Into Colorado

As expected today's drive was pretty calm.  Driving through Nebraska involved lots of corn fields (Nebraska is the third largest producer in the US) and open road at 75 mph.  Of course, I was not sticking to the speed limit too closely and there were no enforcers on the road this morning.  We switched drivers after 1 1/2 - 2 hrs and Dennis took over so I could do sudoku  puzzles and drink water while navigating.  Navigating was not much of a problem since we were driving on I-80 all the way to Colorado.  I took the wheel again just after we merged onto I-76 at the state line.

We visited a welcome center in Colorado - they are not located in rest areas at the side of the road like they are in Michigan, they are off the highway.  This was a great welcome center - clean, loads of information, really nice volunteers to talk with us and sculptures!  So we took some pictures with the pony express sculpture.

When we reached Denver, I was still behind the wheel.  Did I mention that I hate driving in cities?  We arrived around 2:00 pm local time and the road was jammed with semis and cars and trucks and there was a ton of road work just to confuse things (and drivers).  It was a struggle to find our hotel resulting in me taking a wrong turn and switching places with Dennis so I could navigate us to the right place.  I didn't run over anyone or lose my temper.  When we finally reached the hotel, we learned that there were only three rooms left so they charged us an exorbitant rate- yuck!  We did, however, receive a recommendation for an Italian restaurant that turned out to be a real find.  It was delicious - the happy hour specials were great - and the restaurant has adopted a "no tip" policy to pay their employees more fairly.  We were able to take advantage of the happy hour specials because our bodies said "It's 6:00 pm." and local time said "It's 4:00 pm."  It takes awhile to adjust.

This hotel does not have a fitness room so we will just get up and ready tomorrow and leave immediately after breakfast so we can stop along the way to take pictures and see sights as we drive through the mountains and into Utah.

The mountains in Denver were shielded by a very thick haze.  At first I thought it was because of the dryness and dust in the air.  But, as we entered into the Denver area, I realized that it was also because of pollution and over-development.  I hope we will see a clearer view tomorrow.