Saint George Valley Lateral

Day Four - Salina, Kansas to Dillon, Colorado

We left Salina in good spirits having found another Starbucks where we could get our now customary breakfast before hitting the road. We had our first “real” dinner last night too, getting a take-out steak dinner. Pretty good - beats crackers and cheese. But Salina, Kansas sure looked desolate and poor this morning when I took the dogs out for our first walk at 7:00.

Back on to I-70: as it crosses Kansas I-70 is buffeted by the winds that blow hard across the Great Plains. I drove for the first hour and then Harry took over. It’s hard to drive when there’s a strong wind and even though the speed limit is 75 across the whole state, the trucks don’t go that fast due to the wind. The other strange thing about I-70 in western Kansas is that they have snow gates that they actually drop down to close the Interstate when there are bad conditions. They just close the interstate. I had never heard of that before.

I started this entry saying we left Salina in good spirits but those spirits took a dark turn when we became absorbed in the catastrophe that engulfed our country this Wednesday, January 6. Everything seemed unreal - we were truly undone. We listened to the terrible news as we said goodbye to Kansas and slipped into Colorado.

The change in landscape between Kansas and Colorado is immediate - although we were still surrounded by huge fields of grain and hay, they just looked more lush in Colorado. It doesn’t take too long to get to Denver and again, I-70 rolls right through the town which is fun. By the time we had Denver in the rear view we were already at 5,000+ feet - remember it’s called “the mile high city.” And when you are driving west through the city you see ahead that you are going to be driving into some serous mountains and gorgeous snow covered peaks. We took pictures which will show up in this blog someday. Very exhilerating. I was driving which was kind of fun because I drove through the city infrastructure and then into the mountains, including the Eisenhower Tunnel. That tunnel carries I-70 under the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains. The tunnel has a maximum elevation of 11,158 feet and is one of the highest car and truck tunnels in the world. We were spit out of the tunnel into very dramatic sunlight and began a seven mile descent! I made the descent in the slowest lane and probably did a number on our brakes. We have been hugely fortunate in this part of our trip because if we were having any kind of bad weather we would be required to put on chains, which of course we don't have, and there is up to a $1,000 fine if you do not carry chains from fall through spring. Who knew?

Anyway, we landed in a Motel 8 in a mountain town called Dillon. I have never been in the Rockys like this before so it’s very interesting - there are Rocky Mountain towns that are just nestled along the road. I’ll be able to see more tomorrow and will report more. Now, I need a glass of wine and some time to digest what is happening in our country.Read more