Thursday, October 25, 2012

Wednesday 24th October- Salt Lake City to Grand Junction Colorado


It was raining first thing but eventually eased up as we left the Hotel around 0945. We needed to check on the web one section of road that we intended to use this morning to ensure there were no snow issues. The website said rain and perhaps odd snow showers but generally the roads will remain dry and that is exactly how it was. We headed south on the I-15 to a place called Provo where we left the I-15 and followed the US 6 from Spanish Fork to Price and we stopped at a little old mining town called Helper where we had a nice cup of coffee in a very nicely decorated shop.
We joined the I-70 in the pouring rain and it rained pretty much all the way to Grand Junction and even some very heavy winds were experienced which blew us around a bit. We arrived at the Grand Vista Hotel in grand Junction after crossed the state line between Utah and Colorado at about 16.30. When you check in you must sign a piece of paper saying you won’t smoke in the room but if you do you will have to pay an extra cleaning fee of about USD 150.00
The first room we were given was a no smoking room but had strong smells off cigarette smoking and so rather than risk them charging us we asked to move room which they did without hesitation. Neither of fancied going out for dinner as much of American food in restaurant tends to be fried and you can have enough of fried food. So we popped down the road to Albertson's supermarket and visited the Deli section and ended up with some salads and ham and a few other bits and pieces and we had excellent meal in the room whilst planning our next few days itinerary.
The weather is expected to clear over the next two days and so we will visit The Arches National Park tomorrow afternoon and Canyon Lands the next day and this will entail two nights in Moab the town placed directly between the two parks. Following this we are looking to go to Colorado Springs and then take a slow drive down route 50 in the direction of Wichita.
This Hotel was also booked with Hotwire and boy do they get some good prices.
Let’s hope the weather improves tomorrow