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Monday, July 16th, 2007

Monday, July 16, 2007 Ron and I got up at 5:30 am and Sarah and Zach got up at 6:00. Our plans were to leave at 7:00. We left at 6:55 with muffins, OJ and drinks for breakfast. Ron, Sarah and Zach each had a big glass of milk, too, because we had a gallon that we were going to throw away. It was 66 degrees, sunny with no clouds. For those who have never been to Colorado, this is a normal morning. Yesterday, Zach played his last Legion baseball game. Hooray—we are through with baseball! (At least until September, when fall ball starts. Oh well, a couple of baseball-free months is better than nothing.) We had Maggie (our GPS) with us. But she and Ron are already in a disagreement over the route. We think she wants him to take interstate 70, but we are going to take interstate 25. We usually name our summer vacations, like 2 years ago we took the Giant Mice and Cheap Hotels trip and last year the Boulder to Broadway and Still Not a Star trip. Ron thought of Another Cheesy Vacation and Zach though of Fire, Ice and Cheese for this journey. We are going to the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah; Tillamook (Cheese) and Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Glacier National Park (Ice); and Yellowstone National Park ( Fire). We have not settled on a name yet, but maybe we will in the next day or so. Sarah doesn’t think Fire fits Yellowstone, so Zach asked her what her suggestion was. She didn’t have one. We all know what response that caused. We reached interstate 25 north at 7:28. No bathroom breaks yet. It is 72 miles to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Ron wondered if we hurry could we still make it. (It’s a George Strait song that Ron has to sing every time we go to Cheyenne.) We listened to Sarah’s iPod with her vacation super playlist (546 songs). She always put lots of songs on her iPod, so we have something to listen to on vacation. We passed our first rest area at 7:55 and we did not stop. Smelled our first skunk at 8:06. At 8:16, we saw our first antelope by himself. We crossed into Wyoming at 8:21. There was no wind blowing. We were surprised—Wyoming is always windy. We listened to George Strait’s “I Can Still Make Cheyenne” while driving through Cheyenne. We passed our 2nd rest area and still did not stop. We took interstate 80 west at 8:27. Maggie said, “Continue on the current road in 389 miles.” It was 78 degrees. Still sunny with no clouds. A big hawk flew in front of the suburban. Sarah said, “It was a good thing Mom wasn’t driving because she would have hit it.” At 8:39, we saw our first herd of antelope. Wyoming is a pretty place—lots of big rocks, really big rocks and rock mountains. At exit 323, we stopped at a rest area for our 1st bathroom break. It was 8:57. We had gone 2 hours before we had to stop. Yay!! It was a nice rest area. We saw President Lincoln’s head on a granite pedestal. We found out that interstate 80 is called the Lincoln Highway. We returned to interstate 80 at 9:12. It was 74 degrees, sunny with some clouds. At 9:41, a big bug splattered on the windshield. It was gross and left a big yellow splat. Sarah said it looked like a yellow paintball. That made everyone feel better. Now Wyoming has some flat areas with hills and sage bush. We took exit 228 at 10:28 for our 2nd bathroom break. We saw a sign for the Fort Steele Historic Site (1 ½ miles away), but we did not drive down to see if there was a fort still there. We got to the rest area at 10:30 and had to cross a cattle guard to get to the restrooms. It had nice restrooms, too. We left at 10:40. We were on #51 of Sarah’s iPod play list. I hope we don’t run out of songs today. We saw a Sinclair Refinery at 10:50. We crossed the Continental Divide at 11:02. The elevation was 7000 feet. It looked a lot different than when we cross it in the Rocky Mountain National Park. We passed a place where we could see the front and back of a 100 car banana train at the same time. The land was flat along side the hills—maybe they were Wyoming’s version of mountains, but they weren’t very tall. Sarah beat Zach at Gin—one of the few times she has won. She was quite happy. Of course, Zach was not. We crossed the Continental Divide again at 11:39. The elevation was 6,930 feet. We stopped at 11:50, at a rest area (Bitter Creek) for lunch. I brought pork roast (which I had cooked), turkey and peanut butter. We found a covered picnic table (OK, it was just by the road). There was a prairie dog that wanted to eat with us, but we did not invite him to. It was 86 degrees, sunny with white fluffy clouds. We finished lunch at 12:19 and drove around to the bathrooms for our 3rd break. We left at 12:25. We had a snack of Little Debbie Moon Pies and Zach had a Fancy Cake (Little Debbie, also). When he finished he threw his trash toward the trash bag and missed. I told him since baseball was over, his aim was crap. Ron pointed out a dust storm off in the distance. We were all quite excited. The landscape was very rugged and still very pretty. We decided to stop at Wal-Mart to get a waterproof bag to put Sarah’s insulin in. We keep it in an ice chest because it has to be kept cold. We took exit 102 at 1:00. Ron said it was like pitting under caution, because they were working on the interstate. There was only one lane of traffic. We found the Wal-Mart at 1:02. We decided to get gas while we were stopped. Luckily, Wal-Mart had gas for $2.93. We saw gas by the interstate for $3.04. We did not find a waterproof bag. We did find ice cream. We also had our 4th bathroom break. We left Wal-Mart at 1:33 and stopped at the Wal-Mart gas station. We had been 353.3 miles from our house. We got 18.5 mpg. Oh boy, a tunnel! Everyone was exited because the landscape was pretty, but bland. At Wal-Mart, we had gotten ice cream (you should always keep a supply of spoons in your car). When Zach finished his, he made a weapon. He put his lid back on and stuck his spoon through the lid and then held the spoon and started jabbing everyone. It did not last long. At 2:05, it began to get cloudy, grey clouds. It was 91 degrees, but no wind. At 2:18, it got windy. We rode through an area that looked like the Badlands of South Dakota. But we saw no dinosaurs. At 2:24, it started sprinkling on us. 2:25 used the windshield wipers once. At 2:28, used the wipers again. Saw a bunch of sheep and a black sheep by the interstate. It stopped sprinkling. We entered Utah at 3:05. It was 85 degrees and still cloudy. The interstate was better in Utah (a lot smoother). There was some construction in Wyoming, with only one lane open, but we never had to stop. We stopped at 3:28 at a rest area, for our 5th bathroom break. We left at 3:38. It was a very pretty place. Sarah saw a bug crawling up the back of my seat. Ron flicked it off and flicked it on Sarah. She was quite shocked—so shocked that she did not scream. After a second, she laughed, though. At 3:58, we smelled our 2nd skunk. At 4:10, Sarah read to us about the Mormon Tabernacle. At 4:20, we took interstate 15 north. We took exit 307 at 4:24. We were following Maggie’s directions to the Mormon Tabernacle. We turned right onto 900 West and then turned right onto North Temple. We parked in a public lot on the corner of West Temple and North Temple. It was $5 to park. We parked at 4:47. It was 97 degrees. We went to the visitor center for our 6th bathroom break. We took a tour of the Assembly Hall, the Tabernacle, and the visitor’s center. We got to hear the Jesus statue speak (only in one language, though). They did a demonstration of the acoustics of the Tabernacle—a lady in the front ripped a piece of newspaper, and we could hear it all the way in the back! It sounded like she was sitting right next to us. Then, we went across the street and toured the Convention Center. It is huge! There are enough seats for 21,000 people. We got to go up on the roof and we could see Temple Square and Salt Lake City very good. We left at 6:55 and went to our hotel and checked in. We then went to a KFC for supper. We got to the KFC at 7:20. We left and went back to the hotel and got there at 7:50. We stayed in a Quality Inn, room 120. The room was ok. It was old, but clean. It took a long time for the air conditioner to cool the room. Zach said the bathroom was short (had a low ceiling).