One of the most photographed arch is in Arches National Park
is Turret Arch. It is almost always photographed from the North Window in the
early morning. Since it was cloudy on both mornings I was there, I decided to
take a less classical shot of the other side of Turret Arch near sunset. It is
hard to get a good shot from this angle because there is a big formation in
front of the arch (you can see its shadow in this image). Fortunately, I had my
16-35 mm wide-angle lens with me and the sun did the rest.
Road Trip Update:
It has been a busy three days since I wrote my last post. We
followed through on our plans to find sunny and warm weather in Moab. On
Thursday, we logged in the shortest leg of our trip at 354 miles. After checking into the hotel, we headed right
back out to visit one of my favorite National Parks, Arches. As soon as we got
into the park, we hiked the Park Avenue Trail out and back and then drove
around the front half of the park.
On Friday, we headed back into Arches and spent the morning
there. In the afternoon, we visited Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse
State Park before finishing up back in Arches (I told you it was one of my
favorites). A lot of wonderful places packed into one day.
Saturday and Sunday were driving days. We covered almost 600
miles from Moab to Boise, followed the next day with a mere 430 miles. My
biggest surprise was Idaho where I expected to see lots of mountains, but the
route we took was pretty flat. The funniest part of that drive was somewhere in
remote Idaho when I needed to get gas. After driving what seemed like forever,
we found this gas station that had a hand-made sign saying “Welcome to the
Middle of Nowhere”. It rang true but what really made us get in and out of
there quickly was the sign to check out their Alpacas and Rattlesnakes – time
to go.
That is it for now. My last day here in Oregon is Monday and
I have a really early flight to catch back to Connecticut on Tuesday morning. I
hope you have enjoyed reading about our quick cross-country trip (the next one
will be less rushed) as much as I have enjoyed experiencing it with Greg.
Triple D Update – Since Denver, we
were able to eat at three more restaurants.
- Red
Iguana in Salt Lake City. Great Mexican place we stopped for lunch
en-route from Moab to Boise. I had the Mole Negro, self-described as the
“The King of Moles.” The mole was made from dried chile mulato, negro
pasilla, Mexican chocolate, raisins, peanuts, walnuts and bananas with
chicken or turkey. I opted for turkey. This was my first mole (yes, I was
a mole virgin) and I want it again soon. The turkey was a bit dried out but
I didn’t care. Shoe leather would have tasted good with this mole.
- Bar
Gernika in Boise. Checked into the hotel and headed down to the center of
Boise. This bar is a very small place and you seat yourselves. We were
lucky that we got there early enough and snagged the last two seats. I had
the Lamb Grinder, which was incredibly tender. I don’t usually eat lamb
but since Guy had it, I thought I would too (they ran out of the beef tongue
earlier in the day). Greg had a Solomo sandwich, which was marinated pork
loin with pimientos served on a freshly baked French roll. He proclaimed
it the best meal of the trip.
- Podnah’s
Pit BBQ in Portland. Just got back from there so the taste of that great
brisket is still fresh in my mind. I had the St Helens Brisket that was
smoked for 10 hours. It came with cornbread, a choice of 4 great sauces
and two sides. I ordered the Green Chile Mac and Cheese. Do I need to say
more?
