Driving Miss Julie. This has become the unspoken title of the trip (thank you Andrea G). For the last post I am including a host of pics that didn't make the cut for the blog...we'll call them B-sides. I also could not resist a few more priceless quotations from the past two days. Our arrival in Colorado has been great. Julie teared up at the sight of another family member when we first saw her sister, Amy, at the visitor center of Black Canyon. On the canyon for a minute...there are really some harrowing views of the steepest canyon walls we've seen on the trip. The canyon has an interesting history, as it was crucial for connecting the Sante Fe Railway to the Pacific. This Uncompaghre Valley was known as 'the land God forgot' because it was so barren and dry...until (in the late 1800's) a pair of explorers floated the Gunnison River flowing through the canyon on a rubber mattress. They eventually diverted the water, and connected the railroad from this one spot, but the canyon is beautiful.

It's been fantastic to get to family. The kids have enjoyed retelling stories to their grandparents and cousins and showing off their humble abode of the past month. We 'had them over' last night for some wine and cheese...actually just wine.

"Ouch Daddy...I just stepped on that...oh yea, it's part of the snake vertebrae". This was Annie stepping on one of Edward's collection of bones/carcasses/dead animal memorials that had fallen out of the ziplock baggie.

"Why do you have duct tape on your nose"? This was Julie turning around and seeing Reed at the table with strips of tape across his nose. A very natural question for the situation.

Bong-a-Thon Cancelled. When we arrived in Colorado, from the Four Corners, we approached Delores, CO and saw this sign. I'm not sure what a bong-a-thon is (though I have some ideas), or what has to happen for it to be cancelled...but it must be bad. It was so bad that it justified a digital road construction sign to be posted on the main road into town.