Zuke and Melissa: Midwest Trip Day 1

**Disclaimer: There are a lot of pictures in the next few posts, which tell the story pretty well. So I'm going to try and curb my wordiness for a bit.**

We left for Denver on Monday May 31st, although we weren't sure for a bit if we'd be able to go. The day before, the air conditioning on our van completely gave out on us. We were nervous about driving through the muggy midwest with no a/c, but we knew we couldn't get it taken care of on Labor Day, so figured that we may as well make the first leg of our trip and see if we could get it fixed once we got there. We headed out soon after Annalee and Alexander arrived around 8:00. After quick stops for gas and McDonald's, we were on our way. We stopped in Price to use the bathroom and clean up a water spill, and then enjoyed the scenic (ahem) drive through eastern Utah. We kept making jokes about how horrible the towns (if you can even call them that) were.

We stopped for lunch in Grand Junction, just as it started getting warm. We had our picnic lunch at a nice park there, and continued our drive to Denver. That part of the drive, through the mountains, was much more scenic than the previous part. Oh, I have to include this part.....we stopped to grab drinks just outside of Grand Junction, and to switch drivers. Annalee was driving, and had gotten a huge 44 oz. pepsi. We were pulling out of the gas station, and as Annalee picked up her drink, the lid slipped off and 44 ounces of pepsi spilled all over the floor. Luckily, Zuke thought to use those high-powered vacuums at the carwash, and it was all clean and dry in 5 minutes. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We got to our hotel in Denver (which had an AMAZING a/c unit!), and then headed out to dinner at Casa Bonita.

The food at Casa Bonita was mediocre, but the entertainment was great. Tyler loved the cliff divers, and surprisingly Addison adored the mariachi band that played right by us. We visited the arcade, and all ended up playing skee-ball for the better part of an hour. I think that was the best part of the whole day! After we wore ourselves out there, we headed back to our hotel and crashed.