Wait a minute ... what's going on here? Why all the days in one post?
Well, here's the story ... we're officially back home, as of 4:30 pm Friday afternoon.
Our original plan called for us to drive from Goodland, Kansas to Eureka, Missouri, which we did. The plan then called for us to spend the night in Missouri, and then spend Friday at Six Flags St. Louis. We were supposed to spend Friday night in Missouri, and then drive to Ohio on Saturday, spending the night there, and then finishing the drive home on Sunday.
The problem was, when we got to Eureka on Thursday evening, it was about 103 degrees with 90+ percent humidity. After discussing it with Josh, we decided that spending the day in amusement park lines with temperatures over 100 degrees probably wouldn't be a whole lot of fun.
So, we talked it out, and decided that we'd start driving home immediately. So, after we made dinner, we got back in the car and left St. Louis, at about 8:00 pm local time. We arrived at our Ohio campground at about 4:00 am local time. I parked the car and got about an hour and a half of sleep. I woke up at 6:00 am and then continued our drive home.
After a short breakfast stop, we continued the drive and finally arrived home at around 4:30 this afternoon.
To sum it up, the trip was great, even with the little switch-up at the end. We drove approximately 7500 miles on the trip, saw lots of great things, and had a great time.
I'll be posting some follow-ups in the days to come, but for right now, it's time to get some sleep!!!
Friday, July 29, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
I'm back
Alright I know i haven't been blogging but here i go. I have become a junior ranger in all the national parks we've been to on this trip. Arches and Mesa Verde were my two favorites. Sand dunes Yosemite and Bryce with a close second then capitol reef and Zion. Today we were at sand dunes and we tried climbing up the giant dune. You know 55% of science is trial and error.
Day 18 ... Mesa Verde to Kansas and Great Sand Dunes National Park
Today, we left Mesa Verde National Park first thing in the morning. Our goal was to make it to Goodland, Kansas, about 20 miles across the Colorado/Kansas state line.
It was a really long day of driving, as most of the day, we were on single lane highways, that passed through small towns every 7 to 15 miles, requiring us to slow down for the local speed limits. I was really glad when we finally made it to Interstate 70 late this afternoon.
Along the way today, we stopped at Great Sand Dunes National Park, a little known National Park in Southern Colorado.
While Sequoia National Park was about Sequoia trees, Great Sand Dunes National Park is about ... duh ... sand dunes!!!
They're huge!!! The highest one reaches over 750 feet, and is the tallest sand dune in North America. We attempted to climb one known as "High Dune", which is about 650 feet high. We didn't make it too far, as we were on limited time. I'd estimate that we got about 1/3 of the way up, before we turned around.
I will say that running down the dunes sure is a lot more fun than walking up them!!!
Tomorrow, we'll be waking up really early and getting loaded up for a long drive to Eureka, Missouri, which is just West of St. Louis. This is going to be the longest drive of our trip, in terms of mileage, however, since it will be on the interestate almost the entire way, I'm expecting it to take less time than several of the other drives we've taken so far.
That's about it for today, I'll be back again tomorrow.
It was a really long day of driving, as most of the day, we were on single lane highways, that passed through small towns every 7 to 15 miles, requiring us to slow down for the local speed limits. I was really glad when we finally made it to Interstate 70 late this afternoon.
Along the way today, we stopped at Great Sand Dunes National Park, a little known National Park in Southern Colorado.While Sequoia National Park was about Sequoia trees, Great Sand Dunes National Park is about ... duh ... sand dunes!!!
They're huge!!! The highest one reaches over 750 feet, and is the tallest sand dune in North America. We attempted to climb one known as "High Dune", which is about 650 feet high. We didn't make it too far, as we were on limited time. I'd estimate that we got about 1/3 of the way up, before we turned around.I will say that running down the dunes sure is a lot more fun than walking up them!!!
Tomorrow, we'll be waking up really early and getting loaded up for a long drive to Eureka, Missouri, which is just West of St. Louis. This is going to be the longest drive of our trip, in terms of mileage, however, since it will be on the interestate almost the entire way, I'm expecting it to take less time than several of the other drives we've taken so far.That's about it for today, I'll be back again tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Day 17 ... Mesa Verde National Park
We spent the day today touring the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park. They're pretty cool to see, thought they do require some climbing down lots of steps, climbing up ladders and more steps, and even crawling through tunnels!It didn't take us as long to see the park as I thought it would, we were done around 3:00 pm. If I had known that, I probably would have booked a campground further to the East, rather than spending another night in the park. Oh well, maybe next time!!!
That's about all there is to say for today. Tomorrow we really start to head to the East, stopping at Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado for a brief visit, and then spending the night in Goodland, KS.
The journey home begins!!!
Day 16 ... The Four Corners and Mesa Verde National Park
Today, we drove from Kingman, AZ to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, passing by the Four Corners Monument along the way. There's not too much else to say about this day, other than it was a long drive! When we got to the Four Corners, we stopped so that we could put a body part in four states at once, and then we continued on our way.We were "dodging" thunderstorms all day long. We only actually passed through one, but they were all around us.
When we arrived in Mesa Verde, our luck had run out!!! We got to the campground and were able to get about a 15 minute break in the rain to get the tent set up. Then, I was able to get the tarp set up over the tent, and finally the easy-up to cover the picnic table.All in all, it wasn't too bad. The rain stopped finally and we were able to make dinner and hang out. When we went into the tent for the night, the rain started up again, but the tarp over the tent kept us very dry. A lot of the other tent campers weren't as fortunate as we were, and I noticed a lot of people decided to spend the night in their cars.
Tomorrow, we'll go out and see the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde.
For those who are paying attention, I know that I keep mixing past, present and future tense, but I'm writing many of these posts after the fact, since we haven't had internet access in the campgrounds since we left Zion National Park.
In fact, right now, we're sitting in the car in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Cortez, CO, which is about 8 miles outside of Mesa Verde National Park. We needed to pick up a couple of things, and then we're heading back into the park for the night.Next post coming right up!!!
Day 15 ... Las Vegas and Hoover Dam
Since we left Kings Canyon /Sequoia National Parks early, and covered some ground on the day 15 drive, we were able to change things up a little bit and we arrived in Las Vegas much earlier in the day than originally planned. We decided to stop at the New York, New York Casino, with the intention of riding the roller coaster there. Unfortunately, Josh didn't meet the minimum height requirement, so we weren't able to ride. Oh well ... at least I saved the $28!!!
Since it was still early, we decided to go visit Hoover Dam this afternoon, instead of waiting until the next morning, as originally planned. This also enabled us to find a campground further East for the night, instead of in Lake Mead. This had the effect of shortening the drive for day 16, when we travel to Mesa Verde National Park, via the Four Corners monument.More on that in the next post!
Monday, July 25, 2011
Day 14 ... Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks and Bakersfield, CA???
Today, we traveled from Yosemite National Park to Kings Canyon & Sequoia National Parks. The drive took us about three hours or so, less time spent in Fresno, CA to do some shopping and access the internet ... something we've been without for the past four nights!
When we arrived in Kings Canyon National Park, we took a short walk through one of the giant Sequoia groves and then continued on to Sequoia National Park. The main attraction here is, of course, the giant Sequoia trees, though the alpine forest scenery here is beautiful even without the giant trees.
It's hard to really appreciate how big these trees are until you see them up close ... they're huge!!! It's unbelievable that anything could grow that big.
After we finished seeing the park, we headed over to our campground which was located in the park. When we got there, the ranger told us that there was an active black bear population in the park and so we would have to put all of our food items in the bear bin at our campsite. I asked if we could keep the cooler in the car, but the ranger said no, and that everything had to be stored in the bin.
This was going to mean a lot of work for us, but we didn't have a whole lot of choice. We went to our campsite to get set up. Unfortunately, the site we were given was located on a fairly steep hillside. Our car was parked about 100 feet uphill from the campsite and the bear bin.
I started to think about how much effort and more importantly, the time it was going to take to move all of our stuff, particularly in the morning when we needed to get going. At that point, I decided that we'd leave the park and try to find a campground outside the park, so we left. On our way driving out of the park, we came across this little guy, attesting to the active bear population!
The road we took leaving the park was an incredibly steep and twisting mountain road. It took us forever to get to the bottom. We continued driving towards Visalia, CA, not finding any "suitable" campgrounds on the way. When we reached Visalia, we went online to see what we could find. At that point, I decided that we'd just drive to Bakersfield, CA and spend the night in a cheap motel, so that's what we did.
It actually worked out very favorably for us, because it cut a LOT of time out of our drive for Day 15, when we head to Las Vegas, NV and Lake Mead.
More on that in the next post!!!
When we arrived in Kings Canyon National Park, we took a short walk through one of the giant Sequoia groves and then continued on to Sequoia National Park. The main attraction here is, of course, the giant Sequoia trees, though the alpine forest scenery here is beautiful even without the giant trees.
It's hard to really appreciate how big these trees are until you see them up close ... they're huge!!! It's unbelievable that anything could grow that big.After we finished seeing the park, we headed over to our campground which was located in the park. When we got there, the ranger told us that there was an active black bear population in the park and so we would have to put all of our food items in the bear bin at our campsite. I asked if we could keep the cooler in the car, but the ranger said no, and that everything had to be stored in the bin.
This was going to mean a lot of work for us, but we didn't have a whole lot of choice. We went to our campsite to get set up. Unfortunately, the site we were given was located on a fairly steep hillside. Our car was parked about 100 feet uphill from the campsite and the bear bin.I started to think about how much effort and more importantly, the time it was going to take to move all of our stuff, particularly in the morning when we needed to get going. At that point, I decided that we'd leave the park and try to find a campground outside the park, so we left. On our way driving out of the park, we came across this little guy, attesting to the active bear population!
The road we took leaving the park was an incredibly steep and twisting mountain road. It took us forever to get to the bottom. We continued driving towards Visalia, CA, not finding any "suitable" campgrounds on the way. When we reached Visalia, we went online to see what we could find. At that point, I decided that we'd just drive to Bakersfield, CA and spend the night in a cheap motel, so that's what we did.
It actually worked out very favorably for us, because it cut a LOT of time out of our drive for Day 15, when we head to Las Vegas, NV and Lake Mead.
More on that in the next post!!!
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