For the past few days I had been saying we were not in a rush. I really needed a break. Because of that I was really looking forward to this vacation. One thing I have learn over the years is that a rush vacation is not refreshing, it is hectic. I would rather see less and do less and enjoy it than have a rushed vacation. So we took our time, but it worked out.
So we slept in until around 7:00am. I normally get up between 5:30 and 6:00. We spent a bit of time waking up and making mochas. As we woke up the pace slowly picked up. We had pre-packed a lot of stuff but there were a number of ‘last minute’ things that needed to be packed up. Then there was packing the van. Mommy packed the van as only she can, taking advantage of every nook and cranny.
By around 9:00 the van was mostly packed. We sat down to eat breakfast and double check our packing list. All that was left was some clean up in the kitchen. So we took care of that and were on the road before 10:00 am, not too bad for us.
The first hour felt like I was going to work, because we had to pass by my work on the way to Arches. Shortly after passing my work we turned south easterly and headed into the Wasatch mountains. There was snow here and there and it was quite pretty. Not much snow, maybe an inch or two, but enough to make the landscape pretty. The roads were clear so we could enjoy the scenery.
Then the weather changed a bit. It was clear it had snowed recently. We ended up behind a plow truck and kept getting our windshield muddy. This wouldn’t be a big deal except our windshield wiper wasn’t working properly. It would wipe, but it wouldn’t spray cleaner on the window. The result of this was a smeared muddy window. This part of the drive was very slow and fatiguing. We eventually got to a place where we could pull over and clean our windshield. At this point we were no longer behind the snow plow truck, so the pace picked up.
The rest of the drive was quite enjoyable. There were very few people on the road and the weather from this point out was quite good. I wish I could have taken pictures along the way. It was quite fascinating to see the topography change. It slowly morphed from alpine mountains to the red mesas of southern Utah.
Since I had stressed we were not going to rush, we didn’t expect to have any time at the park today. We figured by the time we got to Moab, the town outside of the park where our hotel is, it would be too late to go to the park. But after getting out of the mountains we made such good time that we got to Arches at 2:00pm.