Moab Utah 08-03-06
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It was a major roadtrip in the making. My mother-in-law was heading back to Aurora, CO after
spending the last 2 years in Sacramento, CA helping to watch our kids. The trip was supposed to be
8 days; leave on a Saturday and come back the following Sunday, but turned out much different.
My mother-in-law decided we needed to leave on a Monday as her house she was renting would be
vacant the day before, but a walk through had to be done.
Monday July 31st - DAY 1 We left around 8:15am Monday and the trip to Reno was fairly uneventful; the FJ pulled up the hills without trouble. Filling up on the outskirts of Reno there was an old cowboy that took 20 minutes to fill his tank; he topped it off to the actual top of the filler tube, wait a minute to settle and would top off again. We finally hit the road again from Reno, NV to Winnemucca, NV and since the speed limit increased I set the cruise control at 79 mph. Another fillup and lunch and we ventured on again. This is where we hit a bit traffic for 10 miles and there were more small hills and the cruise controldid a lot of shifting between gears. We filled up again in Elko, NV and headed on to Salt Lake City. We hit rain about 45 minutes out that turned into a nice downpour. The FJ handled nice with the stock Bridgestone Duellers. We spent the night at a Super 8 near the airport. Tuesday August 1st - DAY 2 A quick run to the lobby to get some juice and danishes and we loaded up and hit the road by 7:45am. The traffic in Salt Lake City was light and we soon were winding up through the canyons up I-80. This is where the weather turned foul quickly. Rain and heavy winds were severe and the FJ had it's first hydroplane going 70mph and I shifted about 4 feet over within what felt like a fraction of a second. I should have known better to be driving that fast in adverse conditions, but it was early in the day and wanted to set the pace. We stopped off at the second Little America in Wyoming to get some snacks. The next leg we pushed to Laramie, Wyoming and had lunch at truck stop where I had a buffalo burger. We then drove to Aurora arriving around 4:00pm. There was a great thunder storm that filled the sky with lighting. After unpacking and getting settled in we had dinner and called it a night. Wednesday August 2nd - DAY 3 We were supposed to meet some relatives that live in Colorado Springs, but they were working so we changed those plans and loaded up and started the trek to Moab. A nice drive with such varying scenery. Had lunch in Glenwood Springs and hit the road again. I would point out that this is where gas was the most expensive on the trip at 3.59 for the cheap stuff. Colorado has a much different octane rating. In California there is 87,89,91. The cheap stuff here was 85 octane the mid grade 88 and 90 for premium. We pressed on to Grand Junction and filled up there instead. We travelled up and into Utah. My memory was terrible as I was thinking the exit to Moab was 10 miles into Utah, but it's really about 70 miles. At the turn off they had the road closed down while they oiled down the road and layed crushed rock. It was almost 30 minutes before they led the traffic through. I snapped a picture of lazy "Your Way" construction worker that had BOTH feet hanging out the passenger window. Another 10 minutes of waiting and we were heading down the loose and sticky road Thursday August 3rd - DAY 4 I woke up around 8am and my son Everett headed out to do some geocaches around Moab. We headed back to Friday August 4th - DAY 5 We were up and around fairly early and grabbed donuts and milk at the one grocery store on the east end of town. None eventful drive to Saturday August 5th - DAY 6 I slept in till 8am and wanted to take a small hike. I asked the others if they wanted to. Moab 2006 : MPG, Cost, Mileage Travel Log Moab 2006 : Picture Log |