Day 10 - Mount Rushmore

We woke up in a campground in Wyoming and started driving towards Mount Rushmore.

We came to this spot where we crossed over from Wyoming to South Dakota. We got out and took pictures of us kids with the sign for each state.

After awhile we saw the Black Hills. They were cool. Then we saw the Crazy Horse monument being built.

Finally we reached Mount Rushmore.

It seemed really small at first since we were far away, but then it turned out to be super big when got we closer. It looked super cool.

We did the Junior Ranger book to earn a badge which made learn a lot about Mount Rushmore. For example, 90% of the building of Mount Rushmore was done with dynamite.

We walked the Avenue of Flags. We looked through the twenty-five cent viewers to get a close-up view of the monument and it was super awesome.

Finally it was time to go and we set off for our next adventure.

-Sammy

Day 9 - Rocky Mountain National Park

What a beautiful day! Sunny and crisp...perfect weather for hiking in the park.

We packed a picnic lunch and took the hiker shuttle up to Bear Lake. What a great time!

This is what I wanted Steph and the kids to see....the Rockies unaltered by man.

Before we left we had a chance to meet "Sniffy Toughbottom", a little ground squirrel that really wanted some of our lunch:

Day 8 - Estes Park

After saying goodbye to the rental car *snif*, we hit the road through Denver to Northern Colorado.

After a little bit of challenge finding the campground at 1am (we seem to always take advantage of “late check in”), we awoke Day 8 in Estes Park , Colorado.

Unfortunately we had two minor problems:

1. Unbeknownst to us, the largest Scottish/Irish festival in the US was occurring this weekend in Estes Park! Normally this would be great news, except that I did not budget $25(!) per person per day for this…
2. The weather was unseasonably cold and wet…bordering on snow weather!

So, we tried to make the best of the day. After a game of mini golf at the campground in freezing drizzle, we drove up to the visitor center for Rocky Mountain National Park. Here I was able to get information and firm up plans for the following day’s hike while Sammy and Jason attended a Ranger talk about animal skin and bones…very cool stuff.

Meanwhile, Jessi and Derek had some teenager time out in the RV. I think they needed a break from the adults and the little kids.

After the visitor center we went down into town. We avoided the shopping area and headed straight for the grocery store. Steph has been amazing on this trip with stretching our supplies for meals/snacks/etc, but the cupboards had become bare so she needed to do some shopping.

Funny thing is, all the festival-goers were on their late afternoon break and had also come to the store. Steph she had never seen so many people in kilts in one place….even in Scotland!!

While she was doing that I had to deal with the ever-present RV plumbing problems. I had been fighting a pipe in the bathroom since before we left and a I thought a trip to the TrueValue Hardware would score the piece I needed to finally win the war…I was wrong. :(

We ended the day by heading back to the campground. An elderly local man was telling regional ghost stories in the lodge so Steph and the kids attended while I watched dinner cook. We finally got in a full family game of Clue as well, and I won on my first try. The kids were a little ticked since they have been playing so much and thought they would defeat the adults easily, but it truly was a lucky guess on my part…just don’t tell my kids. ;)

-Dave

Day 7, Part 2 - Focus on the Family

Today we went to Pikes Peak and then Focus on the Family. Our main reason to go was Whit’s End Soda Shoppe, but they closed early today so we couldn’t do it. :(

Let me tell you what we did do:

When we got there and went in there was a guy that told us where the different sections were. First we went to the kids section; there was stairs that were painted like Whit’s atrium. Down the stairs there was a hall/road, at first it was a hall with a collection of different pictures from various episodes. The road was like a road in Odyssey, on one side there was the Electric Palace and some parking meters, on the other side various shops.

One of the rooms in the hall/road had various things; one was the wardrobe into Narnia, on the inside there was a wall with pictures of all the things from Narnia, there were also parts of the movie playing from a speaker, on a side wall it said: “can you find them all?” Also in the room there was a “Who is it?” were you match the person to his or her character. The only one I remember is Will Ryan who plays Eugene.

There were still more things in the room though. There was a setup of how the people practice their lines, with chairs that said “Whit” and “Connie”. In front of those was a book with their lines in it. The last thing was the Foley’s* station.

*Foley is someone who makes all the sound effects with and for different things. Example: Bob is Foley. He needs to make a door opening and closing sound. He has mini door next to him when the time comes he opens and closes the door.

Then we went to the main room, it had a little bit of ceiling hanging and protruding to let a small toy train go around it. There was also a stage, to the right of the stage there were mix & match blocks of Dylan and Eugene. To the right of those was a dressing room with various outfits of characters from Odyssey.

There was also one of those things were you stick your head in the hole and take a picture.

We later went on a three story slide. Then we did a kids radio show were you basically perform your own Adventures in Odyssey except that some of the parts (Connie and Whit) were already recorded. Jessi was Foley, I played Jamie, (Jamie can be a boy name) and Sammy played Casey. The episode was called: The Case of the Broken Lamp. They made a CD of the recording so we can listen to it just like a normal episode any time we want.

We finally went to the gift store and got a new Adventures in Odyssey set.

- Your friend, Jason

Day 7 - Pike's Peak

Today, we woke up early and drove the rental car to Pike's Peak. We skipped breakfast in anticipation of the high altitude, world famous donuts at the top of the peak.

It was about a 20 min drive to the bottom of the peak-no problem! Driving up the mountain was beautiful at first, but the higher we drove, the more nervous I got. I don't do too well with heights, but I figured after the ride in St. Louis arch, this would be ok. Well, I was wrong!

We were driving this road on the side of the mountain, with sheer drop offs on MY side of the car, when these semi trucks come barreling around the corner, and we were forced to pull over toward the drop off to let them pass! That's when I started to freak out. Then at the 12,000 ft elevation mark, we drove into a cloud. You couldn't see anything, but 2 ft of road ahead! I lost it at this point-I was reduced to high pitched squeaking as I slouched down in the seat with my arms stretched out to either side of me, holding on with a death grip to the car door and console.

Derek thought this was hilarious, and got my horrible display of fear on video! (Which no one will EVER see-by the way) Eventually, (it seemed to take forever) we drove out of the cloud and made it to the top! 14,000 and some feet.

The views were breathtaking!!! We had our bleated breakfast in the shop on the top of Pike's Peak-it was worth the wait! I don't know what the secret recipe is, but the donuts were delicious! We walked around the summit, looking at the different views-you could see so far, had a snowball fight with the snow residue, and took some pics!

Jason , Jessi & I got a touch of altitude sickness up there, but I think it was because each of us already had a cold, so our bodies were having a harder time adjusting. Altogether, we spent about 1 1/2 hours on top. On the way down, I was able to look out at the vistas, as the clouds had cleared, and my fear had been overcome!

Standing on top of that mountain, I was awed by the majesty of God's amazing creation once again!


-Steph

Day 6, Part 2 - "Hippie" Springs

After an awesome time at Royal Gorge, we came back to the RV park and hung out. Then we decided to spend some time in downtown Manitou Springs, a historical town know for its naturally carbonated springs.

To start off the evening, we went to get food at this place called PJ's Diner. Sadly, they were "out" of half the things on the menu. They managed to scrounge us up some food and then we set out for a scavenger hunt around Manitou Springs.

We were out to find the historical springs spread out around the area. We had a map that told us where these springs were in the town, and that we were free to sample and drink from the water as we pleased. We found all the springs and tasted them, they tasted like alka-seltzer. The springs varied in taste, but the majority were basically alka-seltzer. In olden times, this water was considered to have "healing powers," I wasn't very attached to it myself.

Tired from our day at the gorge and our hunt for the springs, mom had to get a coffee from somewhere. We found this little coffee shop towards the outskirts of town, and I quickly realized that our family was out of place there. I stepped into the coffee shop and thought i had stepped into a fairy tale book. The shop was meant to look like a fairy glen or something. There was live trees formed into seats and booths, and the actual coffee bar had a roof made of wood over it. The lights were dimmed and an earthy, wood scent filled the place. Also, Celtic fiddles were the soundtrack of the coffee bar.

I quickly left the shop; it was too trippy for me...

I sat outside with the rest of the family and waited for mom to get her coffee. Just then, 3 interesting characters walked up and saw us sitting there. One of them walked up to my dad and said, "Hey do I know you man?" My dad was surprised but answered politely that he did not know him and, trying to be friendly, asked him his name. "Virginia." the guy said, "Whats yours?" My dad answered and said "Dave." The guy was like "Cool man, shake my hand." My dad shook his hand and then Virginia said "No man, like this," and shook his hand again. Then he left with a "Peace and love man, love you guys."

I quickly concluded that we had just met a hippie. As i looked around, i began to notice more strange people. We left very soon after. On the way back to the RV park, we heard tribal drum beats coming from a nearby park. They sent me to investigate, and I found a hippie convention playing the drums and dancing around. As i look back on my time in Manitou Springs, i will never forget the strange and slightly entertaining hippies.

-Derek

Day 6 - Royal Gorge

Today we picked up a rental car and headed for Royal Gorge in Canyon City, Colorado.

After we got to the park we went over the largest suspension bridge in the world. It was scary because all we were walking on were old wooden planks with really big cracks in between them. And because we were 1,053 feet above the Arkansas River!

Then we ate some nachos and corn dogs and we fed a squirrel a jalapeno. It bit Sammy’s finger! We also watched a movie about the Royal Gorge.

Then we went and saw some animals. We saw some big horned sheep, buffalo (one was white!) and elk.

Next we started going to the world’s longest span aerial tram. Mom and I were a little scared because it's 1,100 feet above the canyon floor and there was a storm coming. But we all went on it and it was actually really fun. We got a 360 view of the canyon!

Then we went on the world's steepest incline railway (the Royal Gorge is famous for the world record I’m guessing ) It was really cool. We went to the bottom of the canyon and we got a close up view of the Arkansas River.

The last thing we did was go on a weird little train ride (it had a lot of cheesy jokes) and we went on the carousel. I won of course! Derek kept on horse hopping. It was a great way to end a great day.

-Jessi