Arrival in Stanley

Well, we've made it to Stanley, Idaho without any major mishaps! :-)

The drive up from Fort Collins wasn't too bad - about thirteen hours total. The most harrowing bit was driving the last stretch from Ketchum to Stanley. It was a path full of twisty-turns and the possibility of deer stepping out into the road at any moment. As such we were forced to more or less crawl through the last sixty miles of our trek.

Here are the high points of the journey itself:

1. The traffic between Fort Collins, Colorado to the middle of Utah is less than the traffic between Fort Collins and Colorado Springs.

2. Utah is way prettier than Wyoming.

3. Little America works hard to advertise its presence. The billboards are almost like an alluring countdown.

4. We saw a multitude of big rigs transporting all manner of things. Our personal favorites include: three small boats, four industrial-sized liquid sprayers, a pair of army APCs, and two trucks hauling two UPS vans each.

5. Our road atlas of the US, with all its wonderful detail, has proven our best friend during road trips - even better than Mapquest.

As I said, overall the trip was pretty good. I drove the first seven or eight hour stretch from Fort Collins in Colorado to Tremonton in Utah. Kate took over at that point and did the rest of the way to Stanley. We made it into motel by around 10:30 in the evening and we were pretty much wiped out.

Next Day!

Here's the motel where we're staying:




Here's the view from the back picnic area first thing in the morning:



Kate and I joined Emily, Aileen, and Glynnis (Kate's younger sisters) on a walk up to Stanley Lake. We didn't go far up the trail but the scenery was still beautiful. Here are some samples:







And the end of the hike. (We met a sweet elderly lady on the way back. This a woman who was planning a whitewater rafting trip at age 83!!)



Brendan (Kate's Dad) grilled us some bratwurst and sausages for dinner. Here Kate's sister Emily and Aileen with their brother Dan ham it up for the camera:



And we close with the sunset over the hills:



We spent a chunk of the evening in a marathon run of the game Such n' Such, in which the team of Kate, Glynnis, Brendan, and myself dominated over the team of Emily, Dan, Aileen, and Mary Ann (Kate's Mom) three games out of four. :-)

Thus ends our first day. I'll try posting more stuff after tomorrow, when we visit Redfish Lake.

Thanks for reading. Hope you're having a great night.