THE DREAM IN ACTION

Day 1: Wheaton – St. Louis

Day 2: St. Louis, MO – Denver, CO

Day 3: Denver, CO – Salt Lake City, UT

Day 4: Salt Lake City, UT – Lake Tahoe/Truckee, CA

Day 5: Lake Tahoe/Truckee, CA – San Francisco, CA

We started  our day 2 journey bright and early Saturday morning with Denver as our goal.  As we left St. Louis, it was hot and humid even at 7:30 so we were not too sad to leave but of course I insisted that we stop at a Starbucks for something to eat.  Since Ryan’s best hours are not before 9 a.m., I opted to drive the first leg of the route.  In case anyone is interested to know, the drive from St. Louis to Denver consists of ample farms and maybe even more “adult bookstores.”   I vowed to drive 6 hours and then switch but as we traveled through the repetitive flat lands, I found it hard to even think that I could make it more than two hours.  So of course I went back on my plan and changed the rules so that we would switch every time we needed to fill the tank.

Our first exit off the highway was outside of Topeka and it promised a McDonalds and ‘clean bathrooms’ at the gas station (I try to keep my standards attainable on roadtrips through the middle of nowhere).  As we pulled up to the gas station we didn’t even make it to see the ‘clean bathrooms’ because we got to witness Jerry Springer live while a man dirtier than most homeless people cussed out a woman with butterfly tattoos down her legs.  I was slightly scared but I continued to watch… I couldn’t resist.  After Jerry Springer Live, we opted to wait it out to grab lunch at a different stop.

Believe it or not, we stuck to the rules of switching drivers at every gas stop and kept to the plan so much so that we ended up going all the way to Boulder since we made great time.  We were really tempted to stop and see the worlds largest Prairie dog (which one small town promised to have) but since we didn’t give in to the temptation, we were able to go out to a sushi dinner downtown Boulder.  (Thanks @Micah for giving us the quick tour of the town!)

(our lovely Boulder, CO accommodations, the University Inn)

Tomorrow we will be making our way to Salt Lake City through Wyoming.  Woot! Woot!