Quyen's Day 6 reflection: Rocky Mountains, CO to Denver City

Perhaps the highlight of my day was the Starbucks' logo sign I saw off the Grand Junction in Colorado about 30 minutes into my driving shift. Angela drove the morning shift where she almost killed me with her driving, and as you know, she’s NOT Asian. The brief second I truly though I would die I screamed, I’m not ready to die which only made Angela cackle. You know the cackle. It almost beat out the warning we got from the cop about Angela’s speeding. Almost. Nothing beats begging a cop for just a warning and flirting shamelessly to avoid a ticket, a suggestion that our road trip guide, “The Bad Girl’s Guide to the Road” said was always a feasible tactic. Don’t worry I said. Maybe he’ll just give us a warning but all Angela could chant was, he’s going to give me a ticket. Sh*t.

Tip of the day: When on a road trip, always bring a romance novel so you can wave it at the cop who pulls you over and shamelessly proclaim that you were so caught up in the book that you didn’t notice the speed limit. Clearly, this will only work if you are female. Um, if you are a guy and you attempt to use this tactic, you might get arrested.

The funny thing about Colorado is that off the freeway (70) where the Colorado River runs, they post signs that read “Colorado River” but they don’t post signs that say, “Rocky Mountains” so we drive through the Rocky Mountains not sure if we’re staring at THE Rocky Mountains until I see a steeple with Rocky Mountain Baptist Church posted below it. An hour into driving among the Rocky Mountains, we see signs for the Rocky Mountain National Forest Information Center and that is the closes you’ll get to seeing a sign that will let Rocky Mountain road trippers know that they are surrounded by THE Rocky Mountains. Truth be told, they looked like a more forested version of Utah’s scenic mountain terrain.


However, the Rocky Mountains start looking more like Aspen, CO as more Aspen trees clutter its landscape among dozens of small ski resort towns. Don’t ask me why but all I could think of was, “Tom Cruise lives around here.” That’s how I know what Aspen, CO looks like. Must have been a Tom Cruise interview.


Ended the day with good Sushi, recommend by a CA native off of yelp.com. Always trust a Californian on sushi is my rule of thumb.