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 !
Diary
Breakfast was big. Big pancakes and syrup and 5 big (i.e. fat) Americans on the next table. The train was (apparently) on time so a 2 mile hike was the order of the day to get us to the station on time. In the event, the train was late and we could have caught the bus. As usual on these trains the staff were full of jokes and silly announcements - probably to keep themselves amused as much as the passengers. Arrived in Grand Junction and found the Youth Hostel near the station. It looked a lot like an old hotel. Food was recommended in the shape of the Ponderosa. All you can eat and drink for about $6. We ate and drank a lot and were stared at and observed by the staff for being English! I assume they were just in awe of us and our technique of using the knife and fork together. Or was it because we mixed the cheese sauce, custard, chilli, baked beans, tomatoes, cheese, peas etc. on one plate ?
Afterwards we went looking for some action in downtown Grand Junction. The only action we found was in the form of gaseous releases from either end of our bodies. We did find a Saturday night auction but our assorted twitches and scratches were not enough to buy us the filing cabinet or the gun. Managed to get back to the hostel just as a storm broke.
Diary:
Encountered 'Big John' in the Denver Greyhound Station. No, not a large American loo (sorry, bad joke even by the standards of this diary) but a real nutter, the self-styled travelers friend who put us right about all things Winter Park and even gave us a rubber stamp each so we wouldn't forget him. A quick call to Amtrak and would you believe it, we had another seat on the train to Winter Park. Around a couple of blocks we dashed, picked up all of our tickets and queued for our boarding passes. Then we joined another queue to get on the train, and queued, and queued - yes the train was late. It seems it had made mincemeat out of a herd of cows and the engine needed overhauling.
Arrived at Winter Park a couple of hours late* and bumped into two of the oldest youth hostelers I'd ever met - Lorna and Sheila from Aberdeen. Sheila was living in Chicago and opening Body Shops around the States. Nice work if you can get it. Eventually got booked in to the hostel and then we hired two mountain bikes. Headed uphill to the toboggan run and Oz got it all wrong by getting in the slow lane and being held up. Cycled all the way back to Fraser and then back up to Winter Park by nightfall. Chatted to an English couple on "WorkAmerica" who were applying for jobs at the local Safeways. Have a nice day.
* A mad conductor named Henry Ford was on this train. He was full of jokes and quiz questions like this: Name the 10 parts of the body spelt with three letters, no slang words allowed.
2011:
I forgot Big John. I've a vague recollection he was mentioned in a Lonely Planet but can't find anything about him on the net.
I don't know why we didn't stay and look around Denver - probably to do with the flights we had booked out of LA and our itinerary not being flexible enough to add some extra stops in. I've since been back to Denver several times and almost relocated the family there in 2001 - but the Dot Com crash stopped that. It's a pretty nice place.
Henry Fords question - spookily this was my daughter's homework question last week !!
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.
