**Also, I stopped writing this halfway so please forgive the lack of photos and description.**
First off. The state is awesome. I love it. I would move there and live there and retire there and play there and love it the entire time. They have mountains, and hills and rivers and fake lakes that you can't swim in and all sorts of other excellent things that I love. It is a very Blue state which kind of sucks though. But on the other hand it is also a very dark green state, where fitness is almost a snobbish part of the daily life, which is awesome compared the the glut of fatties here in Central Illinois.
I'll try to keep this as brief as I can I promise, but there is a lot to cover in 10 days, hopefully the photos speak more than the words do.
First off we headed off into the sunset from IL to Lincoln NE. We made several pit stops to find some Geocaches the most notable one came in the town of west branch where we found a pink toilet (outdoors) a lot of bugs and a couple of geocaches. Naturally when I was looking for caches along our drive I could not pass this stop up. Between the bugs and the realization that it was a long ass walk, we decided to call this one quits long before the middle, let alone the end.
I should clarify we had very few if any plans before going into this trip, so if you are a fellow shoot from the hipper I would recommend to pay attention to the books everyone ignores at rest stops because they are full of some pretty awesome deals for walk in hotel reservations. We stayed in Lincolin for $35, which included breakfast, which if you think about it, at Perkins or something is a $15 value for two people. Not bad.
The next day was a good learning adventure, I was craving random cool side stops since we were taking a road tirp. We didn't find any Dr. Satan stops but we decided that learning a little more about Wild Bill Cody would be pretty cool. Afterall he was a big hit and the Colombian Exposition in Chicago. (Thank you Devil in the White City) So we stopped in North Platte Nebraska for some learning. We decided his ranch would be a fun whole day adventure complete with camping, so we decided to visit his park instead, which was closed. Lame. So the visitor center lady said we ought to check out the "Golden Spike" since it was in the same town we said why not it would be cool to see the worlds largest train yard from up high. Can you believe they charge $6 a person to take an elevator up three stories to look at the top side of a bunch of trains? Me neither. I bought a Post Card and sent it to my sister to tell her not to go.
So Nebraska sucks. If you can find a way to avoid it go right ahead and do it. Fun facts about Nebraska: There are more cows in Nebraska than people (holy shit!) The ratio of cows to people 3:1 (holy shit!). Another fun fact. When the Corn Huskers(!) play a home football the stadium becomes the 3rd largest city in the lame state. There is a reason the mid-west states are called flyover states, Nebraska ruins it for the cool States, like Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Chicago ;)
We got into Colorado and did some excellent hanging out and catching up with old Pal Rich and newer pal Ali. We attempted to reach the summit of our first fourteener (a mountain over 14k feet above sea level) and Due to harsh weather conditions and the snow! we didn't make it to the top, but we did find a cool geocache nearby. They also have a really great little one called Adrianne, she is a hoot and when she cries she makes baby Chewbacca noises, I love it.
After our adventures with Rich and Ali Laura and I headed up toe Estes Park Co. Probably the coolest city I've ever been to. A little tourist town nestled in the mountains with two gorgeous (and natural?) lakes! My goodness I feel in love with that cute little town. And the donut shop! mmmmm.
(ok I started writing this post ages ago and I've been holding back on posting other blogs until I finished this one. I just really hate the blogger picture loader and I wanted to post bunches of photos and tell even more, but now I'm like a month overdue so here is a quick summary of the rest of the trip)
As a list from here on out:
* Camped in Rocky Mountain National Park.
* Heard a funny quote about that time of year, "The only people who come here are the nearly wed and the nearly dead" so true!
* It was elk mating season, the noises they make are CRAZY!
* We hiked a mountain and began our engagement to marry.
* We drove around the park and took a ton of landscape photos.
* Saw a Marmot
* Drove to Colorado Springs
* Visited the garden of the Gods, next time I would like to go climbing there
* Took a driving tour of the city.
* Decided CO Springs is a great place for a family adventure. Not nearly weds
* Took the Cog railway to the summit of Pikes Peak, found a Geocache there
* Saw Mountain sheep.
* Spent another excellent night with the Keller Family
* Drove back in one long grueling 16 hour trek.
* Listened to Stephanie Meyer's Newish book, The Host, Will not recommend that to anyone looking for a book as satisfying entertainment. Good concept, poorly finished.
* Reflected and loved the whole adventure.
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