5/26/14 -- Salt Lake City to Denver

Dear Valerie,

I know how much you like road trips… and letters.  And so today you get a second letter (this time from Emily!) of our road trip back to Denver from Salt Lake City.

The day began early(ish) in Salt Lake.  I slept on the couch in Aidan’s friend’s apartment, and Aidan slept on a giant blow-up air mattress that the cat (Sage) absolutely LOVED.  I am so thankful I was not on the air mattress; otherwise we might not have had a cat in the morning…  About every 10 minutes pretty much the entire night, the cat would run across the mattress and cat-apult (haha) himself off the other side.  About 5 minutes into the night, the cat managed to puncture the air mattress, which we then fixed with duct tape.  But this was no match for the cat; who relentlessly clawed at the tape until he had successfully pulled it off.  Aidan woke up in a taco with the sides of the air mattress enclosing him, and rolled over to the floor for the rest of the night.  As a cat owner, I’m sure you, Valerie, can relate.  I will never own cats.

In the morning Aidan and Troy made a delicious breakfast of potatoes, bacon, and scrambled eggs.  I can’t believe how much food they ate… Although I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.  We will need to buy lots of groceries when we make it to Glacier.  After breakfast we cleaned up and drove out for a little hike in the hills up to a Waterfall Canyon.  It is Memorial Day so Troy has off work, along with everyone else in Ogden.  Thankfully we got there early enough to park near the trailhead, before all of the large families of Mormons showed up in SUVs…

…They were not far behind us.  Before long the trail was swamped with people.  It is so wonderful to see so many families outside enjoying the beautiful day!  People of all ages were out in the sunshine and up to see the waterfall.  The hike down was tricky because you had to watch out for running children tripping over roots and rocks, but we made it without too many issues.  I am thankful Alaska has fewer people, and more room to play outside.

Waterfall Canyon

Troy and I made it!
(Aidan did too but was taking the picture)

After the hike we stopped for lunch at a little pizza place in Ogden.  The pizza was really good!  Unfortunately I had left my wallet in Aidan’s car, and he had as well, so his friend Troy bought us lunch.  From there it was time to head east again.  I like road trips, but this is quite a bit of driving in a short amount of time, and no offense to Wyoming, but there isn’t really a whole lot going on there in terms of what to look at…

Wonderful Wyoming...

We live in such a beautiful world :)

Most of what we drove through was relatively un-remarkable (that is, I have no remarks to make of it).  And so one would think the drive uninteresting and tiresome.  Not so.  You see, we each had the company of the other, the radio to sing along to (primarily country, I do hope you forgive us), and “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!” to keep us thoroughly entertained.  Between that and the usual road trip games (cow poker, I spy, and the license plate game) we kept engaged and made good time.  I contemplated teaching Aidan the “read-every-sign-in-the-voice-it-is-written game,” but didn’t want to scare him too much by randomly bursting out with THE MALT SHOP!!! Or the like anytime we drove by a particularly inviting sign.  Ah well, there will be other opportunities for that I am sure.

I spy pronghorn! (Antilocapra americana)

... And bugs on the windshield (this was actually a rather
clever one that kept Aidan stumped for quite a while)

About every 5 minutes through Wyoming we passed a billboard for “Little America.”  Which I guess is a popular truck stop/small city with fancy hotels, entertainment, and food.  Even when we passed the actual location of the establishment, the signs continued to come and point us backwards!  We did not stop, although the all you could eat pancakes sounded quite inviting…

Eventually we made the turn off I-80 (that we had been following since San Francisco) that would take us back to the wonderful state of Colorado!  We each called our moms to let them know that we were heading back, and 8 hours after we pulled out of Ogden we arrived back in Aidan’s driveway.  After 19 days, 11 national parks, 4111 miles and countless wonderful adventures, we were thankful to be back to warm home-cooked meals and a roof over our head.  I will sleep well tonight!  (Thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Carroll for waiting up for us with dinner to arrive home!)

Colorado!

All the gear we pulled out of the car the next morning.
Lots of work still to do!

We now have two short days to recuperate, clean our gear (and clothes!) and pack up to head back out again!  This time with you, Rachel, and Jess!  I am looking forward to some adventures in Glacier and yet another road trip to get there.  I hope you are having a wonderful day.  Have a safe flight to Denver!

Your friend,

Emily