Rhonda Bracey: At Random

We left Moab about 8:30am for the final day on the bus – the mostly desolate drive to Salt Lake City.

Not only was it the final day on the bus,  but it was our final day with the lovely Tristan, our bus driver on our LeBus luxury coach. He has been such a delight and a great driver to boot. The whole group has really bonded with him and him to us. He made a lovely thank you speech to us on the way back to SLC, and said we were in top 3 groups he’s driven in the past 9 years. He got the assignment a few days before and it wasn’t until he was on his way to  Albuquerque that he found out he was picking up a group of Australians,  and then later that it was a group of Australian women,  many of whom were old enough to be his mother or even grandmother (Gretchen is 82; Tristan is 32). He approached us with some trepidation,  but after 8 or 9 days together it was sad hugs all round when we had to say goodbye at the hotel in  SLC. As a group we gave him a sketchbook with lots of messages from each of us and special Aussie slang sayings. And his tip! He must’ve wondered about us not tipping him along the way, but we were saving all the tips until the end. He wants to take his family to Disneyland and hopefully our envelope full of cash will help him do that. Thanks for driving us,  Tristan,  and for your infectious laugh and helping us eat all the food at dinner each night 😉

Before Tristan left us,  he dropped us at Gardner Village in  West Jordan for lunch and to wander around the quirky shops there.  Then he drove Helen and Michelle to the airport so they could pick up 7-seater rental vans,  then drove back to pick us up,  then back again to our hotel.

After a couple of weeks on the road,  I did some laundry (yes,  Skechers Gowalk2 shoes can go in the washing machine and the dryer and will not shrink!).

Then the Handi Quilter trainers we’ll be with the next two days introduced themselves  and joined us for supper. Tomorrow we get to quilt!

Oops! I forgot to mention that we had pretty much summer and winter in the one day. When we left Moab the weather was balmy – T-shirt weather at 8 am! By the time we got to a pass, the temperature had dropped to 33F, and there were light show flurries. Some of the ladies had never seen snow falling, so we stopped for a few minutes in the very strong winds for them to experience it.

Some photos from today…