A looooong day!....

This is actually the post I wanted to make yesterday evening.

Pictures above are in reverse order. Bottom one is Susan at entrance to The Fort when we arrived. You can probably tell why its called The Fort. Middle one is the tipi or tipee in the courtyard. The one on top is after dinner in the courtyard.

First a little review of the Days Inn in Cedar City after the nite's stay. I was pleasantly surprised. The room was spacious, clean and quiet. Everything worked. They have a continental breakfast that is free, but we did not partake. While Susan was showering, I went down to get some coffee and look it over. The coffee could only be described a very, very weak and tepid. The only things on the breakfast bar that I could see that I would try were the banannas and the raisin bran. We just skipped it and did a quick stop at Starbucks on the way out.

Headed north on I15 and then made the transition to I70 East. Passed through some desolate, but beautiful country. Stopped at Richfield to gas up and made a mistake by not recording the mileage and number of gallons. I had hoped to keep a complete record of gas mileage on the whole trip, but I have already blown that.

We stopped for lunch in Green River, Utah and I thought "great" here's my first chance to go into a little town along the way to find a local place to review. The town is about 2 miles off the highway, so we headed down into it. Just before the town limits, the road was closed for construction. No detour, no way around it. Just closed. Headed back to I70 where there are two truck stops right by the entrance. One had an Arby's Roast Beef sandwich place and the other had a Subway. Both places had long lines of people trying to order lunch. Oh well, both Susan and I tried Subway's new Flatbread sandwiches. I have always liked Subway's because their ingredients are very fresh, but I have always thought that there was just too much bread. The new Flatbread option is better in that regard. I had the 6" Sweet Onion and Chicken (what else?). It was still a little too much to eat when you are about to spend another 8 hours behind the wheel.

The remainder of the drive to Denver was very pleasant. Lots of beautiful scenery as we climbed up the Loveland Pass to the Eisenhower Tunnel whose entrance is at 11,150 feet. Both Susan and I were feeling a little woozy which I assume was from the altitude because it went away as we started down the other side. Gassed up again in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

I used Onstar concierge again to set us up with a hotel in the Denver area. They booked us at a place called Aloft which is part of the W hotel chain. We got a great deal because the hotel has only been open for two months and it is a little out of the way. It's actually in Broomfield about 8 miles off the I70. Crossing that 8 miles on surface streets was time consuming and I did it 3 times (when we first arrived in the Denver area, to go to dinner at the Fort, to get back to the hotel from dinner). I was concerned about crossing it again this morning during rush hour, but the GPS actually took us the opposite direction around the north end of Denver to connect to I76 going East to Omaha.

The hotel was impressive. It is very, very European and very modern. Excellent job maximizing the space in the room and lots of horizontal surfaces to put your stuff on. Also, many prized power jacks right on the desk. My pet peeve in hotel rooms is the presence of so many advertising brochures that the first thing I have to do when I enter the room is sweep them all off on the floor. Nary a one in sight at this place. Really cool decor throughout and an awesome bar in the lobby. Great job, Onstar!

What can I say about the Fort? Awesome restaurant. If you are ever in the Denver area, you must try it. It is pricy, but worth every penny. They serve wild game like buffalo, elk and have rattlesnake meat appetizer, as well as peanut butter stuffed jalapeno peppers. Unfortunately, many of their appetizers contain red meat, but we did try the broiled Asadero cheese with toasted bread slices to put it on. Very good. A special was a soup called "the kettle of the wife". It had chicken, avocado, garbanzo beans, rice, cilantro and jack cheese in it. It was delicious! Susan had lamb chops done to perfection and I had Cuban Mojo Chicken (what else!). They also have quail and duck on the menu, but both had a fruit jam sauce on them and I'm not too keen on sweet sauces. Check it out at www.thefort.com.