Day 11 – June 29, 2019

The weather was mild overnight which allowed all three of us to sleep soundly. The super fresh air is intoxicating. Best of all, we are acclimating to the 6,000 foot elevation.

We broke camp and by 10:30 we were back on the I-70 East heading for Denver.

The landscape driving through Colorado is some of the best we have seen. The only problem is that our very old and very over packed van did not enjoy some of the steep climbs that took us over 10,000 feet in elevation. We just took our time. I have found that driving a little slower and keeping the RPMs low puts the stress on the engine.

We arrived in Denver around 2:00. We did a little shopping and ate a light lunch.

We had booked a night at an Extended Stay America. We have had good luck with ESA in the past. Unfortunately, our luck ran out. The property is gross. The people here are gross. There is a huge pile of garbage under the stairs. Worse of all our room is gross. The bed is puny, the bathroom is filthy, the floors are sticky, and there are funny stains on the walls.

Ashley can’t figure out what the problem is. Regular bed, private shower, WiFi, electricity. And four walls that won’t flap when the wind blows. To Ashley, this is heaven. But don’t get used to it. For tomorrow, we are back in the tent.

We went to 4:00 mass in a church with maybe 1,000 parishioners in attendance. Last week we celebrated with 24 other people. We liked the more intimate mass better.

After church, we had dinner at Kathy’s favorite fast casual restaurant, Fazoli’s. She is starting to trip plan to cities that have Fazoli’s in them.

We returned to our slummy motel and sought shelter in our room for the evening.