The long-awaited Love's Travel Plaza & RV Park is slated to open in just a few weeks.
The 52-acre property located at U.S. 50 and Fourmile Parkway, on the eastern edge of Cañon City, will offer goods and services for locals, travelers, commuters, truckers and campers.
The travel plaza is slated to open Aug. 24 and Arby's is set to open Aug. 28. Once opened, they will remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"That could change a week or two, but it wouldn't be further than that," said Courtney Smith, who is the general manager for the restaurant side of the business.
A ribbon-cutting and grand opening will take place on opening day.
Arby's
The new Arby's will have the capacity for about 100 patrons and will include a drive-thru, both of which will be open 24 hours, seven days a week.
"We are going to have our normal all up-to-date Arby's menu, limited-time offers and the works," Smith said.
Travel Stop
The convenience store will offer Colorado and Southwest merchandise, along with fresh deli foods, hot foods, soft drinks, coffee, accessories for electronics and more.
"There are 14 doors of soft drinks and energy drinks," said Dave Paulson, the general manager for the Cañon City truck stop.
On the food side, most of it is prepared in-house.
"We roll our own tacos, we cut our own fresh fruit, we do Love's brand in-house, Love's-made products, so we do breakfast sandwiches, tacos," Smith said. "At lunchtime, we started doing our own barbecue - we have little macaroni bowls of barbecue."
A fresh food kitchen is a separate space, where staff prepares express salads, egg cups, parfaits, pudding cups and more.
"We are two restaurants with diesel pumps and gas amenities," Smith said.
The facility's restrooms have six stalls and as a requirement, staff goes inside 24 times a day, and more as needed. When a busload of passengers comes in, a staff member will attend to customers' needs and clean again as needed.
"I am pretty excited to be able to have a facility that offers so much convenience for people and hopefully cut down on the waiting lines," Paulson said. "I think we respect our customers by providing a clean place to come in and we are very welcoming and warm and we are always greeting customers."
Truck Stop
The diesel side of the store leads to the diesel and RV pumps. Diesel amenities include tools, notebooks, pens, gloves, flashlights, compact coolers and refrigerators, CB radios, GPS equipment and souvenirs. There also will be showers and 24-hour laundry facilities for truckers, along with overnight parking in the "back 40."
A CAT Scale is available for trucks or other vehicles that need to be weighed.
"People who need that service can come here now instead of going (outside of town)," Paulson said.
The scale is available to the public 24 hours a day.
RV/Camp Park
Love's started adding RV parks to pre-existing locations in the last couple of years, mostly for 15 to 30 spots, but the Cañon City location will accommodate more than 100 campsites, including some that are ADA-accessible.
"This will be the biggest one in the country, right here in Cañon," Paulson said.
The typical length of stay is 28 days or less, but that can be renewed in approved situations. It is not for long-term parking.
"It is not an 'RV park,' it is intended for campers," Paulson said. "We are really dedicated to providing a great place for people to come and camp for a couple of weeks or a month and enjoy all of the great things Colorado has to offer - that's our goal, that's our purpose."
The RV park will offer restroom and laundry facilities, a dog park, pickleball and basketball courts and several community gazebos.
Solar will be providing energy for the RV park and each site will include its own access to 30 or 50-amp electric, incoming water, outgoing sewer and wifi, all of which are included in the rate.
"When they leave this RV park, they won't have to search for an RV dump because they will be connected constantly," Paulson said.
An attendant will be on duty during certain hours, but guests will be assigned a gate code to access the secured park 24 hours a day.
"There are only three access points and all of them are gated," Paulson said. "The only way to get the gate to open and close is to have a security code."
Once the park is open, people will be able to make reservations online. Camp supplies, including ice, bundles of wood and propane, will be available for purchase on-site.
About Love's
Smith has worked for Love's for seven years. This will be her second relocation.
"I love Love's," she said. "I love the environment, they go above and beyond for their employees and customers. It's just the greatest place I've ever worked for - great benefits, family oriented, family owned and operated. We are the only truck stop in America that is family owned and operated."
Paulson has worked for Love's for six years. He also appreciates the family-oriented company, which has no intention of changing.
"They really operate with a lot of family values," he said. "The Loves family are all really involved; we see them on a regular basis visiting the stores."
Tom Love and his wife opened the first Love's in 1964 in Oklahoma and now has more than 600 locations in 42 states with nearly 40,000 employees.
Paulson said the City of Cañon City and Fremont Economic Development Corp. have been helpful throughout the construction process.
"The City of Cañon City has been exceptionally good to work with," he said. "And the Fremont Economic Development, they have been a part of it."
Love's is committed to being a good member of the community and a family-oriented business.
"We will work closely with the other businesses here to promote things like the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, the Railroad, Blossom Festival and Whitewater Fest," Paulson said. "We will be closely tied in with law enforcement, too, because we want to assist law enforcement with a good, safe environment here; we want to do our part for that and we want to make sure that over time, people will feel glad that the Love's family chose this location to put in a business."
Employment
Paulson recently hosted a hiring event, but there are still about 20 more positions to be filled.
"We offer a great competitive hiring wage, excellent benefits - like a week's paid vacation after six months of service, two weeks after a year - and all the typical additional benefits, like health insurance," Paulson said. "The package is a good one."
Employees also get four paid holidays each year.
The new Cañon City Love's will employ 90 to 100 people, about two-thirds of which are full-time positions.
Between the restaurant, travel plaza, RV park and maintenance, there typically will be more than 20 people on-site at any given time.
For more information on employment opportunities, visit jobs.loves.com or loves.com/careers. Referral bonuses are given to team members who refer someone who ends up being hired.
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