Week 8 continued 
We're still in Gateway Colorado. Mike suggested a picnic excursion to Castle Rock Canyon so we loaded some food, drinks, picnic chairs and table into our very muddy jeep and headed off into the hills out of Gateway Canyon Resort. We pretty much had the winding, narrow dirt road to ourselves and so it wasn't difficult to keep stopping whilst one or other of our party fired off photos. We experienced a few light showers at the beginning of our journey but by mid morning the sun was beaming down big time. Were in for a VERY hot day indeed.

We're followed John Brown Road to Castle Valley, then had a picnic lunch by a little stream. There was no shade cover to be had anywhere in the canyon and we baked under a blazing sun. Following lunch we picked up the Colorado River and roughly followed the river to Grand Junction, turned into Unaweep Canyon and made our way back to Gateway. It worked out at around 205 slowly driven miles all up (330 kms).

Next day we farewelled Mike and Chris. They're driving back to Vail CO, re-packing their bags and rushing on to Denver CO where they have evening theatre commitments and a stopover with friends. For our part, Lynn and I are heading off to Moab in Utah which will become our last base camp on this Rocky Mountains adventure tour.

We couldn't afford to dawdle too much on our trip from Gateway CO to Moab UT. (see point "S" on our route map).As soon as we arrive in Moab we have to pick up our tickets for an evening river cruise, purchase our supermarket provisions, find our rental apartment, unload all our gear, write a lot of emails, then get back to the cruise departure complex by dusk.

All in all we thought the "Canyonlands by Night" sound and light show was worth the money. We slowly cruised down the Colorado River into the canyons accompanied by some soft and appropriately serene music. There was just the occasional piece of interesting  commentary. The stars shone brightly in the clear desert sky whilst a truck with a huge array of flood lights inched along a riverside road illuminating the canyon walls in a synchronised  manner with our boat's progress. All rather unique and quite a spiritual experience overall.

The following day was effectively the last real day of our vacation. We decided to drive out of town and re-explore Arches National Park. We were here on two occasions about four years previously and were VERY impressed on each of those visits. We were no less impressed on this,our third visit.

We've driven through Arches NP during early morning, midday and late afternoon. It's quite different depending on the time of day and this is one of many reasons to make multiple visits. Although the entry fees are significant it's not a problem for us because we invested in a National Parks Annual Pass shortly after our arrival in the US.

Leaving Arches National Park we drove back to our apartment dreading the fact that we now had to face the awful task of cleaning out the car laying all our possessions on a bed and trying to figure how to fit it all in our luggage. Our bags were pretty full when we arrived in the US nearly eight weeks ago and whilst neither Lynn nor I are into shopping we still tend to pick up the odd trinket, book or garment along the way. And buying a pair of shoes is a real "no no". We're actually travelling home with a dirty big box of snow boarding boots as a favour to our son Matt who can't resist a bargain !!

We've also got to either eat or chuck a goodly amount of food, beverages and snack items. Tomorrow we have a fair size drive to Salt Lake City UT where we'll dump the car, catch an American Airlines  flight to Los Angeles, then four hours later catch a Qantas flight to Sydney. Like I said, we've got a major cleanup, throw-out, pack or sacrifice job on our hands tonight.

Our final day's drive to Salt Lake City UT (see point "A" on our route map). went pretty much to schedule and smoothly enough. Qantas got us into the air by 10.15pm and we faced up to a 14 hour flight to Sydney. Upon arrival we spent most of the day with our Sydney based kids and grandkids before a final one hour flight to Coffs Harbour. Our friends Keith and Diane were at the airport to greet us and ferry us home to Nambucca Heads. Thanks guys.

Folks, it was all simply great. Lynn's final words were "what a journey". We had a wonderful time but we're glad it's now over. We need at least six months rest before we start getting any more "bright" ideas.

Thanks for all your encouraging, interesting and often humorous emails throughout the trip. They were a great tonic and were greatly enjoyed by us both. And thanks to 99% of Americans who treated us so well, shared their good humour, friendship, hospitality and knowledge. Finally, a pox on the house of that so called barber in Rawlins Wyoming for making me look like a jailbird for the next two weeks !!

2013 Postscript
At late notice in February 2013, some friends talked us into joining them on a two week bus tour around Sri Lanka. We threw caution to the winds and accepted that invitation. We also tacked on a week in the Maldives. I have heaps of photos of both countries but I'm not sure when I'll be able to commit the photos and memories to a website. It will happen in due course.

In late May 2013 we leave for two months in Europe. We'll spend six weeks driving around rural France, rural Sweden and rural Finland. We're also booked on a 12 day Baltic cruise which visits about eight different Baltic port cities. There's got to be a website in there somewhere but I've resolved to never again construct a vacation website whilst our vacation is actually underway. The pressure and stress is just too enormous. I'll tackle this task sometime after we get back home. However all being well, I should be still able to send out a few unillustrated emailed progress reports along the way.