Day 35 - Arches Nat. Park

I know, you are wondering what happened to Day 28 - 34.  Well the short answer is that I was unable to get reception to post for Day 32 - 34 when I was traveling.  Day 28 - 31, I was staying in Boulder, Co. with a good friend and former neighbor during the holidays.  I still intend to post some great pictures for Day 32 - 34 but have been busy.
The reason that I have been busy is that I am HOME.  I was having a good trip but Thursday 7/7/11 it occurred to me that four factors were telling me it was time to head home.  Those factors were: the heat (95 degrees or so); the crowds (Utah`s parks are mobbed this time of year); it is the beginning of the rainy season (I had already had several major rain events with more to follow) and I was missing the Tour de France (bicycle race) coverage.  I know that is a weak set of reasons but that will have to do.
So on Thursday morning I was riding in Colorado National Monument (near Grand Junction, Co. - which is almost to the border with Utah on Hwy 70) / I then drove into Utah to Arches National Park and spent about five hours touring and taking pictures / then I decided to start driving home (it was 4:30 PM  by now)
and with the exception of a one hour nap in a parking lot outside of Las Vegas (somewhere), I was home by 8:00 AM  on Friday 7/8/11 morning.  That is right - 15 hours of driving through the night - did I say I wanted to get home?
I was a great trip and I packed a lot into the 35 days that I traveled.  I visited 15 different national monuments and parks / saw a lot of  town & cities / visited with friends in Boulder, Co. / drove 4,410 miles / averaged 16.9 mpg / spent $1,002.10 on gas / meet a lot of really nice people along the way & figured out how to work all of the things in my camper.  I will go back to all of the parks in Utah in the fall, when the crowds and weather are better.
Thanks for all of the feedback on the blog and I promise to finish the last few days of my trip very soon.

By for now - Bicycle Bob