Park City to Denver - Day 3

Done wtih Park City and ready for a new adventure we departed from our cozy Lodge. Not as early as Jay wanted but still in the AM. As we all know mornings are not my best time of day and Jay got his fair share of dirty looks trying to wake me from my slumber : )

Before we hit the city limits we stopped for a spot of breakie. Itching to get on the road we chose a convenient Starbucks. I know, I know, it's a bit sacreligious supporting the big chains, but I needed something caffeinated and it was right there like a siren on the side of the road calling out to us.

While waiting in line to order our coveted chai lattes we found ourselves people watching again, one of our favorite pasttimes. The coffee (if you can still call it coffee) orders being made were borderline comical. For instance, a grande chocolate, chocolate chip frappacino, with chocolate sauce and NO whip. First of all, WHAT IS THAT, and does he really think that the 'no whip' is gonna make a difference in the calorie column? That's like ordering a "bacon cheese burger, oh and skip the cheese, gotta watch my girlish figure". I mean if you're gonna go for it, GO for it. My personal favorite was the venti tangerine latte, extra foam, light. Huh? There were 10 successive orders of the same calibar! Not to be outdone by the severly perky baristas, who obviously had been hitting the coffee HARD that morning. Jay and I both agreed that we had stepped into some sort of Saturday Night Live alternate universe. Spooky, but boy did we have a good laugh when we made it to the privacy of our car.

Back to the real world, we made our way on to Highway 6 to meet up with 70 East, our intended path to Colorado. This route took a bit little longer than staying on 80 East, but was well worth it. 6 into Southern Utah was a beautiful route with unreal rock formations. We highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in the area.

Not to overdo it with the entertainment references, but we saw a scene straight out of Dumb and Dumber (if you're not familiar, think Jim Carey). Cruising down highway 6 at a steady pace of 45 mph we saw a guy crouched over the handle bars of his sketchy looking scooter. Our first thought was, a local going from one farm to the next. But then we noticed the backpack and camping gear strapped to the back of his little, I mean l-i-t-t-l-e bike. He was wearing a leather helmet (??), looked European (he had the tell-tale haircut, tight pants, white leather sneakers, and dark tan), and showing the signs of a several day grime build up on his bike and clothing. Probably sounded like a great idea until he got out on the road!

Jay here. We were about 60 miles short of the Colorado border and I was hit with a bout of HGS. Hungry girl syndrome. Having dealt with this for a few years I knew that time was of the essence. We found a gas station / Arby's in the middle of nowhere, an oasis in a dry dry desert. Bad food being the only option, Sara ordered chicken strips (her standard fast food order) and tragedy was narrowly averted. Whew. Did I mention that the gas station had free wireless DSL? Weird.

On the road again and I pushed the Saabaru to 95 mph. The speed limit was 75 but she was feeling good. When Sara dozed off I pushed over 100, but let's keep that between us. Passed the Colorado state line. I'd heard great things about Grand Junction, CO, so we decided to take a slight detour to check it out. Turns out, not so Grand, in fact a very strange ghost town. Lots of out of place sculptures, suspicious meth heads, even a church group singing elvis songs in a park while passing out food. And the coup de etat was the Halliburton billboard promising endless career growth. They're hiring and I'm getting us the fuck out of here.

Made it safely back to 70. Ahh the open road. We drove through some beautiful canyons along the Colorado River. God's country.

In need of fuel, we found ourselves in the one gas station town of Gypsum. Which would have otherwise been unworthy of mention, but were it not for the an engineering feat we call the Budweiser truck. It was a home modify job if I had ever seen one. The owner had chopped the bed of the truck off, including the gas tanks/guts. So all that was left was the flat bed/frame. He then proceeded to weld two Budweiser (red, white, and blue) kegs to the frame, positioned right up against the back of his cab, and used them as gas tanks! We actually witnessed him filling them up. Fire department anyone? Would that be the true definition of a redneck?

Left Gypsum and its Bud truck. Back on the road and we were rolling along smoothly . . . passed by Parachute, Rifle, Vail, Beaver Creek, Copper and Frisco. Then the rain started, on and off, even a little lightening. 60 miles outside of Denver and things got really messy. Averaging 15mph, I started to lose my cool. Sara said I looked like an angry caged monkey (sounds an all) and I can't deny it. What should have taken less than an hour turned into a 3 hour trek. My clutch foot was red hot. But we pushed through . . .

Finally Denver in all it's glory. It was 9pm. HGS was threating. Our good friend Charlie to the rescue. He and his girlfriend Heather provided some home cooked fajitas and a place to lay our heads. Weary heads. Good night.

We get to check out downtown Denver tomorrow and who knows what sort of craziness tomorrow will bring . . .