QC61-05 Over the Rockies and eastward

May 22, 2016 (Sun)  Montrose, CO to Pueblo, CO (255/5603 miles 35.4mpg) 60/86° - A quick word about this motel. It seems to be home for displaced (in some way) people. The rooms on each side of us seemed to be occupied by semi-permanent residents. This is not necessarily a bad thing except that the fellow in the closest room was a heavy smoker, as was his friend who spent several hours with him. Because the rooms are "smoke free", as are most motel rooms these days, they sat at a small table outside his door (and therefore ours). Going to and from our room was not the most pleasant of experiences.

Some of the motels we have stayed at recently have been electrical socket challenged. Which means plugging in the computer requires unplugging a motel appliance or working someplace other than the desk, usually both. An extension cord went on our shopping list several days ago. So our stop at Walmart this morning will, hopefully rectify the situation - and several food related situations.

So much for that. The reason we are here is to see the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in the National Park of the same name. It was well worth the visit. It is not as popular as some of the other parks out here so we had it pretty much to ourselves. We were able to stop at the overlooks and hike down the short trails to the edge of the sheer cliffs - nearly 2000 feet high is some cases. looking down to the Gunnison River below was scary even with heavy railings to keep us from falling over and the views were awesome (to use a currently over used word).

 



We set a record today! An altitude record. We took US-50 from Montrose to Pueblo crossing the Rocky Mountains via Monarch Pass - 11,312 feet at the summit. There was still plenty of snow up there. We stopped to take pictures, of course, but it was cold (53°) and very windy so we didn't hang around. A couple of young fellows driving a sporty little red car didn't seem to care. They were actually having a snowball fight.


Cigggy crossing the Continental Divide at 11,312 feet.

We ate a sandwich lunch (late) in/near a BLM campground with a magnificent view of the mountains now to the west.
 
C007045 EconoLodge, Pueblo, CO (el64)

May 23, 2016 (Mon) Pueblo, CO to Limon (203/5807 miles 30.3mpg) 66/75° - Broke another altitude record today. That's two days in a row. Maybe tomorrow will be a third - or maybe not. Several years ago, 40 or so, we were out here with our kids and tried to find the road up Pikes Peak, got lost and ended up in Cripple Creek. We thought we'd try again. We found it this time. There were not any warnings about motor homes, etc. at the gate but there is a height warning which would probably restrict most motor homes, 5th wheels and trucks. The road up is very steep in places and some switchback turns were so sharp that even Cigggy would have been better off articulated. As we went up, ears popping, the temperature dropping (to 25), the snow along the road increasing (to 10 feet or more), the trees becoming smaller and smaller and finally disappearing all together and breathing becoming more and more labored for us of the elderly persuasion, even just riding in the car, we witnessed some most amazing views - except at the summit (14,093 feet) because it was in the clouds. The drive back down was as exciting as going up. The lack of guardrails wasn't as obvious on the way up. They would have lent a degree of comfort on the way down.

We had debated swinging by the Air Force Academy but found we had plenty of time to do it so off we went when we safely reached the bottom of Pikes Peak. We drove around the loop enclosing the school proper, dutifully stopped at some of the overlooks and perused the visitor's center where we watched a 20 minute video of cadet life. It was a very moving film.


C007045 Comfort Inn, Limon, CO (ex109)


May 24, 2016 (Tue) Limon, CO to Hays, KS (213/6065 miles 30.6mpg) 51/80° - There was a Flying J truck stop station just across I-70 from the motel so we thought we may as well top off before getting on the road. Bad decision. In Kansas gas could have gotten it for 10 cents a gallon less! Oh well. The weather forecast for the I-70 corridor across Kansas (our intended route for the day) was for storms, but the skies were clear at 7:15 as we hit the road. They were still clear when we stopped at rest stop a rest area a couple of hours later but the NOAA station broadcasting there was still indicating problems ahead. None developed.

In Hays, Hildene dinged to tell us we were about to pass a quilt shop. We stopped in, of course, but not before looking for a car wash (Cigggy was in dire need of one after all the dirt roads we'd been on). Hildene said there was one 1.6 miles south. The next closest being 38 miles north. The close one turned out to be an empty dirt lot. We chose not to try for the other one. Cigggy is still covered with dust from Capitol Reef, Arches and Pikes Peak,  but Joy has some new fabric to fondle.

C009488 Sleep Inn, Hays, KS (H109)

May 25, 2016 (Wed) Hays, KS to Columbia. MO (394/6495 miles 36.2mpg) 62/83° - After I put the computer away last night we got a tornado warning. First the front desk called and said that if the siren sounded to come down to the first floor where the windows are double. We didn't know exactly what she meant by siren but assumed she meant the internal building alarm so when the city siren went off we stayed in our room and waited. Our phones sounded a warning adding to the excitement. The sky got very dark and a thunder storm of major proportion passed over but no tornado touched down that we know of in our vicinity. At one point during a lull in the storm the setting sun came out and presented us with a wonderful full arc rainbow. Then the storm continued until after we went to sleep.

Having survived the night, we got off this morning at about 7:00. Last night's storm had passed but the skies were still heavily overcast and very dark to the west and north. It looked like more was coming. It didn't, not for us at least. It stayed behind us as we traveled east. Flat Kansas landscape was our scenery for the day so the heavy traffic in the cities of Topeka, Kansas City and finally Columbia, Missouri were a welcome diversion in a way. We got in at about 2:30 and are enjoying and afternoon of relaxation.

C009882 Wingate by Wyndham, Columbia, MO (Ex109)

May 26, 2016 (Thur) Columbia, MO to Indianapolis, IN (364/6823 miles 35.1mpg) 66/?° - We were going to get gas before we got on the road this morning. Forgot! So we ended up not having a choice but to pay to pay 20 cents a gallon more than we needed to. At least we weren't filling a motor home tank.

Again we traveled east with storms in our rear view mirror, but today we could also see storms ahead. They must have been slow moving because we caught up and plunged into heavy rain around 9:00. But it was about over by the time we crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois at 9:20. The rest of the trip through Illinois and Indiana was overcast but there was no rain to speak of the rest of the trip.

We wanted to have a full tank of gas to start our final leg home on Monday so we pulled off the interstate in Indianapolis and made our way to the Flying J station we've used before. It turned out to be nothing but a pile of twisted burned steel beams. It had completely burned down (a couple of years ago it turned out).

After traveling across the country and back, booking and staying in many motels along the way, we think we have learned how to take advantage of the available deals and discounts to save the most money. Unfortunately we didn't learn what plans to join and their hidden caveats until too late to take advantage of many, if any. Oh well, next time.

C010246 Johnson home, Indianapolis, IN (x4)