Moving Along

I talked to the mechanic at the shop earlier this week and found out that the estimate on the car is done, but he is waiting to get approval from the insurance company to order the parts and do the repairs, meaning that it will be at least another week until the car is ready to go. Instead of hanging around in Crested Butte, I decided to rent a car in Gunnison for the next week until I leave to head back to North Carolina for the weekend. I am picking up the car tomorrow and was planning on heading north to South Dakota for a few days before going west to Yellowstone. After checking the weather, it appears that it is turning cold both places with overnight lows in the low 30's in SD and down into the low teens in Wyoming. After seeing this, I decided to head west instead of north, and take a chance on the weather not being any worse up north when I get back from NC in a couple of weeks. While I have the rental car I am hoping to hit Fruita, CO for an afternoon to ride the Zippity-Do-Dah trail (video here) before heading to Moab, UT and hiking Arches National Park and Canyonland National Park, as well as ride the legendary Slickrock Trail in Moab. After that, the plan is to head up to Salt Lake City and take a dip in the great salt lake before stopping for a quick hike in Dinosaur National Monument. After that, it will be back to Gunnison to turn in the car and hop on a bus for Denver, where I will fly back east. This all looks good on paper, but my plans so far haven't exactly gone as scheduled, so who knows what will actually happen.