<– Day 37 – Monday June 4th: Up and Over the Rockies | OVERVIEW –>

Day 38 & 39: Day 38, Tuesday, was my birthday. We spent the day in Salt Lake City doing almost nothing. We spent some time in the park and I played some guitar. Later, we went out to dinner with my boys. On Wednesday, we drove home to Pasco. Naturally, we had a hiccup: Our Verizon hotspot died (it was pretty old), so we stopped at where our trip started, the Verizon Store in Twin Falls, Idaho. We made it back to Pasco at 4pm PST, very tired.

I want to thank EVERYONE who welcomed us into their homes, offered advice on where we should go, met us at the Reunion, gave us tours, shared their jeeps and stories, purchased our posters and t-shirts, gave us gifts, donated money, bought us or made us dinner, and interacted with us along the way. Without ALL of you, these trips that we make would be far less interesting and enjoyable. Seeing jeeps is fun, but meeting people and seeing new places are the best parts. So, thanks for allowing us to be a part of your worlds, even if briefly.

TRIP STATS: 9,751 miles through 24 states over 39 days. Below is a rough map of the trip.

That’s it for the 2018 East Coast Willys Reunion trip!

<– Day 37 – Monday June 4th: Up and Over the Rockies | No More Additional Posts

<– Day 36 – Sunday June 3rd: Leaving The Plains | Day 38/39 – Tues/Wed June 5th/6th: Road Home – Epilogue –>

Lincoln looking down upon us at a rest stop along I-80.

Day 37: On Monday we drove from Denver, Colorado, to Salt Lake City, Utah, with a short stop in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

On Monday we drove from Denver to Salt Lake City.

We thanked our new-found cousin Gary and his wife Kathy for hosting us, then off we went to find a place they think serves the best Bagels in Denver, the Woodgrain Bagels. They didn’t have a very wide selection of bagels, but they had the proper chewiness. I enjoyed them (of course, Ann can’t eat them because of her gluten issues).

Along with a half-dozen bagels, I bought some poblano cream cheese. Oh boy, was that excellent!

Coincidently, the bagelry and numerous other nearby shops and houses are located at the old Lowry Air Force Base. Ann had spent time there (as did Bob Christy). Needless to say, Ann was shocked at the transformation of the base from one with endless goose excrement (she remembers having to march through goosepoop) into a place with a museum, restaurants, beer garden, high end shops, and storage facilities. It was quite disorienting.

Continue reading →

<– Day 35 – Saturday June 2nd: Following the Western Cattle Trail | Day 37 – Monday June 4th: Up and Over the Rockies –>

Buffalo Bill shooting a Buffalo sculpture at the Buffalo Bill Cultural Center in Oakley, Kansas.

Day 36: On Sunday we drove from Garden City, Kansas, to Denver, Colorado.

Sunday’s drive from Garden City, Kansas, to Denver, Colorado.

Our day began unexpectedly. While driving to get some coffee Ann noticed a guy in a 3rd story hotel window changing clothes with his back/butt to the window, and I mean almost pressing up against the window. The morning sun was shining right on the window, so he wasn’t hard to see. What happens in Garden City, stays in Garden City?

As we drove to our first destination, Monument Rocks, I learned I was in trouble. It turns out, Ann had a dream about me accepting a job to do a reality show with Trump and Kelly Ann Conway. Kelly and I had to pretend we were married. For some reason, Ann wasn’t happy about this arrangement. Thankfully, her short term memory is awful and, once I found some caffeine for her, she’d forgot all about it.

We had a problem as we drove north. Neither my iPhone nor our Jeep’s nav system was giving us the proper turnoff road for Monument Rocks. I’d mapped out several times on my computer, so I knew approximately where the turn off was (there are actually two of them, but the southern one doesn’t have any signs along the highway). Fortunatley, Ann tried her Android and it found the turn off just in time. (for those traveling from the south, turn right on Dakota, just across from the Keystone Gallery. Dakota becames 450, then Elk, then Gove E, then turn left — north — on Gove 16).

This photo shows the drive up Gove 16 from the south:

Here’s what we saw as we approached Monument Rocks:

The chalk formations are on private land and several signs ask visitors not to climb the cliffs. The early morning sun and blue skies made for some neat photos.

Continue reading →