Sunday, March 30, 2014

5 Parks in 3 weeks Part II


On Thursday we decided to go to lunch at the Gouldings restaurant, tour the museum and visit the souvenir shop at Gouldings.  We also stopped at the grocery store to round out the afternoon tour!  We had a good lunch and Ted and I enjoyed the museum for the second time.



On Friday we took the 5-hour Mystery tour.  Funny enough, we took a private tour that was a couple of bucks less than the regular tour and we could pick an enclosed vehicle since it was so cold!  It was perfect for us.  We did a lot of sightseeing of the area and were back in areas that you can only go with an Indian guide!  About half way through we met up with another guide and his group and they barbequed hamburgers and we chips, cookie and orange.  They made cowboy coffee right on the barbeque and boy was it good!  I thought it would be really strong but it was great and helped ward off the cold!

Here are some of the things we saw:





Did you notice Fred Flinstone and Barney Rubble????

Some other things we saw were some ruins, pottery chards and arches:






On Saturday we did our own tour and drove by the “left and right mittens”, three sisters and John Ford Point!  At the mittens stop, the lady we talked to in September that was in the gouldings book as a child was still there selling her jewelry.  This time she had her grandson with her and he played one of the beautiful wooden flutes for us.  She lives out on the land without electricity or running water.  Her children have gone through college and her grandson was attending the local high school!  She has really done well and most of us wouldn’t have survived her difficult life!  At the end of our self-guided tour we visited the View, Navajo operated hotel, restaurant and gift shop.  We found their prices much higher than at Gouldings but did have a nice warm cup of tea on the patio with a few to die for!






Sunday March 23rd we moved north again to Moab, Utah!  Land of Arches and Canyonlands!  It is a beautiful area!  We took a couple of days off from sightseeing to get some things done and recuperate!  We did manage to go to the Moab Brewery to help with our recuperation!  LOL

We went to Castle Creek Winery east of Moab on the Colorado River.  The winery is a part of a resort and working cattle/quarter horse ranch.  They use grapes from within a 90-mile radius of the winery.  Unfortunately we didn't think the wine was great but they have a great logo, some nice glassware and Ted got a nice baseball cap!




One day this week we took off to Arches with a picnic lunch!  It is such a beautiful National Park and although a bit chilly, we enjoyed our picnic lunch.  The weather was very interesting.  One minute the clouds would be out with a chilly breeze blowing, then the sun would come out!  We even had a few flakes of snow and a couple of drops of water!  Each change of weather changed the view!









We had dinner at the Sunset Grill up on a hill in Moab.  The original owner was a uranium miner and it was his home.  They have windows everywhere in the restaurant and there is no bad seat!  We had a great waiter and a fun and delicious dinner!  Jim one the prize for eating his 24 ounce T-bone steak, his veggies, baked potato and salad!  He was the only one who didn’t go for dessert!  Della and I brought home half of our prime rib so we could have room for dessert!  Great dinner and fun evening!

 Town of Moab from restaurant patio

Jim's 24-ounce T-bone!

The jeep belonged to the original family with 
pictures in the restaurant to prove it!




On Friday we went to Dead Horse Point.  The “story” is that some cowboys rounded up so horses and put them out on this point.  They selected the horses they wanted and penned in the rest.  The story goes that they could see the river below but couldn’t get there to drink and died.  Sad story but a beautiful area!





Some delicious homemade gelato or homemade root beer float at the Brewery and some shopping in Moab followed sightseeing!  Both endeavors were successful!




On Saturday Jim and Della headed for home.  We were supposed to leave today but it has gotten extremely windy again and decided it would be a good day to blog, do laundry and relax!

This story is to be continued…”Ain’t Life Grand!”

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