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.