Day Ten (4/7/03)
Well, not quite snowed in, but there's certainly a lot of snow and ice, and conditions are pretty nasty. Val wanted to spend some more time with the fam, so we decided to stay an extra day. Mostly hanging around. Val and her mom went to do some thrift store shopping, while her dad and I watched the war on CNN. Later, Val and I walked to a used book store, and she got mad at me for pelting her with snowballs. (Hey, no snow for me growing up! >:)
We all went for dinner at a steak buffet in Council Bluffs (across the Missouri River, which puts it in Iowa, but it's only a 10 minute drive). The steaks weren't big, but they were pretty good, cooked to order, fast, and you get as many returns as you like. I ate 3, which apparently is more than most people that go with Val's family. ;)
Day Eleven (4/8/03)
Driving day. We left Omaha (and Val's crying mom) in the late morning and started for Colorado. I drove the first leg, which was a few hundred miles from Omaha to just outside Denver, CO. We had originally planned to stop in Denver, but it was early and we felt good. So, we pressed on and arrived here at mountain bike mecca, Fruita, CO. There's a nice, cheap motel called Balanced Rock that has the best room we've stayed in yet, for $35. The big bike shop is close at hand. We'll investigate the riding here tomorrow. We plan to ride here tomorrow, and either stay one more night here, or move to Moab, (<150 miles away) for riding the next day. It all depends on if I want to have a day of rest at home before going back to work next Mon. We'll see. It's good to be in a warm place with mountain bikes atop every car! :D