Day 21 (July 9th) – Moab, Utah to Springdale, Utah

The entrance to Arches National Park is on the north end of Moab, and since we are in Moab, we have to go see the park. Moab was an unscheduled stop, so seeing Arches wasn’t on the itinerary as well. But we have learned that when you do these types of trips the itinerary is just a guideline. So the first thing we did was explore Arches before it got to hot. When we pulled into Moab the day before the temperature was approaching 100 degrees. The temperature this morning was about 75 degrees, so it was perfect to explore Arches.

We had to continue moving closer to home, and we didn’t want to arrive late in the day at our next destination, so we spent a little under two hours at the Arches. The park isn’t very big so this was enough time to the North and South Windows, Balancing Rock, Wolfe Ranch, and Delicate Arch. Delicate Arch is the one that is on all the Utah license plates (it is also the one in the picture to the right). We also went through the visitor center. Two hours is enough time to see most of the sights. But if you have more time to do some hiking, you can see much more.

As this is a National Park, Miles and Samantha got their sixth Junior Ranger badge. In most instances, we had to wait around while they finished their work to get the ranger badge. I decided that this time that we would get the work booklet first thing. They could then complete the requirements as we saw the sights. It also helps to have the booklet when you are seeing the sights, because the booklets are designed for kids to learn about the park, and you really have to go see things to complete the assignments in the booklet. If you are not keeping count, Miles would gladly tell you that he has racked up six Junior Ranger badges on this trip. All he cares about is that he has more badges then his sister overall when you include previous trips. He started doing the Junior Rangers before Samantha. Samantha also has six badges for this trip. The ranger at Arches was impressed that she had completed the most difficult tasks in the booklet, which made Samantha smile.

Remember that I asked the question, “How many times could you watch a movie?” I asked the question in regards to Samantha watching Twilight or the bonus disk every time it was her turn to pick the movie. Well, it seems that we have our answer. The number seems to be about 30 times in a two week period. She started to watch other movies about a week ago. At about the same time, the subject of James Bond came up with Miles asking a question about one of the movies. I told him to watch the movies, since we have several of the Bond movies. From this point on, the two have been watching the James Bond movies. Although Miles today stated today that he was disappointed with the movies because he thought that they should have move action. Samantha so far has liked “You Only Live Twice” and “Goldfinger”. I am so happy that she has found something other than Twilight. But I know as soon as the next movie or book comes out. She will be all fanatically about it again. I am also sure as soon as we get home that she is going to turn on her computer and find out everything that Robert Pattenson did the past three weeks. Overall, I am just happy to have the answer to the question.

Today, we were scheduled to stop over at Cedar City, Utah, but just like yesterday we decided to go a little further down the road. We made a decision to go to Springdale, Utah, which is the gateway city for Zion National Park. Zion is Lisa’s favorite park. I like it as well, but she likes it just a whole lot more than me. She is after all a Southwestern Girl. The kids really enjoy the park as well, although I think it is because of the Virgin River. They can play all day long in the river. We usually stay in the Watchmen Campground inside the park, but since we didn’t have reservations, we are staying at the campground in the town of Springdale. This campground is also along the Virgin River. It actually is just across the river from the Watchmen Campground, so it isn’t much of a change for us. Besides the vistas are still breath taking.

We drove a total of 345 miles to day. We have driven a total of 6636 miles for the entire trip. We spent $89 on the purchase of gas today.