Just A Quiet Sunday . . .

I'm beginning to think that the weather here is perfect every day! We're hearing that Ohio has been getting lots of rain. We've seen very little rain over the past week.

We woke up early this morning and got ready to go to church with Adam and Patti and Addison. They go to a large church with a contemporary service. We stood and sang for about 30 minutes, then the pastor preached for about 45 minutes. (I’m beginning to think I let them off too easy at Science Hill!) It was good to worship with brothers and sisters in the faith here out west.

After church, we drove to Boulder. We ate at a wonderful restaurant called “Murphy’s.” It was decorated with signs and sayings that were derivatives of Murphy’s Law. The food was very good.

We next drove to Chautauqua, a section of Boulder where the Rockies begin with what is known as the Flat Irons. Here is a picture of them with Daniel and then a close-up of the Flat Irons. Can you believe people actually climb these?

We drove to a downtown section of Boulder (Pearl Street) where the road is closed to traffic. There are lots of little shops, vendors, and street performers. We went to a candy store where they had many varieties of candy from long ago. They had a section of the store with “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” playing on a big flat screen TV and autographed pictures and posters of the cast. Very cool. There were also ice cream shops, art stores, and Hawaiian ice stores. We saw some odd-looking street performers acting like statues, playing the guitar and banjo, making balloon animals, playing a didjaroo (sp?), etc. (Bethany whispered to me at one point: "Is that a hippie?") I’m beginning to understand how Mork from Ork fit in so easily in Boulder!

One section was particularly fun. It had fountains springing out of the ground to get children wet. Our kids loved playing in it, especially Katherine!

The most amazing part of the day happened in the late afternoon when Adam took us to meet some friends of theirs (Mark and Julie) who have horses. Bethany and Katherine have both fallen in love with horses lately, but Bethany especially. She will be going to horse camp this summer. Julie worked with both girls, teaching them how to brush a horse, prepare them for riding, ride them, and then clean up afterwards. She walked them through all this with a gentle horse named "Asia." They had probably the highlight of their trip doing this. Katherine was a little disappointed that Bethany got her ride first, but Katherine got to take Asia for a canter, so I think that made up for it. Here are some pictures and movies of the “mane” event:

Video #1: Bethany and Asia

Video #2: Katherine and Asia

I am sure that will be a highlight of the trip for the girls, if not the best thing of all! Mark and Julie were incredibly nice.

I also need to take a moment here to thank Adam, Patti, and Addison for their incredible hospitality and all the nice things they helped us to do out here. It has been great to stay with family, at such a comfortable home, and to enjoy their company. They have made very knowledgable guides and generous friends. They should open up an Inn for Ohio travelers!

We returned to Adam and Patti’s house and began re-organizing and packing for the next leg of our journey. We stocked up at Wal-Mart, gassed up the van, and are ready to leave by 8 a.m. tomorrow to make it to our lodging at Old Faithful in Yellowstone. It is very likely I will be out of internet range until July 4, so there may be a delay in updates to this blog, but I will be back in touch when conditions allow!

Rocky Mountain High

Saturday was a really fun day for us! It was another day of beautiful Colorado weather!

Adam, Patti, and their daughter Addison took us to Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park, a little less than an hour away. At first we were blocked by a parade in the town of Lyons at around 10 a.m. Then we drove through the stunning Roosevelt National Forest – very impressive.

As we approached Estes Park, there was a pull-off where the kids enjoyed the opportunity to hand-feed chipmunks. Pretty cool!

We spent several hours checking out Estes Park. It was very crowded, being a Saturday in the summer. The town is full of little shops. We had great pizza at a local place called Poppy’s. We bought postcards and polished rocks in some of the many gift stores. The best part was the ice cream and the “mountain cookies” we enjoyed. There's a charming creek that runs through the town, along with a play area for the kids.

We next drove around Rocky Mountain National Park. It, too, was very crowded. The views around here are so hard to put into words. Every time you go around a bend, an incredible sight is there! We saw some really amazing mountain scenery that our pictures don’t really do justice to.

We drove up to Bear Lake where the kids had a snowball fight.

Then we took a 1.8 mile hike (round-trip) to Alberta Falls which was breathtakingly beautiful.

We returned safely to Adam and Patti’s home that evening. All in all, it was a great day!

Up, Up, and Away!

Sunday night in Ohio.
Monday night in Illinois.
Tuesday night in Missouri.
Wednesday night in Kansas.
Thursday night in Colorado.

Whew.
That's a lot of moving around. Two hundred years ago, that trip alone would have taken months!

About Kansas: Kansas has a tourist slogan: “It’s as big as you think.” That sounds about right. It felt like we were in Kansas forever. We saw a gigantic wind farm with hundreds of gigantic modern-looking windmills in central Kansas. They were all stockstill. You could see them from 10 miles away.

We stopped at Russell, KS for lunch at the McDonald’s. I hoped to see Bob Dole or at least a museum in his honor, but no such luck. (I played Bob Dole in our high school role-playing Senate government class when I was a senior.) Russell is his home town.

We did have a few scary moments coming out of Kansas and into Colorado. Some very strange-looking clouds were coming east toward us. There was a lot of swirling and drifting going on – some of the small clouds came down and ran along the ground, almost like the climactic scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. We were glad to get through that area.

Coming into the Rocky Mountains, my first impression of them is amazement at how abruptly they start. There are many foothills leading up to the Appalachian Mountains that gradually increase in size and slope. But the Rockies seem to just begin!

Friday morning we woke up and drove to Colorado Springs, about an hour and a half south from where Adam and Patti live. It was a beautiful day with a lot of blue sky with white puffy clouds.

We attempted to ride the cog train up Pike's Peak, but the morning trains were all sold out. So Debbie told me to just drive our van up to the summit. OK. She has a lot of faith in me.

We started out at the base of Pike's Peak at 11:22 a.m. (That's the peak in the background.)


It is a 19 mile trip to the top, with a lot of dirt roads, very few guardrails, and hairpin turns. (My knuckles are just now beginning to get some color back in them!) Helpfully, there is a section near the top called, "Bottomless Pit". That's where Daniel wanted to get out and play (no joke). Here's where we went above the tree line:

What would you expect to find at the top of a barren mountain? If you said a gift shop, give yourself a gold star! Here are some views at the top:

It really was beautiful up there. The scenery and views were breathtaking. It is said that Pike's Peak helped inspire the song, "America the Beautiful" and that it was written up there. Purple-mountain majesties, indeed.

I expected the journey back down to the base of the mountain to be worse than the ascent, but actually it wasn't so bad. There is a mandatory brake check halfway down, and our van passed with flying colors. We got back down to the bottom at 2:55 p.m.

We tried to find lunch at this point, but could find no restaurants before we reached our next stop at the Garden of the Gods. This is really an amazing place with red rocks that look like they're out of a science fiction movie. Seriously, it looks like you're on Mars! Very cool - we enjoyed crawling around on them a bit.

We ventured out to find something to eat and tracked down a Subway. It was okay, but unfortunately Debbie now says she can't eat any more Subways on this trip. And it’s only Day 5!

We returned to the Garden of the Gods for some more sightseeing. It was very hot, and we were getting tired, so we began the drive back to Longmont. First, though, we drove through the Air Force Academy and saw the Cadet's Chapel (from the outside, it was already closed for the day.) Then we went to Red Rocks on the outskirts of Denver. There was a big concert going on, so we just took a quick look around the outer area.

We stopped for gas, and the girls began literally begging to get a candy bar. I just had to take a picture:

Yes, they got their candy bars.

We grabbed a quick bite of supper at KFC at 8:00 p.m. We hit the 2000 mile mark just before getting back to Adam and Patti’s. More tomorrow . . .

Jon's Response

On Thursday evening, we arrived safely in Longmont, Colorado, at the home of Patti and Adam Lee. Patti is Debbie's sister, and we will be staying here through the weekend. It was a long, uneventful day of driving through Kansas today. So I'll share my thoughts about yesterday and our side trip to Mansfield, Missouri.

Debbie really had a great day on Wednesday because she fulfilled a decades-long dream and visited the home of a childhood idol. I had a great day, too - because I found gas for $3.67 a gallon!

I really wanted to tease the tour guides and ask questions about Laura’s adopted brother Albert Ingalls. (They made him up for the TV show.) However, this was Debbie’s day, and so I resisted the urge because I didn’t want to get us kicked out!

And can you believe this? While Debbie was spending hours in her trance at the Museum, I snuck over to the gift shop to do a little early Christmas shopping. I figured I could easily find something in there that she would like. I honed in on a pretty Christmas ornament of the Rock House, bought it, and hid it in the van. Debbie never even noticed I was gone.

However, when we later went to the gift shop as a family, what did Debbie decide to buy? That’s right – out of all the items in this expansive gift shop, she lingered over the ornaments and settled on the EXACT SAME ONE I HAD ALREADY PURCHASED FOR HER!

What would you do? At first I tried to discourage her from getting that ornament and selecting a different one. She tried, but she had already fallen in love with the Rock House one. When I persisted, she thought I was just concerned about the cost and so she sadly put it back. So I had to break down and tell her. (Of course, the up side is that I think I scored points for successfully picking out something she liked!)

And did I mention that I filled up with gas that only cost $3.67? 3.67!

For lunch we went to the Little House Buffet.

Sadly, however, there was no buffet. It was a bit scary inside, but it DID say “Little House” on the door, so we had to stay. (Besides, Debbie had vetoed the Chinese place and I had vetoed the Mexican place, and that only left the Tastee Freeze and this place. There are only those four eating establishments in Mansfield, according to the Museum staff. We asked.) I ordered the “Pa Burger” (on Texas toast!) but the waitress was unhappy with me because I said “no tomatoes”. She informed that they had just had fresh ones shipped in from Arkansas, her home state. It really wasn't anything personal. I just don't like tomatoes.

We had a "1000 mile" party just before we reached Kansas City. I figured that was 1000 miles down, about 4000 to go. Our hotel in Topeka on Wednesday night was very good - the pool, the playground, the breakfast (waffles).

Three. Sixty. Seven.
(Plus that 9/10 thing.)

Debbie's Report

Jon is letting me write today, since today we visited a place that I have wanted to visit since I was in the fourth grade—the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum and House.

But first, I want to tell you more about the St. Louis Arch!

The Arch was built in the 1960’s because St. Louis was known as the “Gateway to the West” in the 1800’s. The area all around the Arch was beautiful, like a park. Ordinarily, you can walk along the edge of the Mississippi River near the Arch, but there were big fences up while we were there due to the flooding. There are stairs that lead from the river up to the base of the Arch, but the bottom third of the stairs were covered in water. I wanted to take a riverboat ride, but they were closed since all of the docks were flooded. Here's what the docks looked like from the top of the Arch:


The top of the Arch was really neat. You could look out the windows on one side and see the Mississippi River and into Illinois. If you looked out the other side, you saw the city of St. Louis, MO including the old court house. I loved this area!

Today was the most wonderful day so far. We went to Mansfield, MO, and we were able to tour the farmhouse that Almanzo built, where he and Laura lived for most of their lives. The house was preserved following Laura’s death, and everything was kept the same as it was when she lived there.



We also visited the museum, where we saw Pa’s fiddle, Mary’s nine-patch quilt, and Laura’s first sampler. They had Laura’s dishes, some of her clothes, her jewelry, and her early manuscripts. I enjoyed it so much! They had a section devoted to their daughter, Rose, who was also a famous writer.

After the museum, we went to the Little House Bookstore. I got some great souvenirs.



Daniel, Bethany, and I walked the ¾ mile path to the house that Rose built for her parents, called the Rock House. (Jon and Katherine brought the van for us. Katherine was wearing her new sandals that she can’t walk in!) Rose had the Rock House built for her parents in the 1920’s with running water, electricity, and a furnace. It was a very modern place for them to spend their retirement years. However, after 8 years, they moved back to their farmhouse. We were able to tour the Rock House, and see more of the Wilders’ things. My family was very patient with me as I took my fill of the houses and the museum.


We had a long drive this afternoon and evening to get to our hotel in Topeka, Kansas. Even though it was late when we arrived, we all took a swim in a nice warm pool. This hotel also has a playground that the kids want to check out in the morning.