The Trip Back

Today's post will finally conclude our little vacation here. As the title says, we'll be looking at some stuff on the drive from Moab back to Denver, and finishing off the post looking around the Denver area.

Texaco/Canyonlands Trading Post, Moab, UT
This was built as a Texaco in the 50's, but has been home to a touristy gift shop for most of its life now, presumably since the Texaco seen in my last post opened.

I know these 50's incandescent parking lot lights aren't exactly hard to find, but this was the first time I'd ever seen one that still worked and was being used.

Former Gift Shop, Moab, UT
This was the only vacancy I saw in town, and it looks like it's been gone a while. It's closed as far back as the 2008 Streetview, and there's practically no paint left on the front. Despite that, it remains fully stocked and furnished.
My flash went off taking this photo. It was kinda awkward.

Moab Diner, Moab, UT
This opened as a drive-in burger place in the early 60's. The drive-in awning (everything on the left here) was enclosed for indoor dining space in the late 70's, at which point they began serving typical diner fare. Even though it's been enclosed for over 40 years, the bathrooms are still only accessible from the outside of the building.

Taco Bell, Fruita, CO
This location opened in the mid-2000's, and has a slightly modified design to fit in with the area, where they used light blue instead of yellow. Aside from that, it seems their Mexican-influenced design fit the area well. That sorta prevented a remodel here (wow, it feels like this was a new design so recently; it's so weird seeing them getting remodeled); instead of totally redoing the facade, it was just repainted to their current colors.

Wendy's, Fruita, CO
This location, attached to a Shell convenience store, opened in the 90's. I can't say I've seen anything but a McDonald's attached to a gas station before, so this is a first for me.

Subway, Fruita, CO
It's not often you see freestanding Subways, especially operating out of a newly-built space. This one opened in 2015.

Glenwood Springs Station, Glenwood Springs, CO
Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad built this station in 1904, and it is now served by Amtrak. Despite its small size, it was the second busiest station in the state (after Denver Union, obviously) in 2016. That was the same year Denver Airport light rail was opened, so I'm guessing it's been pushed down a couple notches since then.

Hotel Denver, Glenwood Springs, CO
This hotel opened in 1915, and has become a local landmark. At its peak it had 100 rooms, but a 1983 remodel downsized it to 58 and turned part of it into offices.

Carl's Jr Trash Can, Parker, CO
This location had its logo updated in a 2010 remodel, but thankfully passed over the trash cans. This probably dates back to the restaurant's opening in the mid-90's.

Old Hotel, Parker, CO
This was one of the few pioneer-era buildings left in Parker. It was originally built around 1900 as a ranch house, but became a hotel in the 1920's. It closed down in the 60's, as Parker started developing. It looked like it was one gentle touch away from falling down, but considering how long it's been abandoned that's an accomplishment. It certainly helps that the dry air here dramatically slows down rot. It's been owned by a developer for the last few decades, but since it was historic it could not be torn down. In 2018, the developer finally got approval to tear down the outbuildings, leaving just the hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel was in bad enough shape that he got permission to tear it down too the following year.

Sonic/Starbucks/Daktronix, Parker, CO
I'm not positive on the history of this place, but I was told this started out as a short-lived Sonic, which then became an also short-lived Starbucks, and has since spent most of its life as a computer store. Parker has no shortage of Starbucks- I counted 8 of them, but interestingly they don't seem to have any freestanding ones. I'm sure Starbucks would have lasted longer here had they opened just a couple years later.

Valero/Circle K, Parker, CO
While Valero still exists as a refining company, they sold off their retail operation to Circle K's owners in 2017. They've slowly been going around rebranding them to Circle K since then. I'm not sure how this will play out with Valero's non-convenience store locations, but the name's definitely on its way out.

AlberSprouts, Parker, CO
Our visit to Sprouts earlier on this trip was enjoyable enough we came back again to stock up on some snacks before our flight back to Philly. At the time, we didn't have any Sprouts back home, though three have since opened. I've always felt uncomfortable taking/posting bathroom pictures, but I'm making an exception for this since I think the tile here might be original to the Albertsons days.

They had a balloon arch set up for some reason. They might have had some kind of promotion going on.

Walgreens, Parker, CO
This was back when Walgreens was just starting to roll out their current decor, so seeing the new logo in the place of their old neon mortar-and-pestle was a novelty for me.

Parker Plaza 2, Parker, CO
This center opened in the 70's, making it one of the oldest centers in town. It's also the dumpiest, and contains a number of low-budget stores. I'm willing to bet a renovation or redevelopment is waiting in the not-too-distant future. Parker Plaza 1 across the street (which is actually the nicer of the two, thanks to a 2013 facelift) is currently slated for a renovation.

It's also home to the largest Domino's I've ever seen, which moved from the space with the arched labelscar in the last photo to what was formerly a flooring center in 2015.

Wendy's/Twisters, Parker, CO
I think Wendy's opened here in the late 80's or early 90's and closed in the mid-2000's. It was quickly replaced by Twisters, a small burger and burrito chain. Twisters has 2 locations in Colorado (both in the Denver area) and 18 in Arizona, so I can't exactly call them a local chain. Small but spread out would be a better way to put it.

Conoco, Parker, CO
This location opened in the mid-80's and closed in 2014. It's got a great location on a busy intersection, but had a hard-to-access parking lot. I'd bet this gets rebuilt rather than retenanted.

Safeway, Parker, CO
I first covered this store back in 2014, but revisited post-Albertsons merger as a few changes had been made. Albertsons/ACME/Jewel/etc. decided to replace all their spotlights with fluorescent strips a few years before the merger. Once they had the Safeway family of stores, they did the same thing to them, but cheaply. Here, they basically slapped up the fluorescents over top of the very classy recessed spotlights. I'd call it a downgrade. Hopefully a future remodel cleans it up a lit.

Only the middle row of lights was here previously.

The Safeway Lifestyle cross-beam produce lights were also a casualty of the "upgrade." I mean, it's much brighter now, but they totally killed the classy vibe the store used to have. Come on, at they either should have kept the recessed lights in service or taken them out completely. Instead, they just took the bulbs out.

Where the perpendicular fluorescent strip is, there used to be a track light. At least they bothered to remove that.

"Ndian" Grocery
I don't know how you make a typo that bad and get it on a banner before somebody catches it. Good news is that their permanent sign spells it right!

Prestige Preschool, Parker, CO

This preschool, which is being built on previously undeveloped land, is Prestige's second location after one in Aurora.

Regal?/Sports Authority/REI, Greenwood Village, CO
I missed my shot getting a picture of the front as we drove by, so you'll have to settle for the side. The building's old facade looked a lot like a 90's Regal Theater. Sports Authority opened in the mid-2000's, building their metal facade over front of the existing one. After they closed, it became an REI, who despite having a similar product line to Sports Authority, gutted out the building and started from scratch.

Shepler's/Boot Barn, Englewood, CO
This store opened in 1977 as the third store in the Shepler's chain, which despite having only having 25 stores in total (most of which opened less than a decade before the chain's demise) was considered THE place to go for cowboy attire. In 2015, they were bought out by Boot Barn, who rebranded their physical retail operations but continues to use the Shepler's name online. They were forced by the city to keep this sign in place, as it had become a landmark.

The storefront sign, on the other hand, was allowed to be replaced. The facade is certainly odd, but it's how this store always looked. Interestingly, this was originally the side entrance. The original front of the store is now stockrooms. I think they moved it sincethis side of the building had a larger parking lot.

The interior looks less unusual than the outside, though I'm not saying it's normal. The store was massive originally, but about a quarter of the salesfloor and the entire mezzanine level have become stockrooms and offices over the years.

IKEA, Centennial, CO
This location opened in 2011. It stands on top of a parking deck, making it appear massive, even for an already large IKEA.

Jackalope/Parker Country Market, Parker, CO
This building was originally a horse barn, which New Mexico-based southwestern décor store Jackalope turned into their third location in 1998. They closed this location in 2009, but still operate their other two stores. They did not sell off the property, and instead reopened it as a lawn furnishings and antique market. That closed in 2018, in order to demolish the building so a hardware store to be developed on the property.

The store itself operates out of the old riding arena, which was probably added onto the barn in the 1970's. The horse stables were on this side of the building, and dated back to the 1920's. Jackalope left them standing but vacant. They were ultimately taken down in 2014.

A small part of the stable building was allowed to remain- that is, until the whole complex came down, since it contained the employee offices.

 The store's front porch was packed with decorations for your... porch. Huh I guess that's a good way to display it.

 This deck was also left behind from when the stables were removed for whatever reason.

There were an employee break area up the stairs and an office underneath it.

The interior was filled to the brim with an assortment of antiques, oddities, and household goods. It seemed like they had everything you would want, but nothing you would need.

Among the antiques, I found an old children's book put out by BP.

They also had an old Sears insecticide sprayer. As cool as it was, there was no way I'd be able to get that home on the plane.
Hope you enjoyed this virtual vacation, see you next time back in PA!

I'll send you off with the most basic Colorado song out there because the other song I was planning on using would be a better fit for a post I'm doing in the not too distant future.