Welcome to our 50th Anniversary road trip....

On our way to breakfast we noticed a hot rod in the parking lot?  It was a ’34 Ford Vicky…..a nice road car.  When arrived at the dining room I quickly scanned the people to see if I could pick out a “car” guy….yup.  The one with the NSRA T shirt would be a good guess…hehehe.  I struck up a conversation with Dallas Eby who owned the Vicky.  He and his wife were returning to their home in Longview, WA….about 1400 miles away!  Like I said, it was a road car….love it.  After exchanging business cards we each finished our breakfast then went our separate ways.

We began our 538 mile trek west for the day on I-70, with blue skies and puffy white clouds.  It was windy but manageable.  The landscape was changing little by little to more pronounced hills, still grazing land and not too dramatic.  The closer we got to Denver the more the geography changed and we could also see the Rockies all across the horizon!  The flatlands were being absorbed by the foothills….major change would soon be upon us!  As we went through Denver it was like the ground exploded into the low hills with pricey mansions dotting the hillsides.  And always the Rockies were framing the horizon….just stunning!

Our intermediate destination was Shooters Grill in Rifle, CO….just a little ways down the road from Denver, yeah right.  180 miles of the most striking vistas we had seen on our journey so far.  The road twisted and turned while we climbed over 11,000 feet making our way through more than a few tunnels, one being the Eisenhower-Johnson tunnel that goes under the Continental Divide!  Some of the areas had recent snow but the roads were clear and dry.  We also had the Colorado River on one side of the road most of the day.  I have no adequate adjectives to describe the view; you just have to check out the images in the slideshow below.  We made our way past Vail then the beautiful Glenwood Springs area, the resting place of Doc Holliday.  This area was a favorite haunt of President Theodore Roosevelt and Buffalo Bill Cody too.  Continuing west on I-70 we passed the little town of Antlers then we came to Rifle situated north of Graham Mesa National Park.

I had read about Shooters Grille on Al Gore’s amazing internet and watched a YouTube video about how all the employees, as well as the owner and his wife, open carried their firearms to underline their belief in the 2nd amendment.  They also encouraged customers to do the same!  Since it was located in the “wild west”, 180 miles from Denver, I thought it would be fun to check out and support a restaurant that took that stand on something we believed in too.  It was a very comfortable little eatery and since no one had previously visited from Stafford, VA, Linda was asked to place a pin on their customer locater map for Stafford.  How cool is that!  There was a young couple on their Honeymoon that was seated next to us that had also heard about Shooters Grill and wanted to check it out too.  We had a nice visit with them when Linda shared that we were celebrating our 50th Anniversary!  And….the food was just right!

As we were leaving Rifle the rain began and would last the rest of the day.  Sometimes the rain would be torrential for a while then it would slack off to just a mist….but the wipers would get a work out the remaining 260 miles to our destination of the day, Salina, UT.  We still had some hills to climb and twisty roads to wind around but the “mesa” we negotiated was a relatively flat area between two monstrous snow capped mountain ranges.  We arrived at the Econo Lodge (one of only two motel choices) during a “misting rain” time and got checked in then settled in before the next deluge was upon us.  The owner, from India, was very helpful and attentive to our needs.  While we were checking in we had a conversation with the shift manager’s husband, David.  He was a trucker (and a biker) that hauled coal to the local power generation plant and told us of a better way to get to Rt. 50 the next morning….all the people we met were genuinely helpful.