Colorado = no fun!

Before we get into how Colorado left us with a very sour taste in our mouths, I'll talk about the beginning of our anniversary, which was good. We started the day in Arches National Park, which was as beautiful as expected. Unfortunantly, we didn't have all day to spend there, or we would surely have hiked to Delicate Arch for sunset, but we only had a few hours, so we did as much as we could. Balanced Rock, the Windows, Delicate Arch from a viewpoint, and Landscape Arch. All incredible. Look for the picture of Lisa almost ruining the Balanced Rock. When we left arches we drove along the less traveled east side of the park along the Dinosaur Diamond Scenic Byway which travels along the Colorado River, which was incredibly amazing. I can't believe it wasn't part of the national park, because it should have been.



We finally hit cell phone range again and left Utah for Colorado. As we passed over the Rockies (we hit 10,602 ft in elevation) it really started to storm hard, which made for stressful driving. The only benefit of the rain was the amazing rainbow we saw afterwards. The other fun thing about the drive is that we went from 102 degrees in arches, to 51 degrees near Aspen. That's a 51 degree differernce!



Finally we reached Denver, and we were really looking forward to our night in the Rennassaince Denver Hotel, one of the top brands in the Marriott chain. Well, for some reason, the folks at Marriott have forgotten about this hotel since it was built in the 70's. What a discrace. Wallpaper peeling, outdated furniture, old everything...just horrible. By far, this was the worst hotel on the entire trip, and I let them know at the front desk. We were upgraded to the suite, which was just as horrible, only bigger (except the bathroom, which was probably smaller). It's no wonder they are going through a 20 million dollar renovation. They needed it 20 years ago. Marriott will be getting a letter from this Gold member! So we spent so much time with the room switcharoo that by the time we got settled, it was too late to find a place for dinner on a Tuesday, so dinner was at Cold Stone Creamery. But wait...this all gets worse. The next morning, we wake to hammering and a test of the fire alarm system at 7:30. Wonderful. When we finally get on the road, not more than two minutes later, Mr State Trooper pulls us over. Apparently for about 2 miles, the highway goes down to 55 mph from 75 mph, and while we stayed with traffic we got pulled over. And a half a mile later it's back 75. So the price of the trip just went up. That was NO FUN. Thank god we finally got out of Colorado, even if the next state was 500 miles of flat boredom.

At least we had a good dinner. We ate at the famous Arthur Bryants Barbeque. It almost felt like eating at Tony Lukes in philly. Some good, down home cooking.



Tonight's hotel it ok, and tomorrow we drive through St. Louis to Louisville. We probably won't post again until we get home, which means maybe Saturday some time, because we'll get home late Friday. Thanks for reading throughout the trip. It's been fun! Don't worry, they'll be pictures of our last two days posted this weekend, and hopefully a Trip Statistics post and "best of" photo gallery sometime next week!

~John and Lisa