My kittie cat did so well on the trip! She found her little nooks and just hung out, watching the scenery or (more often than not) snoozing. Her three favorite spots were on the floor in the driver's side back seat (this was #1, but no pics), her favorite pillow on the passenger seat:
And the pillow that was stuffed on top of the pile of my shit that I jammed into my teeny car (seen here via the rear view mirror--which I loved, because I could see her, and I think she loved it because she could see out the window):
And here's a fun picture of my bloated potato chip bag--I noticed it was bloated in St. George, Utah, where it was VERY HOT (100+ degrees in the day) and dry, but it got WORSE when I reached some higher elevations!! Wild! The highest I got was about 7,500 feet before I opened the bag and started eating them. But it would have been fun to see what happened at the Vail Summit in the Rockies (10,000 feet) or the one that comes after that, which was certainly around 11,000 feet. Oh well.
I passed by my most favorite road name EVER, just south of Las Vegas:
And caught some pretty desert mountain scenery in NV/UT:
Some of my favorite road-trip scenery are the rock formations in southern/central Utah and Colorado:
Rocky Mountains now!! I know these are out of order, but screwy Blogger won't let me move these around, and I'm not organized enough to plan how to post these ahead of time.
Here is the ONE bit of snow that I saw, over the several hours it took me to conquer the Rockies:
Seriously, I forgot how long, how high, and how exotic the Rocky Mountains are! It is very humbling to drive through them...
I think these next pictures are Copper Mountain, which is a ski mountain (you can see the paths carved out by the trees):
And this picture captures the top of the mountains, which I thought was particularly cool because it shows the top of the treeline, where the snowcaps inhabit the mountain most of the year (but not in late July!):
And then here are just some more beautiful shots of the mountains and pine trees and such, with a few drops of rain on my windshield! Everything is just so lush and green this time of year! No doubt, from all of the snow and precipitation it receives:
Vail (10,000 feet elevation and right off the highway) is in here somewhere, but I can't remember which pictures, specifically:
A scary tunnel that goes right through the mountain, at least 1-2 miles long! Not good for a claustrophobic gal like me:
And (again, going backwards) here are some pictures from the CLIMB. In other words, going through the Rockies is a LONG process. The west side is a slow, slightly curvy ascent (but it's an interstate, so it's not cliff-hanger curvy/scary), which hugs the Colorado River (literally, it is there right next to the interstate for much of the climb--I even saw several rafters):
Then, the interstate snakes through the higher elevations for at least an hour or two, which is where a humbling climb and descent through Vail occurs, followed by ANOTHER more trecherous climb and descent (10,000+ feet well into the descent tells me that it was around 11,000 feet at the top). These climbs were humbling because of their steep grade--at least 3-4 up/downs at 6%. Which means that my little stick-shift had to shift down into fourth (and even third once or twice!!) on the INTERSTATE, and even then I was only going 40-50mph! Wow! I can't even imagine driving a truck (or a motorhome!) through that! But it was beautiful!
I thought this name was funny too. I think this was just east of Denver:
It was a long trip, but looking back, it wasn't too bad. This is the second time I've done the full trip back to Chicago by myself--the fourth time (2 round-trips) I've done it alone in either direction. It's amazing how such a long trip can seem shorter each time! As I said to Leo, the worst part on this particular route is the third night--because once you reach Denver, it is FLAT from then on. And Denver is the half-way mark, driving Denver to Chicago takes roughly 15 more hours, so it can't be done in one day. So, there are two days of driving with no scenery, and that third night was preceded by a drab day of driving in Colorado and Nebraska, with over 20 hours of driving logged, and no immediate reward.
But I could do it again.
And this route is definitely meant for summer. During the cold months, Texas/New Mexico/Arizona is the way to go!!
P.S.--I checked this page and discovered that Vail Pass is at elevation 10,666 feet and the tunnel that I mentioned (the Eisenhower Tunnel) is at an elevation of 11,158 feet! No wonder that tunnel made me dizzy! It wasn't just claustrophobia!
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