The Albatross
Monday 15 April 2024
Off down the I-70 we went this morning, although that’s not quite accurate as we went up quite a bit first before going down, down and further down. It was like a slalom course (get the ski reference) except with tons of high-speed vehicles doing the same thing around you. For the first hour of plummeting Tuna drove, the road was excellent but hyper fast.
It flattened out for a little, then I drove and was immediately on to narrow canyon freeway, still heading down, but nowhere as steep. The east bound freeway was underneath us for most of the run. Fortunately, most of the other drivers were competent, so despite requiring full concentration it wasn’t terrifying. The canyon driving was utterly spectacular when I had a chance to look up, the I-70 is a really spectacular piece of engineering. I had a nice bit of flatness for a while, then Tuna did the final short windy bit into Grand Junction.
Out first stop was to head out to Colorado Monuments National Park. It’s a small park with stunning gorges, spikey rocks and amazing views. It was freezing and windy despite being 5,000 ft below where we started the day, but it felt much colder. There is very little parking at any of the lookouts, so I’m glad we went on a Monday as it could easily turn into a complete log jam on a sunny weekend with lots of cars and cyclists.
Next stop was the local airport to renew our car for the last time. Grand Junction was a good choice as it’s a sleepy little airport, the nice bloke had us sorted out and on our way as quick as possible. We’ll have the Honda Pilot till departure. It makes a great more sense out here where roads are wide. It is nice and comfy and holds vast amounts of our stuff.
Off shopping, a big buy as the next part of our trip doesn’t seem to have much infrastructure and we’re in one place for quite a few days. Something we are both looking forward to.