Day #8: No food, all scenery

Better late than even later...

As I sit in our 1950s style motel in Moab, UT watching reruns of Roseanne, I'm happy to have Internet access to update this blog.

We got our first taste of the Rockies today and it was hard to leave it behind. The mountains were so stunning and breathtaking...

On our way up, this was all we saw. Bikers were EVERYWHERE. I think it's the thing to do in CO. Hmm.

We stopped by this jerky stand to pick up a snack for the road. Somehow, I left with 10 bags of dehydrated MEAT. Holy cow. What was I thinking?

We drove through Estes Park to enter Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park.

Seriously??? Umm, seriously.

It was nippy at over 12,000 feet, but Ithaca prepared us well enough to survive in flip flops.

At this exact point of the park, we were standing on the Continental Divide that extends from Alaska to Mexico and runs through the Rockies.

Wildlife. We were very lucky we got to see all the animals up close.

Caught Jina feeding the animals!

HELLLOOOO Utah! We made sure to pull over in the darkness of the night to snap this one.

Once we entered Moab, UT, we made a beeline for Denny's to have our first real meal of the day. In the booth next to us, we met a well-versed cattle ranch owner who told us all about raising his 2,400 cattle. People in northern states such as Montana take their cattle down south during the winter and need to be rounded up to return home in the summertime. We learned that when cows are four months old, they weigh up to 800 lbs!!!!! Then when they're ready for consumption, they're about 1,200 to 1,400 lbs. Now imagine how many 8 oz steaks can come from one cow. But this rancher only gets roughly $500 per cow. Talk about markup in the value chain!!!

We're off to Arches National Park!!! Ciao.