Colorado Trip Recap

The Colorado trip was event-filled. To include breaking down with four kids in the van about 7 hours into a 21 hour trip. It wasn't costly thank goodness. Of course that had a lot to do with me telling tow truck driver how it was going to be. We ended up booking a hotel in Newton, Nebraska near where my van had been repaired. BTW if you ever find yourself going on I-80 in Iowa and need gas make sure to stop at the Iowa's Best Burger Cafe & Kellogg RV Park in Kellogg, Iowa right off the highway at exit 173. The owner there drove me to where my van was being repaired and then to a hotel and wouldn't take any money for gas. Really decent guy. On the way back we stopped at same station so I could thank him. He wasn't there. I left a message and told him this would be a stop of ours from now on when we went back and forth.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. Just lots of fun. The wedding was Saturday the 16th. It was short and sweet. Where they had it, while helping set up for the wedding we were in this community room. One of the residents, not in the wedding, lobbed a plastic fruit at me and I resisted the urge to show my ass. Damn I am slacking. I figured it wasn't worth it. Just get through the day and get on road next day.

Especially the day we headed back home. We went to Estes Park and took pictures. Such a breathtaking view. We also went on tour of The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park where Stephen King stayed and got his inspiration for the book "The Shining" and the mini series was filmed there also. The kids had the shit scared out of them. Ask me about damned funny stories from then. We then went on to tour of Budweiser Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado on our way home and we got to see the Clydesdales in person (sooo powerful and to me beautiful).

We went home via I-80 through Cheyenne, Wyoming to Nebraska. We drove about 7 hours and got a hotel in Gothenburg, Nebraska thinking at first that we missed the exit for the Pony Express Museum. Turned out that was the exit!!! In addition to taking lots of pictures there and getting a history from the curator, we also went to a Sod House Museum right next door to the hotel we stayed at. Got some great pictures there also. I must say driving across Nebraska is the most exhausting and exciting. It is 454 miles across with 71 miles being straight(no turns/nothing) and the longest part of the entire highway(from coast to coast) that is straight. But there are several museums.

From there we headed further east on I-80, which in my opinion is the best Interstate in the nation that I have driven on so far anyhow. We also missed a very bad storm by stopping and then farting around the next day at the two museums.

We also made a stop at Great Platte River Road Archway and took pictures. Everyone else was sleeping in the van, I did not wake them, I didn't intend to go inside.

On Sunday we started out about 5 local time and stopped about midnight. As I said we missed a horrible storm. We started out Monday at 9 am our time on the road. We got in at 3 am early Tuesday our time. This includes stops for gas, calls of nature and eating once. Otherwise we ate sandwiches. I have created albums, which you can see below and please check back as I add more albums.

Links to albums: