Mom and I each kept a road trip journal. I don't think they turned out quite the way we imagined! But I'm posting mine here to accompany my gallery of photos.

14 June 2005

I-76 milemarker 165 - We've traded Nebraska's cottonwoods, Russian olives, and bluebells for Colorado's yucca and purple sage. Puddin' in a Cloud's sailing down the asphalt like ambrosia (if I may use a whipped dessert to desribe the behavior of a car named after another whipped dessert).

Mom's taken the wheel for this segment of the journey - perhaps to command Puddin' all the way to Denver, where we'll visit my little brother Wade and his gal, Deb.

The sky is streaked with jet vapor trails,

and our windshield with bug entrails.

15 June 2005

I-70 milemarker 235 - Overheard at Idaho Springs gas station:

"I misdid the math."

(You misdid the English, too, buddy)

I-70 milemarker 225 - Passed a scruffy looking mountain goat grazing by the side of the road. (I didn't get a photo, but in lieu of that, I googled "Scruffy Mountain Goat" and found this:)



"Service Engine Soon" light came on, then went out.

I-70 milemarker 188 - Elevation 10,662 ft.

Approaching Eagle, Colorado, this rocky road cuts through cliffs that rise above us like giant slices of cherry pie. The bushes are cupcakes on the low hills.

16 June 2005

Torrey, UT - One word: "OMIGOD!"

Highway 24 in Utah is probably the most beautiful drive I have ever taken. Not only was the scenery stunning, there was a stunning variety of colors and landscapes that changed at nearly every crest or bend in the road. At times, the white marshmallow clouds bore pink underbellies, reflecting the red and white peppermint swirl of the soil. Then, suddenly, we'd pass beneath gigantic jagged boulders looming over the road like huge chunks of caramel. I noticed a feature on the map, just a few miles north of here, has been named "Big Rock Candy Mountain."

I don't know how many times Mom and I scraped to a sudden stop because of the photo opportunities we'd come upon. Then we approached a roadsign that read, "Scenic views next 14 miles."

Wha?! And here, we'd been wasting our time photographing the non-scenic stuff. How embarrassing! What a couple of Yahoos we must have looked like.

Passing through Capitol Reef National Park, we took a short hike to see petroglyphs that had been scratched into the red cliff walls. Some of the drawings, though vaguely human, bore distinctly non-human features - -perhaps depicting mythological creatures or alien visitors?

By the time we reached Torrey, and the motel we'd reserved, I said to mom, "I've had just about all the spectacular scenery I can take!"

In fact, we decided right then to skip Bryce Canyon and press on to Yosemite, with the hope of arriving in San Francisco a day earlier. Today, we will see how that works out for us.

Last night I dreamed that we had entered our mayonnaise in a mayonnaise contest. (For a full description of this dream - read "A Green Ribbon For My Mayonnaise" on MindScrapes (mindscrapes.blogspot.com). However, I felt that we should have invented a guacamole-flavored mayonnaise, rather than a chicken-flavored mayonnaise. "We should have invented Guacamayo," I said.

It occurs to me now (that I am awake) that a dessert mayonnaise would have been more appropriate - perhaps a line of mayonnaise ice-cream toppings, for example.

And thus concludes my road-trip journal. I've posted a photo gallery from our cross-country drive:

Click HERE to view the large-format slideshow (with arrows to navigate between photos).

Click HERE to view a smaller format (with thumbnails).

Enjoy!