Day 13 - Free Stuff

As great as last night was, we won't typically spend money like we are on vacation.  We are still on a budget!  So today we hit the free stuff.

The Pioneer Heritage Museum is downtown in the old courthouse.  It has tons of fascinating information and exhibits.  Everything from painting, pottery, and Indian artifacts to geology and a restored 1909 courtroom.  The girls loved the old elevator that really worked!  They also filled out a treasure hunt sheet which kept them searching though every room.  Great museum!

Then we ate at Subway because I forgot to pack lunches.  We sat outside and ate at a little park where kids were splashing in a funny fountain that gave a little music show every 60 min or so.  The girls really want to go back tomorrow with swim suits so they can play in the water.  We just weren’t prepared today.

Next we went to the US Olympic Training Center.  The tours are FREE!  It was really neat to see the facility and think about what goes on in an Olympic athlete's training.  The gift shop was full of London 2012 gear.  I had thought about that a month or two ago – I guess we will miss the Olympics this summer.

We put up our tent screen canopy this evening to relax and eat under because there really is no shade till the sun goes down behind the mountain.  It’s the first time we’ve used it.  I think we will “need” it some.  It works great and goes up fairly quickly (although the 60 second assembly promise on the box may have assumed too much about our mechanical abilities).

Taps is just now being played at Ft. Carson (across the street from the state park).  It sounds so pretty!  Brad heard Reveille this morning.  Happy travels!

Pioneer Museum and USOTC Pictures

Day 12 - Colorado Springs

It is nice to be back at a state park.  Cheyenne Mountain SP is the newest state park in CO.  We have a beautiful view of the city of Colorado Springs on one side and Cheyenne Mt. on the other.  The park is laid out well and has concrete sites.  That makes it easy to level the camper! 

The last time I was in Col. Springs was when I was in high school on a choir trip.  We came for a competition and also did some touristy stuff.  That was a fun trip!  This time, I have wanted to repeat some things and also do some new things.  

One thing that I think we did was go to the Flying W Ranch.  (I am confusing this a little with going to the Bar D Wranglers dinner and show in Durango while visiting my grandparents once, but I think I’ve been to this one too.)  Anyway, we went.  We toured the western “town” (sampled some biscuits, saw an Indian dance), ate a chuckwagon dinner and were entertained by 4 very talented musicians.  Brad made friends with a couple of them and was called out from the stage.  Carmen was embarrassed by the attention.  All in all it was a really fun evening for all of us!  (We had to buy the CD - the girls LOVED the music!  Roy Rogers, Sons of the Pioneers and yodeling!)  Happy TRAILS!

https://picasaweb.google.com/103085828352378450806/FlyingWRanch?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIPZ9cjT29Wp2AE&feat=directlink

Day 11 - Great Sand Dunes Do-Over

The high wind warning is behind us.  The wind was supposed to be 30-35 mph with gusts up to 50-70 mph.   It’s a new day – with a new weather warning – a freeze warning!  Record lows for tonight around 27 degrees.  We are really roughing it (with our heated camper - yippee!).

We went back to GSDNP today.  The wind was much calmer - still windy, but much more bearable than yesterday.  Carmen really wanted to make it to the “top.”  The Great Dune is sort of straight ahead as you cross the creek.  It is one peak of many.  We almost made it, but the hills got steeper and windier the higher up we climbed.  We decided we had gone farther than lots of 9 and 12 year olds and that was good enough!  (2 mi round trip?)  Coming down was much easier today because the wind was lighter.  (Going up you kind of had the wind at your back, so yesterday, coming down was the hardest part!)

After hiking the dunes, we ate an early lunch – it makes you HUNGRY!  Then we hiked some of the Mosca Pass Trail.  This is more of a forest trail along Medano Creek.  (It is the same creek you cross to get to the dunes, but a different part.)  We didn’t go far on this (1 mi round trip) because we wanted to save some energy for one last hike.

Just outside the park is Zapata Falls.  You drive up the mountain about 3 mi along a windy, bumpy gravel road.  Then you hike in another .5 mi to the falls.  To see the falls you actually have to hike/climb into a cave along the wet, rocky edge of the creek.  Audra and I got quite attached to a little bench by the creek, but Carmen was dying to see the falls.  This was the hike she had been waiting for.  Brad took her in and made pictures of the 30 ft. waterfall.  She came back with icy, soaked tennis shoes, but was elated.

So we hiked 4 mi today, but 1 of them was more like climbing (in sand!) and 1 was hiking up a mountainside, so all in all, a pretty physical and fulfilling day!  This is truly a beautiful place!  It was not a planned stop.  So glad we detoured here!

Happy travels!


https://picasaweb.google.com/103085828352378450806/GreatSandDunesDoOver?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJvKg7ueq6uBLA&feat=directlink

Day 10 - Great Sand Dunes NP

I am not sure how to describe today.  Stunning, treacherous, wonder-full, and just plain nice.

This morning when we woke up, the haze had settled and we could see the dunes in the distance against the backdrop of the mountains.  (30 mi by car, maybe 20 if you drew a straight line from our camp.)  We headed to the park first thing and immediately began our hike up the dunes, since we knew there was a high wind warning beginning at 1 PM.  It was already windy.  We hiked in about .75 mi before finally convincing the girls to turn back.  It was pretty brutal.  The wind was whipping sand into our eyes, ears, mouths and stinging our cheeks.  The people who work here at the KOA say they have never seen anything like this.  The girls said they had fun though.  And it really was beautiful.  It is a fascinating and unique combination of ecosystems.

After hiking, we explored the Visitor’s Center and Carmen got an Audubon book on insects.  She is so happy!  She keeps reading us things, then apologizing.  Driving back to the campground was interesting.  Visibility was low because of the dust blowing everywhere and the wind was tossing the truck around a bit.  Glad we weren’t pulling the camper!

We spent the afternoon at the campground in the rec room, which was pretty nice.  The winds seem to have calmed down now.  We will go back to the park tomorrow.

Here is a link to a Picasa album.  Let’s see if I figured it out!

https://picasaweb.google.com/103085828352378450806/GreatSandDunes?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNC93OPArqT7JQ&feat=directlink

Happy travels!

Day 9 - The Mountains

We are IN Colorado.  I mean in the middle of it.  At the first sight of the Rockies, Carmen said, “They are so big!”  As we got closer she literally gasped; a chin-dropping gasp.  They really are impressive.

We have had some minor trouble with the sway bar setup on the camper hitch.  Two days in a row now we have had to stop before we really got going and loosen bolts and reposition and retighten.  It’s been a little frustrating not being able to just get on the road and go.  Maybe we will eventually get all the kinks worked out.  (And the ants kicked out!)

We are at a KOA in Alamosa, CO about 30 mi from Great Sand Dunes NP.  We plan to head over there first thing in the morning.  Tonight the girls swam in the pool, I made a grocery run and Brad just sort of recovered from driving in the wind.  I promise we really are about to get to some exciting things!  I want to explore a photo upload site so I can post my pics when we start seeing neat stuff!  Any suggestions?

Happy travels!

Day 8 - We are not in KS anymore Toto!

Limon, Colorado.  We can’t see the mountains yet, but just knowing they are there is nice.  Today has been a catch up day.  Brad made some adjustments to the camper.  We picked up a few things at Wal Mart.  (Such a love/hate relationship there.)  I did laundry.  The girls played tetherball and played on the playground.  That all kind of sounds like an ordinary day at home.  What the KOA campground lacks in atmosphere it makes up for in the laundry room, hot showers and free wi-fi!  Tomorrow, on to the next phase of our big adventure – Great Sand Dunes National Park in south-central CO.

Happy travels!

Day 7 - It's Hot

Windy, very windy.  More beach time.  It is 92 degrees with very little shade.  We brought the girls into the camper after an early supper, cranked up the A/C (yay!) and had a movie night.  Very anti-camping, but we needed a break from the sun and the wind.

We are sort of killing time, but are ready to get out of KS (sorry KS natives).

Happy travels!

These pics are actually from the next morning as we were packing up to leave.  A cool front had blown in during the night.  It blew in so hard it felt like we were on a cruise ship.  The camper bounced around all night long!  Anyway, that is why the girls are dressed a little warmer.

Day 6 - Little Camper on the Prairie

Well, we ended up in the middle of nowhere.  Really.  It's deserted out here in Kansas.  We have seen lots of giant windmills, lots and lots of wheat fields, a few houses, and fewer towns.  It is easy to imagine Laura Ingalls and her family in their covered wagon rolling across the prairie.  (OK, I know they didn't come this far, but I'm sure the prairies they crossed looked very similar.)  It is beautiful and desolate at the same time.

We are staying at Cedar Bluff State Park.  There is a playground in our "backyard."  We are trying to decide what to do tomorrow as we are due to arrive in Colorado Springs for the Memorial Day weekend.  We are having trouble finding an available campground we like and would prefer to avoid the holiday crowds.  We stayed up way too late trying to figure it all out and think we have a plan which involves staying here one more day and then diverting to Great Sand Dunes National Park in CO.  It will take us a couple days to get there and involves us staying at our first KOA campground.  This "flying by the seat of our pants" will take some getting used to.  So far, so good.

Happy Travels!

Day 5 - More family!

Today was a full day.  We started out sitting by the lake watching the water sparkle in the sunlight.  Then we jumped back into school.  (This was our first school day since we left home. I wanted to give the girls a short break, but plan to have school through the summer whenever we have time so we can save some of our summer holiday for our touring in the East this fall.  Of course, that will still be school because it will be so historically rich!  Ssh … Don’t tell the girls!)

After lunch we went to the swimming beach area.  It was nothing to write home about (HA!), but we were the only ones there and the girls got to get wet and make castles in the sand.

After showering in the open-air bathhouse (no roof!) we went into the town of El Dorado to meet my mom’s cousin Cheryl and her family, including my Great Aunt Ella, for dinner!  It is so nice to feel a connection to people, even if we have not often been together.  If I would just think of everyone as family (which in a way, we are) maybe I would see people differently.  Maybe I would feel more connected and less independent, possessive and protective.

Steve and Cheryl cautioned us about our next planned stop, so we are considering rerouting.  Wonder where we’ll go next?

Happy travels!

Day 4 - Sunday

We sang hymns with my Granny.  The girls and I recited James ch. 1 for her and Brad said a prayer.  We think it was a brilliant church service.  Then we went by the hospital to say goodbye to Grandpap.  He seemed a little better, just really wiped out.  Hoping he goes home in the next day or so.  We considered not traveling through Willard, but are so glad we did.

Then we headed west to Wichita, KS.  We stopped at El Dorado State Park just east of Wichita.  Our campsite is on the shore of El Dorado Lake.  It is a beautiful place.  We met our “neighbors” and settled in for a couple of nights to rest up before heading on to CO.  We had a really nice fire and toasted marshmallows.  Ah, the camping life.

Happy travels!

Day 3 - On the Farm

Today has been quiet and calm and good.  My Aunt Shelia, Brad and the girls planted beans and tomatoes in the garden.  We ate on the back porch.  Grandpap’s fever has gone down and he is feeling a little better.  Granny walked her circle around the main floor twice.  It’s been a beautiful day.

Happy travels!

Day 2 - A Tribute

This is not our most exciting stop or the most interesting blog entry.  (But it might be the longest entry.)  We are in Willard, MO at my grandparents’ farm.  I have been coming to this red, split-level farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere for the past 39 years.  This place holds so many wonderful memories for me:  milking cows, butchering cows (I was fascinated), feeding baby cows with a bottle the size of a tea pitcher, playing in the creek, running through the pasture, exploring the barn – oh the sounds and smells of a barn . . . sweet smelling hay and the sharp odor of gasoline; the popping and crackling of the metal siding and roof as they heat and cool in the sun.  It’s a happy place.

The inside of the house is just as wonderful.  It was the coolest house I had ever seen as a kid.  It seemed so big with 3 levels!  It has a rock fireplace that opens to two rooms, and a screened in porch (where we almost always eat – we did tonight!) complete with a porch swing.  Or sometimes we eat at the bar (which was also very fun to a kid who didn’t have one).  Then there’s the basement.  Granny had her sewing room down there with a giant sewing table where she made drapes.  There was a dressmaker’s dummy in her exact size and shape (she made all her clothes) and huge rolls of drapery fabric everywhere.  There is even a second kitchen down there.

On top of all that, there are the people in this small town that I have grown up knowing and hearing about: neighbors and church family.  Their church’s youth group sort of adopted me whenever we were here.  As much of a city girl as I am, I think this is a great small-town, country-place to be.  Very “Mayberry.”

And my girls have had a taste of all of that.  They get just as excited as I did as a child when we top the hill and the red house comes into view.  They have their hands on the car door handle all the way down the gravel driveway and jump out the second we stop.  They kiss their 85 year-old great-grandparents and visit for a few moments before they are out the door to play in the soft grass and cool breeze.  They will have some of the same sweet memories that I have!

But this time Grandpap wasn’t here to kiss.  We stopped at the hospital to kiss him on the way into town.  He is sick, possibly with a tick-borne disease.  They have sent the tests off.  My Grandpap who gave us a ride on the tractor last year when we were here.  My Grandpap who is raising tomatoes, green beans and watermelon as he has for the past 40 or more years.  My Grandpap who has been caring for my Granny day and night for the past year after her heart surgery that didn’t quite get her health back the way they thought it would.  Maybe he will get past this and go right on the way he always has.

There are people here – sweet ladies – who are staying at the house around the clock to help Grandpap care for Granny.  Tonight, since he is not here, I am staying in the house to help.  (Brad and the girls are outside in the camper).   I have helped lift her and feed her and bathe her and put her to bed.  It’s a different place than it used to be, and yet still the same.  I hold on to the happy, sweet memories that I will always cherish.  Time keeps marching on.  I want to soak it all up.  I want to freeze time for the next 6 months so that I will always have it in my heart.  Our trip.  Our time with our girls, with family.  Sweet memories.  I am so glad we are starting here in Willard, MO.

Happy travels!