Day 7

We left the hotel and were back on Rt 50 about 8am.  It's pretty evident we have left corn country and are now in cattle country. We passed a few ranches with thousand of head of cattle. All destined to be streaks, burgers and leather coats. We got as little turned around in Pueblo, mostly due to a GPS programming error by me.  But it only cost us 10 minutes and a more involved tour of the city.  By the time we got to the City of Canon at the foot of the Rockies, it was already 96 degrees.  It was here we began our climb up the mountains.  The road was winding and twisting for mile after mile.  It's hard to describe the scenery because I've never experienced anything l like it.  About half way through the mountain range we stopped in a town called Salina for lunch.  As soon as we got on the road after lunch we got hit with a rain shower that lasted about 10 minutes. The rain was really cold but it felt so good in the heat.  Then we climbed higher and the temp dropped so significantly that we stopped to put on jackets.  After we descended and were back down in the lower regions, it got very hot again. The bank sign in one town said 99.  We went past Dry Gulch.  Which I didn't get because the Gunnison River was right across Rt. 50 from it. We made it to Grand Junction Colorado at 9:20PM East Coast time.  426 miles today. 

I have to say, it's hard to describe in this blog the ride over the Rockies today except to say it's the most amazing ride I've ever been on. The 6 previous days of unbearable heat was worth every minute to get to do this.  And the best part is I'll get to do it again in Wyoming and Montana.   You should be here Louie!

Just want to remind everyone I'm 2 time zones away, soon to be 3, and blog entries will be later.