Road Trip!

At a board committee meeting a couple months back each person was asked to share something "spectacular" that had happened in their lives.  Well mine was the fact that Danny and I are still engaged given all that goes into planning a wedding. 

When Danny and I were in a long-distance relationship, we both had to remember that sometimes you had to chalk up a fight to frustration about the distance.  I think we are both trying to remember that the same can be said about wedding planning.  Sometimes this process just sucks, and we may take it out on each other.  I must not be alone in this thinking because one of the many pieces of wedding planning advice that I have been given is to take a trip together during the process to remind yourselves why you are doing all this in the first place. 

With that in mind, combined with the fact that we will both be turning 30 this year, we planned a road trip to Grand Junction, Colorado and Arches National Park near Moab, Utah for Memorial Day weekend.  Denise and John were able to join us, which just added to the fun.  On some level the trip did help remind me why I am marrying Danny - he can take good care of me. While climbing the rocks of Arches National Park, Danny always made sure I was okay. He would hold my hand or just tell me I could do it. I like knowing that he will always be by my side.

For those of you who are new to this bird's eye view of our relationship, you should know that for Danny an essential part of any road trip in or around the state of Colorado involves breweries, usually many.  For this trip, seven; in two days.  My role: designated driver, I drink lots of water on these adventures.  Please do not think I am complaining, breweries can be fun places plus I get to see random towns that I may not have seen otherwise.  Think Rifle or Palisade, Colorado.  Plus I usually get something out of these trips too.  I already mentioned the rainbow sherbet fudge that I got in Palisade, but I also scored some fresh apricot jelly.  It was also fun to see John purchase his first growler filled with Dirty Hippie Beer from the brewery in Palisade.  You can see from the picture above, he was truly a kid in a candy store.   I also found out on this trip that when there is a brewery involved, my fiance will plan ahead.  After touring Arches National Park, we headed to lunch in Moab.  Denise, John and I found out that there is a lone brewery in the town of Moab, and Danny not only knew about it, but had the address written down [in advance].  At that point, all I could do was laugh and shake my head.  I shake my head at him a lot.

Here's another quirky fact about Danny and me.  We play the license plate game against each other on a fairly regular basis.  So what does this have to do with our trip?  Well we finally got to see the Arch that is on the current Utah license plate, which is shown in the picture in the top right hand corner.  None of us thought it was the best Arch we saw that day, but it appears to be the most famous.  We all had a blast climbing and driving around the beautiful park.  After lunch in Moab, we went to Bananas Fun Park, where I stunk it up at miniature golf (although I did make a rousing come-back that fell short), and rode my first go-kart in years.  I had a chance at go-karts until this kid made it his mission to cut me off at every opportunity. 

On the trip home, we found Rifle Falls State Park.  The website states, "Rifle Falls State Park may not be loudly advertised, but it’s a wonderful park to explore on a sunny day. You’ll find beautiful waterfalls, small caves to investigate and plenty of trails to hike."  It really was a fun little side trip.

I would consider my first trip without really planning in advance, aside from making hotel reservations in Fruita, Colorado (which I was disappointed to find out is pronounced phonetically), a success!  I had two goals for our trip: enjoy myself and bond with my car.  You see, I still find myself missing my little Scion, and so I felt like the remedy would be a good road trip with the Forester.  The fact that it could sit four adults comfortably with our luggage went a long way to helping me feel better about this car.

Moral of this post: It is okay not to plan everything AND you really should make a trip to Western Colorado/Eastern Utah.  If anyone wants to come, Danny and I will be going back to Canyonlands National Park in the near future, plus I have been told we need to find a Starbucks in Utah since Danny just found out there is a Starbucks Mug for Utah.  Oy vey.

Finally, A big thank you to Denise and John for taking all the pictures since Danny and I were sans camera for a while by accident.