Best Route LA to Denver

The driving portion of the trip went well. I hit some fairly strong winds in Utah. Thankfully the winds in Colorado were considerably more calm. For all the hype around I-70 driving in Colorado, I was a bit underwhelmed. You guys had me death gripping the wheel and driving so slow once I hit I-70 lol!!

The only places I remember that required me to take off my steering wheel holder hat and put on my driver hat were the 12 mile 6% downgrade coming out of the Eisenhower/Johnson tunnel and the 6 mile downgrade coming in to Denver. For those, I slowed to about 40mph, got in 7th gear, and turned on my jakes. I adjusted the level on the jakes based on whether the grade was getting steeper or leveling out. Having a little bit of experience with grades, it seemed easy to me. Outside of the initial braking to get my speed down, I didn’t need to use my service brake at all going down the grades.

I was surprised that most of the drive was fairly easy up until about 90 miles west of Denver. Those last 90 miles in I really had to pay attention. Aside from that, the drive was so so beautiful and such a great experience! I’m really glad that I took the 70 despite my nervousness.

As much as I loved the ride, I don’t think the truck liked it so much! Those taxing roads revealed a fairly sizable air leak coming from my air dryer, a wiring issue that was causing my left headlight to flicker on and off, and a coolant leak.

Given the terrain I was set to encounter, I figured it was best to get those issues ironed out before proceeding. I did and the repairs caused me to miss my appointment by 3 hours. I had to reschedule - still waiting on the broker to let me know when my new appointment is. It’s looking like it’ll be a long weekend in Denver - oh well, I’m blessed to have arrived alive!

 

I can confirm. They were out there looking for speeders!