Friday, May 4, 2012
We reluctantly leave our wonderful friends in Colorado.  Craig and I both have been affected by the altitude ... we wake up in the night a little short of breath.  The countryside in Craig is not as pretty as in Colorado Springs, though.  They have a couple of huge open coal mines and ship loads of coal to other parts of the country.  They are concerned that this area will suffer greatly if the mines have to be shut down.  Their well water has a lot of methane in it and they can't drink it.  Stacey showed us by filling a glass with water and then lighting the methane coming off the water with a match !!!

Cheyenne and Summer in back; Stacie and Jon in front

Driving on Hwy 40 towards Salt Lake City, we passed several interesting sights.

Interesting cliffs and lots of "plains"

Didn't stop to explore this site ... another time?

Didn't stop here, either.  Isn't he cute?

We stopped for lunch in this small town for lunch.  Yelp directed us to this cute little cafe, the Spin Cafe (named for a sculpture inside) which was fabulous!  Craig and I split their Friday special, which was a brisket that had been smoked for 12 hours, apple cole slaw with spiral fries.  Absolute fabulous! Then we had some of their homemade gelato, which was as good as what we ate in Italy!
Then on the road again.  We cut 70 miles off our trip by driving through Provo, Utah, instead of Salt Lake City and are sure glad we did.  Some of the prettiest scenery of our trip !

Large lake on the way to Provo

Craig noticed this waterfall and pointed it out to me

Craig and I have been reminiscing on how this vacation has really exceeded our expectations.  We have visited with friends and family, some of whom we have not seen in 50 years! Everybody has made us feel so welcome and invited us to come back !  We have also seen such beautiful scenery.  We have enjoyed visiting the different areas of our USA, but are starting to get anxious to be back home.  We appreciate where we live more than ever.