Monday, July 18, 2011

James says

Day 3. We made it to the geographic center this morning. It was about as expected, just a simple monument, but it was well taken care of and the locals do care about it.

We stopped in town so that Kelsey could buy a souvenir shirt. Quaint probably sums it up.
Headed back out, still on the back roads for awhile, but the speed limits are ridiculously friendly. towns are posted at 50, everything else is 60+, mostly 70. We found many stretches to do well better than that, straight roads are the standard and while the terrain is relatively flat, it is rolling. We could crest a hill and see 5-7 miles of deserted straight road. Roll on.
Made it to Colorado low on gas. The prices are cheaper in Colorado, and a dime a gallon adds up...to $1.30 a tank. Yeah, real budget buster, but it was the principle of the something something.. Anyhow, it's a good 10 miles into Colorado before a gas station. We finally got to one and the car quit at the pump. I have never had better luck in timing. After a refill, it took a bit to get it started again, but now I know where bone dry is!
We made good time toward Denver, I do have to note that the land before Denver was quite flat, flatter than Kansas. Seeing for miles is an understatement. As we approached Denver, we started getting our first glimpses of the Rockies.

Wow! Rolling through Denver brought the mountains up close. Beautiful scenery. Spectacular scenery. It really has to be seen, as pictures can only hint at the dramatic impact of the views.
Again the speed limits were more than friendly. More than once I had to back off the 75 mph limit, especially on the 6% downgrades. I-70 is really a nice route and we ended the day following along the Colorado River for 20 miles or so. The interstate winds along the river, cutting through tunnels at times, giving some great views of the canyon.

We stopped at Glenwood Springs, and it looks like we get to follow it some more as we head off toward Utah tomorrow. I am loving it!


Kelsey says: Geographic center was amazing. They had this adorable little chapel that reminded me that we were probably more in the bible belt than we were back home.


They also had this abandoned motel type thing in the back that I wanted to explore but time called us away. I did get this super awesome shirt from this little tiny store that was a grocery/deli/hardware/souvenir shop. It had probably been around since the early 1900s.

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