Pike's Peak and Our Last Night in Woodland Park

Pike's Peak or Bust...that's what the pioneers said...and the car racers...and the motorcylce racers...and the 1/2 marathon and marathon racers! I can't even imagine any of these! "The Assent" is the local race up the mountain. The last leg doesn't even seem to be on a trail. Crazy.
The 13 mile one-way run best time is just over 2 hours! Now that's amazing...but the same guy ran the 26 mile round-trip the next day in less than 4 hours! (You'll have to look up the exact times!)
Our assent on board the cog railway took us 1 hour 15 minutes! It was another wonderful experience. We've included a few pictures from our last evening with Liz and Cord...our time together has been great and we surely won't let 17 more years pass without seeing each other. Thanks for a fabulous stay, Liz and Cord! We have certainly had lots of laughs and good times on the road...
You know the drill...click on the picture and see the rest of the story!

Around Woodland Park, CO

We have enjoyed having a semi-permanent home in Woodland Park, CO over the past 5 days, while our travel partners make a quick trip back to FL. My college friend, Lizzie, (we haven't seen each other for about 17 years, we think) and her husband, Cord, have been extroidenary hosts during our stay.
The pictures will give you a glimpse of our fairly calm stay in the area. The food and fellowship have just been a blessing to us. Randy is even off getting a message this morning...thanks to Cord's connection! It is hard to say what "experience" of the stay here was the highlight...but maybe, just maybe the wolf kisses are at the top. I wasn't even nervous...LOL. We'll pick up Rick & Betty from Denver tonight and make the assent, as they say here, up Pike's Peak tomorrow morning via the cog railway. And the evening tomorrow will find us watching American Idol and eating homemade pizza with our friends! What could be better? There are a lot of pictures, so I hope it doesn't take too long to load for you. Remember to click on the picture here, then on slideshow to view. We sure do enjoy any comments you'd like to post.

The Colorado Rockies...woo hoo!

What a day this has been...After spending last night in Glenwood Springs, Co, we set out for Woodland Park, near Colorado Springs. The decision was made to travel on a "primary" road rather than a "secondary" road, which began our adventure for today! Quickly we started climbing the Rockies via US 24 heading toward Leadville. Well...up, up and around we went! And then that blue sign said, "Top of the Rockies" and the elevation sign was something over 13,000 feet! And it rained, snowed, hailed and finally sunshine! The ride was -- shall we say...an experience! The good news was the snow plow was in front of us (just in case) and I think he had some salt on board, too. But, after we got down off the mountains, it was a nice ride on in to Woodland Park. When we arrived at the RV park, we were welcomed with flowers from my friends, Liz & Cord, as well as a package from Cameron with new pictures of Nathan. That made the day just about perfect! Tomorrow we're off to the Air Force Academy and down to Cripple Creek. We dare not sit still too long! Click on the picture to see more and on slideshow to move through them. We love reading your comments.

Zion, Bryce and Arches National Parks

We have been enjoying Utah sooo much. It is truly beautiful and interesting. I have tried select a sampling of picutres just to give you an idea of the variation of the ROCKS! Each day has been ... what can I say...awesome! And the weather has really cooperated. The drive from Kanarraville (near Cedar City, UT) to Moab (Arches) was just beautiful as the parks. Last night in Moab, we took a break and enjoyed a jet boat ride down the Colorado River about 40 miles. We saw rock climbers (not something any of us thinks we'll try) going up the walls. Most of the climbs take 2 days to reach the top.
We will make it to Woodland Park, CO tomorrow evening. Randy and I will stay there several days while our travel partners make a quick trip back to FL. We will spend some time with a college friend of mine. Now the stories we tell and remember won't be posted here! We have traveled over 3000 miles and lots of gas in our 19 days out on the road. More statistics will be added soon. What an adventure. Click on the picture, then on the slideshow to catch up on our National Park visits.

2010-05-11

Well, we did get back on the road Sunday afternoon....only to experience high winds and....yup, that's a sand storm! This happened within an hour of getting back on the road! The police actually closed I-40 just behind us for several hours! So our friend, Lucky, was right not to put our 5th wheel on his low-boy. We arrived in Williams, AZ finally. The drive was pretty difficult-Randy did a great job. You cannot believe how hard the winds were...gusts over 45 mph. (On a side note, yesterday and today the winds were 70-100 mph--hurricane strength. Monday afternoon we made the trek to the Grand Canyon in the late afternoon so we could be there for sunset. It was beautiful. We had planned to do a helicopter ride,but...oh, yeh, the wind! And this RV really rocked in that wind last night. Enough of that. Today we had a nice drive down to Sedona and saw the red rock formations...cool stuff, and visited a chapel built right into the rocks. We are thankful again that we are safe and are looking forward to seeing Bryce and Zion National Parks by the weekend.
Again, click on the picture, then click on slideshow button above the 1st picture to see what we've been up to.
We enjoy your comments, so keep them coming

2010-05-09

Happy Mother's Day all you Mom's out there in Blogger Land! This has been one of the most unusual that I've ever had. From somewhere along I-40 near Holbrook, AZ, we sit while waiting for repairs to our 5th wheel. Yesterday, as were driving from Albuquerque, NM to Williams, AZ, we lost a wheel off the 5th wheel. Thank goodness Randy felt something and looked in his mirror to see a tire rolling across the westbound lanes of I-40 (later found on the other side of the eastbound lanes)!
Fortunately, everyone else on the road was able to avoid our tire! But...what to do now? We drove 4 miles at about 20 mph, called the insurance company, and waited. They had a terrible time finding someone with a "low-boy" trailer that would haul someplace for repair. We were allowed to park in the parking lot at the Petrified Forest National Park overnight (now that's another story) and wait for action. The pictures in the slideshow tell to story. We are now at the repair parking lot waiting for solutions...to be continued. Hopefully we'll be at the Grand Canyon ... maybe by nightfall! Love to all. And please keep us in your prayers.
AND TO SEE SLIDE SHOW, CLICK ON PICTURE, THEN CLICK ABOVE THE 1ST PICTURE ON THE SLDESHOW BUTTON TO SEE MORE PICS.....

2010-05-09

2010-05-07

Santa Fe, New Mexico and surrounding area! We have had a great experience in the Santa Fe area. Lots of new things to see and learn. I didn't know what "Tuff" was, do you? Every day has been filled with good times. Today was a bit different, flat tire for us and Rick and Betty tried to get their awning repaired---wrong part installed and then uninstalled! Patience is still a good thing to have. The weather has been perfect here...a nice change from TN! Tomorrow/today (it's 1:30 AM here---oh,my, didn't realize it was so late!) we will go to Williams, Arizona for several days and visit the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and points around there. Hope you are all doing well. And thanks for the comments! Click on Randy to see some new pics...then click on "slideshow" just above the 1st picture. Hope you enjoy.

Westward Ho I

I think you can click on the picture and see a slide show of our stop in Oklahoma City. Let me know if it works.
B

Pictures can speak

Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial....

Tornado Sirens at 4:00 AM....

What would you do if your bed buddy woke you up at about 4:00 AM and said: "The sirens are going off! Get up!"? As for me, I jumped out of that bed without hesitation! We were dressed, shoes and all in a flash, grabbed our wallets, woke up Rick & Betty and headed for the concrete block wash house just a few feet from our RVs....praying pretty feverishly! Only about 6 or 8 other campers joined us there. Apparently the other folks didn't hear the sirens. And I think Randy can't hear, sometimes... Anyway the warning was removed from Shelby County at about 5:00 AM, so back to bed we went.

Our original plan was to visit Graceland this morning, then head to a state park in Dardanelle, Arkansas. After a little delay, trying to get the weather facts straight and settling our nerves, that was just what we did. A visit to Graceland is certainly a step back in time...and music history. It is hard not to dance a little when you hear Elvis sing, isn't it? The gold and platinum records are unbelievable. He truly was a gifted musician. One of the new things I learned on this visit was about his love of grilled peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Betty & I enjoyed one for lunch! That may become our stand-by lunch for this adventure.

We hit the road about 2 PM. As we drove north west out of the city, the results of the night storm were very evident. The fields were completely under water and many home were really islands...water surrounding them. But off we went to our next stop at Dardanelle Lake State Park, near Russellville, Arkansas. Three GPS's couldn't get us there! After 3 phone calls to the visiter's center there, we finally found our way. We did see some magnificent homes around the lake in the mean time. Once we arrived, we wished we were staying for more than an overnight. It was beautiful. We woke up to cool temperatures and clear skies. We are so thankful for this time.

And tonight Sunday, we're in Oklahoma City. And the ride was over roughest road we've ever been on. South Carolina I-95 is nothing compared to this! After we set up camp and relax with a cool beverage, we drove in to downtown to visit the Memorial at the site of the OKC bombing of the Murrah Federal Bldg. It was quite a moving sight to see and understand all the symbolism of the memorial.

So there you have it....wonder what adventure will be next as we head to Amerillo, TX and Albequerque, NM