Day 5 - Up and Over the Rockies

Yesterday's cold cereal breakfast left me unexcited about "continental breakfast." I like good better than free. Today we had a delightful breakfast at the Econolodge. Dwayne had eggs and a bagel and I had a self-serve waffle. It was delicious!

After breakfast, we took a small detour off of US 50 to see the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. This landscape is so different than what we were seeing the last few days. Here, rock and water are in relationship and the water has carved a steep gorge into solid rock.
What a place for a picnic. 10 feet forward and you better be wearing a parachute!
This is not for those afraid of heights.
I love the sound of water, and from our perch many hundreds of feet above the river, we could hear the water roaring. The power of the river comes from its drop in elevation. On average, it drops 96 feet per mile. As the water carries broken rock, the rock crashes against the walls and carved this steep gorge.


There are people on the viewing area on the outcropping on the right. This gives a little idea of scale.
After the Black Canyon, we got on the road. We had heard that a big storm was approaching and we wanted to get across the Rockies before any snow. We stopped at Monarch Pass, the highest point of our trip at 11,312 feet. At this point, the water sheds spit. The building signs tell the story.
Here's the view to the right - West.
Here's the view to the left - East.
The snow capped mountains filled our view as we descended.
We had lunch in Canon City. This is the Owl Cigar Store. It was built in 1902 and was taken over by three brothers in the 40's and they turned it into a hamburger joint. The prices seem like they are from another era too. Our double burgers were $2.25 each! The whole lunch came out under $10.
It is simple and delicious. The waitress told us they make them today like they did in the 40's. Good meat on the flat top with onions, catsup, mustard and pickles. That's it. You can ask for mayo or jalapenos. To me, this was a far superior burger to the big, dry flashy one we had in Lake Tahoe, and I think we paid around $8 for that one!

If Nevada and Utah are about big land structures, then South East Colorado is about big sky structures. We could see for a gazillion miles until the storms rolled in. We were heading due East and could see big thunder storms to the North and South of us.
We stopped for the night in Lamar, Colorado. We had diner at Carami's 3 in 1 Restaurant. Here is a picture of my fajitas. Very flavorful, and they offered delicious chips and salsa too.
Dwayne had a simple grilled chicken salad.
The name says it all!
They also had a Mexican bakery on the other side of the restaurant. I had asked for Tres Leches cake for dessert and they were out, so he kindly gifted me this pastry.
When we checked into our hotel room, the wind was blowing like crazy and the Northern sky was black and flashing. The young man at the desk assured us that in his two years in the area he'd never had a problem as the tornadoes always went a few miles to the South or North of Lamar. The fact that the tornadoes have stayed at least 5 miles away for the last two years, didn't exactly sound reassuring to me. Right now, the wind is howling around our hotel, but we can see that the storm remains to the North and is moving North East. We feel safe, but hope the ginormous hail passes us by as well. I think I'm always moved and fascinated by weather because it is an enormous natural force and because I've lived most of my life in Sacramento where weather talk tends towards summer heat stories.
We got a real live Emergency Broadcast warning!

This huge storm continues to move to the East and will likely be ahead of us. Tomorrow we head out across Kansas. I understand our route will take us through miles of farm country. Could be the most exciting scenery will be in the sky.