Moab to Denver
Another reminder that I still haven’t changed the time zone that this app thinks I’m in, so it’s still July 8 where I am. In fact, most of these posts will say they’re from the next day because it’s already past midnight on the east coast, but trust me, it’s still July 8 for me.
Anyway, we’ve touched down in Denver! Day 3 travel is in the books. Today’s lesson? It’s worth it to take the scenic route.
We woke up in Moab, I got a workout in (!) and then had some coffee in town. It’s become our routine to find a coffee shop somewhere in the town or city we’re staying, sit for a while, and do all our daily NYT puzzles (wordle, crossword, mini, letterbox, connections). Yesterday we sat at Cafe Feellove in St. George, and today was the Moab Garage Co, which was our favorite of the two so far. Morpheus also got a TON of love today. Everyone was giving him some good scratches. We finished our puzzles relatively quickly and hopped in the car for Denver, excited because it was only going to be a little more than five hours and we’d get here around 6, with plenty of sunlight and time to have dinner. Boy were we wrong. Interstate 70 was closed for a while, then only one lane was open, so we opted for a detour in hopes of not sitting in too much traffic. The route took us down route 24 through Glenwood Springs, where we happened upon a distillery and I played piano and sang with a couple of guys that were spending their day drinking. 10/10 would do it again. The liquors were delicious too! David, who was tending the bar, gave me a couple samples. The Turtle Juice and the Horchata Colata were my favorites. We’ll be back to ride the highest roller coaster in North America, which is situated at the top of a mountain looking over the town. Then we went through Aspen, which was a gorgeous pleasant surprise. I definitely will be back to ski there. On the way out, however, we hit a snag in the mountains. Sat in dead stop traffic for about two hours for the second day in a row because the road narrows at a couple points along the pass. But just when I was starting to think that our alternate route wasn’t worth it, Colorado gave us one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Independence Pass is by far, the most beautiful sight I’ve seen on our trip so far. There was literally a wedding happening in front of snow capped mountains and shimmering ponds and giant trees forever. The whole rest of the way through the national forest and little Colorado towns was worth it. In life, it’s definitely worth taking the scenic route, even if it takes a little longer to get to your destination. It’s late, and we have our longest day of driving ahead of us tomorrow, so I’ll leave it at that.
-J.P.