The Tipping Point

VERNAL, Utah -- On the first day of our second week we passed into our seventh state of this trip. Welcome to Utah. To date, we've traveled just under 1600 miles.

At about 1:30 yesterday, as we were making our way through Rabbit Ears Pass in Colorado, we passed a small sign that said we were passing from the Atlantic Ocean watershed to the Pacific Ocean watershed. The Great American Tipping Point, the actual Continental Divide. It happened so quick and on a road so narrow we couldn't even turn around to get a picture.

I must say getting off the highway has left us feeling much more connected to real America. Gone are the homogeneous strip malls and Anywhere, U.S. exits.

Along the way to this stop on our journey we had lunch on the Muddy River, which wasn't so much actually. We cooled our feet in its cool mountain waters, skipped rocks and Amelia tried her hands at little bouldering.

Vernal seems a nondescript high desert town, just across the state line from Dinosaur, the last town on Route 40 before leaving Colorado.

When we arrived it was still in the 90s and with enough time before sundown to order a Pizza, swim in the pool and get in a round of putt-putt golf. Marley and the kids watched a movie huddled together in the bed in back and I promptly passed out on the couch.

But the temperatures swing wide here. By dawn, we were all shivering under our covers.

Today, we're hoping to make it all the way up through Utah, past the Great Salt Lake and into Idaho.