Show #27: Grand Junction, CO, part I

● February 26

We departed this morning at 8AM. I have been known to say that I didn’t choose a career in theatre because of desire or ability; rather it was the hours that were appealing. On the road by 8:00? Do people really do this? Today was going to be very, very long – the longest driving day of the entire tour. But I was so looking forward to the being in the mountains that I didn’t care. I mean, how much Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas can one kid take?

We first glimpsed the mountains 95 miles east of Denver. My excitement built as we drew nearer. Oh, how my heart loves the mountains! It was very warm all day. It was in the 60’s in Denver, and still relatively warm up in the mountains – in the 30’s, and the roads were all clear. I’ve made this drive on I70 twice before in the summer, but doing it now in the winter is a whole new experience.

I love making this drive – past ruins of long-abandoned 19th-century gold mines, small ski towns, snowy peaks, pine-covered slopes, ski runs, frigid mountain streams running below...

We stopped at a rest stop at Vail Pass, elevation 10,666 feet.

It looked like there were about seven feet of snow on the ground, and the rest stop itself was virtually buried.

On our way down the western side of the Rockies, the terrain gradually changed from the generally rounded, elegant contours in the east, to the more rugged land of the west. Red, snow-covered mesas… huge, jutting plates of sedimentary rock rising at wild angles out of the earth... The snow gradually diminished as we descended; first melting from the southern slopes, and finally disappearing entirely.

JenDeen spent the long drive with my iPod watching thirteen – count ‘em, thirteen! – episodes of Battlestar Galatica. Oh, the girl’s got it bad!

We made surprisingly good time – it took us only a bit over 10 hours to go the 600 miles.

After checking into our hotel, Jody, Tim, JenDeen and I walked down the street to W.W. Pepper's, a great southwestern restaurant, for a wonderful, leisurely dinner – just what we needed after our long day in the van. Tim and I then returned to our room and finished the evening watching the Closing Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics.

Miles traveled: 595
Hotel: Comfort Inn