I turn 38 "on the road"

More of highway 70 West today towards Kansas. Since it was going to be hard to find a yummy gluten free cake out here in the middle of nowhere, we celebrated my birthday with a Soy Latte at Starbucks, add some caramel and whipped cream, mmmmmm.

As we were leaving Missouri we realized that we did not get a picture of the state sign, so we pulled over at the visitors center only to find this...

Close enough. And it gave us a chance to see the Kansas City Chiefs Stadium and the Royals Ballpark.

Here is a much better picture of both stadiums.

Then we crossed into Kansas, which we would spend the next 6 or so hours driving through, with one nice surprise.....

I received a phone call from Michael's parents saying they were a mere hour away from us. (They have been on the road heading from Tucson, AZ back to New Jersey for the last 2 weeks.) They changed their route a little to try to meet us on highway 70. We found a place to turn off the road where 70 and 75 meet just outside of Kansas City and had a pow wow in the only parking lot we could find that would fit our vehicles. It was so great to see them!

The only excitement on the road this afternoon was passing a windmill farm.

I thought this old windmill in the field in front was particularly cute and a nostalgic touch, compared to the massive, "modern" windmills behind it.

Then we entered Colorado and the Mountain Time Zone.

And were treated to a beautiful sky as the sun went down.

We arrived in Denver around 9pm, and had dinner at the Cherry Cricket. They are located on E. 2nd St in a really cool shopping and business district. Unfortunately, it was around 10PM, so most of the stores were closed. This also happened to be another Man vs Food moment (like we didn't think about this before we arrived) and we were not disappointed.

They are known for their burgers, more specifically, the toppings you can choose from to put on your burger including: BBQ sauce, fried eggs, bacon, sauteed mushrooms or onions, jalapenos, cream cheese, and the list goes on.

These could very well be the best burgers that we have ever had! Michael had the Cricket (1/2 lb burger) with smoked cheddar, bacon, lettuce, tomato, fried egg and BBQ sauce. I chose the Jr. Cricket (1/4 lb.) with sauteed mushrooms, sauteed Bermuda onions, lettuce, tomato and bacon. We passed on the fries, but probably should have given them their due.

After dinner we drove just a little farther out of Denver and checked into the Sleep Inn in Thornton, Colorado (also known as North Denver). Tomorrow we head up highway 25 to Wyoming and then West again. Here is our route from today.

Tomorrow, we head for Salt Lake City, Utah! (That's the way they print their state name on their license plates)