Hello from Gunnison, CO

Hello from Gunnison, CO

Drafted:  Tuesday morning Sept. 3, 2013 (eighth travelogue of this trip).
Posted:  Tuesday evening Sept. 10, 2013

Sunday we drove from Grand Junction to Gunnison.  We are staying at the Rodeway Inn (map).  Our stop here is very special – to visit our two grandsons who attend Western State Colorado University (link). It was a fairly short drive and we were able to have a late lunch with Thomas and Austin and their girlfriends (Klara and Kai).  That evening, we went to McDonalds to have an ice cream cone.  The reason I mention this is because both Thomas and Austin work there and both just got promoted to “swing manager”.  About the time we were going to take their picture, the restaurant got very busy {frown}.

Monday,  we got to spend quite a bit of the day with Thomas and Klara.  Klara was born and raised in Crested Butte, CO.   Pat, Thomas and I drove up there to have lunch with Klara and then we went to the coffee shop where she works and had a great cup of coffee.  That evening, we had a wonderful dinner with them.

Tuesday we met with Austin for a few minutes before leaving.  The photo below was taken as we dropped him off at Western. 

We then got a quick tour of  Hurst Hall where Thomas takes most of his geology classes.  The photo below was taken in one of the labs where he was preparing a geology map of one of the oil fields in Wyoming.

We follow our good friend's full time travels in their email blog.  Stevi and Ed post some great photos – many of which are very artistic.  I can't begin to duplicate their skills, but I thought I had better post something a bit artsy.  The photo below is of a rock that has “water pockets” that look kind of cool.  In Capitol Reef, there are whole cliffs covered by what the ranger called water pockets.   As I looked for a good reference, I find that the “creation” of the rock formation resulted from what is called the “Waterpocket Fold” (link).  Here is the picture:

I wanted to talk a bit about the formation of the “Colorado Plateau”.  This plateau is the huge area that contains Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyon Lands.  The link above has a pretty good description of the formation of the plateau.  Parts of the area were “raised” over 7000 feet and millions of years of erosion have formed the beautiful areas that are now National Parks.

Being old is not all bad.  When I turned 62, we obtained a “Golden Age Passport”.  It gives us free admission to all National Parks.  On this trip, we toured five of them.  In each of the parks, at the visitor centers, they have wonderful movies that tell about the parks.   Most are about 20 minutes long and are very professionally done.

We returned home on Tuesday 9/3/13.  That was one day short of four weeks.  Part of the trip was very hectic (at least for me – working) and the rest was quite relaxing.  We visited some of the most beautiful sights on this planet (at least we think so). 

I have to apologize for the late delivery of the final post of this travelogue.  Things have been very hectic.  I was home for just a few days and then flew to Seattle – back to the hectic life {grin}

Till next time.