MOAB, Mo Problems

I honestly thought, waking up the morning of our last day in CO, that I would be bummed out leaving. Admittidley, I was a tad bummed since I had the time of my life in CO and met some amazing people ( you know who you are), but as soon as we entered the Rockies again to head west form Denver it was hard to be bummed out. We all got really excited when we started our Ascent toward the continental divide and it began to hale.  It was pretty neat to see mountains like Love Land, Vail, and Copper. Once Past Aspen we began to enter the most amazing canyons. We were all in awe for about an hour as we drove along the Colorado on I 70 with 100 ft plus walls on either side of us. After a short nap (about 2 hrs), we were pulling of I 70 to drive off the beaten path to Moab, UT. For about an hour we descended into the canyons along the Colorado River that leads to Moab and Arches National Park. We then settled into our campground and I cooked the guys a hearty dinner of gourmet beef and salmon burgers on our trusty grill.

I personally fell into a deep sleep dreaming about the next morning. In my dream I remember lying in the bus while Tripp drove us deeper into the desert to find the perfect arch for our sunrise shot. The navigation became confused and the dialogue between Tripp and Will more hesitant. Then I was bounced out of my bed as the Bus had driven off the road. The door had opened a few times with Will coming in and out, as the sound of the tires digging trenches in the dirt off the side of the road smacked against me under the floor of where I was trying to continue to sleep. When Will came back in the final time and said, "yea we're not going anywhere for a while" I then looked up and saw Harvey rising out of bed. It was then I realized that about twenty minutes earlier Tripp and Will had attempted to drive us to the arches when they inadvertently got us stuck off in a ditch. And it was not a dream after all, but that we really were stuck in the middle of nowhere. 

Everyone was a bit frazzled, but we began coming up with potential solutions. After a while wouldn't you know that Canada's nicest couple found us and were eager to lend a hand. After an attempt that snapped two ropes, they headed to town to buy a chain. Before they got back a park ranger had found us and was able to get a tow truck out there to save us. 4 hrs after we had driven of the road we were back on track.

Our little mishap did not deter us from continuing on to see the beauty of Arches National Park. We found our perfect arch, and started up the path that lead underneath it. As I began to climb the spaced out stairs alone, the Park's media team asked to photograph us for the website. Then the guys carried me up the remaining 200 plus stairs that became unmanageable. It was a valiant group effort that was so worth it. Underneath the Arch was an incredible feeling that was the perfect end to a sideways morning. The trip down was completely independent. It was really neat to see peoples reaction to a wheelchair being up there, and there could not have been any other experience that expressed our camaraderie more. We brought tears to one lady who was completely overwhelmed by the Arches natural beauty and our presence there.  Even though it turned out to be an incredible experience we will all always refer to our Moab experience as "Moab Mo Problems"