Day 16   -   Saturday, September 22^nd

Moab, Utah

        It was starting to get light, I quietly sneaked out of my sleeping bag but Jerry was already awake. I believe he was rather shocked that I got up before him. But this morning I wanted to see the sunrise and take a few photos. It was a beautiful sunrise but not nearly as pretty as the night sky had been.

        Oatmeal on the Go breakfast bar washed down with Diet Coke and Dr Pepper was the breakfast of champions. And from there it was all downhill – literally Jerry had taken me for a tour down the white Rim Trail in the Canyon Lands. To get a realistic feeling for what it was like driving there, all you need to do is: jump inside the dryer, add a few handfuls of sand, and turn it on for about half an hour with a pretty picture outside the glass window – Got it? But it sure was fun going down the dirt trail in four-wheel drive passing through all those hairpin loops till we reached the bottom.

        Yesterday we had seen a lot of rock formations sticking up from the ground but today it was like studying the negative of that very photo. Now it was all “holes” or rather deep canyons that were so fascinating. You could clearly see the striated patterns in the rock. The striations were caused by the accumulation and compression of different layers of rock. Although the White Rim Trail went on for 100 miles we stopped at Musselman Arch, which is located 10-12 miles into the trip. This arch was wide enough that many people dared walking over it. Underneath you could see a 500 ft drop.

        Back up on the roads on top of the CanyonLands National Park we could look down and see the Colorado River running through the canyons. The river water was incredible brown and muddy. Not like the blue river depicted on the maps! We went across a narrow strip of land, “The Neck”, which was all that connected the set of roads between the Mesa and the Moab mainland. From up there again we had beautiful views over the canyons spreading out underneath us.

        We were hot, hungry, and full of red dirt but it just seemed to make us fit in with the rest of the customers at Zac’s Pizza Place. Pizza, Salad, and Soup Buffet was the big hit there. It tasted so good. I knew Hillery could eat A LOT but Jerry outdid her big time today. He packed away one slice of pizza after the other, but it sure was good. All full we waddled out of there into the car and drove straight to a campsite in the Slickrock hills of Moab. No more playing tourist today. We were spent. With the dark sky we thought it better to sleep in the truck rather than in the tent. Jerry was half asleep and I was still writing in my journal as the dark clouds rolled in above us and the lightening started everywhere in the distance and here came the first drops of rain. “Don’t worry” Jerry said, it won’t last but ten minutes here in Moab. It was to become an ALL night “10 minutes” rain.