2 RV's to Grand Junction CO

... spending the night at Grand Junction CO

Up early, eat eggs, sausage and fruit cup for breakfast.

And wait.

Just a lite dusting of snow in the forecast ... until today. Ice.

Chains are required and the tunnel is closed because of an accident so we have now been sitting in the hotel an extra two hours.

Finally the rental dispatcher updates his list. :( Two trucks out of Grand Junction. Both going to CO. We'll wait.

While we are waiting this AM, BB calls on the rental car that we returned on Saturday, it still has not been updated as returned. The person she talked to was of no help, not sure they had a clue as to what BB was talking about. They said because we had rented the car for a week, that we would not see the bill for a week ... ??? If someone had been at the lot when BB returned the car she would have had the receipt when she walked out of the lot.

Finally at 9 AM we decide to go. If we wait any longer we will run out of daylight hours to get to Grand Junction tonight.

I did call the drop to let the know we will (hopefully) be there for delivery tomorrow.

Google maps had shown the road from Loveland to Gypsum to be 3/4 slow early in the day. By 9 AM it was only slow 1/4 quarter of that 80 miles.

Because we don't have work lined up for tomorrow yet, we are going to be stopping about every hour instead of every two hours.

1st stop is in Wiggins at a rest area. We just stop and look at our computers to see if there is work. BB does use the restroom but I'm still trying to figure out my notepad with out having to download apps. Nothing new.

There are now four huge dairies between NE and Denver on I-76. -0- when I started 20 years ago. The one I can remember watching them put it in. One of the first things there was the feed piles. Even before the buildings were up.

2nd stop was in Wheat Ridge for fuel at the TA/Shell. Plan was to eat there. But the Country Pride is closed and they do not have any indoor seating for their shelf food so we would have had to sit at the tables outside. It was 40 degree's by now and we have done it. But today we knew/thought we would have time so we had looked at other food.

First suggestion was Smash burger but we were not that hungry. A few miles past Smash burger was a mall. Big enough that it likely had four anchors in its hay day but I can't find any info on it. It is now <> an indoor outlet mall. Busy, 8 of 9 vendors in the food court were open. Mostly big name. Very few storefronts vacant. We ended up at Charlie's, they had a line waiting to order and waiting for food the almost hour we were there. OK, not real speedy. But good food. Not often we take an hour to eat. At the TA it would have been 15 minutes. The mall was the CO Mills mall in Lakewood.

Right before we get to Loveland (ski area,) we meet three snow plows in formation. And I realize I don't remember when we met the last car. And there are no cars behind them either. Not sure how they manage that.

By the time we get to the other end of the Loveland tunnel cars are entering so traffic is moving again. The oncoming backup was a few miles long and three lanes wide.

... and coming out of the tunnel on the west side it is snowing. I'm down to 45 mph coming down the hill and I loose everyone including BB. Real fine snow, the kind that makes the roads slick.

Info about the tunnel

"With a maximum elevation of 11,158 feet (3,401 m) above sea level, it is one of the highest vehicular tunnels in the world. The tunnel is the longest mountain tunnel and highest point on the Interstate Highway System. "

3rd stop was Frisco at a scenic overlook. Just long enough to check the loadboard. Still nothing. This wasn't the scenic area I wanted, that was closer to Copper Mountain. BB had picked a rest area, but I had looked at a map and that was across the freeway and was going to burn time. And a good thing we didn't do the rest area, it was closed.

We were in and out of the snow a few times. Enough snow to kick the cruise off because we couldn't tell if it was going to be slick, but not enough snow to really leave tracks.

4th stop was Eagle. This is where we were going to eat today if we had left on time. Instead we stop at a Kum n Go to use the rest room. This was going to be our fuel stop if we needed more fuel, but after loosing range coming out of Denver we have re-gained it in the last hour.

I need to use the rest room, but it is a one-holer for the guys and has a line. Once BB and the next female are done, I decide to drive across the freeway to the rest area. We've been there before but I miss the signs if there were any. So we end up spending a half hour in this town also.

We had planned on stopping again to look at the load board before Grand Junction. but because we are running late, the east coast dispatchers are gone.

So we make our hotel reservation from here. Hotels are under $100 in Grand Junction. Earlier I had looked in case we didn't make it all the way today. Our usual hotels are just over $100 in the ski area's. I wanted to make sure they were not $500 and they were not. Maybe on the weekends?

5th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Junction City. Half the price as the other Choice hotels within a mile. All are near the airport.

Across the parking lot is the Freddie's. I'm OK with that and BB has found something she'll eat there also.

There now is a truck in town going to Denver and two in Denver going to CA. BUT ... BB looked and the trucks going to CA are 'day cab' style and very little room for luggage. We've spent a lot of time talking about it tonight. We've also mentioned staying in town a day but CO has another storm coming in and we want to stay ahead of that.

Load board

US - 89

IA -0-

CO - 3

We are still talking about tomorrow. Grand Junction is now short of rental cars so that may effect what we do. Weather may also effect what we do. 'Chain law' was still in effect but the tires on our RV's made us OK to go. Tomorrow we need to make sure we have a rental car that passes the 'Chain law' test.

Plan is to drop by 9 AM and be back in Denver before dark.