Tommy and I set out today for Castle Creek Winery and Red Cliffs Lodge. It sits along the Colorado river and is approximately 14 miles of out town. Along the way we stopped on the side of the road and threw 3 bottles of my favorite Pinot Noir - Mark West - into the Colorado River. The wine was gone, of course, and in its place we put postcards of Moab. We stated on the postcards the date we threw it, to please contact us when found, and to re date it and throw it back in the river.
This morning,(I'm writing this the day after), Tommy received a phone call. A Kayak-er found one of them. He was 10 miles south of Moab. He stated he did re date it and threw it back in. We cant wait to see if anyone else calls and just how far they actually get. The river is flowing incredibly fast because of the snow melt. This is a record year of snow and it all seems to want to melt in one week. People are frantic. In some of the pictures you can see just how much it is past its banks. The white water rafters are loving it!
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While at the winery we walked over to the lodge. What a beautiful piece of 'peace and quiet'. It is spread out over 45 acres and offers over 125 cabins/rooms. They house a museum on the grounds that we spent well over an hour in. It is self guided. Apparently there were over 120 movies filmed right here in Moab. Last year while we were here we saw a production company setting up tracks along the rocks for cameras but none so far this year. Paramount Pictures was all over the place here last year. I took pictures of some of the better know movies filmed where we actually do hiking. Virtually, all of the Marlboro Man commercials were shot here.Very interesting.
Oh and remember that Chevrolet commercial where the car and the pretty girl were on top of a hugely tall but skinny rock? That was here. We pass that rock often. It is extremely tall. They used a helicopter to drop off the model and the car. I hope they paid her alot because the winds sometimes hit 45 mph here. On top of the rock I'm sure it was worse.
Imagine sitting at your dinner table on the deck of this beautifully decorated lodge and having these massive red rocks for your view, while listening to soft music and the roar of the river in the background. Does it get an better?
Tommy and I sat on the edge of the river for a while and watched the rafters float by. One after another. It was a beautiful day. Clear blue skies, cumulus clouds all about. The temperature was in the mid 80's.
Instead of heading back to camp the way we came, we decided to take a road up and over the La Sal Mountain pass. It is only 40 miles but up and over any mountain around here is more like 5 miles to one. It was a rough road at times, but we're glad we did it. I received a text from Kyle while on the pass and he said he would call me in a few minutes. I asked Tommy to pull over so I wouldn't lose my signal and we parked in the middle of a cow herd. They roam freely here and after a while they thought Tommy was a cow because he got out and walked around they followed him! It was pretty funny. One guy looked really really angry, maybe he was the leader and had fallen from grace with Tommy the new head honcho. LOL. (Its the picture with the baby next to him.)
Kyle did call us. We only had 3 minutes to talk. We tried to finalize our arrangements for graduation but we were cut off before we were done. It is difficult because Tommy and I are out West and need to fly back East. His Dad is in FL along with his sister and need to go North. And his Grandma and Aunt are North of him and need to come South. It will all work out I'm sure, but for now its a mess. The entire graduation ceremony is up in the air because at any given moment they can delay Kyle a week, for any given reason. Another way to screw with them, I suppose. Any plans we make are tentative. We do have our flights booked and we will be there from the 27th - 3rd. If we have to extend, of course we will, but it is not fun when you don't know 100%. We're keeping our fingers crossed.
He sounded so good! It was the first time I talked to him that he did not sound sick. He stated that 6 people in his Platoon had pneumonia. One died. Isn't that horrible? He also said another kid in another Platoon hung himself. I guess Boot Camp really is tough mentally. I'm just so thankful Kyle is a strong person. I couldn't be prouder!! We cant wait to see him!
LOL. The park is full.
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| Tommy's Nemesis |
Today the idea we are throwing around is to take Sire to Ken's Lake. We have not been there before and passed it yesterday on the way down the mountain. The sun is out, as always, and wind has lied down so more than likely that will be the plan.
Thanks for reading and have a good week. FYI, if you want more detail, please click on the individual pictures. They will blow up for you. Enjoy!
