Road Trip 2010 - Days 1-3

Day 1:

We couldn't take it any longer! Linda (my roommate) and I were supposed to leave Thursday morning at midnight...we left at 10:30. Of course we had to stop off at Walmart for some road munchies so by the time we left there it was about 11:45...just about on schedule!

Linda is a night person so she drove the first leg until just before daylight. I was supposed to be sleeping so that I would be ready for my turn...didn't really happen. I slept maybe an hour, off and on.

We got turned around in Tulsa because there was a detour with no signs showing where to go. Luckily the directions I had gotten already had the detour on there....unfortunately the names of the roads were different on my directions than what was posted on the intersections. About 10 minutes later we found our way back on the right road. Yay! A little while later I had just fallen asleep when Linda says "oh! maybe I should have taken that exit!" That woke me up. We ended up on the road to Stillwater instead of the interstate....so $1 to get off the turnpike and then back on, then take the right exit...THEN we were on the right road. And I couldn't sleep anymore. lol So much for that!

Just before daylight we switched and I was driving...about 30 minutes later we saw a beautiful sunrise just as we entered Kansas. Thirty minutes after that I pulled over at a rest stop and we BOTH napped for about an hour. lol It is amazing what a nap can do for you though. And that is pretty much all there is to say about Kansas. It was boring, the corn was short, the wheat was being harvested, and there were no sunflowers to be seen. :(

It never ceases to amaze me how different the scenery is between Kansas and Colorado. I swear no sooner do you cross the state line and the corn is replaced with scrub brush, the slight hills are replaced with arroyos. I love it.

We kept looking off in the distance to see the Rockies but there were clouds covering them and quite a bit of haze in the way. The trip through Eastern Colorado was pretty uneventful. We stopped in Limon to freshen up. Apparently EVERYONE on I-70 did too. The line for the single person bathroom was at least 10 women long. We needed the break anyway, so we waited. We hit the road again and the next thing we knew...there were the mountains!

Okay, so this picture is actually when we were coming into Denver, but they really did sneak up on us. The drive through Denver was quick, only a little traffic and then we were up into the foothills. On a side note: we left Arkansas late at night and at around 75 degrees and humid...it was barely in the 80's in Kansas and by the time we got to the foothills of the Rockies I think it was 85...maybe. Needless to say, we were enjoying the weather.

Up, Up, and Away!

We really enjoyed this part of the drive. We drove further and further up into the mountains and as we did the weather got cooler and it started to rain. (I'm just glad it didn't snow on us! Sort of. haha)

We were driving up to my friend Paul Michael's house, he lives in Granby which is NW of Denver in a high valley near Winter Park (a ski resort town.) It was such a gorgeous drive. The rain on the way up brought cooler temperatures, I believe it was 57 on the way into Granby and maybe was as warm as 65. And we were driving around with the windows down because it felt sooooo good!

Such a beautiful drive. It is really funny how pictures just never do nature justice. There are just some things you have to experience for yourself, and a trip through the Rockies and on West is one of them.

We got to Granby and met up with Paul Michael who grilled us a fantastic supper of Steak, Corn on the Cob and broccolli and cheese. MMM tasty! Even more so because we had eaten nothing but junk up to this point!

We were exhausted after having spent 17 hours on the road so we just laid around Paul Michael's for the evening. He was so gracious to give us a place to crash for a couple of days.

Day 2:

The next day Paul Michael played Tour Guide and took us all around the valley. We had breakfast in a little coffee shop in Granby and then headed out to look around. We went to Grand Lake first. It is a cute little tourist town still set up like an Old West town. It had a boardwalk on both sides with cute little shops. I found something pokey for Zach and Leslie. (Every time someone goes somewhere Zach always asks for something pokey.)

We sat out on a bench in front of the bank and ate ice cream after we had walked around for a while. This little old lady walked by and said "You're going to ruin your supper!" We all busted up laughing, including the lady. She was so funny.

After Grand Lake, Paul Michael took us to Sulfur Springs where we soaked in the pools for a while. It was really neat...kinda stinky. : ) The scenery was beautiful. They had different pools that were different temperatures. The lower ones were cooler so there were parents and kids in those. We went up to one of the higher ones on the side of the hill that was hotter. After that we decided to cool down in the swimming pool and I was cold the entire time. Not quite used to those temps! haha There was a "therapy pool" that was covered that we ended up in for a while. It was nice.

After we left the Springs we drove through the canyon just to get a look at the scenery. So beautiful! Again, pictures just don't do it justice! We went back to Paul Michael's to clean up and then went out to dinner at Hernando's Hideaway Pizza Pub in Winter Park. It was delicious! After that we walked around a shopping center and then drove up to Winter Park for an outdoor showing of Independence Day. It was chilly....well really it was cold. I left my hoodie at PM's house. :( So we went back to his house to watch Tombstone. : )

This space is for Grandma! :)

This is a picture of the fattest rainbow I have ever seen. It just laid across the mountainside. It was so beautiful! I took this when we were on our way to dinner in Winter Park.

Day 3:

The next morning we went to Ian's Bakery in Granby for breakfast. It is owned an operated by a man (Ian) from Auburn. It was nice to hear an accent from down South! :) And the food was pretty tasty too!

We planned to leave straight from breakfast to head out to Utah...but I had unknowingly left Linda's shorts in the washing machine. :/ We decided to hang out at Paul Michael's for about an hour to wait for the 4th of July Parade to get over with in town. So we didn't exactly leave on schedule...but isn't that what road trips are all about?!?!

On the road again! Heading West on Highway 40 through the mountains. Such a beautiful drive! We drove through Steamboat Springs...I really wasn't expecting it to be as big as it is! It looked like a neat place though. There were people everywhere on their bicycles. That was cool. I like seeing more and more people on bikes. We also drove through Dinosaur just before we got to Utah

Raaarrrr!

We had talked to Dannielle and decided to meet her at the Pineview Reservoir to watch the fireworks. She and Jed and their friends had been out on the lake all day. It was beautiful up there. We sat and watched the sunset and just enjoyed the weather. After the sun went down and the fireworks ended it got cold and windy! We hunkered down in the boat and covered up with blankets to wait for the marina to clear out. It was cold but it was neat. It was a really great end to the day!