A Snowflake Landed in My Lashes

Tucked in on our first night.

Is there a need for both at once?

Ed kept an eye on our car for us.

Hello third state.

Omaha is interesting.  The rest of the state needs to catch up.

          When you start the day's adventure in Omaha you know that you're going to have to search for points of interest along the way.  Once Omaha vanishes behind you with its various interesting pieces of architecture and numerous museums a vast expanse of fields, some trees, and road lie ahead.  The fall leaves are beautiful, and the 75 mph speed limit is awesome, but I need more.  To keep myself alert I start watching for items on our trivia list.

D's breakfast.

          First up, our hotel did have a continental breakfast, but it did not offer waffles.  Instead it had a pancake maker; I ate one and D ate three.  The snow and mountains will have to wait for Colorado probably, so the only other one I can really watch for in Nebraska is the unusual animal we might see.

Rolling fields.

Wind turbines.

Pumpkin farm.

Aha!  Birds on the back of street signs.

Marvelous metal hot air balloon.

Llamas! (Imagine llama picture here, grazing on a ranch.)

Ad for another museum, I presume.

(Coming Soon: Moo!)

Road sign with a wagon on it.

(Coming Soon: Deere)

Aha!  The elusive humpback caterpillar!

Oh-ho!  The giant soft-shelled pill bugs!

(Coming Soon: Neigh!)

Ever ready roadside cement mixer.

(Coming Soon: Blaaa!)

Longhorn moo.

Watering hole.

          Suddenly:  Colorado!

          We ran into a bit of clouds in Nebraska which cleared up then turned into Colorado clouds.  They dropped just a little rain on us and blessed us with a beautiful rainbow.

Ed was so happy to see his first rainbow today.

          At 4:13 I was chatting with my sis when I spotted the mountains for the first time.  As we got closer to Denver it was sunset so in the darkness it was hard to tell if the lighter spots on the mountains was snow or a lighter rock shade.  We stop at DQ for a smoothie, blizzard, and some chicken wraps and need to put on a third layer; it's so cold!  I ask the cashier if she thinks what I saw is snow and she mentions Vail.

          In a few hours the mystery of Vail is uncovered.  Vail is near the summit of the Rockies as you drive on 76 and there was so much magical snow it looked like Christmas.  It clung to the evergreens.  It clung to the mountainsides.  It clung to the streets.  The snow plows are busy.  D does a great job navigating mountainous snow as I marvel at the beauty in the dim light provided by the traffic.  D and I try to catch snowflakes at a rest stop.  Our highest elevation was over 11,000 feet, and the rest stop sits on the west side of the summit around 6,000 feet above sea level.  Will they have to change those numbers if the sea level rises?

          Now we relax in Grand Junction with more adventures ahead tomorrow in Utah!

(I'll come back and add video and photos when I have a better Internet connection.)