Travelog for: Frogger

Today my buddy Jimbo Elephant and I went out to explore the back yard.  We found a huge raging river when we stopped on the bridge and decided to follow it upstream.



The river stretched out for a long way in the distance.



We found several interesting waypoints.







At the top of the river we came to a huge waterfall and rapids. 



Then Wourpet found us and took us up above the falls to see where the water was coming from.  She told us this is for irrigation of the yard and garden and the trees in the orchard.



We thought that was pretty cool and then we went all the way back down stream and sat on the bank and watched the water go by.



I am thinking we might build a raft.

Today we got to travel.  We got a nice comfiy spot on the dash of the truck where we could see out the window.


Soon after we started on our voyage it started to storm.  We were worried it would be a very stormy trip.



We drove right through the storm and soon it was nice and clear again.



We drove into some very steep mountains and wourpet told us we would be climbing right up over top of them.


and we did



and there was snow up on top of the mountains too!


The first town we came to was Rangely, Colorado.

The next town after Rangley was Dinosaur.  Wourpet said there were lots of dinosaur around and we saw 2 of them.  It was very strange because the dinosaur we saw were in corrals.





This is a picture off a postcard.



Dinosaur is a very small town with only about 300 people and almost that many dinosaurs.  It's funny, though, because on the fences where the dinosaurs are there is a sign that says 'No Pets'

We arrived at Vernal Utah not long after we were in Dinosaur.  They are close together and the Dinosaur National Monument is in between.
The first thing we saw as we came into town was another Dinosaur.  This was a very big pink one!

Wow I wish Jimbo was still here!  Remember when we explored the river and wanted to go rafting?  Well today was even better and I got to drive a speed boat down the river.

Meet my new friend Picado.  He lives here but he has been away travelling for over a year and just got home.  He sure has lots of stories to tell.





Today we went to Highline Lake State Park and Mack Mesa Lake.  It was really windy at both Lakes but we came back to Highline Lake to have a picnic in the park.



When we left the park we drove back home through the farms and ranches.

Today we drove up on top of Grand Mesa to Vega Lake State Park.


It wasn't a long drive but it was a steep drive and we climbed up onto the top of the largest flat topped mountain in the world.


On the top we drove to the lake and it still had snow in places around it and there were no leaves on the trees.

We had a birthday party for JamaBanaDukLuv and played a game with a crystal ball.


Then we gave JamaBana the Royal Bumps -- well just one bump -- it was his first birthday.



All of us got to go outside and roast marchmallows over the fire.



We stayed out very late telling travel stories around the fire.



And the marshmallows were yummy too!

WOW!  Yippee! Today we are going on a road trip.


Lucky Ducky will be going with me and we're starting by heading east from Grand Junction into the Rocky Mountains.
We will be traveling on I-70.






As we travel into the mountains we start going through a lot of tunnels.









We stopped in Glenwood Canyon for a break and got out and stretched our legs.





Glenwood Canyon is on I-70 in western Colorado, about 150 miles west of Denver and 90 miles east of Grand Junction. The 16 mile-long canyon is on the Colorado River between the towns of Glenwood Springs and Gypsum. A huge engineering challenge was undertaken starting in the 1980s to complete one of the last stretches of Interstate Highway through the canyon. Transportation, environmental, recreational and economic considerations all had to be taking into account before the completed highway opened in 1992. In the end, the canyon ended up with a freeway snaking through its length using bridges, tunnels and retaining walls to create a highway that did not hurt, and even contributed to, the canyon's appearance.

We are still going through the mountains and after we left the Glenwood Canyon we had more of the same.


The view is spectacular and we keep getting higher and higher.



The higher we get the cooler it gets and we come right up high beside the snow in places.



Way up high in the Rocky Mountains on Insterstate 70 is a tunnel.  The Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel is the highest vehicular tunnel in the world at an average height of 11,112 ft. (3400 meters). 



The Tunnel is right up there on top of the great divide. It is 1.7 miles (2.75 km) long.

After we came out of the tunnel we started coming down out of the mountains. 

Denver is known as the Mile High City but we had to come down because we were over 2 miles high.



Denver is located where the mountains meet the plains and after we got to Denver everything was really flat.


It was so flat and boring Lucky-Ducky fell asleep.  And then I fell asleep.

When we woke up we were in Nebraska and had stopped at a rest area near Ogallala.  We were on I-80 now and wourpet said we had come up from I-70 on I-76. 

The elevation was under 1000 feet and I felt heavier.


We wandered around and looked at the signs.  This is part of the Blue Star Highway and the Purple Heart Trail -- in honor of the American Veterans.



Then we climbed back in the truck and settled in for some more flat landscape.

We finally made it to our destination but first we got a little bit of bad weather.

In Nebraska I got excited because we were coming to a Fort.



It was Fort Kearny but what we were seeing was the great Platte River Road Archway in honor of the wagon trails that converged here.

Then we noticed damage where a tornado had gone through and as we drove we had storms circling all around us.









We got out for a bite to eat and watched the storm moving in.  It was very hot and very humid.

Well the storm followed us right into Ames and it has rained and rained and rained.  Today there was a little break in the down pour so we went out for a drive on Highway 69.  Many of the highways are closed because of all the water.  It is flooding everywhere.









It looked like there was a lot of lakes here but these were supposed to be corn fields.  You could see some corn around the edges in places but mostly you could see ducks and geese swimming in the corn fields.

Yesterday wourpet was apologizing to us because everything was so wet and we said "Hey, you are talking to a frog and a duck here" so today she took us to a real lake instead of the flood.  The lake is a glacier pool called Littel Wall Lake.
Little Wall Lake is near Jewell, Iowa.