2,389 miles, 1 day at sea on the boat, 1 flight, 1 surprise birthday dinner, 2 national parks, 2 states, 1 official circumnavigation of the globe, 3 nights hosted by amazing and generous friends, $564 over budget.
Whew! That’s a big week ~ even for us. We were glad to get off the boat and finally head home to Denver. When we touched down at DIA we had officially gone all the way around the globe! Who needs 80 days when you can do it in 10 months?! Marla contends that we actually completed the circuit when we hit the dock in San Francisco since we had been to the Oregon coast last July, but she is happy to agree with Erin that landing in Denver makes it official.
Our community in Denver matters a great deal to us, and connecting with people for special occasions is one of the things we have missed most. Surprising Kris Ferrell for a late birthday dinner was super fun. 240 Union is still an excellent place to celebrate a special occasion.
Our friends Dan and Karen picked us up at the airport AND hosted us at their home for an overnight and brunch. Chatting with those two travelers reminded us that there is still lots to see. To finish our time in Denver we were lucky enough to go to our neighbor Nancy’s house for two nights. Once again we were across the street from our house for a minute ~ weird.
How do you follow up all of that travel and connection? You hop in your car with all of your camping gear (hoping not to have forgotten anything), and head to Utah to start the desert southwest portion of the trip. We swung by Capitol Reef National Park on our way to Bryce and Zion National Parks. Capitol Reef is a beautiful place with otherworldly geography. The Capitol Reef fruit orchards by the visitors center are open for fruit picking in the fall, a reason to go back for sure. Bryce was the 2nd National Park of the week and we’ll write more about that later ~ but….wow!
Next week; more driving through sagebrush flats as we head towards our ultimate goal; the “Big Ditch”….or as some people call it ~ the Grand Canyon.
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