On the Road from QC to Denver

After spending several days in the Quad Cities we left on Friday, January 22nd, to head further out West. We left around 10:30 am so that we could stop for lunch at a gas station near the Amana Colonies. Generally, lunch at a gas station doesn't sound appetizing. But being near the Amana Colonies this gas station has really good sandwiches made with meats, cheeses, and breads from the Amish. I was skeptical when Brandon took me for the first time on a visit to Lincoln a year and a half ago, but he's right...the sandwiches make for a delicious road trip. 

 Gas station near the Amana Colonies with a delicious secret

Delicious sandwich loaded with Amish meat and cheese on some German black bread

After just six hours down I-80 we were able to stop in Lincoln, Nebraska for the night. We're so thankful to have Brandon's brother and his family living in Lincoln to visit with and help break up this leg of the trip to Denver, Colorado. We had fun catching up with family and learning how to play the game Zombie Dice. We were even able to see Brandon's dad as he drove in from South Dakota to coach our nephew's basketball team on Saturday. 

After a wonderful evening and morning with everyone we were torn between staying for our nephews' basketball games that afternoon or getting on the road to Denver. Our friend Nate had already flown into Denver the day before, and we didn't want to keep him waiting too long. So we decided we should head out. It's too bad the basketball games weren't earlier in the day. But, we'll be staying in Lincoln for a month this summer, so we can look forward to watching our nephews play a lot of baseball. 

So, we continued down I-80 to I-76 to Denver. I have to say that the seven hour trek felt much longer than that to me. Maybe it was because we had already driven six hours the day before. Maybe it's because I'm not good at sitting still. Maybe it was the somewhat monotonous scenery. I'm not sure. But, we made it safely to Denver and were thankful for good weather and traffic all the way there. Upon our arrival we were warmly welcomed by Nate and his parents. Shortly thereafter we began planning what days would be best to drive into the mountains to ski and snowboard and make good use of our Copper Mountain passes. More fun to come! 

Buffalo Bill Cody cut-out contributing to the Nebraska scenery 

Lovely sunset in Eastern Colorado highlighting our dirty windshield