Heading from the mountains to the plains - Denver to Omaha

Hello!

VERY short blog tonight, as I didn’t get to sleep until almost midnight last night, and it was a tiring drive today.

Up about 6 and down to breakfast about 6:30 am.  Breakfast OK but not great, but as my Dad used to say, it filled the hole!  On the road about 7:45-ish.  Very quick and easy route from the hotel to the freeway, and soon we were heading east, driving, of course, right into the sun!  Truly, though, it was a slog driving all the way to Omaha – something like 8 ½ hours, and with an hour time change, we didn’t get to our Homewood Suites until almost 6 pm.

Countryside was mainly flat and agricultural, although we did follow the route of the Platte River for some distance.  Certainly not photogenic, so no shots along the way today.  Weather was in the low 70’s and very pleasant.

Old Town Omaha!

Loved the name ... Drastic Plastic!

We stopped at North Platte NE for lunch at Penny’s Diner, which is alleged to be the best place in town.  Truly, I hope not, as it really fit more into the Kemmerer WY food category – where the best restaurant there is indeed the Pizza Hut!  R had a BLT and I had a cheese-bacon burger, both with fries.  R not sure what part of the potato the fries came from, but they were fine. 

Our suite tonight is number 602 in the Homewood Suites, and it’s a wonderful and really large corner unit; views in two directions.  Omaha itself has been a very pleasant surprise!  While we were driving in, there literally were no people anywhere around!  It seemed almost deserted, like Detroit used to be when people didn’t go there.  Literally right across the street from the hotel is the TD Ameritrade Stadium, home of the College World Series! Figure (hopefully) we’re about two weeks early, as the Arizona baseball team is still in the mix.  The stadium looks really lovely, and as Robert says, I’m just miffed that we can’t go there tonight to watch baseball! 

One of the recommended restaurants in the area was Plank, a seafood house in “old” town Omaha.  Who knew?!  Less than a mile from the hotel (but we drove) and there was a really lovely restored area with lots of shops and restaurants, very similar to Old Town Pasadena.  Would really love to explore one day; Omaha is definitely a place that deserves a return visit!

Plank Seafood

My wedge salad

R's clam chowder (which looked a lot like mine...)

R's trout 

Found this cute little bunny having dinner at the hotel!

We were seated in a lovely booth along the wall.  R had chardonnay and I had a glass of Prosecco.  I got a fabulous wedge/blue cheese/bacon/tomato salad, followed by a bowl of really amazing clam chowder.  R started with the chowder and moved on to their trout meuniere (in butter), which came beautifully presented with green beans and fingerling potatoes.  He cleaned his plate!  Done by about 7:45 pm and back to the hotel minutes later. 

Now to post the few pictures that we have, and then I’m heading straight to bed!  Need more sleep than last night, that’s for sure!

Tomorrow we head across Iowa and to Effigy Mound National Monument in Iowa’s northeast corner, and then on to Madison, Wisconsin.

More later!

Much love,

m

xxx

Durango to Denver in a beautiful day!

Happy Tuesday!

Well, today was certainly a busy day!  We were up around 5:30 am this morning, and showered and down for breakfast about 6:30 am.  Breakfast wasn’t nearly as good as Embassy Suites, but we made do, and got on the road about 7:45 am.

It was really a beautiful day – sunny and crisp with blue skies and big fluffy white clouds.  We decided to take the slower but more scenic route to get to Denver, where we were going to a Rockies game tonight.  The scenery was – yet again – stunning, and today we followed several different rivers along the way.  We also stopped to photograph a wonderful waterfall, Treasure Falls, that cascaded down the mountain and then bounced around and over the rocks making its way down the mountain.

Basically, we went east on US160 through Pagosa Springs, and then turned north to Wolf Creek Pass, paralleling the northern reaches of the San Juan River.  Lots of snow at the top, as well as a ski area.  On the other side, we went down toward Del Norte, following the upper reaches of the Rio Grande.  All these rivers!We turned north on US285 toward Salida, where we stopped for lunch.  On the way to the local McDonalds, we found the restaurant The Bounty, which looked interesting.  Turned out to have very good food – R had Asian chicken salad with a peanut dressing, and I had a chef salad, served with a very small but warm loaf of whole wheat bread – yum!  The Bounty also had an interesting shop attached to it, and we found a wonderful small oil painting of trees and water, which we are now going to have to take to Pasadena on our next trip, to get framed! 

Treasure Falls

Top of Treasure Falls

Robert at Treasure Falls Overlook

 

To be honest, we really fell in love with many of the little towns and villages we passed through on our drive today.  Salida was really lovely – some beautiful small Victorian houses, as well as a quantity of brick houses, which we like.  Always fun to see other places – and Colorado, like Arizona, is a really beautiful state!

Back to the Highway 285, now following the Arkansas River through Fairplay and Bailey, and finally, down a very twisting and winding narrow highway and into Denver.  Our hotel was basically right downtown, as we wanted to be close to Coors Field, where the Rockies play baseball. 

Pulled up at the hotel – Hampton Inn-Denver Downtown, and it’s in a great location.  Actually 0.9 miles from the stadium!  Robert checked us in as I watched the car parked in the hotel’s loading zone.  Unloaded the car, and I went to park it, and R took everything upstairs to room 614.  (I will also mention that R gave me the key and told me the room number, but by the time I got up to the 6^th floor, I had forgotten it … so, there I am, standing in the corridor, trying to call R’s cell phone to see where he is!  Fortunately, about that time, he opened the door, just as his phone started ringing … yea!  Our room is really huge, and in a great location – two windows overlooking the street.  In addition to two queen beds, we have a comfortable couch, chair and coffee table, as well as a nice kitchen area.  Really lovely and quiet! 

Loveland Pass

 

Realized that the game actually started tonight at 5:10 pm – and as it was already almost 4 pm, we decided we would head right out.  Thanks to Robbie, my iPhone, we got perfect walking directions, and in about 20 minutes or so, we were at the stadium!  So much more fun than when we went to Coors Field several years ago, when we had to find parking, and walk and whew! 

Coors Field!

Statue in front of Stadium

Getting ready to play!

We both started with grilled Rockie Dogs (foot long all-beef hotdogs).  I also had frozen yogurt and popcorn.  The food at Coors Field is amazing!  They had Famous Dave’s BBQ, all sorts of local specialties – and the one thing I’m regretting is not getting a Berry-Kabob!  They looked and smelled wonderful!  They were either huge strawberries covered in chocolate on a stick with cheese cake in between, or bananas, or a piece of frozen chocolate-covered cheesecake … on a stick.  WHY didn’t I try it?  We’ll just have to go back …

Great game for the Mariners – they won 10 – 3.  We had terrific seats – section 131 (right behind home plate), row 30, seats 7 and 8, and enjoyed every bit of it!  As it started so early, we were actually able to walk back to the hotel while it was still fairly light outside!  Fun!  Back to the hotel around 8:45 pm, and I will now finish and post the blog!

Tomorrow … to Omaha.  Hmmm…

Much love!

m

xxx