Thursday, September 12, 2013

The Beautiful Drive from Las Vegas to Denver

We've been on the road for over a week now, and it's raining like crazy here in Denver.  With flash flood warnings, it's turned out to be the perfect day to stay in, and a great time to bring you up to speed on our road trip.  After spending our late arrival the first night near state line, we headed for our next stop,  Las Vegas.  Now I figure it's been about eight years or so since I've been to Vegas, so there's a lot that's new since then.  We visited the Aria Resort, which we found to be edgy, artistic, and dramatically beautiful.  A good example is the exterior of the poker room.
The Aria features "Zarakana", a Cirque de Soleil show, and I loved their statue in the lobby.
We also visited the Bellagio, always a favorite stop, which has some really lovely hand blown glass in the casino,
and had some fun golf clubs out front waiting to be taken to "their" room.
Las Vegas requires time, which we did not have a lot of.  We spent the afternoon exploring, and then got back on the road, stopping for the night at the Virgin River Casino in Mesquite, Arizona.  One thing I learned on this trip is that casinos in the outlying areas are a great place to spend the night.  The rooms were a wonderful value at a total of $44.50 a night.  Clean and comfortable, they also featured delicious and very affordable food in the casino restaurant.  We ate both dinner and breakfast there, with a total tab of under $15.00 for two each time, including tip!

Day three we were back on the road heading for Utah, where I caught a glimpse of this All-American Gas Station.
Taking the 15 freeway to the 70 East, we mostly covered ground that day, stopping to catch a beautiful Utah sunset.  The rain in the distance made the clouds look more like a pastel painting to me than a photograph.
We spent the night in Green River Utah, which is quite close to Arches National Monument.  There we found another great value of only $45.00 at the Robber's Roost Motel, thanks to its wonderful reviews on Trip Advisor.  Since we are traveling for a month, these affordable motels are greatly appreciated!

Day four took us east on the 70 Freeway on one of the most beautiful drives I have taken in the United States, through Glenwood Canyon, Aspen, and Vail, Colorado.
It was delightful to see the ski runs and chair lifts right along the side of the road!  Not to mention the gorgeous chalets and hotels.  We spent the night in the charming mountain village of Frisco, another ski location just east of Vail.
At just under $80.00, our lodging at the Snowshoe Motel was a little more pricey than previous nights, but it was a resort town on a Friday night.  On the upside, we had a kitchen, where we were able to make dinner and breakfast.  And the king sized bed was cushy and soooo comfortable!  We thoroughly enjoyed our stay there.

Day five (Saturday) we finished the last leg of our drive to Denver and the Gem and Mineral Show, arriving early in the afternoon.  We checked into the hotel where we are spending the week, and then headed over to the Coliseum to check out the event.  It is here that I will leave the story until tomorrow.  Let it just suffice to say that we are experiencing a lot of rain here!  Glub glub.  But still we are so grateful to be here.  We love our life and our job!

We wish you all a beautiful evening, and stay tuned.
 Love,  Linda and Eduardo


2 comments:

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  2. So glad to see you blogging about your trip. If you get a chance, do go to the Denver Art Museum (the traditional one). It is one of the most welcoming museums I've been too.

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