The next morning, after a very poor night's sleep, we had to go home. Of course, since our flight didn't leave Denver until 1:00 p.m., we had time yet to do some more exploring on the way back to the airport. So, after we checked out of the Best Western, we hit the road. 

One of the things that John wanted to see was the Eisenhower Tunnel, along I-70. At an elevation of about 11,000 feet, the Eisenhower Tunnels are the highest tunnels in the world and cut right through the Continental Divide.  There are actually two tunnels: one dedicated to Eisenhower, the other dedicated to Edwin Johnson, who was once governor of Colorado.  We did both tunnels: the Eastbound Tunnel, which is at an elevation of 11,013 feet, and the Westbound Tunnel, at an elevation of 11,158 feet.

Instead of heading straight into Denver on I-70, we toured around some of the backroads, stopping occasionally to buy snacks and drinks. Eventually, we made our way back to I-25 and took that in to Denver. 

We arrived at the rental car return at roughly 10:30 a.m., which was much earlier than we had planned. After turning in the car, we took the shuttle to the airport and got checked in.  Once we were past security, we stopped and had a nice lunch, to celebrate the end of a great trip...

The adventure, however, was far from over. Our flight from Denver left on time and it was a smooth flight...right up until we were over Payson, AZ. At that point, we hit heavy turbulence, much heavier than normal. As we approached Sky Harbor Airport, we could see the reason for the turbulence: a wall of dust was closing in on the Valley. John looked at me and said, "We're about twenty minutes from not being able to land."

Though it was a white-knuckle landing, we landed safely at Sky Harbor on time and just minutes ahead of the monsoon storm. While I gathered the bags from baggage claim, John got the car out of long term parking and picked Mary and me up at curbside.  Being so efficient, we were able to get home before the storm hit.

And with that ended our adventure in the Colorado Rockies...another great Verley adventure for sure!

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