When I started planning the Great West trip I broke it into three sections to make the planning more manageable. The first part would be our northern route to Utah so that we could approach the Hoover Dam from 70 and 15 which I was told by numerous people was an amazingly beautiful drive. And then of course arriving at the Hoover Dam. Part 2 of the trip would have us drive through CA and to the coast before turning south and east through Idaho to return to Utah and Great Salt Lake. Part three was a crazy turn north to Minnesota and Wisconsin before turning south to return home.
First the prep: this took a long time. I looked at each state that we were visiting and began researching to find out what we should see. Every state has so many different sites whether they be historic locations, beautiful scenes of nature, fun roadside attractions, or marvels of human ingenuity. The task was to keep us on an efficient route and see as much as possible. It was a lot of looking at state's webpages, roadsideamerica.com, and Atlas Obscura to name a few. It also involved being open to talking to others and getting suggestions from them on where to visit or what route to take. For example my original plan had us taking the first leg on I-40 and traveling straight west to the Hoover Dam. But when three separate people told me about the 70-15 route I decided the added hours and miles were worth the view. Then looking at the map I tried to figure out what could we reasonably travel in a day while accounting for stopping for gas, walking the dogs, and stopping to eat. I also looked up some hotels just to have an idea of where we could stop but I didn't make any reservations so that we weren't forced to get to certain points. This way if we did fall behind missing a hotel check in wouldn't be an added stress. I also picked some of the cities we would be traveling to in order to monitor weather. Not that it mattered much. If the weather was bad we were still going but at least I would know what to expect... and what we expected was a very dry drive and a huge swing in temperature with a high of over 100 and a low in the 50s.
For some fun prep I also painted rocks to leave at various stops some were for specific states and stops and others were just generic rocks.
We left Thursday right after work to get a head start for the trip and took a ride through some repeat states: Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri. As we drove through Illinois the roadways were lined with beautiful flowers and we took note. At a rest area I noticed a sign explaining about the "Corridors for Tomorrow" project. In an effort to replace some of the lost prairie and wildflower lands the Department of Transportation is planting the highway right of ways with natural prairie grasses and wildflowers. We drove till roughly 1 in the morning and then stopped at a rest area for the night.
On Friday morning we started off early and drove for a couple of hours before stopping in Odessa, Missouri which was platted in the late 1870s and named after Odessa Ukraine. There we stopped at Black Box Coffee for breakfast. I had to place the order online for pickup since they were closed inside due to Covid 19 restrictions. That was a shame because inside looked very welcoming with a high coffered ceiling and large arm chair with a bookcase in the very far corner. As I waited outside for the coffee a speaker played music from the light post and a sign out font of a different business read "Thankful Friday Thank you Odessa." I ordered the Lavender white chocolate which was very tasty. I really could taste the lavender and the white chocolate complemented it without making the drink too sweet.
Once we got back on the road it wasn't long before we crossed in to our first new state of the trip: state #18 on the year Kansas. We also made our first unplanned stop in Topeka when we passed the Monroe School which was involved in the court case Brown Versus The Board of Education: the case that would eventually result in a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court in 1954 that school segregation was unconstitutional and break from the precedent of Plessy Versus Ferguson that resulted in a "separate but equal" theory. Oliver Brown was the main plaintiff but in reality the case involved 13 parents and 20 children. The case was first heard in the Topeka court system in 1951 when the Brown's daughter, Linda, was denied enrollment in the closer white school and instead was sent by bus to the Monroe school. While the case was denied in the regular courts the Supreme Court opted to hear the appeal (along with four other similar cases) and on May 17, 1954 ruled that:
"We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment."
The Monroe school now serves as a community center and in 1991 was added to the National Historic Landmark Registry as a site of national significance.
Next we detoured to Junction City, Kansas named so because of its location at the confluence of two rivers, the Smokey Hill and Republican Rivers, which join to form the Kansas River. There we found a memorial to the 9th and 10th calvary units stationed at Fort Riley, The Buffalo Soldiers. These soldiers served in multiple wars, protected and escorted wagon trains, safeguarded railroad crews, as peace keepers, and as park rangers from the end of the Civil War until the integration of the military in the 1950s. During that time over 20 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor for their service to the nation.
Next we reached our first planned destination of Abilene, Kansas. Abilene began like many western towns as a stage coach stop. In 1867 the Kansas Pacific Railway came through Abilene. That same year a large hotel and stock yard was built in the area which made Abilene a center of the cattle trade.
On September 5, 1867 the first stock cars filled with cows left for market in Chicago. It is estimated that between 1867 and 1871 almost a half million cows were herded to Abilene by cowboys and shipped off. The history of this town made perfect sense for why we would find the world's largest spur there.
With two dogs most of our activities and planned stops were things I could count on being dog friendly, so outside. I didn't look at any museums as a result while the Eisenhower Presidential library is located in Abilene we didn't detour to see it.
Less than an hour later we found ourselves in Salina, Kansas. The town got its start in 1858 and served as a stopping point for prospectors heading west to Pike's Peak and emigrants on their journey west. In 1867 the town changed when the Kansas Pacific also added a stop there turning Salina into a cattle town which lasted for two years. The next major industry was wheat and flour. In 1889 Lee Denim Company opened up its original factory there.
We were there to see a memorial in honor of Steve Fossett's non stop flight covering 22,936 miles in 67 hours. The flight began February 28, 2005 and ended on March 3, 2005 beginning and ending at Salina Regional Airport. Steve Fossett was a businessman and adventurer who set numerous travel and speed records in balloon, ship, and aircraft. Growing up he was a Boy Scout and his time as a scout set the tone for his life not only of adventure and leadership but as a focus on inspiring others. With the flight from Kansas he insisted on having local students aid his flight team. His numerous records and dedication to fostering an interest in flight is what earned him multiple awards including: Induction into the Aviation Hall of Fame, a Gold Medal from the FAI, Induction into the Balloon and Airship Hall of Fame, and in 2002 was named Yachtsman of the Year by the American Sailing Association.
Sadly Steve Fossett was killed in September of 2007 when the plane he was piloting crashed after being effected by strong downdrafts. I left a painted rock at the base of the monument, it was a helicopter in honor of the work of Rex Maneval who built an early helicopter in 1939.
We stayed in Salina to get lunch at the Blue Skye Brewery and Eats. The brewery had a nice but small outdoor patio area. It worked for us as the dogs got a break out of the car with enough shade to keep cool. The inside of the restaurant/brewery was nice with the wood burning stove serving as an attention grabbing center piece. We built a flight of most of their beers and ordered their signature pizza: cream cheese, house made pork chili verde, tomatoes, black bean and corn mix, house blend cheese, and red pepper flakes. The crust was made out of spent grains and they gave us honey to sip the crust in which was unique. I will admit I was skeptical at first but gave it a try and it was delicious.
An hour drive later and we were in Wilson, Kansas the Czech capital of Kansas. The town was established in 1871 along the Kansas Pacific Railway Line which we were following as we drove across Kansas. In 1874 Francis Swehla became the area's first Czech settler and he worked to attract other Czechs to follow his lead. They did. In 2003 local artists with funding from the Czech Embassy built and decorated a giant Czech Egg or kraslice. In July the town of 800 hosts an after harvest party celebrating their Czech culture that attracts over 1000 visitors.
Next was another unplanned stop in Victoria, Kansas when we passed a sign for the Cathedral of the Plains: The Basilica of St. Fidelis. The Church was first called Cathedral of the Pines by William Jennings Bryan, although it is not a Cathedral. It is however the fourth Catholic Church in Victoria, Kansas. The first church was built in 1876 connected to a house of one of the parishioners, the second Church built in 1877 was the Mother of Sorrows, in 1884 it was replaced by St. Fidelis Church which could sit 600, and in 1912 that was replaced by the Basilica which could seat over 1000 parishioners. In 1971 the Church was added to the National Historic Registry for its architecture. In 2008 the Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius declared the building one of the 8 wonders of Kansas, a list I didn't know existed but will now have to visit the other seven. And in 2014 the church became the 78th American Basilica and first in Kansas.
We continued crossing the Central Plains on I-70 which earlier this year celebrated its 50th anniversary of completion in Kansas until we reached Colorado.
It was almost 10 pm when we reached the Laquinta in Limon, CO where we planned to spend the night. Despite our extra stops we were on track. I left Meg and my Mom with the dogs at the hotel and drove a block away to Oscar's Bar and Grill to get us something to eat. It had been a really long day and we were all feeling pretty spent.
Day 2 started with us finishing the drive to Longmount, CO. While campaigning Theodore Roosevelt took to the rails on what was called the "Whistle Stop Tour." On September 25, 1900 Roosevelt stopped at the rail yards in Longmount.
This was the first sculpture in a series that we found that someone had placed a mask on to cover the mouth and noise. A bit of an amusing joke the first time but it started getting old. I slipped the mask off to get a picture of the art work before returning it for a fun picture with Gypsy Rover. I also left behind a painted rock with a train on it in honor of Teddy's love for trains and their early role in shaping the country.
We walked around the downtown area filled with shops and restaurants to La Vita Bella for some coffee and breakfast. There I had a bagel with their very own home made vegetable cream cheese. We also stopped to check out another shop Winchell's Donuts. Inside Winchell's they had a number of signs showcasing their love of donuts and a history of the company which started in 1948 in California as a walk up donut shop. The company expanded in California and then in 1961 ventured out to Colorado and Arizona. In 1964 the geniuses created the first apple fritter in donut history (so the sign says) and I thank them for it!
Next stop was a strange one to find in the middle of the Rockies because it was a building built to resemble a Coney Island Hot dog which as soon as I read about it I knew my Brooklyn born Mom needed to go there. Next door to it was a gift shop that had several different local artists products and the artist took turns manning the shop. We have a similar store like that in the Opryland Mall. It helps to get artists a shared store front and exposure to lots of travelers.
We were on a small highway driving up and down the Rockies. They were stunningly beautiful. At one point in Lake George we pulled over at an overlook. There was a historical marker that I went to look at. It named the road as the Ralph Carr Memorial Highway. Carr was governor of Colorado from 1939-1943. After the attack on Pearl Harbor when Japanese Americans were being held in internment camps Governor Carr apparently was outspoken against the camps. The monument quoted him as saying:
"When it is suggested that American citizens be thrown into concentration camps, where they lose all their privileges of citizenship under the Constitution, then the principles of that great document are violated and lost."
The monument was dedicated in 2010 through donations from the Colorado Asian Pacific American Bar Foundation. It also quoted a Japanese American Lawyer who had fought for his Civil Liberties and the rights of others about Carr saying
"one voice, a small voice but a strong voice, like the voice of a sandpiper over the roar of the surf."
We then drove through the small town of Fairplay Colorado where their old courthouse and jail still stand along the main street where they have story boards telling the history of the town. The town was founded in 1859 during the rush to Pike's Peak. The town's name was in reaction to the large amount of land given to early prospectors and a promise that it would be split up more fairly to newcomers. We also passed through Alma, CO the highest incorporated town sitting at 10,578 it owns the record of highest post office in any country.
We continued into Breckenridge, Colorado where we saw some beautiful scenery and stopped at the Broken Compass Brewery.
Broken Compass is a small brewery that doesn't mass produce which means if you don't get it locally you aren't trying it at all. Which is one of the coolest things about the way we travelled ate and drank our way across the country. We definitely got to experience as much as possible. This was also one of the locations where we got to interact with people. A couple, visiting from Iowa, sitting at a table near us started up a conversation about our puppy, Gypsy Rover, from there the conversation morphed and changed into a conversation about craft beer and road tripping. In a cool brewery exchange they told me about one of their favorite breweries in California so I told them about one of my favorite breweries in North Carolina and with any luck we will all be able to eventually visit those breweries!
Next we were on our way to Glenwood Springs however part of I-70 was closed due to the Grizzly Creek Fire that was burning near the highway. As a result we had a long detour onto highway 9 and 131. While it added almost three hours to the drive time it took us through some beautiful landscapes.
The pictures don't do justice to the differences in color of the rock and stone and the lines caused by weather and time on the mountains. As we drove the canyon was filled with a cloud of smoke from the fire. Meg had brought her camera to try and take some star trail photos but it didn't look likely with the haze caused by the fire.
It was almost 10 pm when we rolled in to Glenwood Springs having been able to rejoin highway 70 a little further west and taken the road east to get back to Glenwood Springs. There we stopped by what was once the Glenwood Hotel where famed Gunslinger Doc Holliday died on November 8, 1887. I had a painted rock with a spade on it and the words "I'm your Huckleberry". I left it on the window sill of a Doc Holliday themed store. It was Val Kilmer's amazing performance in Tombstone that made me want to stop here. In my opinion that is one of the best movies ever made and Val Kilmer's performance steals every scene he is in.
The next morning as we drove further west on I-70 we reached the peach capital of Colorado, Palisade and some more breathtaking views.
And then Colorado became Utah as we drove along the Colorado Plateau. We stopped at a welcome center in Moab, Utah to take in the view. There a man was cleaning and picking up trash. He told us about a hawk that he had seen and some tricks to spotting the antelope that roam the area.
The Arches National Park was too much of a detour from our path so we know we will have to return some day. We just had to settle for the rock formations that we passed.
Throughout the trip we relied on my Mom's freshman year Earth Science course for basically all of our geography questions. And I have to say her knowledge held up very well.
As we drove we scanned the radio for country music stations to listen to the Top 40 countdown and we found The Eagle 101.5 and Fitz. During the countdown he told the story of Jack and Sheila who met on their way to college with some other friends. Before heading out towards the west coast one of them referenced the Jo Dee Messina song "Heads Carolina, Tails California." Years later at a party Sheila saw Jack at a party and referenced the song again. And they have been together ever since. It was a good story and because we were driving we got to hear it twice since miles later when we lost the first station we picked the count down up again just before that story.
Now I had been told this was a beautiful drive and it was true. We approached the San Rafael Reef from the east and as we approached it was amazingly striking. It is 75 miles wide made of Navajo and Wingate sandstone featuring fins, canyons, and domes. It was in 1957 when the decision was made to extend I-70 through the reef. The canyon we drove through was originally so narrow that early workers could stand and touch both sides. Workers removed 3.5 million cubic yards of rock to create the 8 mile stretch we were about to drive through the reef.
Once on the other side of the reef we stopped again to look back at the western side and Devil's Canyon where we got Domino, my Mom's dog to pose for a great photo.
As we continued along I-70 we saw more and more rock formations and the fantastic site of the painted rocks in multiple shades of red, orange, gray, and some that were even taking on a green hue.
The different colors are created by oxygen levels and mineral make up of the sandstone as the area changed and developed throughout time. At one of the pull offs I left behind a rock I had painted to look like a post card on it was a quote from the American poet Wallace Stevens:
"The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself." -Wallace Stevens
It seemed a fitting spot. Also at the area was a memorial to Linda Louise Terry Barnes who had served as a custodian to the I-70 rest areas for over 25 years and had sadly passed away in 2010 from cancer. The plaque honoring her was a nice tribute to her with a picture and a brief description of her personality and dedication:
"Her work was more than just a job. The area, the constant change of scenery, and meeting many travelers along the way were part of her... Linda was a beautiful woman who had many hobbies, including rock hunting and fishing. She was dedicated to her family and always wore a smile."
The words on the memorial made me think back to the gentleman we had meet at the welcome center in Moab who was also quick to pick up a conversation and welcome us to the area while he worked to prepare it for the day's visitors.
A bit down the road we stopped for gas and discovered some tanks painted to look like giant soda cans. Looking back at this picture it is kind of ironic because my Mom spent the better part of this entire two week trip asking for Coke only to have wait staff respond "Will Pepsi be ok?"
We also stopped for lunch at Mom's Cafe in Salina, Utah where we ordered salads and burgers to go and ate them at a road side table. Two hours later and finally heading south on I-15 we saw a sign for the Parowan Cafe which claimed to have the best cinnamon rolls in the west. The billboard did its job and we pulled over for dessert. I bought one cinnamon roll and we split it. It was very good with a thick cream cheese frosting and raisins.
We were approaching the end of our time in Utah, though we would be returning later in the trip to see Great Salt Lake. As we were driving we had noticed that it looked like there were bee hives on the highway signs. Apparently the beehive is a state symbol connected to to the hard working reputation of bees. Some how I missed that on my early research or I probably would have attempted to draw a beehive on one of my rocks.
Our next stop was a statue of wild horses in a traffic circle. I had seen a picture of part of the sculpture and was very much looking forward to seeing the full sculpture. This was one of those stops that I hadn't mentioned much about because I wanted my Mom to be surprised when she saw it, I knew she was going to love it.
A short drive later took us to another spot I had been anxious to see: Ancestral Puebloan or Navejo petroglyphs, rock carvings with tribal and cultural significance to the ancient culture who made them. They could be markings of religious or cultural importance or they could be indicating important events and travels. Unfortunately there was no informative plaque at the park which is really an open area in a subdivision to explain what tribe made the markings or the history of the rocks which I assume were moved here.
Next we entered Nevada and Arizona to see the Hoover Dam. It was built between 1931 and 1936. Before being renamed for Herbert Hoover it was named the Boulder Dam. The Dam would help to control the Colorado River, prevent flooding, provide irrigation, and provide hydroelectric power. Unfortunately the dam was closed for visitors due to Covid 19 restrictions- I understand they want to prevent large crowds and gatherings but there is definitely a way that the dam could be safely viewed. We tried to drive the highway to view it from there but a large concrete barrier made the dam impossible to see. While I knew the visitor area would be closed I thought there must be a way to view it. I stopped the car in the shoulder and walked along to try and see over the barrier and kind of got an ok look at the marvel of engineering that is the Hoover Dam.
The reservoir of Lake Mead sits high above the dam and a beautiful sunset was well on its way above me. We left the dam to get dinner at Boulder Dam Brewing. I had looked the location up before leaving and already knew that it was dog friendly and the food looked really good. As we ate we listened to the Vegas Knights playing the Canucks. The Knights won that game 5-0 and went on to advance to the next round where they are facing the Dallas Stars.
We went to our hotel for the night and ended part one of the trip. We were a little behind because of the added stops and the fire detour. But there was extra time built in to the trip and we were definitely still on pace. It was Sunday night. We were further west then we had ever been before and had travelled through nine states in less than 80 hours.
