Road Trip Bonanza Part 2
Before we continue with part 2, I want to share an article about the Interstate closure....yes, that one! So make sure you click on that link. Whew!!! Who knew? I didn't find out the full story until after I got home!!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
9:02 a.m.
Ramada Inn
Green River, Utah
I woke up, blinked a couple of times and then remembered the "adventure" of the night before. As I got out of bed, I muttered, "I need some coffee" but I needed a shower MORE so I took care of the daily hygiene business and THEN went for coffee.
Since it was a weekday, they didn't have a full breakfast but they had enough of a variety of items to choose from so I toasted a bagel, smothered it with cream cheese and sat down to enjoy my coffee before going back to the room. Once Debby was up we decided to make a gas station run before putting Cuddles back in the car so off we went.
9:55 a.m.
Shady Acres Gas
Nice view, huh? No, I'm not being sarcastic, I LIKE it!
10:50 a.m.
Debby decides to make a quick run through Burger King but we discover that the microphone/speaker isn't working so we go inside. And THAT'S when we hear some truckers discussing road closures. Oh oh!! It turns out that the Interstate is closed due to a severe snow storm in the Colorado mountains. We look at each other and realize that Mother Nature has just added one more day to our road trip. We rush back to our room to pull out the laptop and go online to check the weather, road conditions and finally, after pouring over a map, find a pet friendly hotel in Rifle, Colorado where we will be making a stop for the night. Just as we wrote down the phone number to the hotel, the power goes out. Shortly after that, there's a knock on our door. It's the hotel manager notifying us that all the power has gone out due to the strong winds. Winds? I pause to listen and sure enough, it's pretty noisy outside. Oh great, and we still have to load up the car! It was a bit trying but we got it done. Cuddles didn't look too happy about it but we reassured her that today would be a short driving day. Whether she understood us, is something I'll never know...
Back on the open road, I am once again enjoying the scenery!
9:02 a.m.
Ramada Inn
Green River, Utah
I woke up, blinked a couple of times and then remembered the "adventure" of the night before. As I got out of bed, I muttered, "I need some coffee" but I needed a shower MORE so I took care of the daily hygiene business and THEN went for coffee.
Since it was a weekday, they didn't have a full breakfast but they had enough of a variety of items to choose from so I toasted a bagel, smothered it with cream cheese and sat down to enjoy my coffee before going back to the room. Once Debby was up we decided to make a gas station run before putting Cuddles back in the car so off we went.
9:55 a.m.
Shady Acres Gas
Nice view, huh? No, I'm not being sarcastic, I LIKE it!
10:50 a.m.
Debby decides to make a quick run through Burger King but we discover that the microphone/speaker isn't working so we go inside. And THAT'S when we hear some truckers discussing road closures. Oh oh!! It turns out that the Interstate is closed due to a severe snow storm in the Colorado mountains. We look at each other and realize that Mother Nature has just added one more day to our road trip. We rush back to our room to pull out the laptop and go online to check the weather, road conditions and finally, after pouring over a map, find a pet friendly hotel in Rifle, Colorado where we will be making a stop for the night. Just as we wrote down the phone number to the hotel, the power goes out. Shortly after that, there's a knock on our door. It's the hotel manager notifying us that all the power has gone out due to the strong winds. Winds? I pause to listen and sure enough, it's pretty noisy outside. Oh great, and we still have to load up the car! It was a bit trying but we got it done. Cuddles didn't look too happy about it but we reassured her that today would be a short driving day. Whether she understood us, is something I'll never know...
Back on the open road, I am once again enjoying the scenery!
Oh, look at those clouds...they're gorgeous!
12:50 p.m.
We see a sign for the Colorado River State Park and decide to pull off the road for a quick stretch of the legs. Strangely, the Ranger station is closed but we pulled in anyway and parked, LOL. We walked around a bit and naturally, I took a photo.
1:16 p.m.
Grand Junction, Colorado
Visitors Center
Walking around in the cold made us realize we probably should take a bathroom break so we popped into the visitors center and found that it was really quite neat.
This mural was right as you walked in the door and I thought it was pretty cool.
We spent about half hour there, talking with the staff and we found out that the Interstate had opened back up but they encouraged us to stick with our plan of staying in Rifle for the night. They said the roads would be much drier by Friday.
As we were walking back to the car, I noticed a helicopter and simply had to go check it out. It turned out to be a very cool Vietnam War Memorial.
We got back in the car and drove another hour until we reached our hotel.
2:35 p.m.
La Quinta Inn and Suites
Rifle, Colorado
By now it was getting dark and very cold. We checked in, unloaded the car, let Cuddles get comfortable in the room and then decided to grab an early dinner.
3:41 p.m.
YUM!!! Wow, what a meal!
No, that wasn't my plate! We opted to share the sampler platter.
4:53 p.m.
What better way to let your body digest a huge meal than to go to Walmart? Actually, I forgot to bring a light hoodie to wear in the car so I found one at Walmart at 50% off which ended up being $7. Sweet deal! After that, we went back to our room and watched the news for storm updates.
Eventually we fell asleep from being tired or being in a food coma. You pick.
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