OurBigAdventure

Since Chris mentioned the GPS update I wanted to mention something I read in the recent issue of Travel and Leisure - the June 2010 issue. It said that a lot of tourists are getting tickets throughout Europe - speeding tickets, red light running tickets and even tickets for not having the special permit to drive in that town (it mentions Central London for the permit). There is a lot of talk about if this is in fact a scam or not - many unknowing tourists are getting letters in the mail several months after their vacations saying they owe a fine on a ticket. With rental car companies in the middle that mixes things up a bit, too. How are you going to remember exactly where and when you were in a specific intersection several months ago? I can see where this could definitely be a scam - either by the government issuing the fine or even by the rental car company.

I know I wouldn't remember where we were! On our road trip last summer we were always checking our email and our bank sends us an email every time we buy something with our debit card. Somewhere around week two of our four week trip we got an email saying we had spend $400 at a skateboard shop in Germany. We were trying to figure out if it was a place we had visited along our trip that was based in Germany and with lots of thinking we just couldn't figure it out. How could we forget a $400 purchase?? We went over and over and finally we decided to call and find out more information. It turns out that somewhere on the trip someone got our credit card number and ordered the stuff - and we hadn't been the one buying it. We did get our money back, too. Thanks, PayPal!

One GPS that has a map of traffic camera locations all over Europe (except Germany since they are outlawed there) is the Garmin Nuvi 255W GPS for $180. If you happen to own this GPS, let us know how it is!

We felt like we were on a treasure hunt, or maybe something right out of Indiana Jones. The massive rock formation shot right out of the desert floor and we had no idea where we were going to find an arch on this stop.



A faint trail lead us through an opening in the rocks and took us deep into the heart of the formation. The rock walls were massive and if it was not for the footprints in the sand we would not have known which way to go.



We walked farther and farther into the formation without seeing an arch. The sand became softer and it was really becoming a workout just to keep going. But we didn't want to miss this arch, from what we heard this was one was worth seeing. And that's when we found it, Sand Dune Arch.



Maybe it was the effort that made this Arch so impressive but this Arch was really cool! If only we had another night, this Arch would be so much fun to shoot with long exposures and gelled flashlights. (Looks like we need to plan another trip) And it is much bigger than it looks here in the photo.



Standing among these large rock formations made me feel like I was in Superman's Desert Fortress. And the sand was pure powder which made it very tough to walk to and from this arch.



This was our favorite arch on our visit to Arches National Park and unfortunately it was the last one we would get to see because we had to head back to Denver to meet up with the gang for the next leg of our trip. We took one last photo of our favorite Arch then headed back to the car to hit the road.

We headed up the trail to Landscape Arch, it was early and there were not many people on the trail which was nice. It was a long walk down the trail before we found the Arch but it was well worth the effort, it was HUGE!



This arch is 290 feet across and at its thinnest point is only 6 feet think. Back in 1991 a 73 foot slab of rock fell off of the Arch and two more chunks of rock fell in 1995. It is an amazing thing to see and worth the trip to Moab, Utah if you can make it before Landscape Arch is gone forever.

We had to prove we were there so of course we took our photo with the arch...



But we couldn't get close enough to this local to get a photo with him.



I wonder if he knows that this canyon is called Rattlesnake Canyon?