It was nice to sleep in for a change and wake up to a continental breakfast. I went a little overboard in fact; I couldn’t resist all the amenities that were offered at no additional charge (probably an instinct I acquired from attending PC events in Benin where everyone would rush to the food and it quickly would disappear).
With a full tummy, and a full tank of gas, we drove into Mesa Verde to see some of the oldest Pueblos in the southwest. We stopped at a few overlooks on the way to take in the view of yet another one of America’s National Parks. And like the others, this park also had extremely windy roads, which made us take our time to get to the sites. We missed the early ranger guided tours of some of sites, so we went to the Spruce Tree Dwellings that held the 3rd largest dwellings in the park. It was nicely preserved and I took a ladder down into a restored Kiva (meeting room). The structures had a great resemblance to Dogon Country in Mali and it amazed me the similarities that arise from worlds miles upon miles apart. Satisfied that in seeing one dwelling, you’ve seen them all, we drove back to the entrance an hour away and became glad that we came early enough to miss the crowd that was forming.
The stretch ahead was approximately 7 hours, at this point of the trip the GPS stopped working, but being two capable women, we managed just fine with the maps in the car. And the route was pretty simple; we just followed US 160 E to US 285 N. The rained joined us for yet another day, at this point it just seemed normal to have rain, and we only felt bad for the numerous amounts of bikers that were sharing the road.
Mountains to our west appeared, giving way to a beautiful landscape and acknowledged that we were in the rocky mountain state. We made a stop at the first ice cream stand we had seen in our trip. What was intriguing about the little place was it not only served ice cream and the typical ice cream stand food from the grill, it was also where one could find Thai food. Hmm.
In good time, we pulled into the outskirts of Denver, got settled into our hotel and went on a hunt for a non-chain restaurant. We knew 16th street was the place to go and if we saw it from the main road, I would have tried to drive down it, not knowing it was for pedestrians and buses only. We checked out the Wynkoop Brewery on Wynkoop Ave, which had gotten some good reviews online. Being at a brewery I had to try some of the local brew with a bison burger (it was delicious!). And when Becca asked to see the wine menu, the waiter was taken by surprise (really who drinks wine at a brewery?). The restaurant was a good pick and we had a great evening.
We slept that night with stuffed bellies and a few nerves about what tomorrow held for us.
442.5 miles
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