Road Trip: Day 4

Today we spent the day running around Colorado Springs. First thing, we got up and baaarrely made it to the Pike's Peak Cog Railway station. If you fiddle around on their site, you will find coupons!! Which we had! Which means we had to get there at 8 a.m.! I think we were the last ones on the train. I jumped out of the car and Warren went to find a place to park, while I ran over and secured us tickets at like 7:58...thank goodness it wasn't full! Below is a slide show of some of the things we saw while riding up the cog...which I would highly recommend by the way...MUCH more informational and it will save your brakes.

Ok so...we went from sea level to 14,100 ft. We definitely noticed! While neither of us got silly enough for an EMT; we did fortify ourselves as soon as we got there with some cocoa and doughnuts. OMG! The best doughnuts EVER! Mmmm...it has something to do with the altitude I think. Go sometime if you haven't...just for the doughnuts. :-)

Then once we rode back down the mountain, we were starving and promptly found some mexican food. Lol. And called and rescheduled another night at our campground, only this time Warren needed a cabin...because by the time our next activity would end it would be too late to leave town...so we headed off to...

...a trail ride through Garden of the Gods!! I was able to talk Warren into a 2 hr ride. Yes! I was so excited because of course 1 hr is just not long enough...you barely get up on the horse long enough to get anywhere! and hey, I'm liking this whole slide show thingy! yea! more pictures!

This was Warren's first time on a horse. heh. But he did really well, his horse even stumbled once and our trail ride captain told him he had a nice recovery. (In other words, good job not falling off!ha). He said he had fun and would do it again! yay!

After all that, we were tired and went and crashed in our cabin. KOA even had pizza delivery!! On a golf cart! ha! We finished the movie we watched part of the night before and promptly fell asleep.

Road Trip: Day 3

We had a wonderful breakfast at Esther & Bill's out on the deck with the geese. I also tried out Bill's scooter!! But didn't take a picture of it...although I probably should have since Warren got excited when he drove it and landed in the wildflowers! (Lol, actually the transition from grass to pavement I think is what caused his momentary tiptoe in the tulips).

Then we headed out to drive through Kansas...(insert cricket chirping sound here)...lol, actually it wasn't that bad. It's just very interesting to see the beginning and ending of a train with nothing getting in the way or half of it disappearing...

We did see what we think was a field or two of lavender...lot's of corn...and wind farms!! The wind farm was neat for us because all the time we see the large propellers leave the Houston area north on I-45...usually we see them when we are driving up to Dallas. We even saw one being assembled!

Finally we made it to Dodge City, KS around lunchtime, where we proceeded to stomp around the Boot Hill area and take lots of pictures. Warren was excited because he got to have a beer in a "real" saloon. I think that was the whole purpose of our going through Dodge City...that and so when we left he could say, "Let's get the heck out of Dodge!" Lol.

I'm trying out a slideshow?! Hope it works!!

When we left Dodge City on the way to Colorado we stopped briefly to see the faint impressions of the Santa Fe wagon trail. I remember them being easier to see when Mom and I saw them roughly 5-ish years ago.

Anyway, we then proceeded on to Colorado Springs, CO and camped out. For the first time. Like ever. Well...it wasn't the backyard anyways!! ha We stayed at a KOA, which had wi-fi and communal showers so it was hardly roughing it. We took a blow-up matress (wonderful!) and our computers and watched about 1/2 of a Will Ferrel (sp?) movie before we passed out. Here was our campsite: it was very dry and sandy! There was a river near it but not easily accessable for photos. Tomorrow...on to Pike's Peak!

Road Trip: Day 2

We set out this morning about 8:45ish, late enough so that by 9 am my optometrist's office would be open and I could pick up my new sunglasses - a must have for a long road trip! Cheapo $5 Wal-mart sunglasses don't do it for me anymore...I need prescriptions! lol

Anyway, knocked that out and then met Mom in Sherman for a quick breakfast at Cracker Barrel and to transfer the animals to her care for a week or so (Thanks Mom!!).



On the road in Oklahoma, we came across our first thunderstorm...Warren got excited and thought it might be a tornado! Ha, I told him that it wasn't...I'd lived in the state all my life and hadn't seen a tornado yet!

We met Ray & Tricia for lunch at Eskimo Joe's in Stillwater. It was nice to get to visit with them and catch up. We came away with a yummie lunch and t-shirts (Thanks Ray!!). Warren was curious to go there and also wanted to see OSU, where I had gone to school and stuff. So we drove around campus and walked through a few buildings and a little bit around the town, not too much cause we did want to make it to Kansas!


We arrived at Esther & Bill's in Newton, KS (about 30 min. north of Wichita) right around dinner time and Bill was cooking a nice steak and some yummie roasted/grilled veggies. About the time we got there it had finally started to rain so we didn't get to eat on the patio! I miss going to their house, it was so relaxing on the river with the rain. Then we played a way cool game Esther had gotten from her sister who lives in Germany called Ticket to Ride (do an ebay search for it), which I will buy when I get home!! We finally crashed after intense gaming! Board gaming that is!

Road Trip: Day 1

Roadtrip beginnings...we waited and picked up Lynn & Steve & kids from their cruise and then followed them up I-45 to Wanda's house. So...day one...we made it to Dallas! Lol. We always get excited when we see the Dallas skyline come into view!

The Arthur's boat came in an hour late, so we didn't get them until about 10:30am, leaving that late makes Wanda's house the perfect first stop!

It was also nice to stop there for the night because we went to dinner with our friend Brian (the best man) and catch up on all that is going on with him and discuss important WoW strategies. :D

Let the fun begin!

Woohoo, Warren took his test!! No more studying!! We were so relieved that we forgot to go watch fireworks yesterday over the ocean! ha

We have also decided that maybe a roadtrip is in order?! Lynn & Steve & kids are on a cruise so we can't go until Monday but I think we may leave out when they do and drive either towards Colorado/New Mexico loop or a deep south loop to Florida and back.

Hmmm...I think the animals may need to go stay with a "grandparent". ha