Denver, Colorado to Rainier, Washington (July 11-12, 2010)

July 11

We got up and packed up our stuff. Mom made some french toast and bacon. We packed up the car, said our goodbyes and we went to find some gas before getting on to I-70. We drove west watching Denver pass us.



I have no idea when we will be here again. We started to climb the Rockies an hour or so later. The drive was beautiful, some great country out here.



I actually considered for a brief moment moving to Colorado. Then I came back to reality, thinking I would have to start all over again…with a job, a place to live and having to move, ew. We watched all of the mountain towns as we drove by; lots of ski resorts and hotels. I asked if we could stop by Vail, just to say I’ve been there, I’ve heard a lot about it in movies. We were to north of Aspen, I would have liked to see that town as well.



We got to Vail and went to the visitor’s center and picked up some brochures and post cards. Took some pictures and we were on our way towards the Continental Divide through the Eisenhower Tunnel, one of the longest tunnels in the US. We got over the Great Divide and saw many rafts floating down the river. At one point the Colorado River was to the left of us and the freeway became stacked, westbound on top and eastbound below. It was pretty cool. The scenery was awesome. We went though lots of little towns and stopped in Gypsum, to use the bathroom. We drove through towns called Parachute, Eagle, Silt and Rifle. As we drove west, we saw the landscape change from mountains to hills to grasslands to flat and dry all in the matter of hours. We got to Grand Junction around 3 to get gas and Doug had to poop really bad. It was hot when we got out of the car so we hurried. We were on our way again about a half hour later, we saw the welcome to Utah sign. Every minute that passed the landscape got flatter and drier. We saw the junction for highway 128 to Moab and Arches National Park. Mom wanted to go so we took the 40 mile detour. “When will we ever be back here? Let’s go see it, we have time.” She said. We did what she wished. We endured the journey.



We stopped a couple times to take pictures. Even there we saw the “mitten” rock formations, chimney looking ones and other canyon-like rocks. We stopped to see the Colorado River and to take some of the sandstone, just a piece.



While driving through the river valley canyon, we saw a lot of people at the various ranches, people boating, camping, jet skiing, swimming and horseback riding. Too bad we didn’t have time. We reached Moab and it was bigger than I thought it was. We stopped at the local grocery store and picked up some sandwiches, grapes, chips and drinks along with some post cards and stickers. From there we stopped at the visitor’s center and picked up some brochures and talked to the rangers. We got back in the car and headed north on highway 191 to Arches National Park. We got to the front and took a picture with the park sign before heading into the park.



We had to pay a park fee and they gave us a map of the place. We looked at the map to see what we could see with the little time we had. We headed towards the delicate arch, the well known and highly illustrated (it’s featured on the Utah license plate.) We got to the parking lot and found out it would have taken us a few miles round trip to actually be at the delicate arch. We went to the viewpoint instead and took some pictures with it.



We hung around for a while before returning to our car and headed towards the other parts of the park. On the way to the other section of the park, we wondered about Utah’s nickname because we’ve seen their state highway signs.



I told them it was the Beehive State. Why in the world would they just put a beehive on their signs just because? Doug disagreed and told me that wasn’t true. He said it was the Mormon State. Mom just sat there and didn’t say anything. We wanted a verdict so we called dad. We had dad get onto the internet. He found its nickname, The Beehive State. Ha! I was right. That shut up Doug for a while. My useless knowledge came in handy. We hit up the parade of elephants, turrets arch and other rock formations.








We visited for about 45 minutes before calling it a day. We needed to get on the road and head towards home. We got back onto 191 and drove north towards Green River. There, we stopped and got gas, drinks, some snacks and a couple of those 5 hour energy shots. I’ve never had them before so I thought I’d try them. We were on the road once again and it started getting dark. We met up with highway 6 near Price and headed north from there. It was dark so we really didn’t get to see any of the landscape. The road snaked its way through the mountains and met up with I-15 at Spanish Fork and the south side of Provo. I drove until we got north of Salt Lake City, where we stopped at a gas station and went potty. That’s when Doug took over the driving. I’ve been driving since the Grapevine in California. I have no idea how many miles I’ve driven since then. I sat in the passenger seat and watched Friends and mom was in the back seat trying to sleep. I watched Friends for a while when the tiredness swept over me. I drank one of those 5 hour energy shots and the flavor I picked was gross. A few minutes later, I was wired. Doug was busy guzzling those Monsters by the can. It was unreal to see how many hours pass while you’re driving in the dark.

July 12

We hit the junction of 1-15 and I-84 entered Idaho sometime between midnight and one Mountain Time. We stopped at a small town called Burley, at a closed gas station to get gas. I had to use the bathroom really bad so I peed behind the store. This was sometime near 2:30 a.m. Doug stopped again in Caldwell for gas. Once we reached the border of Idaho and Oregon, we stopped in Ontario and mom started driving. That’s when I fell asleep for a few hours. I remember waking up in Hermiston because mom stopped to get food from McDonald’s. We saw the sign stating we were now in the Pacific Time zone. I remember having to poop really bad again so we stopped in Boardman, so glad they had a bathroom. We were there for a few minutes. I decided to wash my face and brush my teeth as well. While they waited for me, mom decided to get gas and that would be the last gas stop of the trip. From there, we headed west on I-84 to Portland. We got onto I-205 and we were now in Washington, that was sometime near 8:30 that morning. The miles flew by because we were familiar with this stretch of road. It was nearing lunch time so we stopped at Harold’s Burger Bar in Chehalis. Mmmm. We headed home and rolled into the drive way around noon.



We drove 4437.6 miles in 207 hours and covered 9 states in 10 days.