Catching Up (and Dinosaurs!)

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I know I've been posting a LOT of Monument Valley entries, but as we continue down the road, the memories fade, so for me the blogs and pictures are important.

HOWEVER . . .

We have been doing a lot since we left Monument Valley.

One of my favorite places we've visited was the Dinosaur Museum in Blanding, Utah.

It had lots of information, several skeletons, beautifully presented. In addition to that, they had a fabulous display of vintage toys and a fine selection of items representing dinosaurs in the movies.

This is one of the first
mass marketed dinosaur toys,
tied in to the release
of the 1925 blockbuster,
the Lost World.
And they say movie marketing
is a fairly recent phenomenon.

I didn't take a lot of skeleton pictures,
I thought this one
could represent them all.

They also had a huge selection
dino-related comics.

Lots of them!

Then we happened
on a most amazing thing.

There, in a glass case
was the ACTUAL model
of the brontasaur
that was used in the making of
King Kong!
Not a reproduction, but the actual one.
For movie buffs like us,
this was a special treat.

This was such a cool thing.
If you look at this closeup,
you can see the gears and armature
that made it work.

What a treasure.

Then we came across
another wonderful piece of
movie making art.

While not a perfect shot,
I took this picture of their
stop motion set up.

Is this cool or what?

A great museum, and a perfect place to spend an afternoon. Put it on your "things to do" list.

Now to backtrack a bit.

I wanted to once again mention Devil's Canyon, a truly spectacular campground. If you ever find yourself between Blandings and Monticello Utah, stop in, it can't be beat.

While we were there, one evening, two ladies came strolling by. I was at the window and we began chatting. Before you could say Boo! we seemed to be friends.

This happens to those of us on the road, a perk of this lifestyle.

As we talked, it turned out that we are both bloggers and have run across each other on the web. Their travels are great and the photographs beautiful. If you'd like to check out their blog, click here.

We also discovered that we follow some of the same blogs, including a couple named Laurie and Odel. In looking at their most recent entry, we discovered we were heading in the same direction. We emailed them, and just a few days later, had dinner together in the tiny burg of Torrey, Utah.

It's a small world out here, but the internet truly keeps us connected