2014 Roadtrip Day 6 / Dec 30: Laramie - Cheyenne - Boulder

It takes only about an hour to Cheyenne from Laramie. As our regular ritual, we started to load all our stuff into the car. The motel has a pool that was filled to the brim with snow. How awesome! I've always wanted to use snow as cooler and this was the perfect chance. The drinks were warm since we kept in the room, but it didn't take long for them to cool.

We didn't really have any plans so we drove to the Cheyenne Botanic Garden. Nothing green, everything was covered in white. We even spotted this bunny taking a shelter underneath the van. How cute!

Went for a bathroom break in the main building, other than that, there weren't too much we can do as it was freezing cold here. I just snapped a couple photos with Matthew.

Driving on the street covered with snow is more difficult, and I slid for the first time for braking too fast/hard. It was scary not to be in control of your car. Thankfully, there weren't that many cars. The neighborhood looked adorable with everything covered in snow.

Next we found ourselves at the old town, we parked and left the doggies inside the car, walked to the square in front of the train station.

We walked into a few stores to warm up and get back into the snow. Took about an hour or so to cover the entire block, going in and out of shops, but figured we should go back to the doggies.

After this, we head out south to Boulder, which is about 1.5hrs away. We spotted another fireworks shop on the freeway, so we pulled over because Tal wanted to check it out. He said this shop has much more and far better inventory. He got another $50 worth of fireworks!

For the first time, we were stuck in traffic on the way to Boulder. It was dark by the time we arrived at the town center, we walked around the plaza and snapped some photos.

We wanted to cover Denver too before retiring for the night and it's just half an hour drive away so we took off and got back on the freeway. Denver feels more developed and cramped with all the high rise. We didn't do anything much once again due to the freezing weather, but we did stop by at the skate park which is filled with snow. Took the doggies out to stretch and head to the motel.

2014 Roadtrip Day 5 / Dec 29: Evanston - Laramie

When we arrived at the motel, the place looked like it was from the 60s. We got our key and went to look for our room, and did a quick check to ensure everything is working before we start moving our stuff in. I thought Tal was waiting for me in the car but I found him at the corridoor and he asked where did I go, I told to our room, he said I got the wrong room. The bizarre thing was I was able to open the other room with our key! It turned out that we were able to access all other rooms with the same key. Gosh! We didn't care too much because this place is literally in the middle of nowhere and obviously the owners didn't think it'd matter much.

Anyway the bathroom in the wrong room that I went to was overflow, thank goodness it wasn't really our room because I didn't want to have to go thru the front desk. We moved all our stuff in and settled down shower and make dinner. Close to midnight we get dressed and take the doggies out and saw what happened to the car:

We didn't leave for Laramie until it was time to check out which was close to noon. This motel basically looked like just a stop for truckers.

It takes around 4.5hrs to drive from Evanston to Laramie. I've seen snowstorm warnings but haven't actually been in one until this stretch of drive. Thankfully there weren't too many vehicles on the road with us and we were going at a pretty good speed. Once again I have to credit the ploughers for keeping the roads ice free.

The snowstorm pattern was eerily similar to the sandstorm we encountered years ago on Roadtrip to NM. Definitely sand do more damage than snow though. 

Just to show you how cold it was, the water bottle left inside the car froze. Our drive today is just on I-80 across Wyoming and the only thing that piqued our attention was the fireworks stores and they're abundant in this part of the country. We stopped at one to checkout their inventory. Tal bought about $15 worth of them.

We arrived at Laramie motel close to 6 and thank goodness it's renovated/updated and clean too! Took this screenshot from my weather app, it sure is getting colder and colder!

2014 Roadtrip Day 9 / Jan 2: Cedar City - Las Vegas

Almost to the last stretch - we were only 2.5hrs away from Vegas! Didn't do much in Cedar City, just made a little something to eat for breakfast and found our way back to the strip where we purchased the chains, returned them then head back on the road.

We did however stopped at a Sonic to grab something sweet at their drive thru - banana split! 

Uneventful drive down and the further away we got Cedar City, the snow starts to disappear. As a matter of fact, after halfway through the drive, after passing St George, I started peeling off the outer layers. And upon reaching Vegas, I had to take off my heavy shoes and opted for flip flop instead haha it was good for them toes to be breathing freely again.

I was running low on gas at the outskirts of Vegas and found a station with decent rate and offers Carwash too, so we decided to get my baby cleaned. Boy, was she filthy from all the salt, snow, dirt, mud and whatnot! People were probably wondering why the both of us got out to take photos of the car haha

And all it took was just a wash to get it sparkling again. We were getting hungry by then and since I've been raking points on my dunkin donuts perks card, we made a beeline toward the closest store in town and got some much needed overdue coffee. Although we're not religious coffee drinkers, this was really a treat for us and we each got a sandwich wrap which we gobbled down in no time. Best of all, the food was all free!

Tal was able to book two nights at La Quinta by the airport at discounted rate. It was surprisingly nice and the room was pretty big with two nice comfy queen size bed, flat screen tv and medium fridge. The rates were definitely higher probably $20/night more than the motels we stayed in it was worth paying extra since we were going to stay here for two nights. Two pros - they take dogs and they offer free breakfast!

2014 Roadtrip Day 8 / Jan 1: Grand Junction - Cedar City

It was dark when we arrived at the motel, so it was nice to actually be able to see the property in daylight. Little did we realize when we played with the fireworks that we were next to an open area. 

We were also very close to the airport, drove by to check it out and it was empty. Perhaps due to NewYear. Since we have another 5hr of driving ahead of us, we pushed on.

About halfway through the drive, we stopped at this place called Black Dragon Canyon which surroundings look similar to Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, I forgot to change the camera setting and most photos taken here were overexposed. 

Strolled a little to stretch our legs and there were a few other families who had the same idea. It was really scenic so many took photos before continuing their journey. 

We stopped again at another scenic off ramp and this area has less stopper bys the photo did no justice to it:

There were not so much snow around this area and I was able to uncover my face. Landscape changes drastically after this stop as there were less snow and I thought we were out of the snow, but as we get closer to Cedar City, there were still plenty of snow on the ground. 

Had to wait a long time to check in because of the holiday and right after I got there, people started to come in. We couldn't wait to get our rooms and take a nice warm shower and make some hot grubs. Made some steamed rice and warm up canned chili and that just hit the spot!