January 8 & 9, 2012

San Francisco, California to Denver, Colorado

I-80 East

1268 miles / 20 hours

At 6:00 a.m. on January 8th (David's 41st birthday) we began packing up our car for the road trip ahead. And just like in a sitcom, Dave thought I had the keys to the apartment & I thought he had the keys...so needless to say we locked ourselves out of the apartment (with our child sound asleep inside the apartment) at 6:30 am. Our friend Joey, who shared the locked door with us, kindly opened one eye long enough to answer his phone, open the locked door and return to his apartment laughing to himself. Anyway, we were finally on the road at 7 a.m. After about 4 hours of driving we were welcomed into Nevada. We're not sure if it was the stress of the ride, the hankering to gamble in Reno or the blinding sun, but David met his enemy, a migraine. 

He was down for the count for a few hours, so Gracie and Daddy napped while I quietly hummed the entire show of RENT to myself.  

And enjoyed the scenery (or lack there of). 

Six hours later, a lunch stop, 2 movies, IPad games, naps, the migraine passing and a few bathroom breaks we arrived in Utah.

By now David had driven and so had I, so we put Gracie to the test. 

Kidding. We had 2 hours left until we reached our stop over for the night, Salt Lake City. The last hour is always the toughest for some reason. Everyone started losing their minds. David opened his birthday presents and searched for my missing cell phone (of course it was trapped under piles of pillows, blankets, toys, books etc), I entertained with more solo singing, the DVD player died and Gracie enjoyed blinding the driver (me) with a flashlight, all the while we kept asking, "Are we there yet?" 

The next morning we woke up refreshed, had an awesome breakfast at the hotel and headed back on the road. Only 8 hours until our destination. 

We left Salt Lake City at about 9:30 a.m., enjoyed more beautiful scenery,   

and were greeted in Wyoming about an hour later.

Six hours later, a lunch stop, more movies, more bathroom breaks, more IPad games, more naps, more losing of our minds,

& we were finally in Colorado!

and about a little over an hour later we were home. Well we were in Denver, our new home!