Left the La Quinta in Rapid City after enjoying their “deluxe” continental breakfast (not bad, but it’s right next to the big indoor waterpark and the ‘restaurant’ felt a bit like a Chuck E. Cheese with all the kids running around and a waiting line at the waffle machine). The road was great (once again). Not a lot of traffic, great scenery, speed limit 65 to 75 miles per hour. We had a bit of a misunderstanding with the Garmin and ended up getting to our lunch stop, and, more importantly for Sue, bathroom stop, an hour later than what we had projected. So it was 1:30 before we pulled in at an A&W in Wheatland, Wyoming. No teenburgers here, but Sue and I both had a cheeseburger and shared a big frosty rootbeer. Back on the road within 20 minutes. By now the sugar-sprinkling of snow that we had seen on the rolling hills had become quite a bit more intense and it was evident that the big snowstorm that had shut down Denver a few days ago had reached this far north. But the roads were clear. Around Cheyenne, near the border between Wyoming and Colorado, the traffic increased noticeably. By the time we were in Denver we had driven for over an hour in bumper-to-bumper traffic, sometimes going 75mph, sometimes slowing down to just a crawl. Friday afternoon rush-hour.

In Denver we turned west off the I-25 onto the I-70. Traffic eased up a bit; I guess lots of people are heading INTO Denver for the big Detroit-Denver NFL game this Sunday. We were determined to be checked-in by 5pm so that we would be comfortably settled into our room in time to watch Game 7 of the World Series. Last night the St Louis Cardinals came back from a 2-run deficit 3 times to win Game 6 over the Texas Rangers in 11 innings. One of the most exciting baseball games we’ve ever watched.

We pulled into Silverthorne (in the heart of Colorado ski country, in Breckenridge) and found another La Quinta Inn. Checked in. Went to pick up some beer and wine from the liquor store across the street. Ordered in pizza from the ‘Old Chicago’ restaurant right in our building, and snuggled into our 6th floor room to watch the sun set behind the chalets and mountains outside our window. It was a bit cool in our room, but once we’d eaten we had a great evening watching the amazing Cardinals come back to win Game 7. I was exhausted from my day of driving, so it didn’t take either of us long to fall asleep.