Fossils, ya dig?

Labor day, a day of rest for some...a day of back breaking labor for me and my peeps! Thanks to the Discovery show Cash and Treasures my aunt and cousin found out about the trilobite fossil digging place in Delta, Utah. From what the nice man in the overalls said, this is one of only two places in the world where the layer of rock, slate, where trilobites can be found on the surface. And they could be found everywhere! It was pretty cool, if you like hard work and ancient marine creatures.

Whatcha talkin' 'bout Willis?

I had to take my car to a place to get the seats cleaned today, because one of my clients from work had an accident...yeah. So I took it to Supersonic Car Wash in Provo. As I was sitting in the waiting room, a short black man came in and walked across the length of the room and then got on his cell phone. He looked just like Gary Coleman, but I wasn't about to just assume it was him, I mean, not all short black guys are Gary Coleman...they could be Emmanuel Lewis, haha, just kidding. Anyway, so I got to thinking how I could find out if it was really him and I had an idea about asking the lady at the register after he paid, to just ask if it was him. But I didn't need to cuz as soon as he got on his phone he said "Hi, this is Gary Coleman, I'm calling about my hotel reservation." Bingo!! And then some dude came in and said "Hi Gary!" like he was a regular there...that and him lingering there, walking around the outside, like he owned the place (typical Gary Coleman behavior? I don't know) got me thinking that he did really own the place. I can't find anything online about it, but he is a Utah resident. He married some Utah girl after doing the movie "Church Ball". So who knows, maybe he is a regular at the Supersonic Car Wash on Freedom Blvd, sporting his green crocs. Oh, that's just a recent picture of him from Wikipedia. I didn't take a picture of him, I'm not that daring.

Overview

So overall, I had a great trip with Nate. Here's a list of things that stick out in my mind:

-sharing my rockin' red aviator sunglasses

-both of us asking, "Do you have the keys?" to avoid getting them locked in the car

-string cheese: I ate mine by stringing it, while Nate just took bites out of his

-chocolate pudding!

-rocking out to Billy Joel

-our two favorite songs on the road Katie Perry's "I kissed a Girl" and "American Boy" by Estelle

-Nate's text message tone on his phone: it's a huge long song! I got sick of it and "threw" Nate's phone at him a couple times. It kept going off and Nate was sleeping, I thought he might want to see the texts...so I lovingly tossed the phone onto him as he slept...

-mandatory hugs at rest stops!

-Nate getting hit on by truckers

There were many more fun moments, I might add 'em as comments as I remember them. The driving wasn't really that bad until we hit the long stretches in Iowa and Nebraska. If we had some point of interests to stop, I think it would've gone by faster. I'd do it all again, even though Nate's pretty much against it. We might just stick to vacations, not road trips. But I love Nate and am glad we had this fun experience together!

Day 5

next time I'm definetly going!
I didn't get to see it, but I trust that it's there

Castle Rock
pretty sunset over the Rockies
see the one pinpont of light? that's the evil bunny...staring you down
Nate liked how the mall was advertizing a book about Gordon B. Hinckley. Only in Utah!

So we left straight from the waterfall to head west. But on our way north, up to Denver to catch the right higway, we got a call from Nate's dad saying that a cousin had passed away. We then stopped in Castle Rock to try to get a car charger for his phone...only to find out that my charger thing in my car doesn't work! Oops! So then we continued west, and saw a sign for Buffalo Bill's gravesite! Nate was nice and let me pull off and drive the 15 minutes out of the way to see the sight...only to have it close 1 minute after we got there! So we used their bathroom, and headed back down to the highway. Driving through the mountains was crazy, mostly because it was dark. So we drove and drove and got to Utah, and then Nate drove and drove while I slept and slept...and then we stopped at a gross rest stop and got a picture of an evil bunny. We got to my aunt and uncle's house in Orem at about 5:30 am. But we did it!!

Friends!!

Nate reflecting on life

The whole gang!

Cassie and Rick walking back from the bridge overlooking the falls
hanging out showing some booty
umm...yeah...

Nate trying to get some good shots of Cassie and Jacob
Nate, our GQ model
Mandie and I taking a picture of eachother

fun with friends before heading out

No, the falls aren't named after the actress, but an activist for Native American rights back in the day

Driving Day 5 got off to a slow start. First we drove to Colorado Springs to meet up with Nate's dad for dinner. Then we met back up with Cassie, Mandie and Rick (Mandie's fiance) and we got Kalia's car an oil change. Nate's dad suggested we do that before we headed over the big huge Rocky Mountains. But before we left we all went to this nice waterfall up in the canyon. It was really beautiful and a nice way to end our time together.

Colorado!

After hours and hours of endless Nebraska road, we finally made it to Colorado. It took a while to get to Denver, but we were so excited to see a real city! And we were excited to meet up with our friends Cassie and Mandie. We stayed in Castle Rock at Cassie and Johnnie's house. Their baby Jacob is adorable! And so friendly. He just seemed like a generally happy baby. We stayed in and hung out. We played a game called Like Minds, where you list stuff from categories and try to get the same items listed as your partner. Nate and I dominated. We beat the married couple and the engaged one! haha!