Day 8: Denver to Gunnison...through Salida (Fri, 7/8/16)

Up and Out

We woke up Friday morning and hung out with Doug, Andrew, and their chickens for a bit before heading out on the road.







Oh, and we had to get another couple of toaster shots.  Here it is with its companion in the Park-Casler household.



And, running wild with the chickens.



Red Rocks

On our way out of town we were driving right past Red Rocks.  I have seen a number of shows there, but Missy had never been there so we stopped.  It's truly a gorgeous place and these pictures barely do it justice.

Salida

We headed west across Colorado towards Utah where our next national park destination awaited, Arches.

After a couple of hours on the road we stopped for lunch in Salida so I could reconnect with Shelley.  We worked together on the same 2008 campaign as Yana and then for a couple of more years after that.  We ate at Benson's where Shelley works sometimes, when she's not holding down the fort at the local Planned Parenthood.

Salida is a beautiful mountain town that is a significant outdoor tourism destination.  While Shelley and I caught up, Missy grabbed some pho and checked out the scene.  Here are some pics from around town.  

Gunnison

After lunch and some wandering we got back on the road west and made it to Gunnison, another cute mountain town which Missy loved and I appreciated for its comfortable and well-appointed public library (that damn brief again).

We checked into the Long Holiday Motel, which was totally charming and perfect for our needs.

From here I buckled down to work on my brief and Missy explored town and brought us back a tasty Indian dinner.  

We also used this as home base to plan the rest of our trip.  We had planned the trip out fairly carefully to minimize driving and maximize national park viewing and friend visiting; but due to my brief-writing needs we were a couple of days behind.  So, we had to make some tough decisions about what to cut, including canceling the only remaining camping reservation we had in a park.  We decided to cut Yosemite (where we had a reservation) because it was close enough to the Bay Area for me to get to easily again.

To her credit, Missy was a total trooper and didn't complain that my work responsibilities were cramping our style.  [She also never actually asked me what my brief/case was about...which probably reveals something about our different personalities.]