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Western Trip 2014, Day #3 (Senior Okeechobee Campers)

By August 2, 2014 January 4th, 2019 Tak Talk
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After the 7:30 AM wake up and breakfast in the university’s student union, we said goodbye to our dorms in Salt Lake City and headed 235 miles south. Moab, Utah was our destination. As we traveled through Utah, we had movies playing on the bus, but it was the landscape that stole the show. As our Camp Takajo group drove through valleys, we looked up hundreds of feet to the top of beautiful mountains. There were also places that were so flat that we could see cars coming miles away. The rocks changing from brown to red as we approached our destination.
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Once in Moab, we settled into our hotel and grabbed dinner. After dinner, there was a short period of shopping, but we had to hurry back to our hotel. At 6:30 PM, one of the moments we all were waiting for happened. The four Hummers showed up at our hotel. We were waiting in the lobby and were truly elated when we saw the first Hummer. We loaded up in these off-road beasts and drove through town.
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As we passed people, they waved, and we honked the horns. Our driver took us outside of the city limits to the Slickrock section of Moab. We climbed up and down petrified sand for two hours. Sometimes, we were going forward, and sometimes we were backwards. Sometimes, we would come off a wheel as we went down the face of a rock. The 55-degree angle of the rock faces made it feel as if we were going to tip over backwards.
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There were plenty of photo opportunities, and the Okees made the most of them. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I feel as though that sells these pictures short. After the sun began to fade to orange and red over the hills of the Moab desert, it was time to head back to the hotel. Our Hummer drivers dropped us off, and the Okees were on cloud nine. To cap off a great day, we swam in the pool at the hotel until bedtime. Tomorrow, after a few hikes, we are on the move again. Cedar City, here we come!