Rawlins WY to Grand Junction Colorado what a beautiful relaxing drive, and much warmer too.

Where are we today

Walmart Grand Junction Colorado

clic on a pic to enlarge it.

          After a good nights sleep, I slept in until after 4 am (thank goodness) much better than 2 am.. Coffees done, breaky done and a few walkabouts the Flying J. Waiting for the sun to come up. Sure is a busy spot 24 hours a day. Was cool this morning even at 7:30 am 44f. But we hooked up the car , dumped our sewage $7:50 here with our Good Sam card and we on the road heading west then south!
         A few minutes down the road we passed the Continental divide elevation 7,000 ft. once we turn off on to 789 we heading south and lower elevations. So nice to finally get off the interstate 80 onto a 2 lane road. We have been on I-80 since Monday in Pennsylvania, but we logged on a lotta miles.

Continental Divide 7,000 ft.

789 heading south, finally

       We stopped in Baggs Wy to stretch in an empty lot and across the street was the Cowboy Inn on one side and the Stage Stop General store, so fitting for this small town , population 440.

        Not far down the road we entered Colorful Colorado, more nice quiet 2 lane highway and next to no traffic no wind and no mountains, a few hills but nothing major, mostly downhill all the way, just like Al said.

       A little further down the road we pulled into Meeker Colorado and stopped by the town park. This was our destination yesterday, but with the wind we changed plans. Thanks again to the Bayfield Bunch (Al, Kelly and Pheebs) for another great recommendation. But it was only 11:30 am so we had a wonderful picnic lunch by the river. Perfect stopping spot, would have been nice to spend the night here last night

this guy just downstream
fly fishing

I already had my shorts on was getting
 quite warm

the park is under construction but
the dump station is open
cost $1.00 to dump and fill

construction going on

we crossed this bridge to the day use area
for our picnic

what a great place to relax a bit
for lunch

        A little further down the road we went through Rifle CO and hopped on I-70 west to Grand Junction Colorado.

I-70

         Not much traffic and only about an hour to go, we stopped at the rest area in Parachute Colorado for  stretch then headed back on down the road.

          Nice winding roads following the Colorado river through the mountain passes and even had one tunnel through the mountain. No mountains to climb and wind to deal with, was a perfect travel day.

not a long tunnel but still cool

interesting scenery

      We pulled into the Walmart in Gand Junction at 2 pm on a Saturday afternoon! But did manage to find a spot to park away from the store and the crowds. The masses were soon leaving so left us with a quiet night. And the temperature at 74f and much warmer in the sun. this is why we are here. Sunshine and warm.  Elevation here 4,583 ft, getting better.

thats the store from our door

all by ourselves, nice

     I went to check out the store and on the way passed this Lamborghini convertible in the Walmart parking lot! So cool. Shopping in Walmart driving a car worth 200k or much more?  Oh well it was nice to look at. Maybe a test drive but he did not leave the keys in it.

      We decided tonight to make a Walmart Pizza. Not frozen and only 5 bucks. Of course I will customize it to make it special for us.

this what we bought

add a few things that we like

      Onions, Tomatoes, fresh Mushrooms, extra cheese, and on my half Jalapeno pepper, black and green olives.

20 minutes in the oven was awesome
and yes we have leftovers

      Now we are close to where we want to be can slow down and smell the roses and see things that we came here for. In Rawlins this morning the cashier said it was unseasonably warm (44f?) and that they will pay for it soon. Glad we got through there when we did.

267 miles today

      Tomorrow morning we just gonna move on down the road about 2 hours to check out Moab Utah, one place we have always wanted to visit and looks like we are making it happen. Be there for a few days, maybe more, whatever, no real plans other than just do it.

      Thanks for taking a peak and hope your day was a great as ours was.

When we back to CanadaCountdown

Where have we been this Winter