DENVER TRIP

We left Burbank at 4am Tuesday morning, and we arrived in Denver around 3pm Wednesday afternoon. The trip was amazing. My dad kept me company for those two days and we both had our breath taken away by the scenery. We were supposed head through Arizona and up through New Mexico, but thunderstorms forced us to go through Utah. I think God was looking out for us on that one, because the trip up the 70 is something that everyone should do. Here is a breakdown of how the trip went.


We packed up the car with my clothes and wrestling mats, and by 4am we were on our way. We stopped for breakfast in Barstow and continued to Las Vegas.


We stopped in Vegas and tried our luck at the MGM. We said we were going to play for about 30 min and head out. Well 30 minutes quickly turned into about 5 minutes, because the roulette spinner refused to land on black. Dirty crooked casino dealers. Anyways i lost my money pretty fast and just sat around for the next twenty minutes or so. Vegas is a crazy place, you show up with so much hope, but in the end you leave a broken and penniless man. My dad walked away from the slot machines $37 richer. Which was good because we needed gas.

We were back on the road at around 10:30am. On our way out of Nevada we felt a few aftershocks from the Chino earthquake. One almost pulled me off the road. Right around noon the temperature rose to 100 degrees and kept climbing. We entered Utah around 2pm and saw some of the most amazing hills and rocks we'd ever seen. The colors were vibrant reds, yellows, browns, and oranges.


We stopped at the Salt Washes, and took pictures. At this point we'd been driving for hours without seeing any signs of civilization. There would be gas stations and coffee shops strung along the highway everyone hundred miles or so. There was a group of Native Americans selling knick knacks and necklaces right underneath signs that said vending and soliciting is prohibited. But they didn't seem to give a crap. That was almost enough to make me buy something . . . almost.


Next we stopped at Diablo Canyon. We walked about a 100 yards from where we parked and just stood there enjoying the silence. You couldn't see the roads from where we were and the sound couldn't reach us. It was the most peace I'd felt in a long time.

Our last stop in Utah was Spotted Wolf Canyon. Easily the coolest name of all our stops. After this spot we said goodbye to Utah and its red hills.

We spent the night in Grand Junction, Co, which is about 30 miles past the Utah/Colorado Border. We slept in that night because we were exhausted from about 14 hours of driving on Tuesday. We woke up around 8am and got ready to head out. We had breakfast, put some gas in the car, refilled the oil and headed out. We noticed that Colorado is much greener than Utah. We started seeing all types of pines and grasslands.

We started to climb the rocky mountains and saw everything from wildlife preserves to farm land to mining facilities. It was kind of sad to see what some of these companies were doing to the land, but its the price we pay for energy. We climbed up to 9150 feet at one point. In the distance we saw two peaks which were at 14,000 feet some of the tallest in the US. It really is a remarkable view from up there.

We made our last stop before entering Denver. We said goodbye to the green mountains and said hello to the big city.

We arrived in Denver around 3pm, had some lunch, then I dropped my dad off at the airport so he could head back to Burbank. I met friends after that and starting settling into my new home. The trip was unforgettable and exhausting. But I'm here in Denver now ready to start this part of my life. Ok i hope you've enjoyed this recap of my trip. I'll try to post more often now that I'm a little bit more settled.