Day 7 - Destination: St. George, UT
Ode to Colorado
Colorado, how I love you
With your skies so blue
and mountains so tall
and canyons in which to fall...
OK, I'll leave the poetry to Susi. If you insist. But I was grinning all day, just from the sheer joy of being in such a wonderful environment. I've discovered, over the years, that in certain locations praise to my Creator comes a bit more easily and naturally. As our friend Ken Davis says, "It's hard to go into the mountains and go, God, you're nothing, Those things are big!"
We took a detour "up" to Leadville, CO to visit my cousin Joe and eat lunch with him. (I made the mistake of saying we'd skip down to Leadville, since, you know, it's south on the map, and was informed that it's the highest city in the US, so I really should say up.) It's a fun town, with a good bit of history, but is now a small community of basically crazy people. Crazy about skiing, hiking, biking, snowboarding, whatever sort of mountain outdoor pursuit you can imagine. It was fun to see Joe and let him show us around town. We saw ski fences, the oddest colored paint jobs (including fairies guarding the front door of one house), the residence of the god Cosmos (a philosopher who contemplates the mysteries of the universe while hanging around outside various local coffee joints), the mining museum, tacky tourist gift shops... and all of this surrounded by views of some of the highest peaks and smells of the clearest air and reflections off of shining mountain lakes. I'm in love. Of course, I've heard the winters are a beast. So I'll put off plans to relocate. But I'm definitely coming back to visit.
After that, it was on to the end. We were starting to see signs for the junction of 70 with I-15 and I was looking forward to retiring this highway, being able to say we'd traveled each and every mile - at least every westbound mile. As Susi dozed, I prayed and drove. How amazing that the God who made all this, also made me!
70 joined up with the Colorado River as I drove the 16 miles through Glenwood Canyon, and I had to wake Susi up. This section of a trip is an enduring highlight for me. The road itself here is a marvel of engineering. As it follows the river, the interstate is basically a bridge on the side of a cliff face. As I drove, I couldn't imagine how anyone ever thought to build a road through here. It's the kind of view that you don't expect to see unless you're in a raft or kayak on the water itself. It felt like we were cheating nature a bit. The best, most beautiful places are often the most inaccessible, and here we are on a concrete roadway that's accommodated probably millions of other cars. The pictures we snap never do it justice, but my memory of this drive is vivid and clear.
Susi started driving just before the CO/UT line and I stunk up the border crossing shot. So, crazy girl, she pulled over to go back and take it. The mountains changed from green to brown and Utah was barren and hopeless. Although, with a high speed limit and no cars, it was time for a little fun. When it had been many miles since she'd seen any cars in either direction on the road, she figured she pretty much had the road to herself and took advantage of that. In the western portion of Utah, you repeatedly see exit signs proclaiming "Ranch Exit - no services" - which we take to mean, "unless you live here, don't bother." These would pop up every 50-100 miles, and other than that, there was nothing. (susi: "seriously, there were MAYBE seven or eight exits total 'til we got to the st. george area, which was hours and hours after we got into Utah). No animals, no farms or ranches, no silos, no churches, no cemetaries... basically no sign of human occupancy at all. It was rather eerie. We were also grateful we had filled up back in Colorado. Susi was as enraptured by Utah as I was by Colorado and pulled over at one of the many "View Places" off the highway, where we climbed a hill to see the extent of the valley and mountains before us.
We rolled through Cove Fort without comment. 70 just sort of becomes 15 without much ceremony and we just kept driving, eventually arriving at our hotel in St. George, where we sank into a deep restful sleep. Staying in a hotel is totally different than staying with friends or family. On one hand, "motel rooms are lonely places, seems like that Gideon's Bible is your only friend." But, at the same time, I felt free to rest and relax without worrying about who or what I was missing. When you're staying with people for one or two days, you want to pack in everything you can, and I think we were starting to feel exhausted by it. The crazy driving (over 2000 miles already) doesn't help either, I'm sure.
Love,
susi&sara
Colorado, how I love you
With your skies so blue
and mountains so tall
and canyons in which to fall...
OK, I'll leave the poetry to Susi. If you insist. But I was grinning all day, just from the sheer joy of being in such a wonderful environment. I've discovered, over the years, that in certain locations praise to my Creator comes a bit more easily and naturally. As our friend Ken Davis says, "It's hard to go into the mountains and go, God, you're nothing, Those things are big!"
We took a detour "up" to Leadville, CO to visit my cousin Joe and eat lunch with him. (I made the mistake of saying we'd skip down to Leadville, since, you know, it's south on the map, and was informed that it's the highest city in the US, so I really should say up.) It's a fun town, with a good bit of history, but is now a small community of basically crazy people. Crazy about skiing, hiking, biking, snowboarding, whatever sort of mountain outdoor pursuit you can imagine. It was fun to see Joe and let him show us around town. We saw ski fences, the oddest colored paint jobs (including fairies guarding the front door of one house), the residence of the god Cosmos (a philosopher who contemplates the mysteries of the universe while hanging around outside various local coffee joints), the mining museum, tacky tourist gift shops... and all of this surrounded by views of some of the highest peaks and smells of the clearest air and reflections off of shining mountain lakes. I'm in love. Of course, I've heard the winters are a beast. So I'll put off plans to relocate. But I'm definitely coming back to visit.
After that, it was on to the end. We were starting to see signs for the junction of 70 with I-15 and I was looking forward to retiring this highway, being able to say we'd traveled each and every mile - at least every westbound mile. As Susi dozed, I prayed and drove. How amazing that the God who made all this, also made me!
70 joined up with the Colorado River as I drove the 16 miles through Glenwood Canyon, and I had to wake Susi up. This section of a trip is an enduring highlight for me. The road itself here is a marvel of engineering. As it follows the river, the interstate is basically a bridge on the side of a cliff face. As I drove, I couldn't imagine how anyone ever thought to build a road through here. It's the kind of view that you don't expect to see unless you're in a raft or kayak on the water itself. It felt like we were cheating nature a bit. The best, most beautiful places are often the most inaccessible, and here we are on a concrete roadway that's accommodated probably millions of other cars. The pictures we snap never do it justice, but my memory of this drive is vivid and clear.
Susi started driving just before the CO/UT line and I stunk up the border crossing shot. So, crazy girl, she pulled over to go back and take it. The mountains changed from green to brown and Utah was barren and hopeless. Although, with a high speed limit and no cars, it was time for a little fun. When it had been many miles since she'd seen any cars in either direction on the road, she figured she pretty much had the road to herself and took advantage of that. In the western portion of Utah, you repeatedly see exit signs proclaiming "Ranch Exit - no services" - which we take to mean, "unless you live here, don't bother." These would pop up every 50-100 miles, and other than that, there was nothing. (susi: "seriously, there were MAYBE seven or eight exits total 'til we got to the st. george area, which was hours and hours after we got into Utah). No animals, no farms or ranches, no silos, no churches, no cemetaries... basically no sign of human occupancy at all. It was rather eerie. We were also grateful we had filled up back in Colorado. Susi was as enraptured by Utah as I was by Colorado and pulled over at one of the many "View Places" off the highway, where we climbed a hill to see the extent of the valley and mountains before us.
We rolled through Cove Fort without comment. 70 just sort of becomes 15 without much ceremony and we just kept driving, eventually arriving at our hotel in St. George, where we sank into a deep restful sleep. Staying in a hotel is totally different than staying with friends or family. On one hand, "motel rooms are lonely places, seems like that Gideon's Bible is your only friend." But, at the same time, I felt free to rest and relax without worrying about who or what I was missing. When you're staying with people for one or two days, you want to pack in everything you can, and I think we were starting to feel exhausted by it. The crazy driving (over 2000 miles already) doesn't help either, I'm sure.Love,
susi&sara
posted by Sara at 12:08 AM
2 Comments:
Hi,
We saw you in Newport Beach, CA today driving along the PCH and took a picture for you. Email us at Karl@Cutarts.com and we will email the pics to you.
Feel loved.
gcdtrldu
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