Greeley Colorado to Moab Utah

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A 6 am wakeup call got us going early. A sticky icky cinnamon bun and a hard boiled egg for me and cheesy omelet with sausage patty for Michael.

We were at the Greeley Museum at its opening time of 8.30. A cold and very foggy morning, and the air redolent with cow. The museum is a lovely old building, and there was plenty of stuff on the Union Colonists. Greeley himself only visited once, after lending his name to the place.



Nathan Meeker, it turned out, was killed by the Indians (who he was teaching to farm instead of hunt), when he ploughed their favourite horse-racing field. Two of his womenfold were held captive by the Indians for 23 days. Seems his idea of utopia was not the same as that of the Indians. There was a lot of information in the museum on sugar-beet farming, and also on irrigation. That must have been a real priority in this arid landscape.

Once done with the museum we set forth.

What a fabulous drive, through such amazing scenery. From the Colorado high country through Denver, through the mountains and down to the spectacular scenery of Utah. We are staying only one night at Moab, because we are on our way to Monument Valley, to a booking at Goulding's for two nights. That couldn't be changed, and was on our must-do list. If it was good enough for John Wayne, it is good enough for us.

Our breakfast kept us going until a quick stop at Georgetown for an apple, a Pepsi, a Snickers bar, and some dried fruit. Michael had similar, with two Butterfingers instead of the Snickers.

Moab is definitely a tourist town. One of the things on my list of possible purchases was a fancy belt. The cheapest I've seen was $1800, and the most expensive over three thousand! Um, maybe not this time.

We just ate Mexican for dinner. I make better tamales, but I don't do them very often as they are very labour intensive. Same for chile rellenos. Yum. We are very happy now.

We are staying at a Ramada, which doesn't appear to offer free wifi. However the list of networks tells me that the Gonzo Hotel has an unsecured network, so that's what I am using.

And now time for some photos. Such varied and glorious scenery. The high mountain passes had snow, and we drove through a few flurries. Frosted fir trees, golden aspens, the sparkling Colorado River. Some of the time Michael was driving, so I took the pics. Sometimes I was driving, so begged Michael to use my camera to take some. "Twirl the lens off macro to infinity." "Turn the polarizing circular filter so the little white notch is at the top, so you get blue sky." "Look through the viewfinder, it doesn't have a screen for taking pictures." "Turn the lens so you frame the picture." Etc. My two rules for taking good pictures are 1) have your camera with you, and 2) take a lot of pictures. Im adding a third - 3) look through the viewfinder.

See if you can tell whose photos are whose....