We were up by 6:30am again. Complimentary breakfast at
Quality Inn started at 5am! It was very busy when we got down there around
7:30am. I had scrambled eggs, a sausage patty and a waffle with coffee. Clay had
eggs, sausage and a bagel with cream cheese. The 3rd item in the
steam tray looked like stewed tomatoes with vegetables in it. We didn’t try
that. I had a Tillamook yogurt left over for lunch today because we didn’t
realize breakfast was included today. So, Clay grabbed a couple of hard boiled
eggs for his lunch. We packed the car and checked out before 9am. We decided to
not do any sightseeing here in order to get to Denver early and turn in the
rental car early so we won’t have to get up that much earlier tomorrow. Our
flight is at 5:45am and we have to be on the airport shuttle at 3:30am.
We just got back on I-25 and headed south. It was about 60F
or so and partly sunny when we left. We only stopped for gas and we did make a sightseeing
stop in Cheyenne to see the Capitol Building of Wyoming. In 1869, Wyoming was
the first government in the world to grant women equal rights!
After not long driving, we ran into dark skies and rain. It
was that way until we reached Denver. We had planned to have a rest stop
picnic. We finally stopped at the Colorado Welcome Center and ate our lunch in
the car in the parking lot. It stopped raining while we ate! We went inside and used the restrooms.We decided that we had an hour to spare and it had stopped raining, so we could make a short tourist stop. We went to Hammond’s Candies for a factory tour. It was interesting. They make mostly hard candies, as opposed to chocolates. They do make chocolates, but not every day, not today. They gave us all paper hats and 2 free samples. They specialize in candy canes and make them all year long to have enough supply for Christmas! The work force was smaller than I expected it to be. It didn’t take many people to make a lot of candy. They released us in the gift shop. It was cool. They had discounted factory 2nds. My favorite sample was caramel coated marshmallows. In the gift shop, they had one pound bags called caramel oops. They were mostly caramel masses with marshmallow streaks AND get this, they were only 25 cents! Clay got flat taffy candy to take to work, too. It was a good stop.
We got checked in to the Days Inn Airport Room 110 and
scheduled our shuttle ride to the airport. It was good to be on the first floor
finally! It was a nice place to stay (nicer than the one we stayed at downtown
at the beginning of the trip, but it had a much better location!). We had
prepaid it online when reserving and it was $77 for the night. That included
the airport shuttle and I believe breakfast, but we left too early to find out.
We unloaded the car and repacked. Then we filled the gas tank and returned the
Kia Sportage to Budget. We put 2750 miles on that car! We both said we would
buy one. It was AWD and got good gas mileage and was comfortable and easy to
drive. We didn’t have any problems with it. In fact, we really liked it. After
turning it back in, we walked right over and got on a Budget Shuttle to the
airport. I called and asked for the Days Inn airport shuttle. Right after I
hung up, the shuttle arrived that someone else had called. The shuttle carries
people for Days Inn, Best Western and Holiday Inn. We planned to eat at
Sporting News Grill and it was attached to the Holiday Inn. The couple who had
called the shuttle were complaining that they had waited 45 minutes so the
driver announced he would let them off first. That worked for us and we just
got off there. Clay got a happy hour Alaska Amber Ale. He had a half rack of
back ribs. I ordered a pepperoni pizza. There was a problem with it sticking to
the oven. So, they salvaged ½ of it and served it to me then later they brought
a whole other pizza. Neither was very good. Neither of us liked it at all, but
we salvaged all the good parts and ate them and left the rest behind. When we
left it was raining again. Clay went over to 7-11 to get a soda and I walked
back to the Days Inn. We both got equally wet. It still wasn’t cold. The
weather forecast for Denver and Raleigh both tomorrow is clear so we’ll see. We
have packed our umbrellas and rainjackets, so…
It is very early to bed for us tonight as we have an alarm
set for 2am. We’ll both be glad to get home! It has been a good trip though,
we’ve seen a lot. We just exhausted ourselves doing it!
We flew home on American Airlines on May 31, 2014. I didn’t type up any notes about the trip home and Clay didn’t
take any photos. I will have to say then that it was just unremarkable and
clearly we made it home safely. Sorry this has taken so long for me to get
posted to the blog! 