Today was an educating...then traveling day as we began this morning with a trip to the Utah Field Museum of Natural History.  We were advised by the hostess to see the video first, and it was a perfect introduction to the scientific work being done with all the fossils in an 80 mile radius of Vernal, Utah.  When the movie concluded we exited through a display of an actual dinosaur "dig" site and it was very well done.  There were opportunites for the kids (and us) to match dinosaur bones, and put them together...we could also "dig" for a dinosaur bone, and there was a display where we had to decide if the object was a fossil or not.  Needless to say, we had a great time learning about dinosaurs, fossils, and minerals!  Next, we loaded up Magellan II and Magellan I headed east on Highway 49 toward Grand Junction, Colorado.  Jim had programmed the GPS system (aka Susie), who took us on the fastest route to Grand Junction, CO.  Little did we know, and obiviously Susie didn't know, that she was taking us on the WORST road known to Colorado citizens...HWY 139!! We thought we were riding a bucking bronco...and then...just as we came to the bottom of a mountain, we realized Magellan was now going to have to go UP that mountain 8,000 feet.  For an hour we were going up the mountain at 20 miles per hour and then down the other side at 20 miles per hour.  Luckily, the road improved a little bit as we neared I-70...and it was smoother sailing into our RV campsite.  It was 3:45 PM by this time, and we needed to get a late lunch/early supper...so we headed into town.  We went back to "Enzio's Italian Cafe" that Doug & Jamie (John's cousin) had introduced us to in June when we were here.  The food was delicious...but just as we were ready to head  back to the basecamp...we hit a BIG roadblock.  Little did we know the President of the US was in town to give as speech...so every road back was now closed to us!  Luckily, we were able to follow some locals who knew a "back" way out of the area, and were able to escape the big hold up to our camp!

Here's a couple of photos from the museum and then the crazy road we were on. 

Allosaurus skeleton & mural

Activity area...try to match the missing dino bone

Model of a dinosaur "dig" site

Fish Fossil

Lifesize Raptor model

It was difficult to get a good picture of this horrible road...here's one attempt.

Typical Colorado Mountain that sometimes you HAVE to climb...in an RV!!

The road was also "open range"...so here are a couple of thirsty cows
in the ditch beside HWY 139!!