Day 28 – Hays, KS to Flippin Arkansas!

Clint laid in bed while I went down to scope out our free breakfast. I must admit that free continental breakfasts east of California are not too shabby. It’s not just your run-of-the-mill packaged pastry and a weak pot of coffee, fruit if you’re lucky. Every hotel we’ve been to on our trip has put out a pretty good spread. The Hays Day’s Inn was no exception. There was of course coffee and juice and pastries, but there was also oatmeal, hard-boiled eggs, cereal, fruit, doughnuts, yogurt, and there was even a waffle iron and batter for do-it-yourself waffles! I grabbed us a few snacks and headed back to the room.
The day was cold, and there was so much fog, you couldn’t see further than a few hundred feet. We felt a bit bad for the hunters; there was no way one could see well enough to shoot a bird. And it wasn’t like there could possibly be that much more going on out here. What was the hunters back up plan? We were on the road before 11 am, and knew only one thing that was a must for the day: lunch in Salinas at the Cozy Inn.
Rosie’s old roommate Sonia, and her husband Chris, told us that since we were driving through Salina anyways, the Cozy Inn was a must. Sonia has a healthy (unhealthy?) love of bacon, so we knew that we could trust her food opinion. The Cozy Inn is about 10 miles off of the 70, into the quaint suburb of Salina. Turns out that this tiny restaurant has been awarded Kansas’ 2010 Best Burger award, and it was worth the stop!

The staff was exceedingly affable, and asked us right away if this was our first time there. When they learned that it was, they showed us the burger size and told us how many most people usually ate. See, I’ve been calling them burgers, because that’s how they were presented, but these are slider-sized burgers. Clint went with the 6-burger combo, which included a soda and chips (no fries here!), and I went with the kids’ sized 2-burger combo. While we waited in the narrow space, we watched our burgers being made and answered questions about where we were from and where we were going.
We were back on the road in just a few minutes time, as we opted to eat in the car.

We chose to eat in the car because we began to think we could make it all the way to Flippin by tonight. I finished my two burgers without a problem, and moved onto one of Clint’s. Luckily, 5 were enough for him.
We reached Kansas City in a few hours’ time. The drive was as uneventful as the landscape. We planned to bypass Kansas City since we were trying to drive all the way to Arkansas tonight. And, cities always take more time to navigate through on the quest for good eats. However, we both got really hungry right before we reached K.C., and misjudged our body cues. When we reached the Missouri side of Kansas City, we pulled off the freeway and searched for something to eat. Fast food places seemed to be the only option for miles around. Since we had eaten burgers just a few hours prior, more burgers were really out of the question.
Fortunately, my friend Liz Boen came to the rescue right when Clint and I were both at break down point. Liz attended Kansas for post-grad studies and knew where to get good BBQ. Unfortunately, we had to back track to find the place. Fortunately, my phone has a handy (albeit unpredictable) navigation device. Unfortunately, about 7 options popped up under the search for Gates.
We chose the closest option that did not include ‘& Sons’ in the title. The closest Gates Barbecue was only 8.3 miles west. Not too bad. We drove a few miles on the freeway before exiting into the projects. We didn’t think too much about it until the route took us further and further into the shady part of Kansas City. Where had Liz sent us?
We arrived at Gates, only to discover that the trusty navigation device had sent us to the headquarters. Apparently, Gates has an office in the ghetto. We’d consumed too many minutes on this search to give up now. So we once again employed the phone to pick out the next closest Gates BBQ. As we snaked through the run-down neighborhoods, we looked around at the other drivers. Did we stand out? Could people tell we were lost? Would we be targeted?
This time, the phone led us to an actual restaurant. We were relieved and annoyed all at once. Gates is the same as Gates & Sons. We were only 2 miles from a Gates & Sons when we first started our search. But, we reached the restaurant in broad daylight, and it was filled with people from all walks of life, so we couldn't complain. We ventured in and waited in the short line. The options were exactly what you would expect from a BBQ joint: a few meat options, some standard sides, fries and onion rings, and meat sandwiches served on white bread. Clint picked the ribs, and shouted his choice to the loud woman taking orders. Yes, there were several people in front of us, but she was done taking their orders, and so just shouted over them to take ours. The phrase of choice here is "May I take your order?" Don’t be mistaken, this is not a friendly question if you shout it at your guests without a hint of query in your voice. It's all about intonation, folks.
Why she was in such a hurry was beyond me. But, I was hungry and maybe the other patrons don’t like to wait for food either. I was not quite ready to order, so I hid (yes, hid. I'm not above hiding) in the line until another register opened up. I got yelled at for ordering at a different spot than my dining partner. Welcome to Gates: hospitality optional.
I had chicken and a side of beans, and we both had sweet tea. The food was great. The only thing green on our plates was the pickle slices, but the meat was no joke. Both meats were tender and flavorful, and we enjoyed them to the beat of the register ladies’ shouts. "May I help you?"


We were back on the freeway 2 hours after we first began our search. It was worth it though; we almost made it through the day without anything of note happening. Luckily, Liz sent us to an authentic BBQ place, and we made it out alive.
We continued east through Missouri before running into the 65, which heads south to Arkansas. Clint drives very safely. Which is great when you’re on those dirt roads, or you don’t have somewhere you want to be. Everyone knows that you can go at least 4 miles over the speed limit on the freeway and not get pulled over, but Clint spent a lot of the trip telling me not to speed. When we got into Arkansas, I saw why he played it so safe. A car trailing us a little too closely got pulled over by a policeman, presumably for driving so near to our rear.
We made it to the Ponders just after 11. This isn't the house that Clint grew up in, and navigating here involved country landmarks like, 'turn at the Hammons Realty sign' and 'veer left at the dirt road.' The bypass road that we took was apparently not here when Clint lived here, so he was a bit confused at first. We did not get lost though, and Gary and Toni were still up when we reached the house. Even though they've only been here a few months, the house feels like a home. Everything has it's place, and it's clean and comfortable. About an hour after we arrived, Nick and Courtney showed up with their 2 dogs. We all stayed up and chatted for a couple of hours before heading to bed.

Day 27 – Glenwood Springs, CO to Hays, Kansas

We awoke and had the complimentary continental breakfast at our wonderful hotel in the lobby with the roaring fireplace. Stepping out of the room you could tell we were in a mountain town. Crisp, cold, clean mountain air filled the lungs and chilled us down right away. The spread at the breakfast was really great. Breakfast ended at 9:30 am, so we were sure to arrive at 9:25 - just in time to not be turned away. I had coffee, biscuits and gravy, cereal, a hardboiled egg, and a cinnamon roll; all were delicious. Lauren had OJ, Oatmeal and some of my cinnamon roll. Also, she tried a hardboiled egg, but was too full to finish, so I finished that off as well. We were planning to swing by a coffee shop that we had spotted the night before (when we picked up our takeout dinner), but we took a wrong turn and were on the freeway in a flash. Rather than backtracking, we decided we would stop for coffee in Vail and walk around the village just to stretch our legs. I had been to Vail once before while in college.
We drove into the snow-covered Rockies and found ourselves in Vail in no time. We grabbed coffee at the first place we came to and then strolled around. People were all milling around in their ski/snowboard gear; all heading to the lifts to go up onto the mountain for the day. There were a lot of interesting outfits. We saw a guy in leopard print snowboard pants and a flannel shirt, no jacket despite the fact it was freezing out. We saw a girl with crazy animal-fur leg warmers for boots and a cape; a bus driver even shouted out to ask if she was some kind of deranged super hero. And then we saw several rich women in their luxurious fur coats. Vail is a crazy mountain town. We finished off our coffees and were back on the road climbing, climbing, climbing to the peak on I-70, which was just over 11,000 feet, before descending down into Denver. Neither of us are familiar with Denver at all; but Lauren was driving and I was navigating. I saw Larimer Square on the map and said I had heard about that before, so we settled on that as our destination.
Larimer Square seemed like the old downtown section of town. Lots of little cafes and boutiques and shops were sprinkled about, just like any other city. We found free parking and walked a few blocks before deciding that one of the first places we saw seemed like the best option. It was called The Market.

They had huge really delicious sandwiches and a plethora of fresh baked items to choose from. Lauren had the club sandwich and I had the Thanksgiving sandwich special. This included mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey and a smothering of gravy. It was faaaaantastic! We both enjoyed our sandwiches; I finished mine, Lauren finished only half of hers-they were huge. This didn’t stop us from grabbing some baked goods as we headed out the door to continue our journey. I got a blueberry poundcake and Lauren got a sticky bun. I had high expectations, as the smells were incredible, and the sandwiches were faaaantastic.
We continued our drive east into the night. If you’ve driven in Kansas, than you know how boring the drive is. The road is almost completely straight; the driver/wheel interaction is almost non-existent. There are also no hills, so by straight, I guess I also mean flat. We made it as far as Hays, Kansas before we decided to call it a day. Both of us were tired and hungry and needed to find a hotel. Hays seemed like it would be the biggest city in the area, so we thought it was our best bet for hotel options.
There were certainly more than a few options, and after driving around to a few to check prices, we checked in. Clint is really the person to send in for this task. I went in to two hotels; both of them quoted me outrageous rates (one was over $100). I mean, this is Kansas! No offense, but c’mon! Clint just has that southern charm; he chats with the front desk clerk and talks down the rate. At the third or fourth hotel, despite what we thought was a high rate, we just booked the room. Our choice was the Hays Day’s Inn.
After checking in and driving to our room, we caught a glimpse of the kind of area we were in. The Day’s Inn sign was directly above their friendly greeting for all out-of-towners like us.

In case you can't tell, it reads, "Welcome Hunters." Could this be the reason that the rates are so high in this flat, freeway stop of a town? What are people hunting out here, one might wonder? Well, wonder no longer my friend, because the gracious staff at the Day’s Inn left a laminated note in each room. A picture of this note is posted below.


We ate our Chinese food leftovers and settled in for the night in our mature hotel room. Our expectations for the saved desserts were not met: the pastry on the sticky bun was more bread-like than buttery or flaky, and the poundcake was a bit soggy.
Tomorrow would be another long drive day, and we went to bed with plans for the day open.

Road Trip Day 26 – Canyonlands Natl Park to Arches National Park to Glenwood Springs, CO

We woke up super early (by our standards), before 8 am, and had coffee. We packed up our gear and were on the road before 8:30 am. We jammed it into Moab where we stopped for breakfast. We had bagel breakfast sandwiches and shared a fresh fruit smoothie. We then walked over to a competing coffee shop/café and realized that this one was way better than the one we had just eaten at- oh well!; next time we will know. This didn’t stop us from buying some sweets for the road. I got a chocolate chip cookie, and Lauren got a cranberry breakfast bar. Both were delicious. Especially the cookie. Lauren actually said this cookie was better than Cowboy Cookies in SLO, which apparently is a big deal. We stopped by there in SLO last time we were there so I could try them, but they were closed, so I have no basis for comparison. Lauren described this cookie from ‘Wake & Bake Café’ as "dark chocolate melty chips, the cookie is both crunchy and chewy, about 4 inches across in circumference, about a half inch thick, all in all, exactly the way a cookie should be" that was Lauren’s quote while eating it. Anyhow, I'm excited to try Cowboy next time in SLO to get Lauren’s comparative analysis again. We then jumped back in the car for the quick 5 mile ride to Arches National Park.

That's the thing about Moab, it's surrounded literally by stunning national parks and just beautiful areas in general. So it’s a surprise that the town is so weak. The café we were at was cool, so it does have potential. But it's just an ugly town and it appears to be only set up for tourism in the summers. We got into Arches at about 11 and b-lined it straight to the ‘Delicate Arch’ Hike. This was a 3 mile hike round-trip. The hike up was pretty cool; a little climbing over slick rock with some views of stunning canyon country.

Also, they had this crazy green colored rock. Not sure what causes the green color, see pictures.

I would be interested to find out why it's green and what causes the color variation.
Once you reach the Arch the hike becomes worth it. Delicate Arch is spectacular.

Don’t know what else to say about it. It was really incredible. Only a few other people were up there. They were just sitting there staring at the arch. We took a few photos and then left.

We took our time on the way down and took a small, labeled detour to some petroglyphs; roped off so you couldn’t get near them, but still impressive. Petroglyphs are really awesome to see in person, I highly recommend it.

And as far as I can tell, we as a people don’t know much about them. There are a lot of guesses as to what they mean, but for us they are just cool to see and fun/interesting to look at. We headed back to the car, and on our way out of Arches, took some roadside pictures (which I hate doing). But the area was so beautiful that I found myself yanking the car onto the shoulder to get a quick picture multiple times. I vowed not to do this once out of the park and I have not done it as promised.
We stopped by the Arches visitor center and got more postcards that we promise to send out, but still haven’t done…. We’re slow at that unfortunately. We were soon back in the car and headed towards Colorado. Once on the I-70 we almost immediately saw a group of Pronghorn Antelope grazing in a field-much to Lauren’s delight. This was one animal she was dying to see in Yellowstone, but never saw. Dream fulfilled! Now if only we can see a Moose in Kansas, and a pack of Wolves in Oklahoma we’ll be all set.

Note the lack of color on the CO sign...

We arrived in Glenwood Springs just before dark. Glenwood Springs, CO is on the western side of the Rockies and is a really beautiful little town. We checked a few hotel prices and I was able to talk down a lady on the price of a room. She said she liked my cologne and asked what it was; I said it was 4 days of campfire and not showering in Utah. I think she thought I was crazy and wished she hadn’t given us a lower rate, but the damage was done and we had a nice discount on a nice room. Lauren and I were happy to have talked down the price as it seemed Colorado was much more expensive than Utah. We again did some research for food options online and settled on Chinese. Lauren is disappointed that no one seems to use Yelp, and spent a long time perusing the options. It seems we should be gun shy after our Provo experience with Asian cuisine, but this turned out to be really good. Unfortunately, no Harry Potter was on tonight;  we watched Conan and then passed out. We're hoping to make it into Kansas tomorrow; as we hit the drive hard, drive fast portion of our trip into Arkansas.