5 Days 'til Home!

Hello again friends!  Well, our time on the road continues to narrow… tomorrow (Tuesday) we will be on day 36 of 40.  Wow. 

After I wrote last, we made our way to Salt Lake City to pick up our goods at the storage unit, which means we're once again traveling with a full load.  Also, do you remember how the last time we were there we tried to go to the restaurant Bruges, which my brother suggested, but it didn’t work out?  Well, we did get to go this time.  It was still packed (we had to wait in a line that went out the door), but we stuck it out and ordered the Machine Gun Sandwich and a cup of Flemish Stew to share.  The sandwich is such a hot item that they were behind on orders, so we had to wait, but it was worth it.  The sandwich was on good thick bread and had lamb sausage, homemade frites, and a homemade andalouse sauce… soooo good. 

The next awesome part about our stop in Salt Lake City was that we came across the cheapest gas prices of the entire trip – check it out people, we filled up for $2.89/gallon.  That means we filled the tank for less than $40, woohoo!  Also, it was at a Maverick, which is still my favorite gas station chain of the trip.  We got coffee and Ben picked up an assortment of snacks, including a squeezable pouch of applesauce, an Idaho huckleberry cordial, and an Idaho spud bar.  Not too shabby...

After a bit of time in the city, we kept on heading east – we stopped and spent the night in a little town called Glenwood Springs, CO.  The town is built around hot springs and has a really cool little downtown area.  Also had an opportunity to try another local brewery spot.  It wasn’t the best food or beer that we’ve had, but it’s always fun to try that stuff out.

We made our way a little further east yesterday.  We were definitely planning to spend some time with Ashley and Chris in Breckenridge, but we had some time to kill before they got off work.  We went to a restaurant called Haywood Café a little ways down the road in hopes of seeking out the Panthers' game.  Well, we got lucky because we were seated right in front of a big tv showing it, the food was awesome, and it was actually a really fun game to watch (hooray Panthers!  Fumblerooski, anyone?). 

I would also like to share with you what we ate that morning.  First of all, we started with coffee and bloody marys.  Mine was made with peppar vodka and Ben’s was a bacon bloody mary (with house-made bacon-infused vodka and a slice of bacon as garnish).  I have to say, mine was better.  Ben had a country fried steak and eggs and grits.  I had this delicious little meal called Swiss Baked Eggs – a piece of French bread slathered with garlic cream cheese, then two slices of bacon, two poached eggs, and melted Swiss cheese.  Will definitely be trying to recreate this one…

After the game and a bit of time running errands and doing laundry at a nearby laundromat (which had huge washers that could do 4.5 loads at once), we met up with Ashley and Chris at their apartment in Breckenridge.  We had a really good time talking and relaxing, and also enjoyed some food and drinks at the Breckenridge Brewery.  We’re lucky to have friends who offer up their 5-star floorspace and little bit of free time to hang out and catch up. :)

We originally planned to ski at Breckenridge today, but the conditions just weren’t quite right.  Warm weather, no snow, and a crowd of people just encouraged us to save a few bucks and head on down the Highway.  We stopped in Denver for lunch at another Diners, Drive-ins and Dives spot: Tocabe.  We had delicious taco fixings along with fresh fry-bread at this American Indian eatery... it was delicious.  After that we drove on to Kersey and are spending another night at my Grandparents’ house, and we’ll keep on heading east(ish) tomorrow.  5 more days ‘til we have to (get to) be home!

And lastly, here is a map of our progress.  It's getting a little confusing now that we're re-tracing some steps... maybe I'll do separate out and back versions the next time.

Learning lessons... an almost mishap.

Alright, so on Saturday afternoon we got into Salt Lake City.  We checked into our hostel and then did a little research on storage units.  We found a good (and inexpensive) one, and decided to store our bikes and accessories there for a little bit... We just thought it would be better than hauling that stuff up into the snowy regions when we aren't even going to be using it.  So, we'll be back to the city to pick it all up again in 2 weeks or so.

My brother has been to Salt Lake a few times, so I texted him to see if there is anything he thought we should hit up.  He told us to go to Bruges, a Belgian waffle place, and get a Machine Gun Sandwich.  We went by on Saturday night and it was PACKED.  We decided to reappear in the morning and get breakfast there, but wah wah... Closed on Sundays.  Good thing we'll be back in town and can try again later!

We stuck around town Sunday morning because the Panthers game came on at 11, and the bars serve brunch.  Turns out the one we went to also served $1 mimosas... I may have had, oh, 7.  But come on! They were a buck! And, we were there for like 4 hours, so it wasn't that bad... And I drank lots of water. And the Panthers won!

We hit the road after that (Ben had the first leg) and started making our way north.  Our next destination is Portland, so the route is north into Idaho through Boise, then west.  The next events took place like this:
1. We stopped to use the bathroom just before the border.  Gas was $3.05 (awesome), but we didn't fill up cause we didn't need to yet.
2. A ways into Idaho the gas light came on... The next station was about 22 miles away, so we stopped when we got there - it was a Sinclair right off the interstate.
3. The gas at that Sinclair was $4.35!  It was in the middle of nowhere, and there were even alpacas at the station... See pictures. Read the window above the alpaca...

4. We looked up the next closest station, an Exxon 8ish miles away, and their gas was way cheaper.  Just to make sure we would make it, we got $4 worth of gas at the Sinclair.  It wasn't even enough for the gas light to go off.
5. I said to the attendant, " y'alls gas sure is expensive here!"... You know, trying to be cheerful and stuff. And he said, with a tone, "well do you know how much is costs us to get you gas all the way out here?!"  And I said, "oh, sorry, I was just saying, cause we're traveling around the country and--" and he said, "well, have safe travels then."  Geez!  Wasn't trying to offend anybody.  Guess he thought I was accusing him of jacking up the prices?
6. We accidentally got back onto the interstate, when we should have just gone 8 miles further on the road we were already on.  The next exit was 8ish miles away, there was no gas, so we turned around and went the 8 miles back, and then we were still 8 miles from the freaking Exxon!
7. So then we had to go back to the damn Sinclair, and it wasn't pay at the pump, so I was going to have to face that attendant again.  Oh well... We went back, and you would not believe it... They were closed!
8. We called the gas station that was still 8 miles away, and it turned out they were closed too...sheesh.  We debated... Risk it to the next closest station 25 miles away? Call AAA now? Spend the night?
9. I called the gas station 25 miles away... They were open til 9pm (it was 5pm).  I said, "well, I guess we're going to head that way, but we're gonna run out of gas before we get there... Any chance we could pay somebody to do us a big favor?"
10. The answer was no.  The gal I spoke to was the only one there, but she did tell us that she thought somebody had told her that the Exxon 8 miles from us did have pay at the pump.
11. So we risked it - hoping that we would make it to the Exxon and that they did indeed have pay at the pump.  We went slow, had to really because the roads were icy anyway, and I think I held my breath the entire way.  When we got about a mile away I relaxed a bit, because I thought we were probably close enough that we could push the car the rest of the way if we had to.
12. We made it! And guess what! The gas was $3.37. Ha! Take that Sinclair!  And, in case you're wondering, it was totally worth it.  The whole saga put us behind about an hour, but saved us over $10.  Plus, we gained an hour today, so it all equals out :)

Moral of the story - buy cheap gas when you find it, doesn't matter if you need it yet or not.  My dad would have made this little half-joking, half-serious chuckle and said, "ya dummy!".  Oh well, turned out okay!


We spent last night in Farewell Bend State Park, just inside the Oregon border.  It was pretty chilly, but the campground was really nice.  Did you guys know that you have to let an attendant pump your gas in Oregon?  I knew that was the case in NJ, but it took me by surprise here.  I didn't know proper etiquette, so I asked the guy if we were supposed to tip him... he said no, and I hope it wasn't a lie, because I don't want the rest of Oregon gas station attendants to get mad at me, haha.


We're on our way to Portland now... will be there sometime early afternoon-ish.  I expect some super awesome-ness to be able to blog about in the next couple days.  


PS - have you guys been to a Maverick gas station???  They're the bomb!  Lots of delicious (though bad for you) food options and just a good feel.  Hollins gals will appreciate its likeness to Sheetz.  Well, since we stopped in our first one, I have been eyeballing this big canister of mini marshmallows that they keep by the coffee stuff - it's there for you to use with the cream and sugar and such.  Well, Ben asked the Maverick lady this morning if we could buy one (cause I've kind of been talking about it non-stop), and she said yes!  Heh, so now I have a whole canister of mini marshmallows... not exactly sure what I'm gonna do with them yet...