Ogden to Denver - 08.20.22
Some semi-final pics of the Vancouver Island road adventure. I’ve logged about 6,200 miles and my bod is feeling it… radiating from my tailbone out.
An extra day in Ogden with LandMermaidMichelle1.0. She’s a botany professor at the local State University and I gots the VIP tour of the campus green house. We spotted 2 praying mantis and one was giving the other a shoulder massage. Wha happening?!? If you know the story of that particular species… the male pays a heavy price if his love languages are “quality time and touch.”
Ogden Union Station had some fun stuff and was good for some laughs and was inside and out of the heat.
We stopped by the dinosaur park exhibit thing with the intention of taking some fun posed photos of us riding the dinosaurs or chasing them or trying to sell them extended car warranties… but they were closing and I was about Ogden’d out for the day.
I had been waffling on which direction to get to Denver from there. Down to Moab and through the lovely Colorado mountains on the I-70, or I-80 through Wyoming and down the Eff’n I-25. That was a hard one… mountain driving is scenic but I have 8 hours plus of driving and it is exhausting. I chose I-80 and Wyoming. There’s a hot springs on the way and a secret side route that you can avoid going through Cheyenne, WY.
It’s all business on I-80. Deep breath, music on, foot down, haul ass! It was easy driving and just as I was hitting a wall, I was at the Saratoga exit. Saratoga, WY is an odd place but they do have a public hot springs pool that is free. Totally within my budget.
The Saratoga Hobo hot springs has 2 official pools and some river access and pools. Good stuff. The temps were high but I dropped my drawers and hit them all. They smell, and are a little slimy, and too hot for an extend soak… but it relaxed my driving bod and woke me up and I thanked the geo-thermal gods of planet earth for putting this hot watering hole in the middle of where I was coming from and the place I was going to.
The route from Saratoga takes you through Medicine Bow National Forrest and it’s just beautiful. I took 287 from Laramie toward Fort Collins and I’ve never been on that road. I have been all over the west this past month and I say this, “Colorado has it going on!” Man! Lots of feels rolling through Northern CO. Beauty times ten. I took a left into Owl Canyon and that spit me out onto the I-25 and one bites the lower lip and grips the wheel and it’s the final stretch.
this dude…
I came across a dude on a motorcycle on the highway into Denver that had passed me just coming out of Ogden. Considering the gas and hot springs stops I thought it was quite serendipitous. He peeked over when he went by and I felt like he was saying “we did it!” And then he was gone.
I landed at Studio B in South Denver just as the sun was setting… much needed hugs from MsEpstein and plopping down in a familiar and comfy bed made for good snores. And home. one of them anyways.
I’m in Denver and looking for trouble and snacks this week if you’re free. I’ll share the story of why I threw my adventure bag overboard with most of my clothes in the State of Nevada.
