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Published: March 29th 2020
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Wednesday March 25, we left Glendale, UT. As I mentioned we wanted to see Arches and Canyonlands National Parks but could not find a place close enough to stay due to the Corona Virus Closures. With that subject in the forefront, I want to share, that although we are traveling, we are practicing distancing just like everyone else. We are lucky enough that our "home" is mobile. We are shopping when needed, we don't eat out anyway, and other than checking into a campground and getting gas, we haven't had any contact with others. We are still in search of outdoor activities and will continue on to see as much of the country as we are able to provided we can find places to stay and continue to keep a safe distance from others.
When we left Wednesday we decided to put on as many miles as we could across I-70 eastbound. We wanted to get on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. Going up to Utah in mid-March was still too cold so we wanted to get to where we would not have below freezing overnight temps. In Utah our water hose froze one night, and then we
learned that we need to disconnect and have water in the holding tank for overnight. (we do have a warming pack for the tanks). Our last day in Zion we spoke with the store clerk from the area and told him our plans for traveling across I-70. He told us it was a "really nice drive". He was so RIGHT!! It was GORGEOUS!! It almost made up for not seeing the other parks. Traveling north on US 89 to get to I-70 was also a pretty drive. Lots of farm country and the Sevier River flows along that route snaking through the cattle fields and horse farms.
Once we hit I-70E we had a mix of farm land, rock formations, another canyon, and snow covered mountains. I will label the pictures as best I can from what was shown on the Atlas. We traveled 336 miles to Grand Junction, CO. It is a big town and on the news they referred to the area as the "Western Slope" so we are guessing they are referring to the region west of the Rockies? We were not sure we would find a place to stay and were prepared to park at
a truck stop but there was an open campground so we had a much more relaxed quiet rest than we anticipated. Fortunately so far we have been able to find open campgrounds. Some are doing check-in by phone.
We left Grand Junction,CO and traveled another full day, oddly enough the mileage that day was 337😊 Western CO was hilly, with some farms and sandstone rock formations similar to Utah. As we got closer to the mountains, the interstate followed the Colorado River leaving little room for a 4 lane highway. I can't imagine the building of I-70 through here. The West bound lane was elevated like an overpass for miles and at one point it went through a tunnel as we, in the East bound lane, went around a mountain! We climbed gradually at first but once we got to Vail you climb pretty steep over Vail Pass that peaks at 10,600 feet! Mike and Georgie(the RV) were working I'll tell ya. The road was rough and we even ran over the hood of an old car (earlier we were passed by a truck with 2 old cars needing restoration strapped to a trailer) that we couldn't avoid at
least with the driver's side tires. Fortunately all was fine. Coming down over that pass was something else. I think it was in 3 steep downhill curvy stages and didn't end until the final approach into Denver and it was wicked windy! Not to mentions you'd go down, then back up again. A few tunnels too. I was holding onto my seat for sure. Mike is such a CHAMP! He handles those challenges so well! The scenery was beautiful, snow, trees, rivers and streams. Ann H, I was thinking of you going through those ski areas😊 I noticed that day we went from seeing people out walking, biking, and fly fishing to ski mountains, cross country skiing and snowmobiles! Unreal!
Descending into Denver was like coming around the corner of a mountain and there it was. The sky got hazy and it was pretty flat once we got down there. I know the "mile high city" flat? Well when you came from 10,000 feet, yeah😊. Once we got to the other side of Denver we weren't 5 miles outside of the city and it was FLAT see FOREVER grassland. We are continually amazed at the diverse landscape of the
USA. We ended our day in Limon, CO.
Yesterday we traveled another 300+ miles and stopped in Salina, Kansas. Eastern CO and Western KS were flat with lots of cattle farms and grain/corn fields. It was a pretty cloudy day and windy again. We saw many hawks perched on fences and saw a couple hawk nests. I've never noticed the nests before along the highway.
Today, e travelled through Topeka and Kansas City. Eastern KS became a little more hilly and remained mostly farmland with small towns along the interstate other than those couple of cities. We crossed the Missouri River into Kansas City, Missouri and passed the Royals Stadium. Missouri continues to be farmland will rolling hills. Tonight we are staying in Columbia. We arrived on the tail end of a thunder storm but were glad we only had rain the end of the day. Once we parked it was sunny and we were able to get out for a walk/run. The entire day was extremely windy. I told Mike he can skip his push-ups today since he had a tight grip on the wheel ALL day!
We have successfully gotten ourselves out of snow country
and freezing temps so now we are going to look again for some sights to explore.
Enjoy the scenes from my "front porch" aka highway😊
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