How many miles have we driven? And how many years has it been since I saw this?

I guess I should probably explain that one... but first, let me tell you the beginning of the story... 

Our two days of travel (after our Crater Lake day) began rather poorly.  After our great burgers at the Burger Queen we retired to our room and as the evening / night progressed, we realized that we had no air conditioning (it made noise, but little else).  Most people would have demanded a new room or a fix but we are not them since we felt it was more important to try to sleep to get set for our next marathon travel day.  Big mistake, as it became the worst hotel experience of our stay (good news Hamburg NY Super 8!)... 

We made it to the road and over the next two days saw interesting sights... 

This is a real place in Nevada

The speed limit on this road is 65 mph...

It was an actual cattle drive!

The cattle were not very pleased to see us and the cowboys weren't very friendly.  They may have seen our plates...

Shelly made several comments about dinner to the cattle as they passed.

 

The salt flats in Utah made it look like winter.

Not much to see in northern Utah until you make it to the mountains in the east...

Our stay in Utah (just east of Salt Lake) was pleasant and we awoke to 5 hot air balloons over our hotel.

A graphic photo of our motley crew as we travel.

And then we entered Colorado...

Shelly was quite amused... 

The officer said that I was "pulling away" from the traffic in the 45 mph zone and used that as the justification for pulling me over (he never told me what my speed was - I felt that I was moving with the traffic).  In the end, he was really nice and clearly was being paid by the tourism board since he made several jokes about returning to Steamboat Springs for court and we could just make it a vacation.  The paper was a warning that the officer said was "suitable for framing".  

Nice.

Nope, not a picture from 2010... just more good times!

This is the van from 2010, Devil's Tower!

Where did the hubcap go???