Day 7 found us attending WGU’s “All Hands” meeting at the Delta Center arena in downtown Salt Lake City. About 1,500 employees gathered for the highly polished, heavily produced event also brought in thousands more employees who gathered at viewing hubs across the country. It was quite a spectacle! Kudos to the production team—they kept…
The sixth day of our Salt Lake adventure was the first opportunity Cliff had to meet in person with his entire team after more than 10 years with Western Governors University. While Cliff spent some time earlier in the day getting a new tire (it was beyond repair) and shopping for supplies, Jon logged an…
The long drive from Estes Park to Salt Lake City was mostly uneventful. Driving along Highway 34 to Loveland was spectacular. The drive along Highway 287 from Fort Collins to Laramie, not so much. Although the ridges, or “hogbacks” in the foothills north of Fort Collins were colorful and unique, they were no comparison to…
We returned to Rocky Mountain National Park, a promise we made to ourselves when we first visited five years ago. Then we spent five days exploring the park, from end to end and all points in between. This time, we decided to include a hike on the Tundra Communities Trail, located at Rock Cut near…
Deciding whether to take a driving tour of Rocky Mountain National Park or attend the Estes Park Wine Festival was an easy choice: we went with the wine. And we’re so glad we did. The ninth annual event, held in beautiful Bond Park, was an absolute joy. The weather was ideal. Bond Park, located in…
Our second day of travel found us driving from Amarillo to Estes Park, a route that took us through Oklahoma and into Eastern Colorado. This westernmost portion of the Great Plains is sparsely populated, largely farmland, with many small farming communities. In fact, more than 90 percent of the farms in Eastern Colorado are family…
Cliff was offered the opportunity to visit Salt Lake City for meetings with his team from Western Governors University and commencement exercises, so we decided to camp there for the week. The first day of our Salt Lake adventure was spent driving from Dallas to Amarillo, traversing seemingly endless miles of oil fields, cattle ranches,…
The combination of unseasonably warm weather and water main repairs at Cedar Hill State Park brought us back to Loyd Park after many months. We had been away so long, in fact, that a Spec’s wine and liquor store was built nearby during our absence! We arrived at 6:15, after spending nearly an hour in…
Our Thanksgiving visit with Jon’s family began the weekend before Turkey Day, as we readied Cloud 9 for its long road trip. We camped at nearby Cedar Hill State Park, where we enjoyed mild weather ahead of what promised to be an unseasonable cold snap in the St. Louis area. Preparation included checking the tires…
We decided to start our second full day in Flagstaff with a hardy breakfast at Mary’s Cafe, a fixture on Route 66 since 1961. As we’ve come to expect from these old-time roadside diners, the food was great, the service was better, and the coffee kept flowing. After a brief return to Cloud 9 to…
Garinns on the Go 