"Awe-full" Day

Our first full day of driving towards the Pacific Northwest started before dawn in Roswell, New Mexico. We are staying in motels on the way to the point where we drop Daniel off, so we don't miss any much of the ever changing scenery. Daniel let Google set the "most direct/ fastest" route... we all agree that we probably could NOT have chosen a more beautiful one. From the moment the sun rose, peaking through breaking rain clouds, we were awestruck. We traveled West across Northern New Mexico to Albuquerque. ( At one point, we did, indeed make a left turn!)Then northwest through a corner of Colorado. Every angle of the road, every rise we topped, brought us brand new terrain. We saw pronghorn antelope. A band rainbow in the clouds. We saw magnificent Shiprock in the distance. So many odd mountains, knobs, and formations. Then we got to Utah. Somehow, our thinking had a mental image of dry, sandy desert with the occasional butte as the deserted highway stretched into the distance. How wrong we were! Utah is fantastically beautiful. (I told Mr C in a text, we MUST come back to Moab.) Katie (3.5 designation, age 5) ohhed and ahhhed so much. She declared, "We have GOT to move here!" Our breakfast was packaged fruit bars. Snacks of jerky, fresh fruit, and trail mix held the kids over between the "fun" road meals. Lunch was frito chili "pie" prepared in the camper, pulled off the road at a gravel lot. Hours (and States) later, we had a pizza picnic in a gas station parking lot for supper. We will NOT be eating so much "junk" food once we begin "our part" of the adventure. Day 2 of travel leaves us some 700+ miles to the drop off point!