​​​​​COCI Western Tour - Day 10 07/21
Rock Springs to Steamboat Springs

Wednesday started under some duress as Tom had become very ill after a horrible night and ending up heading to the local hospital to be checked out. It turned out to be food poisoning and he was able to get rehydrated at a bit of time there. The group had of course stayed at the motel until we had a report from the hospital that he would be fine but staying the night and then heading home from Rock Springs. So down to five, the group headed out for what they thought would be the shortest route to Steamboat Springs. Things were going great and Ruth called for a pit stop just a few miles from the Wyoming / Colorado border. Once at the combined country store & restaurant we decided to have lunch then too. While in the store Randy & Paul started talking to the Frito Lays delivery guy and a UPS driver who informed us that the road was all torn up and not really drivable in Corvettes. Fortunately there was an option, go down a mile and turn left to take a road over the mountain and go into Steamboat Springs from the East. The group headed out and found themselves on a beautiful Corvette road of 50 miles with lots of curves and reaching an altitude of 9968 feet at the summit before getting back to the flatter high desert plain. Going into Colorado the plains start to get a bit greener, but not much. Once we got to US 40 we saw the dreaded "Chip and Seal Ahead", it fortunately had been done for a couple of days and was not too loose. There was a lot of traffic, especially trucks on the route. We found out that evening that there had been a land slide on I70 and the traffic had been rerouted through Steamboat, which was the reason the road work had been suspended. Due to the bumper to bumper traffic the group did not head downtown but ordered in pizza, as four of the group wanted to get an early start the next day. At least the group can say that they had been there.