Days 4 and 5

Day 4 – Thursday, August 27

Today we spent at Brad and Kelli Drenth's house near Denver, CO. She has been my good friend since I was in 2^nd grade. We took the kids to a couple of parks to burn off energy and play with Tegan and Riley, their kids. We all enjoyed the break from traveling, even if only for a day. We were treated to a fantastic dinner of tacozanga (taco lasagna), homemade pico de gallo and chips. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing each other again and the kids played so well together even though they hardly remembered each other. Tegan cuddled in bed with me for a few minutes Friday morning and said, “I'm really gonna miss you guys 'cuz I really like you.” It's always hard to say goodbye. Sniff-sniff

Day 5 – Friday, August 28

After a great nights sleep and a sad goodbye we left Denver and headed north to I-80. I was excited to drive through the mountains thinking that it would be like driving to Estes Park, CO. Well, in my opinion, the “Rocky Mountains” do not exist in Wyoming. It was rather boring and flat with rolling, rocky HILLS. We saw lots of permanent, wooden snow fences all over plus some more cattle and sheep. Around 5:30 we stopped in Evanston, WY for McDonalds and gas. The playland had little, built-in saddles for chairs by the kids tables! They were soooo cute! They also had a 'hot & spicy McChicken sandwich' on the value menu instead of the regular chicken sandwich we have in Michigan. I tried it and almost couldn't eat it, that baby was HOT!

Soon after dinner, we crossed the border into Utah. Honestly, I've never had a desire to visit Utah but it's really beautiful. We drove through actual mountains finally. The were very rocky with huge areas of gray or red rock. Mostly they were shrub/grass covered with some areas of evergreen trees. We never got above the treeline so I guess we'll have to visit the Rockies again someday for my snow covered mountain top craving. We saw a few interesting signs that you don't see in Michigan. Of course you see many 'falling rock' signs but one that made us chuckle was 'Chains required when lights are flashing'. Obviously that's a winter sign!

Salt Lake City is gorgeous. It's surrounded by mountains. I had no idea. We saw the Great Salt Lake, looks like any other big lake. Then, just past the lake, we saw miles and miles of flat land that was covered in salt. Looks like they flood the area and then wait for the water to evaporate so they can harvest the salt. Not sure if that's how it works but that was our guess. We saw a Morton Salt plant surrounded by giant piles of pure white salt. Pretty cool! We just passed through the Great Salt Lake Desert but it's too dark to tell if it's all sand or all white with salt. We can tell it's light in color and I really want to get out and touch it but it's after 9pm and we are almost to our hotel in Wendover, UT. Hopefully in the morning we can figure it out, either on-line or in person.

Thank you so much for all the prayers and facebook comments of encouragement. We can feel the prayers and know that that's why this trip is going so well. Today we saw many trees growing out of the rock on the mountainsides. I was reminded of the foolish man who built his house on the sand and the wise man who built his house on the rock. We've been learning to trust God completely and be anchored in Him. No matter what comes our way, I pray that we are strongly rooted in our Creator and Sustainer so we can weather storms when they come our way. Hotel in view, goodnight all!