Day 4 - Grand Junction, CO - 1259 Miles

A drive through the Rockies from Cortez to Grand Junction, CO. We were lucky. We first drove from Cortez to Durango. There is one road from Durango to Grand Junction. Along the way I saw several flashing signs saying there was a rockslide and the road was closed between 8:00 to 12:30pm, and 1:30 to 6:00pm. Being the city boy I am, I assumed, "They're not actually shutting down the only road all day long." I was wrong. We left Silverton just before one. Just outside of town a flagger said, "The road shuts down 16 miles ahead in 30 minutes. We say it's a 25 minute trip. Do your best." I took that to mean, "Ignore the speed limits and haul ass." I didn't double the speed limit on the 50mph stretches, but I definitely did on the 10mph curves. We got to the place where they were turning traffic around less than one minute before they let the last group through. As we went through the other end, we saw southbound traffic had been shut down. Life is good.

Happy Hour in Grand Junction, CO

 The rest of the way to Ocean Shores is just covering ground so don't expect much (as if you,ve gotten very much so far).