cliffs on the other side of the Colorado Riverway Bridge

We didn't have any plans yet for the day, so we had called ahead of time to find
out if we could check in a bit earlier to settle in and then figure out what to
do.  The hotel turned out to be just around the corner from that bridge.  Once
we got settled in, we decided on a night boat ride on the river where they do
some narrative stories about the settlers and how they believe this area was
originally created.  The website says that if God and religion offends you,
maybe stick to the daytime excursion.  Uh, oh.  Not sure what it will be, but
maybe it will use some of Dr. Aviezer's topics from his lecture/book.  (Dr.
Aviezer is a physics professor at Bar Ilan university in Israel, who has
lectured/written on harmonizing the story of Genesis and the Big Bang Theory. 
He recently gave a lecture in Edison.)  The "cruise" includes a light show,
where they light up parts of the canyon and is supposed to look really cool.  It
departs at 8:30PM.

I looked up the number of the souvenir shop in Grand Junction where the owner
suggested the scenic route to Moab.  I found it (I had paid cash, and I don't
think he gave me a receipt, so I didn't have the phone number).  So I called up,
and asked if he was the same person I spoke to in the morning.  He said he was,
so I thanked him so much for those directions.  He really appreciated getting
the call and wished me well on the rest of the trip.


(A few hours later from above paragraphs)

We were hoping to do a bbq before the Canyonlands boat tour, but there was a
monsoon at around 5:30PM and the forecast didn't show it clearing up until
around 7:30.  (Monsoon season is usually later in the month thru August.)  So we
opted for leftovers from Saturday and the additional stuff we bought on Sunday. 
We got to the dock at 8:15.  They had a bunch of hummingbird feeders hanging
there.

View from the dock

Waiting to board

The boat tour starts off with a guide talking about the geography of the canyon
and surrounding area, including that Colorado Riverway bridge. Apparently it
was built for a lot of money for use by cyclists, which he said are few and far
between.  Nothing too religious, just some references to the Creator.  Mentioned
how geologists come from all over the world to see this area and have a theory
of how the land was formed over time.  He also mentioned that the area is
heavily used in the film industry, back from the old westerns with John Wayne to
Henry Fonda, to more recent films like Indiana Jones and most recently, 127
Hours.  Apparently, this is the area where that guy was hiking when he fell and
got stuck.  Still doesn't want to make me see the gory movie, though.

The guide pointed out this cutout that looks like Ronald Reagan

E.T., phone home

E.T.'s right eye with nice effect of moon

On the way back they do an audio tour about the initial settlement of the area
and the conflicts between the Ute Indians and the early settlers.  Every time it
mentioned the Utes, I couldn't help but thinking about My Cousin Vinny where Joe
Pesci's character talks about the 'two utes' (i.e., 'two youths' in Brooklynese)
he was defending.

Along with the audio, there is one of those spotlight trucks (like the ones that
beam the lights into the sky) driving along the highway along the river (the
same road we took to get here).  In sync with the audio, it brightens up the
sides of the canyon for a pretty cool effect.  The guided tour lasted about 2
hours.

One of the only good pictures to come out from the lit up canyon walls

Speaking of the road (UT-128), the guide mentioned how nice a drive it is,  We
knew exactly what he was referring to.