4th August 1991 Day 15

Diary
The husband of the hostel manageress drove us out to the Colorado National Monument in his brand new 5 series BMW (we were expecting an Oldsmobile or a Lincoln). He was a doddery, slightly deaf old man who appeared to have been one of the US's chief geologists in his younger days. We did a good tour of the park and were even mistaken for people from Montana - my American accent must be improving dude, gimme five.

Set off to go swimming at Lincoln Park in the heat of the early afternoon. Went the wrong way and Oz looked as if he was going to die. Yet again we'd arrived in town when a special event was on - no, not a dinosaur rally but a swim meet. Unfortunately this meant that we couldn't use the pool but we made do with the slide which twisted and turned like a.....well, you know what.


 

Clouds came over so we headed back to Ponderosa to fill up for the journey to Salt Lake City (where the grass is green and the girls are pretty.....). Just managed to avoid the rain and get to the train station where we chatted to a German girl and some Americans. Her English was probably clearer to most Yanks than mine and Oz's. The train journey went through some amazing desert/badlands scenery and the equally amazing town of Thompson, Utah. One horse town would be a major exaggeration. And we almost went there so we could get to one of the National Parks. Thank God we didn't. Arrived in Salt Lake City at 1am - the obligatory hour late. Hiked around and finally got a bed at the Ken-dell motel.


2011
We struck lucky with the old geologist as we'd tried to book a trip to the National Monument but none were running that day we were there. The old lady owner heard us talking about what we wanted to do and offered  the services of her husband for a small fee. We didn't know what we were agreeing to and fully expected some old guy in an old car just to whizz us there and back but what we got was a luxurious vehicle and probably the most qualified person to discuss the geology of the park. It was like having David Attenborough take you round the local zoo in his new car.


Thompson is about 36 miles from Moab, the funkiest town in all of Utah and the gateway to Arches NP and Canyonlands NP. Christy and I drove round a lot of the national parks in California, Nevada, Utah and spent a great time in Moab. Still happy I didn't go to Thompson though. You may know this part of the world from this.


*Update - Just realised that 4th August 2011 is the 25th anniversary of me starting work at Ferranti in Edinburgh. This was part of my degree and was a year of my life that I'd like to get back if I could !