Michelle's Trip to Moab - 4/26/2002 through 5/5/2002

NOTE: This website takes about 90 seconds to download using a 28.8kbps modem.

THURS 4/25/2002

12:08 pm left Kirkland: 032983

1:51 pm Traveling w/Carl Sagan on tape "Pale Blue Dot". Enjoying the beautiful snow capped Cascades. Stopped @ Pilot Gas in Ellensburg. 033090

7:26 pm Baker City, OR. No self-serve gas! 272 mi since last fill up - 14 gal = 19.4 mpg

10:58 pm Farewell Bend St Park, $15, 58F, slept on ground, listening to Fab Thunderbirds - Perfect!

FRI 4/26/2002

4:29 pm: Twin Falls, I'd; Incredible gorge right in town. Gas 12.5 gal @ 255 mi = 20.3 mpg

033618

4:00 PM Seattle time - called office and no one there.

11:01 pm: was feeling tired, so napped and then Tae Bo'd at the rest area.

Comment: Idaho has a lot of boring landscape along I-84.

It didn't get interesting until coming off the summit just north of Ogden. There, I noticed amazing lifting of anchient sedimentary earth at 30 deg or more, going up 1000 ft or more, to become snow capped peaks at the top. Right about this time the temp dropped to 50F and it started raining, all the way into Ogden.

Hwy got real rough just before the off ramp to Ogden, on my way to Wolf Creek Resort. Was real impressed with the fascinating walls of Ogden Canyon, and enjoyed the cute houses with backyards lined up on the opposite side of the river. 

Am real impressed with my accommodations. WorldMark does a real nice job, and the view from my room is fantastic. (To bad I forgot to bring a phone cord with me to hook up my modem. Pretty stupid. I only have about hundred of these back home. Now, I've got to go buy one to add to the collection.)

SAT 4/29/2002

9:14 am: new day at Wolf Creek. Woke up with a fire in the fireplace. Still raining and the temp still cold. Feels like Seattle.

In addition to doing Tae Bo, I spent most of the morning on the computer, handling orders and tech support. Got outdoors around 3 PM. Took pictures of Ogden Canyon. Was too late to see Fort Buenaventura - closed at 4 PM. Did find The House of Blues, though.

Had a great dinner at the Casual Bistro in old town Ogden - Grilled Chicken with mushroom and artichoke heart sauce. Ummm, yum. The interior was too cute - all brick - looked like an atrium was added to the outside of an old brick building.

Walked back to the HOB before 8 PM. Met few guys that bought me drinks, and had the best time dancing with Julio until midnight. It was a great! :-)

SUN 4/28/2002

1:56 pm: On my way out of Ogden. Noticed the guy at the ShopKo singing Hallehlua. Filled up @ Texaco. Went ??? Miles with 15.876 gals = ??? Mpg.

033897

6:22 pm Drove into Moab on single tank of gas. Met Cali Cochitta hosts, David, Kim, and their younger daughter, Kourtney. Lynsey, their older daughter was out with friends. Very nice people. They make me feel right at home. As it turns out, they sleep in the cottage next door, leaving me the only one in the house - well, until Tuesday, when 3 more guest show up. :-)

8:00 pm Finished checking email and felt it was time to setup the Celestron 8. My hosts surprised me with their enthusiasm. They really enjoyed looking at Jupiter and Saturn so much, they want to take me to Slick Rock tomorrow night.

Unfortunately, I had some problems aligning the scope, so it drifted quite a bit, plus I couldn't find too many other recognizable objects to look at (I'm not real familiar with the springtime sky), so I wasn't able to calibrate the scope's computer.

As a result I went upstairs to my room to review Starry Night Planetarium software and logged into the Internet to get the lowdown on what to look for.

We'll see how well I do tomorrow night. One thing I learned was that comet Izzy is going away. (I didn't even know there was a comet out right now!). According to space.com, Izzy is the brightest comet in 5 years, and all I need to do is use Cassiopeia as a pointer.

Having a great time. Need to see if I can peddle our Public Internet stuff. I mean, after all, this is a business trip. Think I'll wait until it starts raining on Wednesday, though.

MON 4/29/02

10:42 am: on my way to Arches. Had an incredible custurd souffle with fresh fruit, homemade whipped cream, real meaty bacon from their own farm, fresh squeezed oj, and coffee. Umm, yumm!

275 mi on 13.5 gal = 20.3 mpg

2:33 pm: Just finished hike to Delicate Arch - beautiful, unreal, breathtaking. Wore backpack with about 20# of gear. Getting ready for my planned hike to The Enchanctments this summer. Ate some dried green peas and dried apples. Not as good as breakfast, but there was no way I was going carry anymore than I did.

I'd say the hike is of moderate difficulty. 

On the way back I took a shot of Wolf Cabin. This was a pretty cool cabin, and really gave me a sense for what the pioneers need to do to make this place their home.

Now, onto Landscape Arch.

4:38 pm: Back from Landscape Arch. Is beautiful. Unfortunately, the sunlight wasn't in the optimum position. I'd like to come and do the same in the morning and go for another 2 hours, coming back via the Primitive Trail. There are a lot more arches off that way.

Now, back to Cali to soak feet and eat tacos. :-D

6:30 pm: Just had some great, super size homemade tacos. Met Lynsey, David and Kim's oldest, who just got a new (used) Honda. She shared a poem she wrote for a contest, and it is being included on a CD. The poem is entitled 'My Mom", and it is a wonderful tribute to how she feels about her mother. It's quite a glowing review.

7:30 pm: Packed the scope up in the Explorer and headed off to Slick Rock. The night was perfect, and Slick Rock was very dark. We found Comet Izzy, M13 (globular cluster) in Hercules, Orion and its nebula, the Big and Little Dippers, and feasted our eyes on Mercury in Pleiades, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter in Gemini. All were beautiful sites that my hosts really enjoyed. We even invited the students and teacher from Kourtney's school, but only one young friend of Kourtney's showed up.

TUE 4/30/2002

6:23 pm: Just got back to the trailhead. Went on a discovery mission - into the great unknown, so to speak. After catching up on email and uploading the first installment of my trip journal and pics to my website , I decide to go exploring. Not knowing where I was going, I found the Colorado River. I know I wasn't the first, but it was a discovery for me all the same. There is a great hwy that runs just out of Moab and goes straight up the river. The canyon walls are incredibly beautiful and the drive majestic.

Regardless, I got antsy to get out and go on a hike. But where to? It was getting late, 2:30 pm I'd say. So, like in identifying a good restaurant when traveling, I started looking cars park in odd spots along the river. Much to my great satisfaction, I found Negro Bill Canyon. Seeing all the cars, including Adventure Guide vans and jeeps, I figured there must be something really good at the other end of the trail. I was right!

The trail through the canyon was awesome as it was, but at the end there was a magnificent natural arch, Morning Glory Arch. I took a bunch of pics, but don't think any amount of film, pixels, or processing can do it justice. Really cool.

I tried to get some pics of the desert plants starting to flower, but don't know how they'll turn out.

Well, I gotta hurry back and take a shower real fast. I think I brushed up against some poison ivy.