Year: 2009

Aiken, SC

0 miles from home.

Easy flight back, we started to get some heavy turbulence somewhere over middle America, so the pilot got clearance to fly at a higher altitude. When we got up there, there must have been a better tailwind because we spent only 2:55 in the air as opposed to the scheduled 3-1/2 hours.

We used that extra thirty-five minutes to catch 3 quick caches on the way home, 2 in Fort Mill and another in Blythewood. There were still a couple left on the GPSr to do, but we could only put off the inevitable so long, we came straight home from number three.

Sorry for the Travel Bug follow the route link yesterday, didn’t realize you had to be a member and log in to see the map. So here is an image you can see – take a look.

The first things we did when we got here was for Donna to mow the weeds in both the front and back yard while I blew the piles of oak pollen clusters off the deck and the driveway. Then the Emperor got a much needed bath. The poor boy spend the last 2 weeks parked outside the Charlotte Airport Holiday Inn and there was a nice layer of baked on pine pollen on all his horizontal surfaces.

Tomorrow it is back to reality.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 176

Denver, CO

1344 miles from home.

That is the hotel across the street from where we are staying taken from our 6th floor room. We did some laundry, watched some TV and relaxed a lot, but we did also get out today and do some geocaching within a 10 mile radius of the hotel. We found seven of eight caches and probably would have found all of them, but it was a cloudy, chilly day and our hearts just weren’t into it. This brought our total for the vacation to 48 found, 7 missed (although that may rise as we plan on trying a couple on the way home from the airport tomorrow.

To streamline tomorrow morning’s early flight process we turned in the rental car this afternoon. Total mileage driven in the slightly more than 14 days in our possession was 3,593 or an average of 256 miles a day. Which seems sort of poetic as the total bill for all those miles was $256.

I didn’t log the Rental Car Travel Bug into all the caches we found but try and get enough so you could get an outline of the trip. See the map for a look.

Of the sixteen nights on the road there were 6 spent in Bed & Breakfasts, the rest were various hotels. Three of those were HIE (mmm…cinnamon buns), 2 plain Holiday Inns, these two in a Courtyard and then some other random chains.

Vacations are great, but we are ready to be getting home (not necessarily to go back to work.) We had lunch before the last couple of caches today and are now so tired of eating out that we decided to go to some place really different, McDonald’s. Almost looking forward to making a meal out of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.

Denver, CO

1344 miles from home.

Today’s road trip consisted entirely of I-70 across Colorado. Normally I consider Interstate driving the epitome of boredom, but this drive was anything but. When you start in Grand Junction the north side of the road is shadowed by 1,000′ mesas and soon that is joined by mesas on the other side. The road slowly rises in altitude and the flat tops turn into peaks. Now you are in a narrow valley twisting between mountains and the road keeps rising. Most of the time the pass is filled only with the Colorado River, I-70 and a set of train tracks.

We had originally intended to take I-70 partway and then dip down south following another route that would take us into Colorado Springs for the night. Try as I might using Google maps I could not change the route to go through Aspen. I checked road conditions and found out why, the road was still closed for the season. We then planned a slightly different route, but as it turned out we didn’t use that either. We only made it to Glenwood Springs (less than halfway) by lunchtime due to our usual late start and bush beating adventures, so the decision was made to just stay on I-70.

Donna decided that she wanted to help out driving, but she picked an inopportune time, soon the climbing got serious, there were numerous spots for trucks to pull over to put on their chains. We think that the road actually had 3 lanes as it wound it way upward, but the lines were worn off and there were deep ruts from said trucks and chains. She found a sort of sweet spot, but the slower trucks and faster cars made her nervous. Ever the trooper she made it to the next place where there was a rest stop and pulled in to let me drive, the top of Vail Pass at 10,600′. We used the restrooms before changing drivers and that in itself was an experience. There was snow piled 5-6′ high from clearing the parking lot and the facilities themselves were cave like as snow still covered almost all of the buildings windows.

From there the road smoothed out and the elevation actually dropped for awhile before starting to climb to the Eisenhower tunnels at over 11,000′. Once through the tunnels the road turned downward dropping to a more civil seven thousand feet or so and then dropping into Denver.

Four for four on caches today. That total might have been a few higher, but the route change removed quite a few from our list.

P.S. Can you tell by the length of this post that I had a bit more time to write about our day tonight than I have had the last couple?

Grand Junction, CO

1536 miles from home.

Today’s highlight was Arches National Park (photos are near the very bottom of this gallery) and we could only manage to do about a third of it before the sun, wind, altitude and shear beauty did us in. You need at least 2 days to do this place justice. I’m no longer upset that we didn’t get to Monument Valley, Arches puts it to shame.

Four of five in geocaching today.

Cortez, CO

1530 miles from home.

We started off for Monument Valley by taking a cool county road west out of town. Got about to the Utah border when I realized I wasn’t feeling the greatest, so we opted to cut the day short. Donna has had the sniffles the last few days and I finally caught it.

We did make it to the 4 Corners Monument. I walked up to a guy standing in front of the bronze plaque and mentioned that I had read that the marker is 2-1/2 miles off and he said, “I’ve seen that too. Oh, well.” I replied, “Well, I guess that’s close enough for government work.” He chuckled. We ate a Navajo Frybread and bought a couple of souvenirs before heading back to the B & B.

Just two caches today, the Virtual one at 4 Corners and another just down the road from the B & B.

Cortez, CO

1530 miles from home.

We had a “fun” day geocaching. The first one went smooth as silk and then part way towards the next cache the PDA went kaput. Didn’t realize how dependent we were on it. It is kind of tough to find something when all you have are just it’s coordinates, but I’m sure some advanced cachers relish that challenge, not us. We did manage to find one other one near Farmington, NM in a field near an elementary school.

We did manage to snag two mighty fine meals today. Lunch in Farmington at a place called the Deli Factory. Donna had a beef, green chili & potato soup and I had a Tortilla Hamburger. The hamburger needs some explaining, it was a tortilla on a plate with a thin beef patty (almost as large as the tortilla) on top, covered in shoestring french fries, then smothered in green chili sauce and topped with cheddar cheese. Dinner was at the Dolores River Brewery in “downtown” Delores (pop. 857). We split a Selfish Salad and a great thin crust pizza.

One of the places on the agenda for tomorrow’s drive was to visit the Four Corners Monument, but it turns out that it is not in the right place: X doesn’t mark the spot1. Still going anyway…

Santa Fe, NM

1389 miles from home.

From yesterday’s pure white sands to today’s black lava. We stopped at the Valley of Fires Recreation Area outside of Carrizozo. When you get about 3 miles away you notice the dessert floor looks darker than the surrounding land, almost like there is a big cloud in the sky, but there are none, it is the lava covered in dessert vegetation.

We are passing through Santa Fe from last nights southern New Mexico Stop to tomorrow nights southwestern Colorado stop and are back at the same HIE as last Friday. Donna was looking in the phone book for a place close by to eat and came up with the Plaza Cafe at only 3 blocks away. OK, I’m game. Turns out it was mighty fine food. She had a gyro and I had fish and chips. Both were great, they each had a bit of a southwestern kick that was just right.

5 out of 6 in geocaching today.