Big trip report, #2

 I'll finish my summary of our trip (part 1 is here)and then come back to cover some highlights, of which there were many. BTW, overall the trip was great.

One of the things that impressed me about the trip was how much open space we saw, out west. 

The above pictures are just poor sampling. 

In Iowa, I began noticing a silo, hill, or some other feature on the horizon. I'd watch the odometer on the car and note how far away the object was from where I first saw it. I clocked four, five, or more miles. In western Nebraska, South Dakota, and on into the Southwest I stopped keeping track. The views to the horizons were measured in multiples of tens, maybe in some cases a hundred miles. I was very impressed with the vastness of creation.

Our granddaughter and her husband, live near Provo Utah. Theirs is one of the fastest growing areas in the USA. As we traveled south in Utah that changed drastically. Southern Utah is mainly spread-out rural dwellings and small towns. I read that the US government is the main landowner in Utah. There are five national parks in the state. We camped in a small campground between two of them, Bryce and Zion.

Demotte Campground, in the Kaibab Nationa Forest, just North of the Grand Canyon Park,
North Rim, was our next stop. As we traveled through Colorado, Utah, and Arizona we noticed the difference altitude makes in the environment. Several times we would go from desert to pine & aspen forest to scrubby vegetation in a fairly short time. Demotte is 8,700 feet. We were surrounded by Ponderosa Pine and Aspen trees. The Aspens in the breeze are lovely. They shimmer. I think Kathy has a video. I'll post it in the highlight. It was low 40s one morning, there.

The sky is bluer than my picture shows.

In Utah, I noticed that the rear tires on the Explorer--new tires--were wearing unevenly and rapidly. I commented on this development here and here. Warning: these posts are a bit long and contain Theological musings. The tire issue was part of the reason we decided not to go to the South Rim. 

We traveled through Hopi and Navajo Nations territory and after a night in a hotel in Albuquerque, and a visit with a friend in Truth or Consequences (Yes, that is the real name of the town. Look it up.), we set up camp at Leasburg Dam State Park. We got there fairly late and left right after breakfast, but the desert provided a beautiful sunset and sunrise.

We spent all day in Las Cruces getting some new tires (see the tire saga). Though we were traveling late, our entrance into Texas was marked by a beautiful rising moon nestled in the Guadalupe Mountains. We traveled the huge state east to west, from El Paso to Galveston.

After visiting with my brother in San Antonio, and our son in College Station, we spent some time at the beach. We camped at Galveston Island State Park. 

We didn't see any, though.

Though we had plenty of trip left we were clearly in a get-back-home mode after our time in Galveston. 

We spent the night in Monroe LA and visited with our oldest grandchild.

From there we had a long day of travel. We met friends for supper at Cracker Barrel in Marrieta Georgia. We set up after dark at McKinney Campground (I wish we could have stayed longer. It looked nice.), then hustled through Atlanta traffic (Why do those folk hate me?) to Suwanee, to meet another friend for brunch. We had supper that evening with our granddaughter and her husband in Greenville, SC. Oh, yeah, we stopped in to see a couple of Kathy's cousins at their high-end auto upholstery shop before supper, then, still on the same day, we went to Rock Hill SC. Where we spent a few days with our older son.

We made it home with a few minutes of daylight to spare on September 24. It was a great six weeks, which is appropriate; it's been a great fifty years.