Today we meet up with Fernando!

But before talking about meeting up with Fernando, here is what has been going on since our last post.

Friday morning, the 25th, we had an EXCELLENT breakfast in our hotel and got out on the road just a little late - for the length of drive that we were  going to be doing that day.  From Albuquerque, we drove to Gallup and then up to Shiprock, NM.  That drive had us going through the Navajo Nation, and that was a kind of sad drive because it becomes so obvious what kind of land the Indians were left with.  Absolutely ugly, where nothing can grow - which is how too many of their reservations are.

From Shiprock, we drove up to Cortez, Colorado, through Dove Creek and then made a turn north at Monticello, Utah.  It seems like once we were in Utah, the land became much nicer. We saw so many beautiful landscapes along the way and we'd have gotten nowhere if we had stopped to take pictures of all the interesting things we saw.  Utah was actually a very pretty state as far as the landscapes go. There were lots of beautiful rock formations and mountain ranges.

Vicki at a rest area in Utah

We loved the little town of Moab!  After Moab, we took a left at Interstate 70 for a few miles until we got to the turnoff to Highway 191.  We got a little turned around in Price (missing that loop around the city).  We considered spending the night in Helper, but from the highway it looked like there wasn't much there, and since the sun was still kind of high in the sky, we decided to press on.  The drive from Helper to Duchesne was beautiful, sort of like driving through a canyon, which then opened up to a narrow valley where the land was open range.  So, we came across cattle on the road every now and then.

Once at Duchesne, we headed east and since it was dark by now, we decided to stay in Roosevelt.  There wasn't that much there, either, and if we had only known, we would have gone the extra 28 miles to Vernal - which we saw the next day was a really CUTE little town.

Saturday Sept. 26th- we ate breakfast in our room - no free breakfast at the Best Western there!  We drove through Vernal just a few minutes later and saw how precious the little town looked, and there were lots of places to stay.  Petunias grow so beautifully around here, and the streets in Vernal were lined with LOTS of big pots filled with purple, pink and white petunias.

From Vernal, we drove to the visitor center at the Flaming Gorge and got several maps.  The lady there recommended taking the road on the west side of the Gorge so that's what we did, instead of going across the dam.  We saw lots of beautiful views along the way and even stopped at a place where the lady had said we could probably see Salmon spawning, but all we saw was one trout.

View of Sheep Creek Bay

Down in Sheep Creek Bay

But, we did pass a nice little mountain stream later where we stopped and we DID see Salmon!!!  It was so exciting.  We took the little trail that took you right down to the river and we could see the salmon so well from that trail.  It was just beautiful!

Pretty much after that, we left Utah, and the land was kind of ugly again.  The land in Wyoming at this point was not beautiful at all.  We drove to Green River, Wyoming, then to Rock Springs, where we then turned north on Hwy. 191.  We saw lots of Pronghorn Antelope along this highway and the landscape didn't start getting pretty until about Boulder, Wyoming.

Views  around our hotel - the Flying Saddle Resort

On September 27th, we headed to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and we saw these beautiful trees along the way.  We are excited today, because in a few hours, we will meet up with Fernando, Eva and meet Eva's parents for the first time.

We checked into our hotel in Jackson Hole and waited nervously for Fernando, Eva and her parents to arrive.  We kept looking out the window of our hotel room to see if we could see Fernando's car!  When they arrived we were so excited!  We greeted Tomas and Berit - saying a few words of welcome to them in Swedish.  We were so happy to have everyone there and we will never forget this nice day!

We all visited the Tetons Park later that day.  Here we are by Jenny Lake.