Road Trip!

Part I
Good day, loyal reader(s). I'm blogging today from the New Homestead in Johnstown, Colorado. Nancy and I are in town for my brother's wedding reception/BBQ tomorrow afternoon. As with any trip, getting here was half the fun.

We've been planing this trip for some time, but we weren't quite sure how we were going to do it. We had a friend who had some buddy passes on Jet Blue that she was willing to get for us. The problem: Jet Blue doesn't fly from Salt Lake to Denver. We'd have to transfer flights. And the only Jet Blue location that had flights to both Denver and Salt Lake was JFK airport in New York City. So between the actual flight times and layovers, it was likely going to take us longer to fly than to drive. But I was okay with that, if that's how it was going to go down.

There was a complication, though. I was able to arrange my work schedule to allow for the trip with minimal difficulty. Nancy's schedule wasn't so easy to arrange. She'd been interviewing for a number of positions through a staffing agency and had been offered a position at a local branch of an international bank. But the start date, as well as being able to get time off for the trip, were in some doubt. And there were miscommunications between the bank, the agency, and her. And then the job offer was rescinded. WTH...? Meanwhile, Nancy has fortunately been able to do some work helping the friend of a friend organize her office and get her company's finances in order. So it turned out that she had both the flexibility and the financial wherewithal to make the trip.

Once all of that was settled, we came up with a plan. We'd leave Wednesday night after I finished work and drive for a couple of hours, camping somewhere along the way. On Thursday we'd make the rest of the drive. We'd initially decided to come back on Sunday. But it turns out that my parents have their 40-year high school reunion this weekend, so they would be gone from Friday morning until Sunday afternoon. So, with no particular pressure on us to get back by Monday morning, we decided to stay an extra day and drive back on Monday. Simple enough…or so it seemed.

We decided to take Highway 40 for the trip, so we'd have something other than southern Wyoming to look at as we drove. (It's the same route I took two years ago) when I drove to Colorado for the Fourth of July.) The plan was to get out of Salt Lake by 9:00 or 9:30 Wednesday night. Yeah, that didn't really happen. By the time we both got home from work and got the car packed, it was closer to 11:30.

I took the first shift driving and got us as far as Duchesne, where we stopped for a bathroom and Pepsi break. We got there a bit before 1:30 in the morning and found a convenience store where the lights were still on. They were technically closed as of midnight, but the owner let us come in and take care of what we needed. We were most grateful. Nancy took over driving from there and got us to Vernal. We pulled into the Fossil Valley RV Park around 2:30 and set up the 6-man tent we got as wedding present. By 3:15 a.m., we were both fast asleep.

With a long drive still ahead of us, I got up at 7:45 and started to get ready. The RV park had coin-operated showers, three minutes for a quarter. I took a 50-cent shower and, not having thought to bring a towel, used the previous day's shirt to dry off. I got back to see that Nancy had awakened (with plenty of help from the wind and a little rain) and started to pack up the car. We took down the tent, paid the owner for our accommodations, and picked up some breakfast. We were back on the road and headed east by 9:30.

Since I'm much more a morning person than Nancy is, I took the first shift driving. There were a lot of times that morning (and the previous night) that we were the only ones on the road—not another living soul as far as the eye could see. No traffic to slow us down, no big trucks to dodge. Not at all like I-80 through Wyoming. We rolled into Steamboat Springs a little after noon. We made a quick pit stop and put $15 worth of gas in the car (which was not a lot at $3.09/gallon) to make sure we had enough to get to Denver. Then we were back on the road.

Nancy took over the driving at my request. Part of the reason I wanted to take this route was because the scenery is so much more beautiful. Unfortunately, there are some really high places along the way, and I have this well-documented fear of heights. She actually drove over both Rabbit Ears Pass (9,426 feet at the summit) and Berthoud Pass (11,307 feet). The views on this stretch alone made it worth the extra distance on the trip. We ran into a bit of a traffic jam on the down side of Berthoud pass; it turned out that some poor trucker had his engine catch fire on the way down. But once we got past him, it was smooth sailing to I-70.

We made a pit stop in Idaho Springs, and I took over the driving again. We hit Denver about 5:00—just in time for rush hour. (I've always wondered about that phrase. Nobody was rushing anywhere.) We turned off I-70 to I-76 to miss the Mousetrap, but it didn't do us a lot of good. When we finally hit the I-25 interchange, it took us about 20 minutes to get to where we were actually on I-25 and heading north.

We finally pulled into the New Homestead around 6:30. Mom and Dad were there, as was my namesake, my father's best friend from high school. I hadn't seen him in at least 15 years, so it was nice to get reacquainted. Also in attendance were Aaron—not my brother, but a friend from high school—and Sam and Kendra. A barbecue broke out soon afterward, as it typically will at these events, and we enjoyed charcoal-grilled steaks with fresh corn on the cob and baked potatoes. You couldn't ask for a better meal after a hard day's travel.

So that brings us to the present, Friday morning. Mom, Dad, and Mike left this morning for their 40th high school reunion, so we pretty much have the place to ourselves for the next two days. The Jimmy Buffet song Gypsies In The Palace comes to mind....

Part II
Okay, it's Tuesday morning, and we're back in Salt Lake City now. What a weekend it was. Let's see how much of it I can remember.

Friday was pretty much a lazy day. We rested and recuperated from the long drive of the previous day and a half. But we did treat ourselves to dinner at Qdoba. Nancy fell in love with the place when she lived in Kentucky, and they don't have any franchises in Utah. So it's pretty much understood that anytime we go to Colorado (or anyplace else with a location), we're going to Qdoba. She had her favorite, the Chicken mole burrito, and I had the queso chicken burrito. Good stuff.

Saturday brought the anticipated wedding reception/BBQ that had brought us into town in the first place. We first made our way to the closest Bed Bath and Beyond store (in Greeley) to pick up a gift for the happy couple, then over to Loveland for the party. We arrived to find not only my brother Aaron and his wife Jackie, but also the other Aaron (referred to above), his brother Casey and his friend Marlena, Sam and Kendra, and Sam's dog Kona. We also got to meet some of my brother's friends and co-workers. And there was plenty of good food, including a wedding 'cake' made of stacked layers of Ho-Ho's, Twinkies, and Hostess Cupcakes. We all had a good laugh, though it made me wonder if my brother and sister-in-law might be rednecks. No, I take that back. I don't wonder.

Sunday morning we went to church at the Johnstown LDS ward. This is an idea that takes a little getting used to for me. When I was a senior in high school twenty years ago, I was the only active member of the church in the whole town. Now there's a ward there. Freaky. I got to meet some people I recognized from the old Greeley 3rd ward who live in the boundaries of the new Johnstown ward. It was pretty cool to see some of those people again. It was also fun when someone in the hall introduced themselves and asked, "So, where are you from?" "Uh, here, actually...."

Sunday night we got to see the nieces. It amazes me how much they've both grown since we last saw them in April. Kayla starts seventh grade in a couple of weeks, and Jordan starts first grade. They're both a lot of fun. The folks returned from their reunion about 3:30, and Sam and Kendra (and Kona) also came over later in the afternoon. So we had a full house. I had made a roast in the crock pot, so we had another big family dinner. Debbie (the girls' mother) had provided us with some leftover cake, and we had picked up some chocolate-cherry ice cream and raspberry sherbet on Friday night, so dessert was also taken care of. We played Cranium and talked and told jokes and just generally had a good time together.

Somewhere along the way, it had been suggested that we all meet for breakfast one day at Johnson's Corner and have one of their famous cinnamon rolls. Monday was the day. Mom, Dad, Mike, Sam, Kendra, Nancy, and I crowded around one of the tables and ordered our choice of breakfast. And yes, the cinnamon rolls are pretty darn good. I was impressed by the place. When I was in high school, it was pretty much a dive, even for a truck stop. Now it's tastefully decorated, clean, and quiet. Mike snuck away halfway through the meal; we found out later that he was paying the check. Sneaky, but generous and much appreciated.

Mike headed back to his home in Kansas directly from breakfast, and we made our way back to the New Homestead to pack up and head home ourselves. I had hoped we'd be on the road by 9:30 or 10:00, and we just made it. We filled up at the Johnstown-exit Loaf and Jug store, then headed down I-25 toward Denver. Nancy had never been to Denver before, so I tried to point out a few interesting things from the freeway. We made our way south to I-470 and then turned east toward Centennial and Littleton. We got off at the University Boulevard exit, turned left onto Otero, and made our way to the Denver Temple. It was closed, of course, but we took a couple of pictures and enjoyed the peace and quiet for a minute. Then we were off on our penultimate quest: finding another Qdoba location.

With the help of a clerk at a Sinclair station, we found a listing for Qdoba in the local white pages. It was only about a mile away, at the corner of University and Colorado Boulevard/Highlands Ranch Parkway. We made our way there and waded through four corners of strip-mall purgatory before we found the place. It was sunny but not too warm, so we ate outside. (I wanted to sit someplace where I could see our car.) Nancy again had the chicken mole, and I tried the steak fajita classica burrito. Once again, good stuff and very filling.

We got back onto 470 and headed west, a route that took us around the far southwestern and western parts of the Denver metro area. We met back up with I-70 and started the journey west in earnest. About an hour later I got to introduce Nancy to the Eisenhower Tunnel. We stopped for a bathroom break in Vail and a gas and meal break in Grand Junction. The scenery was gorgeous, especially in the mountains of central Colorado. I'll admit that I didn't take it in as much as I could have. I was starting to worry about getting back home.

Nancy had driven from Vail to Grand Junction, and I took over from there. We made our way to Green River, Utah, and turned north on Highway 6. We got rained on quite a bit between Green River and Price, and with the sun starting to set, I was a little worried about wet roads after dark. It ended up not being much of an issue, though. The roads were plenty dry by the time we made our may into the canyons between Price and Spanish Fork.

I drove until it got dark at around 9:30, and we stopped at a little dive of a convenience store in the middle of nowhere. There were nasty little signs on the restroom doors that read, "This restroom is for PAYING CUSTOMERS ONLY. All others use the rest stop 10 miles east." Nice. Yes, we bought some snacks there, but given that there was no soap in the men's room and that it smelled strongly of urine, I'd have been okay to use it for free.

Nancy took over the driving at this point, and shortly we were out of Spanish Fork canyon and on I-15 heading north. I guess I fell asleep here, because the next thing I knew, we were pulling onto Foothill Drive from I-80 eastbound and making our way the last few blocks to home.

And that was our trip: five days, 1200 miles, family and friends, good food, and a much-needed break from the daily grind. And not a whiff of southern Wyoming along the way.