Day 7 (July 10): Utah-bound

Total Driving Distance: 425.4 miles (trip total: 2,725.4 miles)

States Traveled To: Colorado, Utah

Main Activity: Driving, Seeing Bruno, Arches National Park

We left Kevin's around 8 and thanked them for a lovely stay. We were headed for Moab, Utah, the closest town to Arches and Canyonlands National Park. Along the way, we wanted to stop and see the new Sacha Baren Cohen film, Bruno. This would prove to be more of a problem than you would think. As it turns out, there was a small theater in Moab, showing two films (neither of them Bruno). The second closest theater was in Grand Junction, Colorado, over 100 miles away. So our road trip that day was planned around the 1:10 showing of Bruno in Grand Junction, Colorado. On our way out of the Denver area, we stopped at The Kolache Factory, a place Kevin recommended us. A Kolache is (according to Wikipedia) "a type of pastryconsisting of fillings ranging from fruits (including poppy seed, raspberry, and apricot) to cheeses inside a bread roll." Liz got one with potato, egg, and cheese inside, and I got two, one with cream cheese and one with chocolate and cream cheese. They were sooo good.

We drove a few hours to Grand Junction where we stopped at the movie theater. Across the street was a good sandwich place, Schlotzsky's: Funny Name. Serious Sandwich. By the time we got our food, we had only ten minutes until the movie started, so we ate quickly then ran over to the theater.

I don't really know what I can say about Bruno on a blog that family will be reading. It was absolutely hilarious and disgusting. I found a short clip that is family-friendly when Bruno heads to the Middle East to try and solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

'Bruno' Hamas vs Hummus @ Yahoo! Video

If you enjoyed that, I am still not going to recommend that you see the movie. Wait for it to come out on TV and watch the edited version.

We drove the next hour or so and finally made it to Moab, Utah. On the way to the KOA we stopped at the Visitors Center of Arches National Park. It was about a million degrees outside. We heard from some of the Park Rangers inside that one of the best (if not the best) things to do at Arches is to hike up to the famous Delicate Arch (on the Utah license plate) and watch the sunset. The sun was supposed to set at around 845, so we went to the KOA first to check in before we did the hike.

On our way back to Arches, we stopped at a sandwich shop in town. We picked up a couple for the hike and also some free (day-old) bags of bread they were giving out.

The hike was steep. long. and hot. It was about a mile and half to the top, which would not have been bad were it not a mile and half on open rock face with no protection from the sun. We probably drank two or three liters of water by the time we reached the top, but we did make it there in time for the sunset.

There were actually a lot of people at the Arch. There was one large group of teenagers and a few adults that must of been a church group. I eavesdropped a little and overheard what must have been reflection time or something. There were a lot of families as well. The people sitting next to us went to Boston University, which was really weird!

We stayed up at the Arch for almost an hour. I climbed around and Liz took lots of pictures. We ate some of the free bread which tasted great after a hike.

By the time we started hiking back down, it was completely dark. Since I was not smart enough to throw a flashlight in our backpack, we had to stay a few feet behind this German couple who did have a flashlight. When we were almost at the bottom, we passed a family who were just beginning their hike to the Arch. And not only did they not have a flashlight, they had two babies who they were carrying on their backs and two other young children who could not have been older than five. It was almost ten by this time. People are crazy.