2017 Adler San Diego Roadtrip

Starting mileage: 8541 Starting time: 8:00 am Ending mileage: 9111 Ending time: 6:00 pm Travel mileage:  470 Travel time: 10:00 hours Travel day. First significant rain since we left home over a month ago. Day 31 route

Starting mileage: 7847 Starting time: 8:00 am Ending mileage: 8541 Ending time: 6:30 pm Travel mileage:  694 Travel time: 10:30 hours A lot warmer when we got up this morning, 54 degrees vs freezing yesterday morning. As we got to the Missouri River along the eastern edge of South Dakota, we started to see maple trees with fall foliage that we are familiar with. The land we could see along the highway became predominantly agricultural, with mainly corn and wheat or oats - hard to tell which at 80 mph. I think part of the mystery about the gas mileage higher at higher elevation has to do with the gas not having ethanol. When we were in Wall, SD, we had to double-take that regular gas was $2.75 while premium gas was $2.45. It turns out the more expensive "regular" gas was without ethanol while the "premium" gas had no ethanol. A long day of driving today, only stopping for food and bathroom breaks. Day 30 route

Starting mileage:  7501 Starting time: 8:30 am Ending mileage: 7847 Ending time: 6:30 pm Travel mileage:  346 Travel time: 10:00 hours This morning when we got in the car it was 32 degrees and there was frost on the windshield. We went back to Mt. Rushmore in the morning to see it in the sunshine and to take some more photos. After leaving the Black Hills, the terrain was mostly rolling prairie for the next 300 miles. Although it appeared to be mostly for cattle grazing, we did see fields of sunflower, corn, sorghum, oats, hay and something bright green that we couldn't identify. Our first stop was the world-famous Wall Drug Store in Wall SD, just outside of the Badlands NP. There are signs for hundreds of miles around advertising Wall Drug. It is a huge place, with shops for jewelry, rocks, western gear, souvenirs and a huge cafe with the world's largest collection of western art. We had 5 cent cups of coffee, something they are famous for, and I had a piece of...

Starting mileage:  7148 Starting time: 8:30 am Ending mileage: 7501 Ending time: 5:30 pm Travel mileage:  353 Travel time: 9:00 hours Leaving Fort Collins, it is just a short way up I-25 to Wyoming and rolling prairie that we would be traveling through most of the day. There were electronic signs warning of 50+ mph winds and our car was certainly being blown around. A wind farm on one side of the road had all the turbines spinning but the wind farm on the other side didn't have any turbines turning, strange. The wind must often be very strong as most houses had tree windbreaks planted on the west side of the house and cattle were huddled behind wooden shelters along the road. There are also functioning old-fashioned windmills that pump water for the cattle on the range and occasional pump-jacks slowly bringing up crude oil. We passed incredibly long trains of coal (bad coal!) cars loaded to the top.  I suspect the little town of Lusk, WY is a speed trap. The ...

Starting mileage:  6769 Starting time: 8:30 am Ending mileage: 7148 Ending time: 6:30 pm Travel mileage:  379 Travel time: 10:00 hours Speaking with the desk clerk at breakfast, he suggested taking route 285 up through Leadville as a scenic route. He said that he and his wife came out to hike in Ouray 4 years ago and liked it so much they both quit their jobs in Connecticut and were fortunate to find jobs in Ouray. We followed his suggestion and it was truly a spectacular drive north through the Rocky Mountains. For lunch we stopped at the Silver Dollar Saloon in Leadville which has been operating there since 1879. It was opened by a mining businessman who at the time was the wealthiest man in Colorado. He would help fund minors and in return got a share of the profits which were huge. He paid $25,000 to build an opera house in Leadville because he thought it important for civilized society and many notable people visited there. We went to the National Mining Mu...

Starting mileage:  6444 Starting time: 8:00 am Ending mileage: 6769 Ending time: 6:00 pm Travel mileage:  325 Travel time: 10:00 hours Our trip up from Gallup was through more desert-like terrain, just scrub brush and mountains in the distance. Every once and a while we would see large buttes like in the photo below. There were also areas with white salt deposits on the ground - I tasted it which was only slightly salty, probably something other than sodium chloride but fortunately, not toxic! We also saw a herd of horses with different colors and patterns, possibly wild horses. We were going to get tickets at the Colorado Visitor Center  to tour the cliff houses at Mesa Verde but they were already sold out. We were told that the schools are out in Utah this week for educational travel and many families had come over to visit Mesa Verde. Oh well, next time. Mesa Verde isn't as "verde" (green) as it used to be. Since 1989 there have been a number of very large...