My Mum and step-dad are moving to New Zealand for a year (or not quite a year because of a certain wedding) and so before they go, my Mum and I were able to take a trip together. She retired this Summer and has wanted to go to Utah for a long time…so we booked our flights, I started panic booking hotels and we planned our route through the state.

Around the same time I was chosen to take part in a campaign with Caxton Card, the prepaid currency card service, that unlike our British credit and debit cards, doesn’t charge you for using your card abroad. In exchange for some adventure spending money, for those holiday essentials like coffee, cookies and In and Out Burger, I took over the Caxton Card instagram sharing our adventure. Would love if you could like a couple of the pics (and even give Caxton a cheeky follow?!)

It was brilliant to use for small little purchases like coffees, cookies and In and Out burger, without getting multiple charges on my bank statement. Also no need to worry about any fraudulant activity – you know when they seem to take your card away, then bring it back for you to sign the receipt without any pin input!, and if you have your card stolen, it’s easy to empty the funds.

It was accepted everywhere, unlike Amex, and couldn’t have been easier to use. I was able to top up while I was away too, and check my balance on the phone app, and keep my spending mostly under control, except for a brief slip up in J Crew Factory.

Our route would take us from Denver -> Moab -> Zion -> Bryce and back to Denver, covering over a thousand miles.

So, rewinding a week, lets go back to Denver. We stayed at Staybridge Suites, part of the IHG hotels, and a great airport hotel option. Jetlag woke us up stupidly early so we took advantage of the 24hr gym (which crazily was full at 5am), and completed a 25 minute incline treadmill workout from PBFingers. I was not prepared for the effect of the altitude change – Denver is over 5000ft above sea level.

Next stop was breakfast, and a family tradition of Einstein’s bagels, before hitting the road. I had planned in a convenient pit stop for coffee at the Silverthorne outlets to check out the J Crew Factory, bought a gold & black Moving Comfort bra and helped my Mum buy some new sports kit.

So much cream cheese…think I ended up scraping over half out.

Food on the road is never great, but we lucked out with a Chipotle and a great view before driving to our next stop at Grand Junction. In total we drove for 9+ hours before we made it to our B&B in Moab. It made the perfect base for day trips to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Dead Horse State Park.

I’ve got fun posts planned to share all about our trips in to the parks, including my first attempt Mountain Biking, hiking Angels Landing, and running through Bryce Canyon.

More to come tomorrow…for now I’m off to bed with an early run planned for the morning.