Cruise the Rockies X - Grand Junction, CO

We got home from Utah on Monday and Bill had to start back to work on Wednesday. Emily & Shelby arrived Wednesday afternoon and, on Thursday, the three of us headed to Grand Junction, CO and Cruise the Rockies X. My mom, who also stayed at our house while we were in Utah, stayed and watched Jamie while I was gone. (Thanks Mom!) We got to Grand Junction in time to check into our room and visit with our PT Cruiser friends before heading out on our first cruise...a cruise to a winery in Palisade, which was not very far away. We hung out at the winery for a while but hooked up with Phil, Debbie, Virginia & Jessie and we decided to explore a little bit. We took off on a road that said it was a winery loop and I guess we did see a few more wineries but mostly we had fun looking at the peach orchards, unusual street names (really, who names a street B 1/2?) and "art" along a jig-jag road that eventually got us back to our hotel. The PT Cruisers pretty much took over the host hotel and they were very accommodating, we had full use of the courtyard which came in handy for dinner picnic/cook-outs, wine tasting (purchases from the winery) awards ceremony & general socializing.

On Friday, we lined up and the left the hotel at 9:00am and headed to Gateway, CO. I have not spent much time in this part of Colorado, only passing through on our way to and from Utah, so I was unfamiliar with any of the places or activities planned for the weekend. I spent most of the cruise to Gateway experimenting with my camera and finally started using manual focus to get the best shots. At one point, I was hanging out the window, trying to get pictures of the cars behind us. The car directly behind us, Steve Nelson, was such a goof! He kept weaving in and out and getting in my way. Rachel stuck her head out and I got a good shot of her! On the itinerary was a car museum in Gateway but as we drove through the tiny town, I was starting to wonder about what we were going to see. About a mile past "town" is this amazing resort called Gateway Canyons, built by John Hendricks (founder of Discovery Channel). The Gateway Auto Museum is John Hendricks' private collection of classic automobiles, including a one-of-a-kind 1954 Oldsmobile F-88 concept car. WOW!!
We ate lunch at a sandwich shop at the resort and, while many of the PT Cruiser's decided to go back the way we came, we joined up with a few others and took the scenic cruise through Ridgeway, Montrose and Delta and back to Grand Junction. We were there to CRUISE, afterall!! It was a long day in the car but we saw some amazing scenery, definitely worth the trip!
We got back in time (barely!) to grab hot dogs & pizza in the courtyard before Emily had to get the car ready for the car show. By the time she got back from washing her car, the parking lot was full and she got stuck in the back. It got dark soon after so I didn't get many photos of the cars in the car show.

Saturday was another fun day of driving and exploring as we drove to Colorado National Monument. It was so cool to see all of the PT's driving up the switchbacks. The canyons and rock formations in the Monument were so beautiful but hard to photograph without stopping and since we were all in a line, we couldn't stop. We all stopped at the Visitor's Center and then, again, some people decided to go back the way we came. We joined up with others and drove all the way through to the other side, near Fruita. We ate lunch in Fruita and went to the Dinosaur Museum there before turning around and heading back through the Monument. On the drive back through, we took the time to stop for photos...yeah!!! Saturday night we all met in the courtyard for the awards ceremony. Shelby put on her crazy contact lenses (one cat eye & one ghost eye) and it was fun to watch everyone's reaction. Oh, and I have to keep reminding myself that she's only 12!!! YIKES!!!
People started packing up their cars, signaling that the weekend was almost over.

We've never been able to do the Sunday cruise before because it usually goes in the opposite direction of where we need to go but, this year, we decided to make it work. We went to Grand Mesa and, I have to admit, I wasn't too thrilled about it but knew that Emily really wanted to spend as much time with the PT people as possible. I've heard a lot about Grand Mesa but could never get really excited...sounds like a big flat mesa with nothing to see, right? Well, I'm happy to say that I was horribly mistaken! It is a big flat mesa but also happens to be the largest flat topped mountain in the world. It is covered with forests of aspen and pine, there are over 300 lakes and hundreds of hiking trails. In the winter, there are cross-country ski trails and Powderhorn Ski Area is up there too. I definitely want to go back there and do some camping, hiking & fishing! The itinerary said that the Grand Mesa cruise would take us 2 hours...well, it really took us almost 4 hours! We probably could've gone back to Grand Junction and then back to Alamosa the way we came but, instead, we decided to head east and go over Independence Pass. We stopped in Glenwood Springs for lunch and said good-bye to the last of the PT Cruisers and started our journey home. I love Independence Pass, I think it is such a beautiful drive. I remember driving home after spending 3 weeks in breathtakingly beautiful western Canada, Washington & Oregon, only to top Independence Pass and realize that we live in the most beautiful place of all. Emily liked it too, except for the narrow roads & hair-pin turns. It was another long day of driving but, definitely worth it. I was glad to be home, though, and glad that I didn't have to drive to Amarillo the next day!

So, another Cruise the Rockies in the history books. I had such a great time this year! I enjoyed exploring and learning about new (to me) places and can't wait to take Bill & Jamie to the car museum, Colorado National Monument, the Dinosaur Museum and to Grand Mesa. Grand Junction has always been a town that we have to go through (and sometimes spend a night) on our way to Utah but after Cruise the Rockies, it is now also a destination. It was an amazing weekend spent with some truly incredible and fun people...I'm already looking forward to Cruise the Rockies XI in Gunnison!!

I, obviously, could not begin to post all of my photos here on this blog. If you're interested, you can find them on my Flickr page. Also, here is a link to the photos taken by another PT Cruiser, Steve Nelson.

Fun in Salt Lake City

Whew! The whirlwind that has been our life for the past 4 weeks is winding down and school starts next Tuesday. We came home for one day after my high school reunion to do laundry and re-pack for our next adventure...a week in Salt Lake City. This was our second trip to SLC this summer, the first was over Memorial Day weekend for Scott & Corrie's wedding. We weren't able to spend any extra time during that trip and we wanted to go back and visit Bill's mom and sister. Bill's sister, Bev, had also requested some "one-on-one" time with Jamie and it didn't work out other than us coming back to SLC and letting Jamie spend a few days with aunt Bev.

Aunt Bev enlisted the company of Peachy, who quickly became a good friend for Jamie. Jamie spent 3 nights with aunt Bev & uncle Steve. We had fun swimming in the Goodier's swimming pool and eating yummy Maggie Moo's ice cream.

We stayed in a smaller room at Highland Cove as our "usual" room had already been reserved. It was more like a hotel room and suited us fine...we didn't spend much time in the room. It was really nice on the nights that Jamie stayed at aunt Bev's house. Bill & I even got to go to a grown-up movie together. We saw "Dinner For Schmucks" and we both laughed so hard that we had tears rolling down our faces. My stomach and face hurt from laughing so much! One afternoon, during DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time, Jamie fell asleep 10 minutes into the allotted 30 minute time. He had been getting to bed late at aunt Bev's house and was a little grumpy even though he insisted he wasn't tired. Yeah, right!

Jamie went with aunt Bev to purchase school supplies for an UMCOR mission project. They also took the pugs (Homer & Bubba) for a walk. The pugs are pretty lazy and they get to ride in a stroller!! They also took food to feed the ducks at the pond in the park.

We took Peachy with us one afternoon and went to the Utah Museum of Natural History. Jamie really had a lot of fun with Peachy.

The museum was nice, it had lots of different exhibits from Native American influences in Utah to dinosaurs to gems & minerals in Utah. One of my favorite things, though, was the ant farm. Ants fascinate me! I remember once as a kid, I found and followed an ant trail from my backyard to another location (probably someone else's backyard). I probably spend 6 hours observing those ants! We watched this ant farm for at least 10 minutes and went back to it three or four times to see if they were doing something new.

There was an interactive display about petroglyphs so Jamie tried his hand at ancient drawing on the chalkboard. He did a good job!

We went with uncle Steve to a Salt Lake City Bee's game on Saturday night. We paid $15 each for great seats on the first base side. We decided to go to the game on Sunday afternoon also and paid $5 for general admission tickets and sat in the next level up but pretty much same location along the first baseline. Jamie got to run the bases after the game on Saturday, he loves doing that! The Bee's lost both games but we still had lots of fun.

We took Bill's mom to Marie Callendar's for lunch on Sunday. Bev met us there as did Cristina & Brad and their 9-month-old daughter, Lauren. Bev recently found out that Scott & Corrie are going to make her a grandma, she is so excited! Lauren is absolutely beautiful...I can't believe I didn't take any pictures!! Grrrr!!!

79-80-81 High School Reunion

I had so much fun last weekend at my high school reunion. It was officially the 30th reunion for the class of 1980 but they also invited the classes of 1979 and 1981. I crashed the class of 1980's 20th reunion so I had seen most of them but, I had not seen any of the class of 1979 since they graduated. I went to a small (at the time, very small) Christian high school in Albuquerque called Hope High School. It has since grown ALOT and encompasses grades K through 12 and is now called Hope Christian School. There were 30 in the class of 1980 and 51 in my graduating class in 1981. At least I've always thought there were 51 but some people were questioning me about it so I have to remember to pull out my old yearbook and do a count. I don't remember how many were in the class of 1979 but I think there were about 20. Needless to say, because there were so few of us, we were all good friends...no matter what grade or class.
It was so great to see everyone and just hang out! The years and miles disappeared...we were all talking & laughing like we see each other all the time. I'm already looking forward to helping plan the 30th reunion for 1981 next year and inviting the classes of 1980 and 1982!!

I took so many photos!! Too many to upload here so if you're interested, they are on my Flickr site. (click here)

79-80-81 Hope alumni

79-80-81 Hope alumni & families

Me & Mr. Morris
my basketball coach, volleyball coach, track coach and LIFE coach!!
(still feels weird to call him "Tom"!)