Saturday, May 27, 2006

We left home are 10:30 am. We got into Dallas around 6:30. By 8:30  We  finally arrived at Evette's house in Alvard Texas. We made a little over 500 miles in 10 hours and 2 tanks of gas.  So far the gas mileage has been better than we expected at around 11 mpg.

 Sunday,  May 28, 2006

We spent the day visiting with Evette, Nathen, Ashley, Arick and Aaron.  The kids went to the school yard and played on the playground.  Nathen gave us a tour of the area.  We saw the grasslands.  mostly oaks for trees.  Alvard at 2:00 pm.  We put the 3rd tank of gas in the truck.  Still getting around 11 mpg.

Evette, Arick, Aaron, Ashley, Kaitlyn, Rhonda, Kaleb, Everett

8:00 pm.  We are just getting back on the road after a 20 minute delay just outside of Hedley Texas.  We had just made a stop at a rest area in Hedley, after pulling back out on the hwy and going about 5 miles, we came into a major hail storm.  We pulled off the road to try to get a little shelter under some trees.   For about 20 minutes we watched golf ball sized hail pound into the truck and trailer.  We now have quite a few dents in the truck and it looks like some minor damage to the trailer.  People who pulled up in the car behind us, ended up having two pretty big holes bust through the back window of their car.  We are starting to wonder if this is going to be a National Lampoon Vacation?

10:30pm.  We have settled in for the night in the Wal-mart parking lot in Amarillo Texas.

 Monday,  May 29, 2006

This morning we managed to make the final leg of our journey through Texas.  We crossed over into New Mexico, and made our 1st real tourist stop at a place called " Capulin Volcanic National Monument"  That entire area of the country was created by volcanic activity.  What seems to be just a bunch of hills in the middle of the plains at 1st site, is actually all old volcanos.  The one that you can tour is called Capulin Volcano.  It is perfectly round.  We drove to the top, then walked around the rim of the volcano.  It was a 1mile hike, that rose another 305 feet.  Then we walked to the bottom of the crater.  It was 0.02 miles and dropped 105 feet.  It was very pretty.

There were also lots of long horn antelope all over the place in the middle of the day.  They were just grazing out in the fields along side of the cattle.

We left New Mexico and crossed over into Colorado.  We are spending the night at the Trinidad State Park in Trinidad Colorado.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

We drove to Pueblo and then to Canyon City.   Our plans were to go to The Royal Gorge, but when we got to Canyon City, it started to rain.  We decided to hang around in town for a while until the rain cleared.  After the rain stopped, we drove up to the gorge, but since it was going to cost us $50 to get in, we decided that it would be better to wait till the next morning to go in.  That way we would have enough time to see everything and not be rushed.  We were really glad we did because on the way back down the mountain we found this small primitive camp site that is owned by Carson City.  We were on the side of a mountain, in the middle of nowhere.  It was beautiful. ( Primitive camping is not bad around here.  Most of the campgrounds don't even have water hookups anyway and you really don't need the power because  you don't need an air conditioner.)  We hiked up the mountain and saw a beautiful sunset.  Latter after we went to bed, it started to rain, it rained all night.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

We spent the day at The Royal Gorge.  The Royal Gorge is home to the largest suspension bridge in the world.  It crosses the Arkansas River. 

We left the Royal Gorge around 4 pm and drove to the base of Pikes Peak.  We are staying at a campground at the base of Pikes Peak.  We will drive up to the Peak tomorrow.  It is raining again.  We are sitting in the camper watching TV listening to the rain.

Thursday, June 1, 2006

We spent the morning at Pikes Peak.  The Peak is 14,110 feet above sea level.  The oxygen is pretty thin.  It is a little hard to breathe. It was 37 degrees at the top.  Last night when we were sitting in the rain at the bottom of the hill, it was snowing at the top.  We had to stop one mile from the top and wait for the snow plow to finish clearing the road before we could get all the way to the top.  We did not mind waiting.  It was really pretty and the kids had fun playing in the snow.  The woman who wrote America the Beautiful had just spent the day at Pikes Peak when she wrote the song.

In the afternoon we drove out to the Florissant National Fossil Beds.  They had some fossils and they also had some petrified redwood trees.  At one time this entire area of the country was covered with redwood trees.  A volcano erupted and filled the valley with volcanic mud.  The part of the trees that were under the mud died and the part that was left under the mud became petrified. 

Friday, June 2,  2006

Today we drove from Colorado Springs to Denver and then on the The Rocky Mountain National Forrest. We did not get here until around 3:30pm.  We drove around some just to see the sites.  We hiked 3 miles to "Alberta Falls".  Then we hiked another mile around Sprague Lake.  There used to be a Resort at Sprague Lake from 1910 -1940.  We plan to spend a few days here at the park.  It is really amazing, the park here does not have any electric or water hookups, there is no bathhouse,  however; people are about fighting to get a spot in this campground.  It is a good thing the weather is so cool, that is the only way you  could camp without air.  We made sure we filled out holding tank so we would be able to take a bath and wash the dishes. 

Saturday, June 3, 2006

Today we drove across the Continental Divide.  After you cross the divide, there is another hiking trail that goes another mile or so to the top of a peak.  At the top we saw a marmot.  He was sitting on his haunches chirping at the people.

On the way down, we made a couple  more stops.  One was at a spot where the snow was very deep.  The kids got out and played in the snow for a while.  Kaleb sunk up to his knees and got stuck.  Everett had to go get him out.  After that, Kaleb would not go back in the snow, but that did not stop Kaitlyn.

At 7:00 pm we went to an interpretive talk about the mammals at the park.