Hi loyal readers—this is our last entry from this trip. We’re currently relaxing in our room at the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas and about to call it a night, but we figured we should put up one last entry to talk about the last two days, Denver to Cortez and Cortez to Las Vegas.
Evan: Denver to Cortez was an absolutely beautiful drive; I’d say it was the best of the trip. Most of the drive was a trip through the Rockies, which meant that we saw snow-covered peaks, rivers of runoff, and a lot of beautiful mountain scenery. We also got quite high up, altitude-wise; the road took us over 10,000 feet high, which is far higher than I’ve ever been before. Denver is the mile high city, with an official altitude listed at exactly one mile, 5,280 feet. The peaks of some of the mountains we drove up were probably about 14,000 feet, and we drove up about 10,000 of those feet. So it’s pretty high up, and you can feel it. The car has to work harder in the thinner air and everything about your body is protesting the height. My eyes hurt, the air was a bit harder to take in, and I just didn’t feel quite right. Along the way, we made a stop for lunch—I’m gonna let Sarah take over for that part of the day.
Sarah:
We didn’t want to eat fast food, so we decided to stop in a little town called Saguache, with a population of less than 600. We got off the highway and followed signs for the “Downtown Business District” (aka a two block stretch of buildings). It turned out to be the cutest town I have ever seen. The buildings were all built either in the late 19th or early 20th century, and we stopped at a new looking café/bakery. It was delicious! I had a cream of artichoke soup with and egg salad sandwich on their homemade multigrain bread, and Evan had huevos rancheros. Everything was so good. We also decided to order a slice of their banana cream pie to go because we were so full. Um, best banana cream pie I’ve ever had. After that, we just drove and drove until we got to Cortez, Colorado… I’ll hand it back to Evan for that.
Evan: Cortez is a nice town. By local standards, it’s a huge city, and probably the largest group of people in about 60 miles. But to us, it was a town of about 8000 people. We grabbed food from a well-reviewed Mexican restaurant, and it was pretty good. Afterwards, we just called it a night. We woke up early this morning, since it was our longest driving day. We got to the Four Corners by 9. Both Sarah and I enjoyed spending time in 4 states at once. We then pushed on to the Grand Canyon, which was just as impressive as it looks in pictures. I’m afraid of heights, so I didn’t get too close to the edge, but Sarah is much bolder and got much better pictures as a result. (footnote by Sarah—I wasn’t that bold.. but Evan was scared). It was beautiful regardless of how close to the edge you stood, though. The rest of the drive was pretty—lots of mountains and rock formations through the desert on the way to Vegas. I’ll let Sarah take over and talk about our time here.
Sarah:
We got to Vegas, and it’s just so different from everything we’ve seen on our trip thus far. The lights, the people, the heat. We got to our hotel, and it is beautiful. After playing some penny slots, and losing a few bucks, we went to dinner at Roy’s, which is a fantastic Asian/Hawaiian fusion restaurant. The meal was so good, and the service was fantastic. Evan had a macadamia-crusted mahi mahi in a lobster-cognac-butter sauce. I had lemongrass shrimp in a Thai chili broth with vegetables. It was fantastic. We also had some mixed drinks, and an appetizer. Oh, and dessert, of course. It was a pineapple upside down cake that we had to order ahead of time because it was made individually for us. It came with homemade coconut ice cream. Yum yum. We came back to the casino, me a little tipsy, and Evan ready to spend some more money. He had a pretty good winning streak on the slots (he sextupled his money! From one dollar to more than six) but then he lost it all. Such is Vegas. Okay I’m sleepy! I’ll see if Evan has anything to add.
Evan: I actually walked away up about $4 for the evening, so, hey, I didn’t lose it all. But, that’s all for tonight!
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