Sat, Sep 22nd - I70 from Fruita, CO to Richfield, UT

We hit the road at 7:00 a.m. and soon crossed the Utah border. Boy, what a difference in terrain! Most of the trip down I70 today was thru BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land. There seemed to be no human inhabitation! We did see some exits that said “Ranch”, but where they were we couldn’t see. There was a sign that said “Eagles on the Road”, but we didn’t get to see any. I guess they keep the “road kill” taken care of. We did see a lot of large black ravens. And we spied a few antelope. They sure blended in with the terrain and that yellow rabbitbrush was all along the interstate. Later in the day, we did pass Green River, where some of the injured miners were taken to the hospital after the mine cave in. A lot of what we saw today seemed to have a “pink” tint to it. We filled up both vehicles at the Flying J in Richfield. Over the doorway going into the Flying J was a sign that gave the Terrorist Threat Level—Yellow. We had not noticed this at any of the other Flying J’s coming across the US. There were ATVs everywhere in this small town—on the main streets! When we had lunch at a local Family Restaurant, I asked the waitress about this and she said that they were having an ATV Jamboree here in town this weekend and yes they are allowed to use the town’s streets. We soon had rain coming down, which continued all night. We had decided to stay here in Richfield at the Wal-Mart because Chuck had checked the weather report for Glendale and the Zion area and they were supposed to have heavy rains and flash floods. This was the first Wal-Mart that we’ve seen that was GREEN and beige and had a green sign out at the road. We’re so used to looking for their BLUE sign! Here are a few pictures of the terrain that we saw on I70:

Doesn't this terrain look like the skin of an elephant? Very different from the rest of the terrain. This part of the country must be like heaven to a geologist!

The sky is beginning to look ominous here. We did get to Richfield before it rained though.

http://www.untraveledroad.com/USA/Utah/Sevier/Richfield.htm Pictures of Richfield, UT

For the Grandkids: What famous person invented the Frisbee and where was he from?

Walter Frederick Morrison, the inventor of the Frisbee - was born in Richfield, UT. Fred claims that the original idea came to him while throwing a popcorn can lid with his girlfriend, Lu, whom he later married. The popcorn lid soon dented which led to the discovery that cake pans flew better and were more common. The two of them developed a little business selling "Flyin' Cake Pans" on the beaches of Santa Monica, CA. During World War II he learned something of aeronautics flying fighter-bombers in Italy. He was shot down and was a POW at Stalag 13. In 1946 he sketched out a design (called the Whirlo-Way) for the world's first flying disc. In 1948 he involved an investor, Warren Franscioni, who paid for molding his design out of plastic. This was the world's first plastic flying disc, and they named it the Flyin-Saucer. In 1954 Fred bought more of the Saucers from the original molders to sell at local fairs, but found he could produce his own disc more cheaply. In 1955 he and Lu designed the Pluto Platter, the archetype of all modern flying discs. On January 23, 1957 they sold the rights for the Pluto Platter to the Wham-O toy company. Initially it was marketed by Wham-O still as the "Pluto Platter", but in 1958 Wham-O added the name Frisbee, a (probably deliberate) misspelling of the name of the Frisbie Pie Company.