Road Trippin'

 

     I’ve been enjoying road trips lately. Air travel has become such a hassle that it is no longer an enjoyable way to travel; it’s just a means to get somewhere that I can’t drive to fast enough on my allotted time off! 

     My travel buddies (dau-in-law and cute gdau) and I went to the Denver area last week. Wyoming on Route 80 is a big bunch of nothing, but we did enjoy seeing various critters along the way and I must admit it does have its own stark beauty. I can’t ever picture myself living there though because the wind seems to never stop! On the way I nearly turned south off of 80 too soon, but I realized we had not seen the tree growing out of the rock that you see before turning south on I-25 yet or the booming metropolis of Buford (formerly population 1, now it looks like population 0, because after the whole town was literally sold to an Asian investor a few months ago, the gas station is now closed.

Tree in the Rock

Wyoming Pronghorn Antelope

    

    Don’t get me wrong, I do love my sister but when she already has a houseful of visitors I knew that we needed to get our own hotel room in Colorado because my sanity is a valuable commodity. We love to stay at Embassy Suites on our various trips but it seems like the price has gone up and even though they have an included breakfast that is to die for, I could not stomach the price this time for the length of our visit. We stayed at a Best Western, better location, better price, but boring breakfast and card-paper walls and ceilings so that the elephant feet above us woke me up every night we were there at 3am.

Sigh, needless to say I was pretty tired when I got home.

The Stanley Hotel

   We visited Estes Park and I enjoyed it as I had not been there for several years. It was a tradition for my family living in Colorado to go there every July fourth. It’s beautifully scenic in Estes; there are fun shops and also the Stanley Hotel, setting of the Stephen King novel The Shining. Jack Nicolas, who starred in that horror film creeps me out, but the hotel is a scenic and historical place regardless of the novel. We arrived right after their Thursday release of butterflies that they raise on site at the hotel, so it was extra scenic when we were there. Sorry, we didn’t see any ghosts! Lol!

     It was so hot in Colorado that I felt constantly thirsty and we hit up the Wally World several times to buy water. It kindof put the kibosh on my dreams of hiking because that is something you don’t do in 100 degree weather unless you want heatstroke. We swam in the hotel’s (freezing cold) pool instead, but only once because it was so darn cold, did more shopping, visited family, ate at a crazy Italian buffet called Cinzetti’s, and got our creative juices going at a make it yourself ceramics studio named “Crackpots”. 

     I hope hubby gets the spark plugs changed soon so my transportation is in tip top shape when I return to Colorado next month for the Incubus/Linkin Park concert!