Day 8 - Driving, Driving, Driving

We got off to an early start this morning. We had a long drive, and besides, it was cold so there was no need to linger. I'm not sure it was as cold last night as they said it would be. This morning we were out by 7:30, which was good because it took us about five hours to drive the first 200 miles. Luckily we did not run into Obama on the way out.

We did see a lot more buffaloes and two mooses. There was a ton of construction after we got to Grand Teton we spent a lot of time stopped and waiting, staring at the back of an RV. We ate lunch in an Alco parking lot in Lander, WY because all the tables were wet and we were cold. We had some mountain views as we were driving and saw some of the red rock in Wyoming, but a lot of nothing along a two lane highway. By this point we had listened to almost all of our CDs at least once and were trying to tune in radio stations, but we couldn't keep one for very long.

We finally got to the interstate and got on I-80 in Rawlins, WY at 3:00. We stopped at the Colorado sign and took a pictures because I wasn't for sure I had one. We are trying to get all the way to Goodland so opted to eat dinner at Quizno's rather than cooking our macaroni and beanie weenies. We stopped and ate a little north of Denver.

After we got on I-70 and it got dark, we could see a big lightning storm off to the northeast. We debated stopping in Limon or Burlington to stay behind the storm but decided to go on. The radar showed the storm was off to the north. We got into Goodland about 9:30 and set our tent up in the dark. Just as we were getting ready for bed, a huge wind storm came up and nearly blew the tent away. The rain fly was clear up in the air and flapping and the tent was nearly flat to the ground. We stood there staring at it trying to figure out what to do. We debated going to the holiday inn across the street, but decided there was nothing to be done except get in, so we did. The wind kept at it for about an hour I think, with huge gusts and then eventually must have died down. Of all the things I wish I had taken a picture of, it's the tent that night, flat to the ground. But it came away with no injuries (us too!).

Editor's Note: Apparently I took no pictures this day!