Making it to Colorado - 2022/09/14

It's time to hit the road and close out this part of our westward journey. We left Windy's Pig Rescue early the next morning and hit the road. Our travels would take us through Nevada and close enough to the Vegas Strip to see a lot of the hotels. 

A fun overpass. 

Near the Hoover Dam. That'll be an adventure for another time. 

Hello Arizona. 

And New Mexico too. 

Crossing over the Continental Divide. 

Our stop for the night. The Bar S RV Park in New Mexico. 

It's been a long day of traveling. 

The next morning, the sky was blue and it looks like a good day for driving. 

Finding a little wooly caterpillar before we go. 

No it can't come with us. 

Right near the border between Colorado and New Mexico. The actual sign turned out a bit blurry. The cloudless skies from earlier turned into showers here!

We made it though! 

Hi Pop Pop!

Gram!

Love you!

And Aunt Megan came by shortly too to drop off some homemade cookies! Yum!

There's a rule that if you work on any part of the puzzle, you get to be in the picture with that puzzle. 

Enjoying having Gram read them stories at night before bed. 

This picture that Jess painted for Dad was a little too big for their carry-on luggage, and they didn't trust it under the plane. We've been carrying it with us in the RV ever since we left Washington and now it's time to deliver it. 

That will be a perfect spot for it. 

While we're here in Colorado we've got to do a little bit of exploring too. Pop Pop is always talking about his trips to Manitou and the Incline. There's a side trail that we wanted to take the kids hiking on nearby. 

The Barr Trail. I remember hiking this when I was younger than Ian and Alli!

Pop Pop dropped us off at the trailhead and went to park the car in Manitou. 

Off we go!

Waving to the people on the Cog Railway. They're taking the easy way up to the top of the 14000'+ Pikes Peak. We're not quite going that far today, but we can see the summit as we hike. 

Parts of the trail get close enough to the Manitou Incline to see the people hiking. Hey! It's Pop Pop! 

At this point the trail splits and we can continue to either Barr Camp or to the top of the Incline. 

And coming down that trail to meet us was Pop Pop!

He wanted to show the kids the hike he does multiple times a weeks. 

It's one thing to see it in pictures, but looking down from the top in person you can get a real appreciation for how steep this path is. 

From the top. 

Looking out over Colorado Springs. 

At the bottom, why not refresh ourselves on that famous Manitou Springs water. We tried all of these naturally occurring carbonated springs last year and there were definitely some that tasted better than others. 

Iron Springs was on the list as the worst tasting one. Ugh. 

But it's like that Beverly soda at Epcot's Club Cool. You know it's going to be bad, but you can't help but take a little taste just to remind yourself of it. 

Good thing we have these chocolate chip cookies from Aunt Megan after our hike. 

When we get back, all the taste test items we didn't actually finish get to come back out and get tasted by new people. 

The chocolates from our friend Todd in Washington were a hit. My brother even liked the one with Hops in it. 

Date night with Megan and Patrick. Megan wanted to show us her favorite taco place. 

Their sauce sampler. Many were delicious. Some were amazing. The tacos were pretty great too. 

Ooh, but the dessert! Sopapillas with goat's milk caramel and pecans. So good!

And a delicious cream cheese and guava empanada. 

Spending time together playing Mario Kart. 

Or watching movies together. 

It's always great to be able to meet up with friends! Sadie was one of our best friends in high school. And with her husband Ryan, the four of us even took a road trip to Vegas all the way from Colorado. 

We enjoyed breakfast together and Sadie even gave me a good idea for what my Colorado themed pizza should be! We'll see that shortly!

Now that the RV is parked in one place for a little while, I can do some maintenance. This is what the underside of the RV looks like with the cover on. 

And it's a mess of wires and and cables when the cover comes off. 

Gotta check those seals. No leaks. 

We do like our puzzles. 

Grammy's sister came over one day and dropped off dinner for everyone. It's always way too much food! 

But it's Korean food and it's delicious! Thank you!

Many nights you'll also find the kids playing Life with the Grandparents. There's usually lots of laughing and good times. And you never know what's going to happen at the end. In this version, if you know you don't have enough money to win when you get to the end, you can risk it all on a 1 out of 10 chance to win automatically. More often than expected someone pulls out an upset victory, taking first place away from whoever racked up the most money along the way. 

We have been going Chuck E Cheese in lots of different cities we've visited. This is the one in our home town that I remember going to when I was younger. From the outside it looks to be an abandoned storefront. 

But inside it's business as usual. I'm so late in writing this one. They're celebrating halloween and giving out suckers to everyone. 

And I don't remember this part. It looks like Chuck E Cheese has expanded into the store next door. It's even bigger than before! 

With lots of fun games that we've seen in videos, but haven't gotten to play. 

Chucky came around handing out candy. 

A fun shooting game. 

This Tippy Blocks game is a favorite of Ian's, but it was disassembled when we got here. They put everything back together and he started played. 

And he started winning! Many of these games have an easy mode and a hard mode. After a certain number of losing sessions, it'll switch to easy mode to let you win, then go back to hard mode. 

Well something seems to be off because Ian is racking up 100 ticket jackpots back to back to back! He didn't want to leave the machine he was getting so many tickets! Pop Pop facilitated by getting him drink refills and holding the cup for him.  

These are my kind of games! Basketball! 

My brother got off work and came to see us. 

Putting up high scores and earning lots of tickets. 

Even with all their points, they usually get something small like cotton candy. One of these days we'll redeem all our tickets for a massive prize. Once we see something that looks really good. 

Thanks Chucky! Today has been fun!

We're excited to be back in Colorado with family!