A Wednesday Evening Update

August 18, 2021  Update              

It turned out to be a good thing that I rode this morning in Fort Collins.  After going to today’s Colorado Rockies-San Diego Padres game at Coors Field (nice ballpark right downtown) I headed west on I-70 to go to Glenwood Springs.  I-70 had been closed for awhile after a major mudslide but it reopened on Saturday so I assumed I’d get to Glenwood this evening, take a ride tomorrow up the trail along the Roaring Fork River since the trail through Glenwood Canyon was damaged significantly by the mudslide. And then I'd leave midday to head to Salt Lake.

But a not-so-funny thing happened on the way to Glenwood.  About 45 minutes after leaving Denver the electronic sign over the road said that I-70 was closed.  I figured that it was from the previous week and had never been changed.  I called the hotel in Glenwood to ask if it was true, but they didn’t know.  They said that there had been rain in the area earlier in the day with flash flood warnings and maybe the road had been closed as a precaution.  They said to call the 511 tourist info number.  The recorded voice on that number mentioned the rain and said that there would be either closures and delays.  So which was it?  I didn’t want to drive another 80 miles and then find out that I’d have to either turn around or detour over a long route through hills and mountains in the dark.

So I turned around and returned to Fort Collins, got a new hotel for the night and tomorrow will drive to Salt Lake City via the northern route through Wyoming on I-80.  So I’ll get there on Thursday night, just as I was originally scheduled to do.  And thanks to my bike ride this morning the inability to go to Glenwood Springs tonight has not cost me the loss of one of the states I needed.  There are now only two left—Nevada and Utah.  Nevada will be on Friday.  Utah on Saturday.

I still need to decide whether I’m then going to go to Texas for the Hotter N Hell Hundred and to see a game at the new Texas Rangers ballpark.  That decision will come on Friday.

Oh yes.  I looked at Google Maps this evening.  And it show I-70 closed heading into Glenwood.  So I think I made the right decision.