The Drive of a Lifetime: Two-fer

Our morning drive

Today we saw two national monuments. First we went to Four Corners and both Amy and I touched four states at once

I just love the random rocks all over the place

Then we drove a few more hours to the Grand Canyon. 

After stopping to look at it from several view points we continued on to Needles, CA, where we had to go through a check point which felt a lot like a border crossing. They asked if we were bringing any food or plants with us from other states. The apples I had purchased in Arizona were okayed and so was our sad little rose bush we brought from New Hampshire. That reminds me the poor little thing probably needs water and sunlight by now. 

The temps at the Grand Canyon were warm in the mid 80s, That is warm for this little northerner but it was bearable. It was the altitude that was kind of kicking our bums. But even now at 11:30 p.m. it is 100 degrees. 

When we arrived in Needles we pulled into our hotel which had a hot tub and a pool.

What I don't get about California is that it is so hot that the breeze feels like some one turned on a hot blower and yet they have gas fires burning around the pool. Hey it looked nice even if it seemed a bit counter productive. So Amy and I spent over an hour going back and fort between the hot tub and the pool. And although it seemed wrong in my head to get in a hot tub when it was indeed 100 degrees it was really relaxing and the perfect end to this day.

The Drive of a Lifetime: A picture speaks a thousand words.

Today we had a hard time saying goodbye to our hosts the Fowler's in Colorado Springs but after breakfast we had to hit the road. We had a lovely day on the road with wonderful scenery. I could tell you every little thing that happened but a picture speaks a thousand words so I'll let the pictures do the speaking.

I think the biggest thing that happened today was we drove over the continental divide and we were going to ride the tram to the top of Monarch Crest but it was closed for the season. Other than that we mostly just listened to Adventures In Odyessey when we had mobile coverage and drove through the beautiful Rockies enjoying each other's company.

Pictures are never as beautiful as in real life but this will give you a bit of an idea of what our day was like. 

This lake was gorgeous. I want to plunk my house up there on the top of those rocks.

I love the yellow aspens 

Mountains never get old!

Even though I'm missing the fall colours at home in New England it is really
neat to be able to see fall colour in the Rockies.

Garden Of The God's in Colorado Springs

How is it a big rock and some scrub brush can be so beautiful?

I wish it was winter and I had my skis with me.

Our sunset tonight over the mountains.

The Drive of a Lifetime: A day off.

Today we took a day off from traveling, sort of. Our tour guide Savannah graciously chauffeured Amy and myself to Focus on the Family so I could see my childhood obsession, Whit's End. It was neat being in the place where Adventures In Odyessey is created. It was a fun time. Then we had lunch and Savannah drove us up to Cripple Creek and brought us home to make us some lovely chicken and rice. She then cut our hair. We were both impressed with our new dos and then we settled in for several hours of fellowship and laughter. It was a really nice easy day and it was fun driving up into the mountains by a sort of local. Having just moved here a few weeks ago Savannah knows a ton about her new home. It would take me a decade of living in one place to have as much knowledge as she has about Colorado Springs. Heading to bed again way too late but feeling refreshed and relaxed and extremely blessed at the Fowler hospitality.

There were way too many beautiful mountains to photo catalog them all here but I'll give you a taste of what our day was like.

My day in no particular order.

Taken at the Heritage Center Museum over looking Cripple Creek

A rock during our drive. It just looked cool.

Our beautiful drive

Autumn Colour

The donation box at the heritage center was broken up into states.
The biggest donating states were Colorado and Texas.
 New Hampshire and Vermont were rather sad so Amy and I
had to contribute to represent. 

Amy pushing the "red button"

Amy Savannah and I at Whit's End

It's been a while since I've had a good lick from a lion.

Heading into Focus on the Family

The famous Whit's End door bell.

The Drive of a Lifetime: Goodbye Kansas, Hello Colorado!

Today was much nicer than yesterday. After getting a few hours of sleep we packed up, grabbed some breakfast and headed to the International House of Prayer.

It was so good to just immerse myself in an atmosphere of worship. While we were there I was able to connect with my cousin who was working so he showed up in his work uniform which had people concerned for a moment wondering why an officer of the law and his dog were showing up at the prayer house.

 We did some catching up, shared a few hugs, I met his new dog Jampy who was very adorable, and then he had to return to work.

After my cousin returned to keeping Kansas City safe I went back into the prayer room and ended up praying for someone I just met as they prayed for me. It was really good. We grabbed some kombucha from the cafe and then hit the road.

I won't regale you of tales from our 8 hours in Kansas. But just about every minute of every hour looked like this.



Sometimes pulling out the map and seeing how much of Kansas you have left to cover can be
depressing.




























But eventually after what felt like days and days we saw some
faint mountains in the distance and we got very excited until we finally got to Colorado Springs as the sun was setting.

 We found a greek food truck and I ate the innards of two gyros. Oh my goodness it was the best ever. We continued on to the Fowler's home and settled in with no bake cookies, some lovely Irish tea and wonderful conversation and fellowship. Now it is off to bed and get rested for tomorrow's adventures.

The Drive of a Lifetime: So long St. Louis, Thanks for the memories.

…..Wednesday morning I was up early and we left Columbus, OH at 7 a.m. We drove 5 hours to Lewisport, KY, where we tromped around a cemetery for a while looking for Amy’s relations. It was kind of fun. I like cemeteries. Call me morbid but I like to look at the grave stones and imagine the people who they remember and try to piece together a piece of their lives from what the head stone says.

 From there we stopped by some other relation’s homes but no one was home. Finally Amy’s Dad’s best friends found us and we heard several stories about Amy’s father. Then we met up with Aunt Betty. She was adorable. I wanted to scoop her up and take her with us. After a 2.5 hour visit in Lewisport we once again hit the road heading to St. Louis. We had plans of seeing the Arch and since it closed at 6 p.m. we wanted to land in St. Louis at 5 p.m. so we could go up in the Arch and see the view. We pushed through needed bladder breaks, food breaks, fuel stops and drove 3.5 hours straight to St. Louis so we’d have an hour to find the arch, purchase tickets and see the view from the top. We parked, paid for parking and then followed the signs to the “old courthouse” to purchase tickets. After following the arch signs for about 15 minutes we arrive at the old courthouse where it says on a 100 foot banner, “purchase Arch tickets here” only to find the doors locked and no one is home.

This is the Old Courthouse. If you look closely in the middle it clearly says to buy the arch tickets there. 

 So we headed to the Arch only to find that the tickets were sold out for the day, the video in the theatre was ending and wouldn’t start again for the rest of the day and the museum was closed. But of course the gift shop was open. But after not seeing anything at the arch I didn’t much feel like purchasing anything.

It was rather disappointing that after pushing so hard to make it to the arch on time we didn’t get to see anything other than the Arch from the outside. Dejected and disheartened we stopped at Starbucks for a drink and a mug to mile mark the disappointment in our journey we headed back to the car. At this point we were 10 miles from empty and looked for a gas station. After using up 6 miles worth of fuel to get to a place the GPS said was a station which in actuality was not. We got on the highway franticly looking for a place to refuel and with three miles left we got off on an exit which looked like it would be a petrol friendly area. We actually ended up driving through an eerie abandoned part of town that didn’t even boast residence let alone a working filling station. We again tried the GPS, a different app this time, and 1 mile later with two miles left came upon a ghetto part of town with a gas pump. Amy and I were so relieved to not have run out of gas and were so excited to see people again that we didn’t even care that it was a less than respectable part of town.

At this point we were ready to leave St. Louis in the rearview mirror and put some rubber between us and two good stories that will be funnier in the future.

After dinner somewhere in Missouri we pushed through to Kansas City, MO pulling into a Drury in across from the Kansas City Royals stadium. It was really late and I was pretty exhausted. The only room they had left was the handicap room which wasn’t what I was expecting but hey, it had a king size bed to share and a bathroom so I didn’t much care.  I was very ready to put this day in the books.