Day 2: Hays, KS motel. Breakfast includes waffles, weird egg disks, and biscuits and sausage. The term "Continental Breakfast" has a wide range of meanings on the road.
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Hay! Would you look at that!Old energy (plains mosquitoes sucking oil) and new energy (wind turbines).
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Another juxtaposition of old and new energy. Tanks for the memories.
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Stopped at a TA gas station "Travel Center" with a wildlife theme.
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Real Kansas, off of the Interstate, continued west on US-40 to US-287 to CO-96
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Everything brown and sere as far as the eye can see. Back before the interstates, this location on US40 was a full service rest area. All that remains is the sign, a picnic table, and the ruins of a building fallen into its basement.
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I like road mirages.
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There are no rest areas on the old highways. We changed drivers in a one grain elevator town here on US-40 in western Kansas
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Colorful Karen cleans the windshield to better see "Colorful" Colorado
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Looking back, Kansas wasn't so bad.
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What is left of the once-functional welcome center on US-40 entering Colorado.
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Trying to make time, so we just zoomed past many Points of Interest in Kansas and eastern Colorado
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We did moo at occasional herds of hamburgers
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Lunch time. Karen digs out the comestibles. Driving is easy out here: No traffic and well cared for roads good for, um, 65 mph, as posted. Ahem.
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Typical traffic here on (I think) CO-96
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The road, CO-96, made a jog in Sugar City, to cross the tracks a couple of times. We stopped to change drivers. Also noted a few of the interesting things as we passed through the center of town.
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First glimpse of mountains from next to the Crowley County Correctional Facility. And a train.
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Heading uphill from Pueblo we stopped at , um, McDonalds to change drivers, scrape off the layer of kersploded grasshoppers, and grab some glycemic boosters. A chocolate chip frappe that I expected to be a coffee drink turned out to be exponentially sweeter than Karen's apple pie. Anyway, we're heading for the hills.
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Downtown Boone, CO. Just passed through. Maybe not quite a ghiost town.
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Getting into Pueblo, CO. Pretty bridges.
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2:38 Stopped at west Pueblo to clean windshield and get a frappe and apple pie at McDonalds :-/ Karen took over the driving.
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Mountains getting closer
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Snowy Peaks, finally
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Another roadside attraction we skipped
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over to Royal Gorge. We parked, and found that the free walk down to an overlook had been fenced off with dire warnings. We walked down to the visitor’s center, where they wanted $52 to walk to the edge, or across the bridge. But you also get a ride on the cable car and a bunch of other unwanted assets. We decided that it wasn’t worth the $52 and probable hour to see the canyon. So Karen drove us back out to Canyon CIty and then onward to Salida.
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Dan takes a selfie with mountains
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Autumn is coming to the Arkansas River alongside US-50 in the Sangre de Cristo mountains. This seemingly endless train is hauling gravel. — at Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
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Cleaning the wind shield between Royal Gorge and Salida in the Sangre de Cristo mountains.
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Pretty mountain layers. I like layers.
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Approaching Salida, CO
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It was pretty as the rain moved in, with patchy clouds. But there was no cell signal along that road. And once we hit Salida, there was no digital data! I had a couple of phone bars, but not even 1x data. We drove along the main drag (U.S. 50 is Rainbow Blvd in Salida) unable to pick a motel. Karen decided to go back to the first one we saw, the Gateway Inn and Suites. It was nice,and not too terribly expensive. Last night was $80+, and this was just over $100. And the girl at the desk confirmed that Verizon is iffy in this AT&T town, and suggested turning the phone off and on again, forcing it to find a working tower. It worked!
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Checking out the amenities
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It was raining as Karen and I pulled up (gasp) to Salida, and we found a nice motel despite it being an AT&T town (Verizon users beware) so we had to stop and ask. Anyway, tired and hungry, so a few blocks over is this limited menu steak joint with a limited bar, as well. Well, time to tuck in to this evenings only option: Filet mignon. — at Quincys Steak & Spirits Salida.
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Karen checks out FaceBook between dinner and doing maps.
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