Moab, UT: a city or a sauna? Hard to tell the difference

 

 

After our little “missing children’s” incident in Vail yesterday, we hit the road and headed about 4 hours west to Moab, Utah.  We wanted to see Arches National Park and check out a desert town.  This was a deviation from our original plan to stay in Buena Vista for three nights—we ended up deciding to check out of BV a day early and head to Vail for the day then Moab for a night and a morning in order to break our trip to the Grand Canyon up a little.  SO….we drove about 4 hours to Moab yesterday and are currently driving 6 hours to the Grand Canyon as I type.  We hadn’t recovered enough emotionally from the 20 hour drive we took on Thursday/Friday to try a 10 hour drive today.

Moab is about as different from the spots we visited in Colorado as you can get.  I don’t think I saw a single blade of grass and, well, the temperature was 105 degrees last night as we drove in at 8:00 pm.  One Hundred and Five Degrees.  Fahrenheit. One Zero Five. PEOPLE.  It felt like we were in an oven when we got to our camping site and were unpacking the van.  (Which, by the way, I still think is the worst job ever.)  Because we were only staying for one quick night, we opted to get a camping cabin instead of a tent site at the KOA (which they actually call a “Kamping Kabin” but the former English teacher in me can’t handle intentional misspellings.)   It cost $70 for a teensy tiny little “kabin” that had a full size bed and a set of bunk beds.  It had a window air conditioning unit  and a pool which we had promised the kids a refreshing dip in….unfortunately we got there right as the pool was closing so we had majorly disappointed kiddos to contend with at that point.

Kabin Sweet Kabin: air conditioning! a necessity when it's about 90 degrees after dark

Moab looks a heck of a lot like Radiator Springs from the movie Cars.  They even had a Tow-Mater truck outside one of the shops in the town.  The city is right on the Colorado River so there are adventure/rafting companies everywhere.  We really wanted to do a raft ride, but didn’t feel up for dropping $190 on a few hours experience.  Plus it was DANG HOT…. At one point today while we were driving around Moab, our car temperature gauge read 114 degrees.  ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN! 

Back to last night—we got the kids ready for bed, then Michael and I sat out on the porch of our cabin for the first moment alone we’ve had since we left on Thursday.  That’s a whole lot of family togetherness, folks!  It cooled off (a little) once the sun went down and then suddenly the stars put on a show.  I’m pretty sure you could see every star and constellation that exists.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a clear sky.  It took my breath away!

Our cabin was tiny, but not anymore tiny than our tent is!  The kids slept fabulous. Me…not so much.  I haven’t slept well since we left Nashville—I keep hoping my body will acclimate to the time change and that my brain will shut off one of these nights so I can actually get a good night of rest.  I’m afraid there’s going to be a “momma melt down” soon if I don’t get more than 5 hours of bad sleep (my LWOW norm) one of these nights. 

We packed up early this morning and headed to Arches National Park.  I can’t even describe what it was like because if I say “it’s a bunch of rock formations,” you’ll think it’s not that special.  Calling Arches a bunch of rock formations is about like calling the Grand Canyon a ditch, I’m thinking….so you’ll just have to trust me when I say you should definitely go if you ever get the chance.

Balanced Rock:  If you look REALLY CLOSE, you can see Will at the base in a red t-shirt. HUGE ROCK.

My boys walking up to Balanced Rock

I have officially crossed over to the dark side.  No shower for the last two days, not a stitch of makeup (why bother?!? 107 degrees doesn't provide for a good makeup wearing environment, and these clothes?  Totally wore them on Saturday and this morning I thought, "hmmm....these aren't that dirty. I shall wear them again."  WHO AM I AND WHAT HAVE I DONE WITH THE OLD ELLEN???

 

We then went to find a spot to swim in the Colorado River.  The kids were begging for a pool, but we had to beg them to give the CO River a chance.  Ha!  We keep trying to impress upon them the significance and magnificence of what we’re doing (they would totally have traded a pool for a chance to swim in the Colorado?!?) and sometimes they get it…..but sometimes they don’t.  Once we were there, they thought it was pretty amazing and were sad to leave.

 

We changed clothes and then headed to the grocery to stock up on food for the next 2 days as we travel to the Grand Canyon and camp out there.  We should arrive at the GC Natl Park tonight around 8pm—we are hoping to get there in time to see the sunset because we have heard that is something to see.

That’s it for today!  OH! Thanks for all the love you’ve shown my husband with his guest post early this morning.  He did such a good job…I’m kind of nervous he’s going to hijack my blog…. Back off, man!