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mellymellSince I only covered an overview at first, I'd like to go back and really cover each day (since most of them were so eventful). The first couple were just long driving days and I'll throw them together for that reason.
It took me from Huntsville until St. Louis to really let go of all that had been on my mind over the week. I practiced some half-assed meditation (if there is such a thing) to push myself away from home and the thoughts surrounding it with every passing mile. I felt silly, but decided we'd try to get pics of every major city we went through on the trip. Taking a picture of Nashville felt very strange, since I'd been to the city so many times before. Felt pretty silly taking pics of St. Louis too, but mostly because we were stuck in pretty bad traffic and I was kicked back snapping photos, heh.
Again, between St. Louis and Kansas City, there are probably a million porn stores along I-70 in Missouri.
I was looking forward to a sunny drive across Kansas and knowing we'd be a little earlier in the year than the last drive across the state, was hoping to see some great sunflower fields (the blooms were all but spent the last time). Unfortunately, as we crossed Missouri, we ran into scattered storms and eventually as we approached Kansas City, all hell broke loose in the sky. Watching the storm roll across though was neat! The skies are so huge out there because there's nothing obstructing the view. Just miles of flat land or at the least rolling hills of prairie. Got a quick shot of Topeka, such as it is. The capitol building at least, since there's not much of a sky line there (kind of a crappy little town, that's where we spent the night the last time).
We spent the night in Salina. Strange little town it is, but a great stopping point because it gets you at almost halfway across Kansas in the first day of driving. We ate dinner at an Applebee's because it was all that was open. When you're on the road, it doesn't pay to be a snob about stuff (well, depending on where you are). For the record, Applebee's SUCKS! Chris had made an incredible tarragon chicken salad for wraps and a big batch of salsa for us to eat on the road and we topped it off with crappy food at a chain. Should have just eaten what we had. Oh well. I also learned it sucks to be caffeine dependent in the mornings when you're on the road and simultaneously a coffee snob (of sorts). Hotel coffee blows, and in no way cures the addiction.
The next day we got up, way too early in my opinion, and headed out in a fog towards Denver. Kansas is twice as boring when it's in a cloud. But as the storms subsided (or I guess more so as we drove out of them) we got some better scenery. We did manage to find a nice sunflower field to stop by. We jumped back in the car to keep driving just in time as a cop (who probably would have stopped to mess with us) pulled up and turned around where we were parked.
We had to try to get some pics of the oil wells too. Where they were positioned, it would have made a good pic if we had a wide angled lens. But you just can't capture it all in a regular camera. The rest of Kansas was pretty uneventful, except, of course, for the 100 miles of signs for the "World's Largest Prairie Dog". Those signs looked old 5 years ago when we came out here. That prairie dog has to be dead by now. At the same place, there's a 6 legged steer (supposedly). I didn't want to stop and give them any of my money to find out if any of it was true.
Crossing over into Colorado, we eventually started to see more hills, but not much. You start moving from fields to grazing lands as farms turn to ranches. As mentioned before, we jumped onto scenic CO-86 instead of staying the course on I-70 into Denver. We pulled off on a couple of dirt roads to get those shots of the boot and the flowers and a few other things. Dirt roads are a lot of fun in a vehicle that loves them. We just had to be careful of higher clearance stuff.
We affectionately called this area "Kanorado". Yes, there's a city by that name near the border of the two states, but the name also describes the area a little too well! I could certainly live in Kanorado. Less than an hour from Denver, thousands of acres to be had (with water rights of course) and just really lovely land. This is the area where we first noticed signs for anywhere from 5 to 3000 acre lots for sale (and lots of them). Where I talked about subdivisions with 5 acre lots (pretty much in the southern reaches of Denver metro).
I do wish it had been clearer for the drive towards Denver. I remember it being so neat to see the peaks of the Rockies from so far away across the plains when we came out in 2000. But it was unfortunately overcast this time. I got a few pics on the way in of the mountains and the city. The later ones in that folder are of Red Rocks that night. I don't think any of them came out that great.
I'll cover our stay in Denver in it's own day. So much to cover!
It took me from Huntsville until St. Louis to really let go of all that had been on my mind over the week. I practiced some half-assed meditation (if there is such a thing) to push myself away from home and the thoughts surrounding it with every passing mile. I felt silly, but decided we'd try to get pics of every major city we went through on the trip. Taking a picture of Nashville felt very strange, since I'd been to the city so many times before. Felt pretty silly taking pics of St. Louis too, but mostly because we were stuck in pretty bad traffic and I was kicked back snapping photos, heh.
Again, between St. Louis and Kansas City, there are probably a million porn stores along I-70 in Missouri.
I was looking forward to a sunny drive across Kansas and knowing we'd be a little earlier in the year than the last drive across the state, was hoping to see some great sunflower fields (the blooms were all but spent the last time). Unfortunately, as we crossed Missouri, we ran into scattered storms and eventually as we approached Kansas City, all hell broke loose in the sky. Watching the storm roll across though was neat! The skies are so huge out there because there's nothing obstructing the view. Just miles of flat land or at the least rolling hills of prairie. Got a quick shot of Topeka, such as it is. The capitol building at least, since there's not much of a sky line there (kind of a crappy little town, that's where we spent the night the last time).
We spent the night in Salina. Strange little town it is, but a great stopping point because it gets you at almost halfway across Kansas in the first day of driving. We ate dinner at an Applebee's because it was all that was open. When you're on the road, it doesn't pay to be a snob about stuff (well, depending on where you are). For the record, Applebee's SUCKS! Chris had made an incredible tarragon chicken salad for wraps and a big batch of salsa for us to eat on the road and we topped it off with crappy food at a chain. Should have just eaten what we had. Oh well. I also learned it sucks to be caffeine dependent in the mornings when you're on the road and simultaneously a coffee snob (of sorts). Hotel coffee blows, and in no way cures the addiction.
The next day we got up, way too early in my opinion, and headed out in a fog towards Denver. Kansas is twice as boring when it's in a cloud. But as the storms subsided (or I guess more so as we drove out of them) we got some better scenery. We did manage to find a nice sunflower field to stop by. We jumped back in the car to keep driving just in time as a cop (who probably would have stopped to mess with us) pulled up and turned around where we were parked.
We had to try to get some pics of the oil wells too. Where they were positioned, it would have made a good pic if we had a wide angled lens. But you just can't capture it all in a regular camera. The rest of Kansas was pretty uneventful, except, of course, for the 100 miles of signs for the "World's Largest Prairie Dog". Those signs looked old 5 years ago when we came out here. That prairie dog has to be dead by now. At the same place, there's a 6 legged steer (supposedly). I didn't want to stop and give them any of my money to find out if any of it was true.
Crossing over into Colorado, we eventually started to see more hills, but not much. You start moving from fields to grazing lands as farms turn to ranches. As mentioned before, we jumped onto scenic CO-86 instead of staying the course on I-70 into Denver. We pulled off on a couple of dirt roads to get those shots of the boot and the flowers and a few other things. Dirt roads are a lot of fun in a vehicle that loves them. We just had to be careful of higher clearance stuff.
We affectionately called this area "Kanorado". Yes, there's a city by that name near the border of the two states, but the name also describes the area a little too well! I could certainly live in Kanorado. Less than an hour from Denver, thousands of acres to be had (with water rights of course) and just really lovely land. This is the area where we first noticed signs for anywhere from 5 to 3000 acre lots for sale (and lots of them). Where I talked about subdivisions with 5 acre lots (pretty much in the southern reaches of Denver metro).
I do wish it had been clearer for the drive towards Denver. I remember it being so neat to see the peaks of the Rockies from so far away across the plains when we came out in 2000. But it was unfortunately overcast this time. I got a few pics on the way in of the mountains and the city. The later ones in that folder are of Red Rocks that night. I don't think any of them came out that great.
I'll cover our stay in Denver in it's own day. So much to cover!