What a View!

Today was much better than yesterday. After another Hampton Inn complimentary breakfast we returned to I-80 around 8:00AM. Before too long we were in Colorado. Sadly, eastern Colorado looks a lot like Nebraska...which looked a lot like Iowa and most of Illinois. We stopped for a ho-hum lunch at McDonald's and continued on our way via I-76. 50 miles outside of Denver, things started to get interesting fast. As we approached Denver it started clouding up, but we could still see the outline of the snow-capped Rockie Mountains through the clouds. The closer we got the more excited we got. As soon as we left Denver the road started twisting back and forth. It was very cool. We stopped to check out Vail, but unfortunately it was raining pretty hard. It looked like a great place to visit, but we didn't stay long. Maybe next time. Further down the road we entered the Glenwood Canyon. This may have been the most stunning stretch of highway we've ever seen. The elevated road snaked alongside the Colorado River for 50 miles, through tunnels and over bridges. On the opposite side of the river were railroad tracks used by Amtrak's California Zephyr. Looks like a great trip to try sometime. At 5:00PM we found our hotel in Glenwood Springs. What a great little town! The town is apparently known for it's world-famous hot springs swimming pool. For reasons not clear to any of us, we skipped the beautiful hot springs pool and instead spent 30 teeth-chattering minutes in our hotel's tiny pool. Bummer. After the swim we checked out the nearby Glenwood Springs Adventure Park. We rode an aerial tram up the mountain right next to our hotel. At the top we all rode an Alpine Coaster, which was really fun. It was on a track just like a regular roller coaster, but you can control how fast you car goes. Everyone loved it, especially Josh. Afterwards it was dinner at a place called The Village Inn. Meh. Tomorrow should be another stunning drive. we're heading south down the Million Dollar Highway. 10,000 ft., 2 lanes, no guardrail...woo hoo!

License Plates: Kansas, Oregon