Blow by blow, here it is:
August 13, Saturday
Finally left the house at 2:00pm, arriving at my parents at 11pm. We've done that route so often down the I35 corridor, that it's rather boring. I sorted my bag o' papers and caught up on my magazines. Threw out a bunch of Muscle and Fitness after tearing out the 'good' articles. It was great to finally see the Fry. I missed her so. It rained the ENTIRE drive there. No small potatoes considering it's a constant 8 hours on the road at 70+mph.
August 14, Sunday
Laid around the 'Rents house, just chatting, looking at mementoes from the grandparents, hugging on the Fry, and eating cupcakes. I also defragged the parent's hardrive and checked for errors. Sifted through Fry's new toys for packing and showed off my lace knitting. Even Dad seemed impressed. Not that he's not easily impressed, but with doilies in the Dollar stores, sometimes skill isn't easily seen. Dad also thinks blogs are like Miranda rights, anything you say can and will be used against you. Which is why those who read this aren't going to hear about my college days. Ha! Of course, MY college days are almost as bad as today's middle school kids' times. I drank a few beers, but never tried anything illegal or tobacco-related. Anyone who gets addicted to Diet Pepsi and As The World Turns should not try anything stronger than that. I keep trying to get addicted to exercise and Tofu, but sadly, those won't 'take'.
Anyway, on to...
August 15, Monday
Amarillo! Famous as the Birthplace of Fry! We ate lunch where Hubby and I had our first date, visited our first house and the honeymoon home, visited Fry's birthplace (hospital), went to Hubby's workplace and talked with some of his former coworkers, and had a great time. After Amarillo was Dumas (Doo-mas), then Dalhart (or vice versa, I can't keep them straight). We hit New Mexico and went to the top of Capulin, an extinct volcano.
It's so cool, you can see the chunks of lava long before getting there. The whole place is a collection of various extinct volcanoes. Since it's a National Park, we got the Passport stamp, of course. We had to give the Great Sand Dunes a miss, since we wanted to get to Hubby's Sister's house at a reasonable time.August 16, Tuesday
Royal Gorge! We walked the bridge,
took the tram, and took the steep railway to the bottom of the gorge. Very lovely. Then we went to Cottonwood Pass and the Great Divide.
We hiked up a little and even Hubby was out of breath at 12126 feet (3700m). Fry was feeling bad over being out of shape, but if a guy who runs 2 miles in 17 minutes is winded... We did a very quick stop at the Florissant Fossil beds. Sad, because all we had time to do was get our passport stamped and buy some brochures on how the fossils came to be.
After that, Pike's Peak. We drove up as slow as humanly possible. Not that I'm bitter or in a hurry, not at all. The time spent was worth it and the drive was wonderful. We drove down at sunset and am sure we had altitude sickness.
August 17, Wednesday
Fry-day!! It is Fry's birthday. We celebrated by driving through Phantom Canyon, touring a real gold mine, visiting the Air Force Academy
, and eating pizza and birthday cake. She got money from her aunt, then books from us. She loves Calvin and Hobbes, so we found her two of those, and she wanted the boxed set of Lemony Snicket books.August 18, Thursday
Leaving Colorado day. First stop is the Great Sand Dunes. When the sign says the sand gets hot, believe them. Ow. The nice thing is, the creek really felt good on our toasted toes.
