Day 23, Sat, Oct 19, Home

Saturday, October 19th, we left our final hotel of the trip. Claude wanted to drive a little way before getting gasoline. He meant to go to a Pilot station. He missed the exit. A little further down, he found a Love's station. It had a Hardee's. After filling up with gas, we pulled into Hardee's drive-thru for breakfast. I got a plain biscuit and a Mello Yello. My first Mello Yello in 3 weeks. This Southern Chick Maiden was one very happy camper!

We passed the final time zone change and entered Eastern Standard Time. We got home about 3:30pm after driving 5,300 miles and going through 12 states. Whew!!

Our grass definitely needed cut. We couldn't pick up the mail at the post office till Monday. We unpacked and I started laundry. It felt very, very good to end our day in our little living room in our recliners. Great trip. Loved being with my hubby for three weeks. We could do this again to one of our other bucket list locations. But...we need a break first.

Day 22, Fri, Oct 18, St. Louis, Missouri

Friday, October 18th, we were on the road by 9:10am. Our goal this day was St. Louis to have a meal at Zia's. The across the Mississippi River for our hotel in Fairview Heights.

When we got to Kansas City, Kansas, we crossed the Missouri River into Kansas City, Missouri. From this point forward we would travel in states we had already driven in on this trip. We were still in the Central Time Zone.

We went straight to Zia's. They checked but did not our credit card. Ugh. We had a lovely Zia's meal. Then we were off to our hotel room for the last night on the road.

We stayed in a Quality Suites hotel in Fairview Heights, Illinois. This put us away from St. Louis traffic for our start the next day. Nice hotel.

We got settled in our room and I checked my cell phone its activity. I had a voice message. It was from Chase Loyalty Files Department. They noticed activity that was unusual with my points and getting cash back from my points. Someone was trying to purchase tickets from Cancun to Mexico. Amazing. We had been on the road for 3 weeks. Lots of activity with my card and Chase immediately picked up on a difference. I love Chase!! I called the number on the back of my card to report this. Passwords were changed. User name was changed. We will get new cards in a week. Points were replaced and cash was restored. Did I mention, I love Chase.

A quiet evening in our hotel room in preparation for the final leg of our journey on Saturday. 

Day 21, Thurs, Oct 17, Topeka, Kansas.

Thursday, October 17th, we were on the road by 9am. Such a wonderful hotel last night. On a three week trip you get all kinds of hotel experiences. Some I checked and made reservations for ahead turned out to be awful. Some reservations we made as we traveled. Last night was one of the best of those. 

It was a Quality Inn. We wanted to be on the east side of Denver for an easy exit. We needed dinner and wanted to get that prior to checking into the hotel. The exit off I-70 before our hotel had a Jimmy John's. We love Jimmy John's. From there it was all right turns to get to the Quality Inn. We were given a room on the second floor. It had a double sink situation. This made me happy. It doesn't happen often. We didn't have to balance our morning routines with one sink. 

There was a Flying J gas station just down the street. Claude topped off the tank. I went in for a donut for each of us and a soda. Three turns on the road and we were on I-70 headed east. Yeah. 

I checked Google Maps and learned we only had 1150+ miles to get home!! There was a cloud cover which was most welcome as we would be driving into the sun. Double yeah!!

When you leave Denver, you leave the mountains behind. You are immediately on flat ground. We will miss the mountains a lot. The picture is near Agate, Colorado.

Music will help to pass these long miles. I had a thumb drive with 1,500 of our favorite songs to sing along from our CD collection. We anticipate it will be this lay of the land across Kansas. 

Kansas...Hello Dorothy!!

Time change before Colby, Kansas to Central Standard Time.

Somewhere in Kansas, we ran into construction. This time they were painting new lines on the road. For the construction, they had you only one side of the I-70. They had painted two yellow lines down the middle and traffic went one way on one side and the other way on the other side of the two yellow lines. Now the construction was near completion and they were preparing I-70 to have both of these lanes head east. A big vehicle was carefully going down the middle and removing the two yellow lines. A little further down a truck was painting white dashed lines down the middle. Claude was in stitches and pointed out tome the unbelievably silly way these white dashes were being painted. A dash would go off to one side, the next one might curve, the next one would point the other direction. It was hysterical. We are not sure if it was like a 'student driver' on this painting vehicle. Very funny. The pictures do not do it justice but may give you some idea.

"Born just  south of Colby, Kansas. Was his mother's pride and joy." Remember that John Denver song. We were at Colby, Kansas.

Very windy before Oakley, Kansas. They have Amarillo beat today. Amarillo is well known for its wind. We didn't experience much of it when we went thru Amarillo. This day the wind must have moved to Kansas. The haze is all dust and dirt blowing around.

Pit stop in Ellis, Kansas. Love's gasoline was $2.85 per gallon. Such a far cry from California. 

Day 20, Wed, Oct 16, Denver, Colorado

Wednesday, October 16th, we cleared out of Manti Cottage. We went to Cordell and Kris' for a final breakfast together. Breakfast was cooked on the grill outside and we sat at the picnic table to eat. We had such a great time visiting.

About 10am we left and pointed the Buick south on Hwy. 89 and picked up I-70 for the long journey home.

The first part of I-70 was 80mph. I do not like 80mph. We paused at scenic overlooks as the land formations were amazing.

Salt Wash Overlook, Utah

Devil's Canyon Overlook, Utah

Each scenic overlook has Navajo women with their blankets spread out and jewelry displayed. I am looking for a ring to match the pendant I purchased in Tombstone. Still did not find one. 

Ghost Rock, Utah

Rain clouds along I-70 in Utah

Green River, Utah

Colorado River, Colorado

Glenwood Canyon, Colorado

Gypsum, Colorado

Georgetown, Colorado mileage sign, How we wished we only had that many more miles to drive.

Timber line, Dillon, Colorado, is the point at which trees cannot grow anymore.

Spaceship home in Golden, Colorado was always a family favorite when leaving Denver on I-70.

Our hotel was in Aurora, Colorado. Met a man in the gas station near the hotel. He had a tablet in his hand and was clearly trying to find something. He came to me and said he had two hours before he had to be at the airport. He wanted to know what he could do in that two hours locally. I assured the poor fellow that, while I did live in Denver 40 years ago, none of the things we could see were even built at that time. I really didn't know what was close for his to visit. He asked about driving back into Denver. I had to tell him that was probably not a good idea as traffic in and out of Denver would be prohibitive of him getting back to the airport in time. I don't know what he chose to do. Bless his heart.