Today is one of the transition days where we go from desert to mountains which means lots of driving and very little, if any, hiking. I got in a short run in the morning before we packed up. After another fabulous breakfast in the great outdoors (including GF pancakes for me!), we left the red rocks of Moab and headed toward the Rocky Mountains. It’s Boulder or bust!
So we drove. And drove. The red rocks turned to yellow and beige (and kinda reminded us of Idaho) before we hit the state line and things started getting getting greener. We’ve been driving alongside the Colorado River for most of this stay (like we did with the Snake River in Wyoming) and got to watch it turn from a latte colored muck in Utah to a much clearer river here in Colorado.
We had a picnic lunch at a park in Vail and then drove some more. About 40 miles outside of Denver, the sky started to look ominous so the top went up. It was a good thing too because a mere half an hour later the rain started and by the time we turned off on the road to Boulder, it was a torrential downpour that included hail.
To show you how uneventful today was, we celebrated the odometer hitting 111,111:
And so we arrived in Boulder a mere 6.5 hours later to light rain and grey skies. Our sightly burnt skin welcomed the change and we checked into the B&B and went to do some urban hiking in downtown Boulder.
We wandered along the Pearl Street mall which is very much like the Church Street Mall in Burlington and the Downtown mall in Charlottesville. I had heard they were all designed by the same people but I haven’t been able to confirm that independently (and I don’t want to go spreading any “fake news” )
We stopped for a quick drink and snacks while we did a Google search for places to have dinner. Right around the corner we found absolute gem: Shine is a restaurant with a 100% gluten free kitchen – and really good beer according to my spousal expert. It reminded me a bit of Cafe Gratitude only better. We had a fabulous meal – with donut holes for desert!!!! – before heading back to the oversized jacuzzi bathtub in our room.
Numbers for today:
- Miles driven: 340
- Steps: 8,342
- French lessons: 1 (Quand puis-je avoir quelque chose à boire chez vous? Apparently it’s important to proposition people in another language before you learn to count)
- Layers of sunscreen: 2
- Number of construction sites encountered: 8
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