A Final Post

This RV Trip was one of the most amazing experiences our family has had together. We ALL learned so much and grew in so many ways. I couldn't be prouder of Matt and Elyse. They were troopers during the entire trip and had fun everywhere we went- regardless of what happened. They matured so much during those two weeks, I feel like I brought different kids back home to Vermont. It's as if something just clicked for them through this experience. We're so glad Jay decided to join us- everything is fun when Uncle Jay is around. Both Matt and Elyse feel closer to Jay than they ever have and we all agree (including the locals at Lake Meade), it wouldn't have been the same without him. It was an experience that we will never forget,and an experience I wish every family could have.
Posted by: Deb

Day 14: ATV Riding in Red Cliff, CO and Steam Train Ride in Georgetown, CO

Today we rode ATV's in Red Cliff, Colorado, near Vail. This was especially special for me as I come out to Vail every winter with my friends to go skiing. This past January I went snowmobiling on the same trails that we rode ATV's on today. Every time I've ever spoken to someone who has moved out here from somewhere else they always say the same thing: "the skiing brought me out here; the summers are what kept me out here." I now understand what they mean.

The kids had a blast today on the ATV's, they had perma- grin's on their faces and their parents were concerned that their faces might get stuck that way. The trail to Climax Mine had a lot of loose rocks which made for a fun ride. We let the kids drive the ATV's in the flat area at Camp Hale, which was a training ground for soldiers during WWII. We also saw a huge herd of sheep coming down the mountain side to graze at Camp Hale. According to the ATV rental operator, they belong to a local sheep farmer who herds them in the mountainside meadows. Have you ever heard of such a thing?

We then went to Georgetown, Colorado to ride on an old steam locomotive that was once used for mining. From the parking lot we had to walk under a highway overpass and Matt and Elyse decided to run up the concrete embankment and slide down. Well, Matt ripped his pants and Elyse, who was wearing flip flops, ripped her big toe. There was a huge flap of skin hanging from her toe, some blood, and it was a terrible mess, yet she didn't cry or make any fuss about it at all. In fact we probably wouldn't have even noticed it if Matt hadn't pointed it out by making a joke that the smell in the air (from the coal fired train) was probably coming from Elyse's toe scraping on the concrete. Despite the horrible condition of her toe Elyse insisted that we continue onward and board the train as she didn't want anyone to miss out on the train ride because of her. Of course, afterwards we brought her to an urgent care center to have her toe properly bandaged up. Between this incident and the freezing cold day we had white water rafting, I must say these kids are real troopers.

At night we watched a lightning storm in the distance from a rock hill at the campground just outside of Denver.

Tomorrow we fly home :(

Posted by: Uncle Jay

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Day 13: Gunnison Canyon and White Water Rafting in Buena Vista, Colorado

We drove five hours today through Black Canyon on the Gunnison to Buena Vista, Colorado to go white water rafting. The view was absolutely beautiful and we wished we had the time to hike down into the canyon. Throughout this entire trip we have been amazed by the fact that the roads out here have no guard rails even along the highest cliffs. When we got to Buena VVista we noticed some clouds coming in but had no idea how bad the storm was that was coming. Our white water rafting trip was interesting to say the least. It was a 12 mile trip through Black Canyon of the Gunnison and had a lot of great rapids. About a third of the way into the trip it got very cold because a rain storm came in with lightning and thunder and continued for the rest of our trip. Then one of the people in our boat fell out when we hit a rock during one section of the rapids. Elyse had to constantly remind Jay to paddle because he was distracted by the "scenery". The kids were real troopers today, they were both shivering and numb from the cold but they still managed to hold it together and have lots of fun. Elyse even said it was her favorite part of the trip and she never stopped smiling during the entire trip. Tomorrow morning we're off to do some ATVing and then are riding the Georgetown train in the afternoon.
Vasanthi this smilebox video choice is for you- you'll know why:)

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Day 12: Mesa Verde

Today we planned to visit the four corners and then head to Mesa Verde. When we arrived at the four corners we were very disappointed to see that it was closed due to construction. After hanging around for a few minutes we headed on out to Mesa Verde. Mesa Verde was probably one of the most interesting parts of our trip. After visitng the Cliff Palace we decided to take a guided tour of the Balcony House and were very lucky to get an amazing Ranger for our guide who provided us with a wealth of information about the Pueblo people of long agon and their cliff dwellings. The Balcony House allowed us to peek into a day in the life of these people and why they chose to live in the cliffs . The craftmanship of the rooms and ceremonial kivas were beautiful. It was quite the adventure just getting to and from the Balcony House. We climbed 5 ladders, one which was 32 feet high and had to crawl through a very tiny 12 foot tunnel-somewhere along the way Matt lost his hat over the side of a cliff. It was mind boggling to think of these people climbing up and down these cliffs on a daily basis to tend to their crops above. After the tour we headed out to our next campsite and stopped in Dolores to mail Jay's one and only post card-yes, we had to drive around and around to find a post office because it had to be postmarked from Dolores. We ran into construction along the way. Matt stuck our latest RV trip companion, Humphrey the bear puppet, out the window to greet the Navajo flagman and he greeted us back by saying "How" and shared lots of interesting things about the Navajos during our ten minute wait to move on. We pulled into our favorite campsite so far at around 8 pm. Tomorrow we're off to do some white water rafting.
Posted by: Deb

(Jay's turn to post something)
Uncle Jay's 2 Cents:
Today we got up bright and early and drove from the Grand Canyon North Rim to Stoner Colorado, near Durango, which was an 8 hour drive. Brian, Deb, and I have been splitting the driving but I must say the hours go by quite enjoyably as the scenery is so amazing to look at, the RV is rather fun to drive, the kids are entertaining, and we've got good music to cruise along to. The last time Brain and I were in this region was back in 1977 when our family took a 3 week RV trip from New Hampshire to California- Brian was 13, our sister Cindy was 16 and I was 7 years old. One of my most vivid memories of that trip was that the RV had an 8 track cassette player, a revolutionary device at the time, and so my Dad bought a cassette of his favorite band at the time, a group called Up With People. As I recall, it seems as though we listened to that tape every day for 3 weeks straight. For this trip with Brian's family I've taken it upon myself to carry on my Dad's tradition and so I've downloaded the Up With People album onto my iTunes and have been playing it in the RV whenever it's my turn to drive. One song in particular that I feel is particularily appropriate for this trip is entitled "200 Years and Just a Baby." This song came out in 1976 as America was celebrating its Bicentenial (200 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776). This was one of my Dad's favorite songs in 1977 and I feel honored to have been able to share it with Brian's kids while we've been sharing this great American experience during this July 4th holiday week, 233 years after the birth of this great nation (take a listen to the background music on today's blog post's slideshow). There's an old Asian proverb that says that inevitably we eventually become our parents. I've heard this proverb a number of times since moving to New York City in 1994 and more and more I find it to be true. I think that's pretty cool.
(I had intended to make this the July 4th post, but haven't had much donwtime until now).

And on to my other 2 cents...Debbie was concerned that I would be discouraged from wanting to have kids after being couped up in a 24 ft. RV for a week with a 12 and 14 year old. Much to the contrary, I've found the experience to be one of the most fun I've ever had, and so we've decided that for my mid life crisis I will get married and have 12 kids.
Posted by: Uncle Jay

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Day 11: Grand Canyon-North Rim

Today we went to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was snazzy McNazzy. We hiked a lot and went to a ranger talk. Then we had ice-cream that didn't taste very good and Jay shoved Mom's in her face. After that Elyse and I turned in our ranger books and were sworn in as Junior Rangers. Then we went to two other sight seeing places of the North Rim. These were beautiful. There was a cool tree with sap that felt like rubber. Deb, Brian and Jonathan met two men who they became BFF's with. On the way back to the campsite we saw some cows and bulls along the road that had gotten out of their fence. Jay wanted to get his picture taken with them, but Dad said it probably wasn't a good idea. When we got back to the campsite we had a big dinner and headed to bed. Tomorrow we head out early to Mesa Verde.
Posted by: Matt

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Day 10: Hoover Dam

This morning we went to the Hoover Dam and it was one big dam. We had to go through security and have our RV checked to get in. It was a really hot day, 102 degrees. We decided to do the power plant tour. First we watched a video and then we went down in an elevator and walked through the diversion tunnels they had built to divert the water when they were building the dam. The tunnels led to the turbines and our tour guide talked to us about the dam there. After that we walked around the visitor center and learned more about the dam. There were a lot of people who died building it. After lunch we walked over the dam, got in our RV and drove over it. Jay got out and ran beside us taking pictures of our RV going over the dam. They're building a bypass right now so no more traffic will travel over the dam after October. We were one of the last people to drive over the Hoover Dam.
Posted by: Elyse

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Day 9: Zion to Vegas

Today we went to Zion. It was a beautiful, hot day. We took the shuttle bus around the park and hiked up a trail and saw several pools of water. At the upper trail Jay went swimming and the rest of us waded in the water. Then we went on the trail to the narrows and wished we had enough time to hike into the narrows further through the river. The narrows were amazing. There were some trails at Zion that were only 3 to 4 feet wide with a thousand foot drop off on both sides of the trail, but we didn't hike those. Zion was very different from Bryce. The formation of the rocks was totally different. When we were finished hiking we drove through Las Vegas to our campsite. Mom and Jay kept getting out of the RV so she could take a picture of Jay next to the RV on the boulevard. As we were driving out of Vegas there were fireworks in every direction of the city. It was totally cool.

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Day 8: Red Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and the Rodeo

We drove to Red Canyon to go horseback riding and everybody's horse had a different name- Mine was named Wrangler, Elyse rode Fredonia, Uncle Jay rode Buddy, Dad rode Bufford, Mom rode... Bob. We rode on a long hike. The horses had different personalities. Some were easy, some liked to eat, and others like to relieve themselves along the trail. Then we went to Bryce Canyon. It was a nice view except that the fact that Mom was having spaz attacks because we were getting close to the edge of the cliffs. Then we went to the visitor's center and watched a movie about Bryce Canyon. Then we went to a rodeo with a clown who had corny jokes that were annoying. Then we headed back to the campsite.
Posted by: Matt

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Day 7: Salt Lake City and Timpanogos Cave

When we woke up Uncle Jay called to tell us he missed his plane. So then we decided to do some other stuff in Utah near Salt Lake City. We decided to visit Timpanogos Cave. We hiked up and hiked up and up and up the switchback trails. There were cliffs with no railings and Mom was scared Matt and I would fall over the cliff. When we got to the top we went into three different caves. The first one was the Hansen Cave and people had taken a lot of stuff out of it. It had a cave lake in it. The next cave was the middle cave, which was really cool, and really cold! The last cave was Timpanogos Cave. The kids who discovered it were only 14. Middle Cave and Timpanogos were protected by the families who discovered them. When the tour was over we hiked back down the trail and went back to Salt Lake and drove to the airport and waited and waited for Jay's plane to arrive at 11 pm. Then we drove to Panquitch to our campsite.
Posted by: Elyse

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Day 6: Yellowstone to Bear Lake, Idaho

We started our morning leaving Yellowstone early so we could get to Bear Lake by early afternoon to celebrate Matt's 14th birthday. As we were leaving Yellowstone a big bear darted out in front of the RV ahead of us and crossed over into the woods. We drove back to Jackson, Wyoming and had a delicious birthday breakfast at a local restaurant. Then we headed on our way to Idaho. We arrived early afternoon and went to the Bear Lake State Park to swim and play a game of ultimate frisbee. The water was beautiful, a pure blue/green color and waves were coming into shore from the wind and motor boats. The bottom of the lake was sandy making it a terrific place to swim. After checking into our campsite we drove to a local Mexican restaurant for Matt's birthday dinner. The food was amazing! We headed back to our campsite and I made Matt a birthday cake that ended up looking like one of the geysers we visited, caved in in places. Could it be the elevation, the RV stove, or could it just be me? It was nice to have a slower day today. We're back on the road in the morning to pick up Jay in Salt Lake City and maybe see Vasanthi's parents who are also traveling out west. Then we'll be driving to southern Utah and camping there for a couple days while we explore Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park.
HAPPY 14th BIRTHDAY MATT!!!!!!!!!

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Day 5: Yellowstone National Park

When we woke up Mom was sleeping like a nun. We headed off to Old Faithful. It was a long wait and then finally it exploded like Scooby Doo gummies in a microwave. Then we got in the RV and went to Middle Geysers. It was so steamy that you could not see anything, but when the steam left it had snazzy colors. It was like magical puffing steam floating to the sky and trickling water that was like a rainbow. Then the rainbow of water landed in the river below. Then we went to other geysers. Some were beautiful, some were pretty, some were nice, some were grody and some smelled like rotten eggs. The boardwalks were really nice. We saw some more bison-smelly, fat, but gorgeous. Then it was time to go back to the campsite. I got the laundry mixed up with the garbage and threw the laundry into the bear proof dumpster, but it all worked out in the end.
Posted by: Matt

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Day 4: Yellowstone National Park

Today we got up early and went to the Brink of Falls which is part of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We hiked to the top of the falls and to several other look out points. Then we went to see the geysers and hot springs at Norris Springs. They were really cool, but smelled like rotten eggs. While we were driving we had to stop because there were bison all over the road. They were really big and looked tame, but they could actually be dangerous to people. Matt saw a wolf and I saw a bear cub trying to climb a tree. We also saw moose and elk and just missed a grizzly bear with three cubs. We were all hot so we crossed over into Montana and stopped at a river to swim. It was full of rapids and we couldn't swim so we waded in it instead. After that we headed back over the border and into Wyoming and hiked to the top of Mammoth Springs.
Posted by: Elyse

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Day 3: Tetons to Yellowstone National Park

We woke up to the sound of birds chirping away. Then we hit the road and stopped in Jackson, Wyoming to check out the town and have ice-cream-which was pricey, but Mom said it was the best Belgian chocolate cone she's ever had. The man stuck his finger in Mom's ice-cream but she didn't seem to care. Then we were on the road again. We went to the Teton Information Center and learned about the Tetons and saw Humphrey the stuffed bear-who I wanted to buy until I found out he cost over $200. We said our good-byes to Humphrey and headed off to Jenny Lake for some tedious hiking of the Tetons. There was an awesome Waterfall on the hike up to Inspiration Point. At the top there was a nice view and lots of chipmunks running around that liked to lick your fingers. Then we rode a boat back to our RV and headed to Yellowstone. We saw bison along the road on our way in to Yellowstone and then checked into our campsite.
Posted by: Matt

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Day 2: Dinosaur National Monument-Vernal, Utah to Jackson, Wyoming

Today we went to Dinosaur National Monument and saw fossils. We saw lots of different dinosuar fossils in the rocks. Matt and I had to take a test and be sworn in as Junior Paleontologists. It was a really hot day. After we left Dinosaur National Monument we drove to Jackson, Wyoming to stay at the Snake River Campground. We stopped at the Flaming Gorge Dam. It was a long drive and we saw lots of different kinds of scenery. Tomorrow we are going to the Grand Tetons and then heading to Yellowstone National Park for a few days. We probably won't be able to post again until we leave Yellowstone.
Posted by: Elyse

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Day 1: Denver to Steamboat Springs

Our first day started with a flight out of Albany at 6:30 am. After arriving in Denver we picked up our RV and were pleasantly surprised to get a brand new one! Although our drive from Denver to Steamboat Springs seemed long after spending the morning on a plane, it was such a beautiful ride. We drove through the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel and over Rabbit Ear's pass. The snow covered peaks of the mountains and raw untouched landscape was amazing to see. Matt and Elyse were feeling very tired until we reached our campground and they discovered...the "Fun Cycles"! After a few trial runs and a couple of crashes into a fence or two they figured out how to steer and brake and were cruising the campground like professionals! Tomorrow morning we're off to Dinosaur National Park and then another long afternoon of driving to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

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