Jane Reporting for 1st October
The Rockies
Today (1st October) we drove through the Rockies (again). This was the reverse of our trip last year and we by-passed the Eisenhower Tunnel (11,158 feet or 3,401 metres) in favour of the route over the Loveland Pass (11,990 feet or 3,655 metres).
We stopped at the Georgetown information centre (already at 8,500 feet). I can't speak for the 'information' but they had a superb shop and had I not had concerns about baggage weight I would have shopped harder. Lyn bought a geode with tiny miner figurines inside it. Very cute. These are the trees alongside the car park and fail to show that they were a glowing gold than the flat yellow of the photo.
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| Some of the trees have changed colour |
Off up the Loveland Pass which is quite a busy road as all the trucks carrying hazardous materials have to take this route rather than go through the tunnel. There were certainly plenty of trucks on the road, and presumably that traffic (and the fact the road is kept open all winter) meant it wasn't a goat track but a very nice, wide road, though in my opinion it could have done with a few extra barriers on some sections! The drop was probably fairly spectacular but I wasn't looking at it. ;o)
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| View back down the road |
We finally reached the top - the continental divide - which at nearly 12,000 feet is a bit low in oxygen for me. I got out to take a few photos of Lyn playing in the snow then handed my camera over to her as she and the others climbed the steps to the viewing point.
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| Lyn at the Continental Divide |
Geoff loved the scenery through the mountains but was particularly taken with Dillon Reservior (the water supply for Denver) which is shown in the following photos. I'm going to tell him this morning that should he decide to relocate to the area he can expect 200 - 300 inches of snow a year and the lake will freeze over so he can go ice-fishing on it.
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| Lyn and Geoff at Dillon Reservoir |
Here's Gary's contribution to the photo:
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| The alternate shot |
And a photo of Gary in on the shores of the Reservior:
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| Gary at Dillon Reservoir |
We carried on driving but the photos got fewer as we dropped down from the mountains and lost the snow - plus the sun got to the windows and the photos are just full of reflections. This is one has a few of those but is a good example of what Gary was seeing as we drove along:
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| What Gary sees |
What road(s) were we on? Mostly the I-70 except for the Loveland Pass route with was US Route 6 (US 6). The roads in the US have histories (!) and can be checked out on places like Wikipedia.
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| The road of the day, the I-70 |
On a quirky Gary-detour we came across this collection of mail boxes. This has been a feature of the rural areas - rafts of mail boxes located together, presumably for the ease of mail delivery or at the end of the line.
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| Mail boxes on the roadside |
By the time we approached Grand Junction the scenery had changed to that we (Gary and I) associate our first visit to Utah ... but that's tomorrow's journey.
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| Nearing Grand Junction |
Last year Gary said the scenery in his rear view mirror was more spectacular than what we were seeing out the front of the car and by reversing our route over almost the same roads we've seen what he meant. I would recommend driving west toward the Rockies without hesitation; doing so has a huge history, after all, and it made for a spectacular day on this trip.
State Quarters
Lyn continues to get her change (and more) in quarters to fill up her display book. The odd colouring to the silver-coloured coins comes from the lights in the room as I'm usually taking the coin photos last thing at night.
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| State Quarters: Mississippi |
Is this a steamboat gunship? I must investigate more.
This morning (2nd October), after much conversation with my other best internet friend, Mr Google, I now know that this coin is not a state quarter - that is, not from the US Mint 50 State Quarters Program. They are from the next program, America the Beautiful Program which is not nearly done yet. I'm not sure how I'm going to break the news to Lyn!
Anyway the steamboat gunship (and Mr Google's answer to my question about this, this morning, was to direct me to the blog post I wrote last night) is the USS Cairo and she was an iron-clad gunship that was powered by steam and a paddle wheel. Awesome!
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