Friday 24th June

We finish breakfast and leave Lake at just after 9:00. We drive through Yellowstone and leave the park, setting off on our way to Dinosaur National Monument. It will be a long drive and we will not have much time to stop. I am still not feeling well. The mosquito bites have shrunk but are still just as itchy as yesterday and the medication knocks me out. The long journey ahead of us means I will need to take my turn driving. I took some of my pills when I woke this morning so Stewart drives first and I will drive this afternoon after their effect has worn off. I won't be able to take more until we arrive and I am hoping that concentrating on driving will distract from the discomfort.

We drive south. After leaving Yellowstone we pass through Grand Teton national park and continue on south through Wyoming. It starts to rain, heavily. It is the first rain we have seen during our trip but it somehow seems fitting given my miserable, mosquito bite affected mood. We watch the bleak moorlands slowly pass by between the beating windscreen wipers. The rain shrinks the wide landscape, closing round us somehow making us feel more isolated in our little car.  We drive along the rim of the dramatic Flaming Gorge, with its bright red rocky walls wet with the lashing rain but the weather damps our interest photo opportunities. Mid afternoon and we cross from Wyoming into Utah.

An hour or so later we arrive in Vernal and look for a motel. It has been a long day. We check in, I take more of my medication, flop down and try to rest.  The pills make me drowsy and help me to nod off. When I come round I feel hung over and am now struggling to write this diary entry.  Less than a page, but it will have to do.