Day Log 07.27.05 Wednesday

We were up at 6 and out the door at 7:30 after packing the last of the things I had planned for a one lamp I had not planned for. Seems mom woke up this morning hearing Grandma Maxfield telling her to take that lamp so we found a safe space for it, grabbed a quick bite, said our good by’s and headed down the road. Only after 12 1/2 hours and 725 miles later did we stop for the night in Fort Morgan, CO. We did need to stop for gas, food and my water breaks a time or two but decided it would be better to start Thursday on the east side of Denver, so and hour on the east of Denver we headed. One thing to understand is we had breakfast at 11 and couldn’t seem to agree on a supper spot while traveling through the mountains west of Denver. I will let all of you figure out what the mood was like for the last three hours of the trip.

J was right we were in Grand Junction, UT, in six hours. We left St. George headed up I-15 to Cedar City picked up Rt-14 over to Rt-89 and followed it up to I-70 East. The country side in that part of the trip was different with about every 10 miles traveled, We wee in the high mountains, high meadows where mom spotted deer before I did, down into the lower farm land and along the Servier River as it cut its way north. I was not paying attention to the speed through the canyon just before connecting to I-70 and pasted a local sheriff doing more than allowed just as mom said slow down. We watched him go by, hit his cherry’s, break and flip a U turn, I had found a spot off the road by that time and he was back to me in less then a minute. I think because he didn’t have to chase us, we had all the paper work on dash, had the door open but still in the car made it easier on us. His question as he came to the door was. “Did you bring lots of money for this trip?”. We walked for a few minutes and he said:” I am not in the mood to write a ticked this morning, slow down, watch for the constructions up the road two miles, and have a good trip.” Needless to say I set the cruise control and we stayed right on track for the rest of the day. We stopped in Richfield, UT, for breakfast and then traveled I-70 into Denver up, through, and down the mountains that have so many ski resorts, golf courses, condo’s, and homes that the wild life have to book a space to pee three months in advance. It is beautiful country, but just too many people for us to think about living there. As we dropped down from 10789 fee into the Mile High City the traffic had a speed limit of 65 and traffic going 80 or more in all three lanes, trucks with no brakes would make a mess of things but we were lucky and got out without seeing problems. I just lost a lot of hair wondering why we had to go so fast. Little car had some problems with the climb up the west side but going down the east side we made up for lost time. It is notable that getting onto I-76 for the trip up to I-80 took us right into the high plains. I wonder why so much of the land is unused for anything, only to realize that water is needed.

We did find a little place to stay at about 8:15 and the restaurant attached closed at nine so we ate then unpacked. It is 10:30 and time to sleep. I will try to get the last three days on line tomorrow either in the morning or evening. I do think we will be stopping sooner, so we can make the whole trip.