Drive to Rock Springs

The entire drive along I-80 West is scenic, and as we got closer to Rock Springs, the area began to remind us of our drives in western Colorado near Grand Junction as well as parts of Utah.  The buttes varied in colors, from white to gold, with other colors layered throughout.  Wind and water have shaped the landscape, carving the buttes and exposing layers of rocks.

Millions of years ago, northwestern Wyoming, includingRock Springs and Flaming Gorge, was the bed of an ancient ocean. Fossils of fish, sea snails and other sea creatures can still be found in the area.  Most of the land is either privately owned or owned by the federal government, so unfortunately, there weren't any opportunities to dig for fossils.  

We pulled into the KOA campground late in the afternoon after a beautiful and sometimes windy drive.  Since there aren't many trees on the sagebrush plains and valleys of Wyoming, sometimes the wind just sneaks up on you without warning.   The KOA campground was located near I-80 at the foot of a couple mountains, making for a pretty view.  

Ruth was thrilled that the campground had a pool, and both kids liked the arcade.  Both kept them entertained when we weren't touring the area.  

Because it's in the high desert, it was pretty hot during the day and then got cool at night.  By our standards, it was great weather.     I broke out the gas grill for the first time and grilled chicken for dinner, and managed to keep the grill going despite the wind.  

Ruth kept offering to go get ice for the cooler, but we soon figured out it was a way to check out the ice cream selection in the camp store.  Feeling generous, she also bought ice cream sandwiches for Jeff and Henry.

Climate Change

When we got out of the motorhome in Laramie tour the jail, it was sunny and warm with a nice breeze. When we got out of the motorhome in Rock Springs, it was breezy and hot.  But still no humidity, so I can't complain.

Rock Springs is in the high desert, so there's hardly any trees or grass and lots of the scenery is brownish in color.  But just because the colors are brown, beige and tan, the landscape is still amazing - buttes in all shapes and sizes for miles and miles.  It's difficult to capture in pictures because the landscape is just so huge.

We relaxed for a hit after pulling into our campsite.  Ruth and Henry checked out the arcade and then Jeff took them to the pool.  I grilled some chicken for dinner while they swam.

After dinner, we took a ride out to see some wild horses that the Bureau of Land Management has in local corrals.  These horses will be adopted by ranchers and anyone else interested in getting them.  Some of the horses will go to Cheyenne to be adopted during the Frontier Days celebration and rodeo.

Ruth asked for another swim in the pool and Henry went along.  They wore themselves out and are fast asleep, which makes for a quiet motorhome.  

Here are some photos from the drive as we got closer to Rock Springs and one of the wild horses:

Doin' Time in a Wyoming Jail

The Wyoming Territorial Prison in Laramie dates back to the 1800's and has held cattle rustlers, thieves, murderers and other criminals.  The most famous person who did time there was Butch Cassidy, who spent two years at the prison.  It wasn't just men who were imprisoned there - a few women were confined there as well.  There was even a husband and wife imprisoned there at the same time, and for the five years they were both there, they never saw each other once.  Eventually, the wife was released and her husband was released later.

It's a small prison with a kitchen, infirmary, wash area, new prisoner processing room, regular cells and solitary confinement cells. We took the self-guided tour and listened to a museum employee dressed as a prisoner talk about life in the prison.  Throughout the prison, there are head shots - mugshots actually - of some of the prisoners accompanied by a sign that tells the prisoner's story.  The stories were very interesting and made the prison tour more personal.

From some of the prison cells, inmates could look through the windows and see the mountains in the distance.  The guide said it was an enticement to try to escape, and many inmates did.  I can't blame them - the view throughout Laramie is beautiful.

After touring the prison, we walked around the grounds and visited the church and the warden's house.  On the way out, Ruth spotted some homemade caramels in the gift shop that were three for $1.00, a bargain compared to the $1.49 caramels at the Alpine Visitor Center at Rocky Mountain National Park.  We left with six of them.

The museum was well worth the visit, and caramels in hand, we got back in the motorhome and continued heading west.

Inside the two-story prison

Butch Cassidy

Prison bath tubs

Solitary confinement cell

Infirmary

Photos Across Wyoming

The drive across Wyoming has been very scenic. My iPhone camera can't do it justice.  Here are some pictures of the drive so far:

On To Wyoming

This morning, the clouds lifted and the skies were finally clear.  The weather in Denver is perfect; no humidity and temperatures in the 60's in the morning.  

We're still not adjusted to the Mountain Time zone, so once again, Jeff and I were up at 6:00 a.m.  It's not so bad, because it enables us to pack up early so we can get on the road and spend more time at our next destination.

Today's drive - about 375 miles - will take us to Rock Springs, off Interstate 80 West in southeastern Wyoming.  

After passing Cheyenne, we were on the lookout for the Vedawoo, unique rock formations near the Pole Mountains that Native Americans visited for vision quests long ago.  You can see some of the formations from the highway, and they do stand out from the otherwise hilly, sagebrush-covered landscape.

After passing Vedawoo, we made it to to the highest point on I-80 at 8,640 feet.  To mark the high point at what was once the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway named in honor of Abraham Lincoln, there is a huge bronze head of Abraham Lincoln - a whopping 13 1/2 feet high perched on a 35 foot tall stone base on the side of the highway.  

Rocky Mountain High

Since we spent a couple days in Denver on our 2011 road trip, we hit the must-do's for our family already.  We went through the tourism books and looked at TripAdvisor, but couldn't find anything we could all get excited to do today.  Jeff suggested something a bit off the wall, given the mileage we've put on the motor home since Saturday.  He wanted to go back to Rocky Mountain National Park.

We camped in Estes Park, about 60 miles north of Denver, on our 2011 road trip and loved it there.  Jeff has Estes Park on his short list of places he would like to live.  Once he suggested it, the idea of seeing elk and bighorn sheep, plus spending time in the cute town of Estes Park that includes a Dairy Queen won the kids over.

Since we're now technically on Mountain Time but our bodies are still on Eastern Time, we were up around 6:00 a.m. and able to head north early in the morning.  It's been cloudy since we arrived in Denver, so the views of the Rockies haven't been frequent.  We worried that driving through Rocky Mountain National Park would be iffy if it was cloudy and raining, and possibly even snowing at the higher elevations.  The highest part of the park you can drive is is a little over 11,000 feet.

Marmot sunning

Ruth hiking

Since we can drive much faster in the Jeep than we can in the motor home, it was a relatively quick trip up to Estes Park.  We stopped for gas and Ruth and I went into a country store to pick up snacks in case we stopped for an impromptu picnic in the park.

Early on, both Jeff and Ruth thought they saw a black animal as we started to make the climb into the mountains, but neither could confirm what they saw.  As we got out at one of the hiking areas to look up at the mountains and down into the valleys below, we saw some marmots, little mammals that look like groundhogs, basking in the sun on the rocks near the lookout.  Henry was ecstatic to see so many.

Marmot

We walked back to the car and drove farther up into the park, and soon saw a small herd of elk.  There weren't as many as we had seen back in 2011, but two years ago, we were in the park earlier in July.  Maybe the elk move throughout the summer to graze.

At one of the highest points in the park - 11,798 feet - the Alpine Visitor Center has a Park Service building, a cafe and a gift shop.  Henry wanted to hike up to a viewing area above the Visitor's Center, but neither Jeff nor Ruth wanted to go with him.  I came out of the cafe and my boy was walking up a hill, headed to what seemed like hundreds of stone stairs to the top of the mountain.  Alone.  When you see something crazy like that, you do stupid things.  In this case, I tried to go up with him, if only just to make sure he stopped at some point and came back instead of hiking off to mountains unknown.  I got as far as about 20 stairs after the initial hill.  I could barely breathe.  At 11,000 feet, the air is very thin.  Henry looked back and I waved to him, but then I turned back before I killed myself going up any higher.  Oh well, at least I tried...

Henry's view from the top of his hike

Henry eventually made it back, red faced and physically exhausted but thrilled that he made it to the top and took awesome pictures.  He said he could see for miles and the views were incredible.

We drove to the Continental Divide in the park.  The kids asked what it was, and we explained that water that falls on one side of the divide will flow to the Pacific Ocean, and water that falls on the other end will make its way to the Atlantic Ocean.  In 2011, we saw some bighorn sheep way up on the rocky top of a mountain, but we didn't see them this time.

Driving in the clouds - the view out
my window

Rain had started falling as we left the Alpine Visitor's Center, and there was some freezing rain mixed in.  As we headed back to the park entrance the clouds got bigger and darker, we heard some thunder and saw one bolt of lightning.  Ruth got a little freaked out, but it wasn't that bad.  One distraction was seeing a larger herd of elk down on one side of the road.  Henry about jumped out of his seat to see them.  As we continued our drive, we were often below the cloud line, and at one point, when I took a picture out my window, there was nothing but white cloud.  The clouds gave us a different view of the park, which was really beautiful.

After we finished our drive, which included getting stuck behind what must have been a skittish driver who refused to go faster than 30 miles per hour downhill and rode most of the way on her poor brakes, we headed into Estes Park for lunch.  We went back to a Mexican restaurant we had eaten at before, and it was just as good as last time.  We made the obligatory Dairy Queen visit, except I held out for a homemade ice cream shop near where we parked.  Much better.

We spent a good deal of time in the Jeep, but the scenery in the park made it all worthwhile.

Tomorrow, it's on to Wyoming!

Prairie Dogs!

On the drive from Kansas to Denver, Henry was on the lookout for wildlife.  He was hoping to see some pronghorn, but no such luck.  As we passed Strasburg, Colorado, he remembered that back in 2011 he saw prairie dogs on the side of I-70 when we would drive back and forth to Denver from our campground in Strasburg.  Sure enough, he spotted lots of them along the highway.  

We stopped for gas and he was thrilled to see prairie dogs scurrying around in fields next to the gas station.  Camera in hand, he went out to see them and take pictures.  He'll post some of his prairie dog pictures later.

Play Ball!

After a relatively short ride from Kansas today (338 miles compared to yesterday's 554-mile long haul), we set up camp at Cherry Creek State Park in Aurora, Colorado.  It was a pretty drive through western Kansas and eastern Colorado.  It was amazing to feel the upward climb as I-70 made its way toward the Rockies.

Tonight we're going to a Colorado Rockies baseball game, probably the only game we'll be able to see on the trip.

Kansas on My Mind

Kansas is an underrated state.  If you haven't been there, you'd just assume it's flat farmland for hundreds of miles with nothing to see.  We've driven through the state twice, and the views from the front seat of the RV are always enjoyable.  We've only stayed in Kansas City, Goodland, and on this trip, Wakeeney, and I'd gladly come back to the state to see more of it.  

Kansas is full of history.  Millions of years ago, Kansas was under an ancient sea, and today, people still find fossils of fish and other sea creatures.  Back when it was the frontier, Buffalo Bill Cody hunted buffalo and spent time in the state, along with other cowboys and outlaws.  Indians lived off the land, hunting buffalo.  Pioneers made their way through the state on their way to Oregon, California and New Mexico.

Each time we have passed through the state, I've made a mental list of things I want to come back to see.  When you're trying to get from point A to point B, it's not always possible to stop at Fort Hays to see what a 1800's fort looked like, stop in a quilt shop in a small town and try to find something for a bed or wall hanging, walk around huge limestone towers - remnants of an ancient inland seabed - that shoot out of the flat earth around it, or stop at Fort Riley - the home of the Big Red One.  Kansas practically begs for tourists to come into its small towns - billboards on the road advertise a giant prairie dog town, frontier life museums, bigger than life statues of buffalo, and farm and automobile museums. Every town has to have something to draw tourists - and their money - in.

When we camped in WaKeeney, I drove into town to pick up a few things in the grocery store.  WaKeeney is the county seat and probably the biggest town in the county.  There's a courthouse on the main street, along with a grocery store, thrift store, bank, and ceramic studio where you can buy bowls, statues or Christmas trees with little holes to put lights in (my grandmother,  cousin and mom have one) and paint them so the owner can fire them and glaze them.  Sadly, many of the storefronts are empty with "For Rent" signs.  I doubt a Starbucks would do well there.  But in the middle of the main street, between two stores, was Wakeeney's "thing" - a Christmas village.  There's a big tree - not live - and I bet in December it's all lit up, along with the main street.  They probably have holiday shops, hot cider and carolers.  But in late July, it's not too exciting.  

Downtown WaKeeney, Kansas

If not for the ice cream social at the campground, Ruth wanted to go to the Dairy Queen on the Route 40 Business spur that runs through WaKeeney.  It's near a bakery and motel.  The bakery makes Amish egg noodles that the grocery store sells.  Whenever I go to a local store, I try to pick up local products to try, so I picked up some noodles and I'm thinking I'll use them in a chicken and noodle recipe or maybe with an alfredo sauce.  I also picked a jar of Amish hot and sweet pickles.  They will be great on sandwiches we make on the road during the long drive days.

Goodland, Kansas - It's "thing"
 is a huge easel with a Van Gogh
sunflower painting. 

As we passed by Goodland, Kansas, whose "things" are the High Plains Museum - which houses everything from wooly mammoth tusks found nearby, to pioneer history to the first patented helicopter made in the U.S. - and a giant easel with a replica of one of Van Gogh's sunflower paintings.  Sunflowers grow in abundance in Kansas, so when a group was planning where to put these huge easels with sunflower paintings in various cities around the world, Goodland got one of them.  You can see it from the highway.  

As we passed from Kansas into Colorado, I felt a little sad that our time there was over.  I look forward to returning someday on another trip.

Pictures from Today's Drive

Today we covered about 520 miles through Missouri and Kansas.  We crossed the Mississippi, Missouri and Kansas Rivers.

The kids and I had cameras ready for any photo moments on the trip, so here's some of the highlights:

Our last view of the Arch Heading West

Hay Bales

Welcome to Kansas

Kansas City, Missouri

Drilling on a Kansas Farm

Grain Elevator in Kansas

Cardinal Baseball Stadium

Ruth liked this giant cow

Kansas Speedway

Farm off I-70 in Kansas

Ruth's Pool Report, Kansas Edition

The first time I went to the pool this trip was pretty fun, except for the freezing part. My plan for my whole life is that I want, before I die, to swim in a pool in every state. 

When we first got to the pool, there was another family there so I just jumped right into the deep end, but my brother went in slowly and it took him like 20 minutes just to get in!  Crazy!!!!  My dad just put his feet in and watched us.  The pool was pretty small, but I'm not gonna complain, at least we got a pool.  After we got out of the pool, there was an ice cream social at our KOA campground so I got chocolate and my dad got vanilla and my brother got Oreo. 

Well, I guess that's it for the pool report. See you soon,

                                                                                    Ruth :)

Kansas Windmills

As we came upon Ellsworth, Kansas, we began to see windmills on the horizon.  Dozens of them.  Then seemingly hundreds of them.  They sit in farm fields and around farm houses.  They tower over the mostly treeless landscape and rotate randomly in the wind.

Henry's Zoo Review

When we came to St. Louis, I wanted to go to the zoo. It wasn't something we did when we went there before, and I love animals. 

Right as we pulled into our parking spot, we had another Amish sighting.  We walked right beside them all the way to the entrance and then never saw them again.

First, we went over quickly to pet sting rays and sharks because it was free before 9:00  a.m.and it was 8:36. Then we headed to see the Hippos, Elephants, Rhinos, and other animals that lived in or near the water.  We were unlucky with seeing all of the animals today.  Two of the five enclosures we looked at had keepers working in them or were under construction.  

I liked seeing the elephants.  They had a baby elephant with its mom.  The mom peed and pooped while we were trying to take pictures.  It was gross.

The Red Rocks area had zebras, big cats, camels, antelope, and other animals with hoofs.   Most of the animals in that section were there, which was good.  I took some good pictures of the male lion.  

One of my favorite parts of the zoo was the penguins.  They were swimming and fighting and one was staring at people walking by.  It was really cold in there.

We watched a bear walk around its area for awhile, and then it sat down like a human and looked around.   I took its picture.

Here are some of the pictures I took at the zoo: 

Lessons Learned About Trip Planning, St. Louis Edition

The lesson we learned from this trip to St. Louis is that if you can only spend two nights here, don't have those two nights be Sunday and Monday night.  

We couldn't get to St. Louis in time for the 1:15 p.m. Sunday game, and there was no game on Monday.  Grant's Farm, a park with animals, a tram ride, shows and a replica of President U.S. Grant's home is closed on Mondays, even in the summer.  

Since we won't be spending any time in Kansas City this trip, we had high hopes of getting some barbecue in St. Louis.  We pretty much struck out on that effort.  By the time we got to town on Sunday, most places were closed.  Two of the best barbecue places in St. Louis are closed on Mondays, and the one that was open (Pappy's Smokehouse) had a 45 minute wait when we got there at lunchtime today.  We were starving and just couldn't stand in line after walking around the zoo for a couple of hours.  There were four grumpy people in the Jeep after our hunt for barbecue went unfulfilled.

We still had a great time in St. Louis, and the glass half full part of me knows that it means we still have lots more to do the next time we come to visit.  And as for barbecue, there's an Arthur Bryant's BBQ right off the interstate outside of Kansas City that will be open tomorrow.  It sits right about at the halfway point of our long drive tomorrow, so we'll be stopping by to pick up some brisket and ribs.  That's one of the best aspects of a road trip - you almost always have options for Plan B if Plan A doesn't work out.

Free Day in St. Louis

One of the perks of living outside of Washington, DC is all of the free attractions, like the monuments, the National Zoo and the Smithsonian museums. Today we were pleasantly surprised with our low-cost tourist activities in St. Louis.  

Henry and Ruth petting
sharks and stingrays

Grant's Farm was closed today, so Henry asked to go to the St. Louis Zoo.  I suggested the Budweiser brewery tour because I remembered thinking it was pretty cool when my family took a brewery tour when I was a kid, and I thought the kids would like to see the Clydesdales.  Or maybe it was fond memories of the opening of Laverne and Shirley episodes - Schlameel, Schlamozel - Hossenpepper Incorporated…  

As luck would have it, both the zoo and the brewery tour are free.  We got to the zoo a little late to take advantage of free street parking, but since we didn't have to pay to get in the zoo, it wasn't so bad.  

Henry will write about the zoo in more detail soon.  It got hotter as the morning went on, but it wasn't too bad.  Right before we left, we went inside the penguin and puffin building, where I'm guessing it was about 50 degrees.  It felt fabulous.  And that exhibit was the best part of the zoo.  Some penguins were arguing, some looked like they were doing yoga - standing still with their wings extended outward, and some looked like they were having a meeting.  The puffins were splashing and goofing around in the water, and two looked like they were wearing Donald Trump style toupees.  The sat facing a windy part of the rock wall, their toupees blowing in the wind.  

Jeff just said he wasn't expecting much from the brewery tour but he really enjoyed it.  The kids liked it too.  Perhaps the most perplexing aspect of them enjoying the trip was both of them saying they liked the smell around the brewery.   

We all enjoyed seeing the Clydesdales, both outside and in the horse barn.  The one inside looked huge!  Her name was Clare and she was beautiful.  

The brewery in St. Louis was the first brewery in the Anheuser Busch company, so there are still some historic buildings that date back to the company's early years, including the horse barn, the clock tower and the elementary school that the children of the company's founders went to.  We learned that during Prohibition, the company stayed alive by making and selling yeast, ice cream and other products.  When Prohibition was repealed, 25,000 St. Louis residents celebrated right outside of the brewery when the first cases and kegs of beer came out.  It must have been quite a party.

Watching the bottling process

My favorite part of the tour was watching the bottles go through the process of getting filled, labelled and sent along for cooling and packing.  Automated assembly lines fascinate me.  In addition to watching it from above, we also got to walk on the production floor to see and hear it up close.  

The tour ended in the tasting room.  When I saw Shock Top on the tap in the tasting room, I new what my first free beer was going to be.  It was ice cold and delicious.  Jeff's not a big beer drinker, but I told him to try it and he liked it as well.  The kids enjoyed the pretzels and free soda.  Ruth mixed Pepsi and root beer and loved the combination.

The most shocking - and financially efficient - part of the whole day is that we left both the zoo and brewery without purchasing any items from the gift shops.

Arch Photos

Some of photos from last night at the Gateway Arch: