Days 9 and 10: Leaving Here (Colorado) and Arriving There (Utah)!

"A lot of moving, a lot of rolling

A lot of driving, a lot of strolling

A lot of leaving here, arriving there

Trying to go just about everywhere

A lot of thinking about where I'm going next."

-"A Lot of Moving" by the Avett Brothers

On Monday, we got back on the road and headed north out of Colorado. It wasn't long before we crossed the border of Wyoming.  Immediately, there was one big, noticeable difference in Wyoming - it was windy as get-out!  No matter where we went, the wind was gusting, but it was especially blustery on the highway. At first, we thought the truckers in Wyoming were not very nice and were initiating new drivers onto the highway by running them off the road, but it turns out it is just that hard for them to handle their trucks at 70-80 miles per hour in 40+ mile per hour wind gusts. 

We decided to visit Cheyenne, Wyoming, since it was right along our route into Utah.  It was a cute town!  Many of our towns back home do the painted statues of different things - bears, cows, etc.  In Cheyenne, they do the cowboy boots, as you can see in our selfie above.  

Of course, we had to stop for some coffee, as had unintentionally become a theme of our trip up to this point!  Cheyenne has an awesome coffee shop located inside an old theater.  The baristas even dress up in old-time garb! Paramount also had a great thing going on inside - a "Pass it On" board, where people could buy a free drink gift certificate and name who (specific or generic) they wanted it to go to, and they were hung on a wall to be claimed by anybody who fit the description.  There were free drink cards sitting there waiting for veterans, active military, police officers, and friends.  It was a great idea!

We got into Utah around dinnertime and checked into the Alaskan Inn near Ogden, Utah.  This place was absolutely adorable!  It was designed inside and out to look like a cabin in the Alaskan wilderness.  It was tucked snugly into the Ogden Canyon, which made it nice and quiet and picturesque.  You got to choose your breakfast and breakfast time from a menu at check-in, and breakfast was delivered on a tray to your door at the time you chose.  That's' service!  And the breakfasts were delicious!  We definitely recommend this place for anybody staying in the area.  We went out for dinner that night at Hearth on 25th - something a little fancier than we typically choose, but boy was it delicious!  And, we tried our first edible cookie dough shop for dessert - Ookie Dough!  Yum!  But even though we both got the smallest possible size, we both walked away with that incredibly guilty feeling that you have when you eat your own cookie dough at home.  

On Tuesday, we spent some time in and around Ogden.  One great stop was Union Station, where you can visit four museums in one.  We enjoyed watching the model train displays bring Utah railroad history to life in Utah State Railroad Museum.  We learned about the history of the Browning Firearms brand at the Browning Firearms Museum.  We saw some beautiful examples of historic cars in the Browning Kimball Car Museum.  And we learned a lot about the history of rodeos and cowboy-western culture from the tiny but packed Utah State Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.  There was even a great art exhibit that was temporarily housed in the building where I got to seen an entry from the artist Faith Ringgold, who turned one of her pieces of art into the children's picture book Tar Beach.  After all that walking, we had worked up an appetite, and we discovered Waffle Love - a food truck turned restaurant that was as delicious as it sounds!  

We knew there was an air force museum nearby, but after being told by a local shopkeeper that it rivals the Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum we had visited in Ohio at the beginning of our trip, we decided to head out there.  We only had about 45 minutes to visit, because the museum was closing, but we were able to see a lot in a short time.  RJ snapped the above photo of an F-16 just as they were turning the lights off to signal closing time, and it made for a great photo op!  Once the museum was closed, it was just about time for our next former Berks County friend meet-up.  We were so glad to visit with Ed and Cindy and enjoy lots of laughs over our first ever In-and-Out Burger!  And thanks, Cindy, for letting us in on the secret menu options!  Yum!

One more ride back to the Alaskan Inn, and then it would be time to move on to the next state!  RJ swore this canyon reminded him of Catastrophe Canyon on the Disney/MGM Backlot Tour.  He was certain the waterfall was going to flood the road and the pipe was going to burst into flames every time we drove through.  We had to share that with all of you!  Nevada and California coming your way soon!