TeamRaymond Across America - Day Five
Blanding, Utah
Written from bed in room 220 at the Comfort Suites
Miles today: 466
Total miles: 2719
Number of states: 13
Number of McDonald’s stops: 2
Today’s route: Denver -> Moab, UT -> Blanding, UT
Greetings from Blanding, Utah!
It was dark by the time we pulled into Moab, which sits just outside the gates to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. The place was crawling with people - not at all the sleepy, laid back town we visited on our spin through the southwest last year. We drove up and down Highway 191, the main drag that runs through town, and every motel - and there are a lot of them in Moab - was full. Even the mangers out back had no vacancy signs on them.
At the Comfort Suites we spoke with the maintenance guy, who was pulling night desk duty. He confirmed that every bed in town was claimed. There was a Jeep Jamboree in town all week, and some other event which included tail-gating in the motels parking lots and it was also a three day weekend for parents and kids due to some school holiday in Utah, so Moab was just overrun with people. He suggested we try Green River, which would require backtracking an hour the way we came or Blanding, which was a little more than an hour further along our planned path.
“We could just push through to Flagstaff,” I said.
“You could if you were on meth,” said the maintenance guy.
So Debra called the Comfort Suites in Blanding and we thanked the maintenance guy for letting us use the rest rooms and for his offer of coffee and cookies and we headed over to Pasta Jay’s for Tortelone Alfredo with chicken, which was just as delicious this time as it was when we ate it last year after the Death March up to Delicate Arch. Then we piled into the Jeep and rolled into Blanding for our night’s rest.
There is a lot more highway patrol activity in Colorado than in any other state we’ve been through. I didn’t see any highway patrol cars in Wyoming, South Dakota or Iowa. There was one in Minnesota and perhaps one in Illinois. But as soon as we got to Colorado, the cops were everywhere. In a single one-mile stretch there were three of them with cars pulled over, issuing tickets. They were hiding behind overpass pillars, parked on the side of the road aiming radar guns at oncoming traffic, and slinking around through traffic. It was like an infestation.
The drive through the Rockies was incredible, though. Wyoming was pretty with its sage-colored scrub and wide-open Old West landscape of buttes and mesas and plains, but the drive through the mountains…wow! April is the perfect time to make the trip - the roads are clear but the mountains are still flanked with pristine fields of pure white snow. Dark green fir tress march down the sides of the mountains to the roadside and we saw several big horn sheep grazing along the way. And the twisting road through Glenwood Canyon, winding among towering, rugged cliffs alongside the Colorado River was breathtaking. And we had perfect weather during our drive - with cloudless, azure blue skies - while the syncopated zik zik zik of bugs splatting their guts all over my windshield played a road trip symphony.
The landscape changed as we emerged from the mountains and western Colorado slowly changed from towering, snow-capped mountains and forests of firs to the rugged, jagged, red-soiled canyon country that Utah is so famous for. We drove on into the evening, and as we crossed into Utah we watched the sun set with a brilliant orange glow behind a distant mesa.
We’ve got a long day ahead of us today. We decided last night to try and push through all the way to Palm Springs in one shot from Utah. Along the way we’re hoping to see Valley of the Gods, Monument Valley, some dinosaur footprints in Arizona, the Grand Canyon and Sedona. So wish us luck! Here’s a link to our itinerary for today.