Rhonda Bracey: At Random

It was our last day today as a group… First off was a half-day city tour with a so-so tour guide,  then we got dropped off at Temple Square to go to the lunchtime organ recital (30 minutes) in the Mormon Tabernacle. Then it was on our own in the city centre until just before 6pm, when we had dinner at The Roof restaurant that overlooks the lit cathedral, followed by the ultimate ending – listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearsing,  then walking in lightly falling snow back to the bus. (Some in  our group had never seen snow prior to this trip.)

When we got back to the hotel, we had a ‘thank you’ presentation to Michelle and Helen,  followed by our version of Waltzing Matilda that one of the ladies had written.

It’s sad that it’s all over,  but it’s also good to be heading home soon. I don’t think I can face too many more meals where eliminating carbs and sugar is not possible. I’ve been as good as I could be,  but sometimes it’s been really hard. This really is a land where carbs and sugars rule.

I’ve met some lovely people in the group,  and I hope to keep in touch with some of them,  even if it’s just on Facebook.

Tomorrow morning I’ll say my final goodbyes to the group as they depart for the airport and the long flights home,  then a friend from northern Utah will pick me up and I’ll spend two nights with her and her husband before heading back to SLC and my long flights home to Australia.

Some photos from today…

Capitol building in SLC

Pipe organ (11,000+ pipes) in the Mormon Tabernacle

View from The Roof restaurant

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and orchestra in rehearsal

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…

I’ve been to Arches once before, quite some time ago. I’d forgotten how awesome it was.

But before we got to Arches, we had to drive from Cortez, CO to Moab, UT.

We stopped at the Hole in the Rock  on the way there. It was an aptly named place (‘hole’), in my opinion. Cheap,  tacky,  tourist crap and a ‘zoo’ they should be ashamed of. I wish I hadn’t spent any money supporting that hell-hole for animals. The only vaguely interesting thing for me was some of the ‘found object’ metal art sculptures. This is the sort of place that might have held interest to travellers in the 1950s or so,  but not now. Some in our group must have found something of interest as several bought stuff there.

Next stop was Subway in Moab where we picked up sandwiches etc for our picnic lunch in the park, and my friend Kris who has retired to Moab. Kris was able to tell us a lot about Arches and how it was formed, gave us info about the flora and fauna of the park, etc. We had our picnic lunch on the rocks below Balanced Rock, then visited Windows, then the lower viewing area below Delicate Arch, and finally the magnificent jaw dropping Park Avenue.

This is such an awesome place where you are dwarfed not only by these magnificent structures, but by the magnitude of forces that were – and are – at play to create them. And the time-scale of these changes. Visiting Arches makes you realise how insignificant your place is in this world.

I took close to 100 photos in Arches today. Here are just a few.

Contrails on the way to Moab.

Seen in Cortez, CO…

This is a rental van. Beats the graffiti art on those vans from Wicked in Australia.

A sewer (perhaps a quilter) was here 😉

I cannot believe this price! Even in raspberry season in Australia you would rarely get a punnet of raspberries for less than $4  let alone less than $1.

Fancy being able to buy these varieties of corn.

We had a short drive from Durango to Mesa Verde today,  then 20 mostly hairpin bend miles up to the top of the mesa where the cliff dweller ruins are. It was then quite a steep (but paved) walk down to one of the main ruins (Spruce Tree House), where the ranger (in a Smokey the Bear hat) told us a lot about how the cliff dwellers lived and theories on why they left in about 1275AD.

After we got back up to the top, we walked to the cafe where there was only one person to take the orders and to make them up. So Helen and I offered to help the cook (there were about 30 people in line) and start processing some of the orders. It was simple stuff like soup and chilli beef,  hot  dogs,  chilli  dogs,  toasted cheese sandwiches etc. Most was already prepared so all we had to do was set out the paper plates,  add the crisps and pickles, heat the hot dog buns and split them and add the hot dogs etc.,  and call the numbers for people to collect their food. The cook did the cheese sandwiches and the small pizzas once she’d finished taking most of the orders. Helen and I had to wash our hands thoroughly before starting and had to wear a hair net too. We were glad to help out – there’s no way she could have dealt with all those orders by herself without really upsetting the customers. She gave us both a small gift and a thank you hug at the end too. Our good deed for the day 😉

After Mesa Verde we drove back down the same way we went up. Stunning scenery and views in all directions. At one point from the top of the mesa I could see Ship Rock, a weird formation that rises off the plains. It was probably at least 20 miles away in New Mexico,  but the views were so good we could see it in the distance.

Another magic day for weather,  and another T-shirt day.

Some of my photos…

We were on the road early this morning for the 4+ hour drive to Durango, travelling the whole way on highway 160.

We experienced a wide range of landscapes from high desert plains to national forest to snow covered mountains to 10,500 ft passes (Wolf Creek Pass) then to meadows and pastureland.  This sure is pretty countryside. Some of the ladies in the group had never touched snow,  so we stopped at one place high in the pass for them to get out and touch it. Unfortunately it was quite hard and icy, not new snow.

Durango was our overnight stop,  and we got there about 1pm so there was plenty of time to check out the quaint shops  and have lunch before we hit the quilt store around 4pm. They didn’t know we were coming… I bet they had their best November Friday takings ever!!

Here are some photos from today’s drive to Durango. As you can see we had perfect conditions for driving. And it was T-shirt weather too!

After two nights in a small luxury hotel  in Santa Fe,  we were brought down to a thud when we reached our accommodation in southern Colorado 😉 It is spartan by comparison, but I think we’re probably staying in the best place in town… We don’t have a lot of choice here – we need to be close to where we are doing a one-day class tomorrow and this is the closest town.

After we left Santa Fe this morning we travelled to Taos and then out to the Taos Pueblo,  which is a listed living world heritage site,  as it has been inhabited by the Red Willow tribe for more than 1000 years. Interesting place,  and our guide (Kevin) was a wealth of information.

We were there for an hour or so,  then back into Taos for another two hours of shopping,  sightseeing,  eating lunch etc. My first stop was right where the bus stopped  and was a great store that sold rocks,  things made from rocks,  and things found in rocks (e.g. fossils). There were some very beautiful rocks on display. The store was http://www.touchstonegalleries.com

I went into quite a few other stores as well, but to be honest,  nothing interested me enough to  buy.

Back on the road again,  heading north of Taos and towards and over the Colorado border into southern Colorado, where we are staying for a couple of nights as we will be doing a workshop with a world-famous quilter here  (that’s tomorrow).

It was a magic day today.  The sun was shining and the temperature was mild (it was meant to be 16C in Taos today,  and it was 9C (and quite hot) when I was basking in the sun in just a T-shirt and light trousers while having lunch. And just after we checked into the hotel,  the almost full moon rose over the desert fields opposite.

Rio Grande River

Taos Pueblo