The Peckish Writer

GEO: n39.59308 w106.09383 - Nice little log cabin motif hotel in Frisco, CO.

Sorry for no posts but we’re still getting onto the rhythm of things.

So, here’s the details since the last post.  This is going to be kind of rough because I want to go to bed.  Though I do have Internet access and my nice large laptop keyboard.  My brain is just fried from memory lane and things 9,000 feet above sea level.

{okee - michelle taking over because richard is just fried}

Let’s see… I’ll try to do a quick recap before I pass out so y’all know what’s been going on.  But, it is me, so it might be hard to rein in.
Day 1:
first stop:  N 41.74660 W 85.32868
first gas-up:  N 40.45557 W 88.10152
first sleep stop:  N 39.19958 W 88.50146

Got out of Michigan and through Indiana and most of Illinois.  This GPS thing really rocks.  We stopped at IKEA Canton on our way out and realized that we had left the huge book of a map (atlas?) at home and used the GPS to find another REI just 10 minutes away to buy the exact same one.  I passed out in back before we stopped since I hadn’t got much sleep the night before.  I think we ended up in Effingham, Illinois at a surprisingly clean rest area, about 2 hours from St. Louis, MO.  I took lots of pics on the way… sorry.  Don’t have them any more.  THAT story to follow!

Day 2:
gas + arby’s N 38.73170 W 89.90903
ted drewes N 38.58941 W 90.30773
stop for a bathroom break and switch drivers N 38.81678 W 90.94982
motel 6 first real bed and shower and mcdonald’s for breakfast the next day N 38.8956 W 99.31709

Oh boy.  This day was a lot of driving.  Drove to St. Louis and went to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard on Old Historic Route 66.  Yum!  My frozen custard brownie cement didn’t fall out of the cup even though I held it upside down for a long time.  Had a Ted Drewes T-shirt with the upside down frozen custard from a thrift store years ago so we had to go.  It was a good time for dessert.  I took over driving from the bathroom break to past Kansas City (both of ‘em).  Richard passed out in back.  We stopped for gas on the Kansas Turnpike and switched drivers - that was where our camera mini-adventure began:

Things I learned in this little adventure:
~Small digital cameras do not do well when flying off of the hood of a car going 60+ miles per hour on the Kansas Turnpike.
~They make a loud crazy *bump* sound on the rearview mirror before careening away from the car onto the pavement.
~They don’t do too well in the middle of the highway.
~Exits are few and far between on the Kansas Turnpike.
~But you can do a u-turn at the service plaza in the middle ‘cuz you can choose which direction you’re going in *after* you get the ticket at the entry point.
~Richard is really good at running across two lanes of highway to retrieve banged up cameras.
~SD cards and batteries go flying out when camera fall, go boom.
~They’re also really little and hard to see after it’s dark.
~Working on price accuracy at Target comes in handy when you need to buy a new digital camera and you know that a bunch just went on clearance.
~SuperTargets carry ready-to-eat sushi that has wasabi in little ketchup-like packets that looks really weird when you squeeze it out and is really freekin’ spicy.

We stopped at a hotel this night.  I was asleep in the back for a little while before discovering that the EconoLodge in Hays, Kansas doesn’t have vacancies without a reservation..... um......  er......  what?????

showers are good.

Day 3
gas before vast expanse of West Kansas (Kansas is HUGE!) N 38.94795 W 99.56084
Summit Inn n39.59317 w 106.09366

Kansas is big… and there’s nothing there.
Colorado is nice.  really nice!
Mountains are cool.  and a little scary.
I want to see a concert at Red Rocks now.

We went to a bunch of places in the Denver area - kind of a walk/drive down memory lane for Richard since he used to live here years ago.
Tried to find a camping place to sleep in the van but things seemed to be working against us in that regard so we found this cute little place, cheap-ish.
Ran into a mountain.  Rather.  Backed into a mountain.  Bumper works great!

OkaY.  i’M OFF.  I’m tired and too lazy to fix the caps LOCK SNAFU that seems to kEEP HAPPENing. 
Cheers!
~michelle

Additional: Details will be added eventually to the pics in the gallery.  Many will make no sense to those who don’t know the stories behind them. .. richard

“Ran into a mountain.  Rather.  Backed into a mountain.  Bumper works great!”

hahahaha! I want details! And pictures!

Luv,
Mum

Just saw the pics. Is that our old apt. in Littleton? Still want to see the mountain you backed into.

Give me access to your CMS backend, I am gonna make you an RSS feed so I can keep up :D

Also, your preview is broken

Thanks, James - I was going to ask Rich for a feed, but figured he wouldn’t be able to do it on the road.

Yeah, didn’t have time to get a pic of the mountain, plus it was dark.  Basically, a place to turn around was no where near on this dinky 2 lane road so I decided to pull a Uie.  Well I saw headlights and overreacted.  No damage though, wasn’t enough space to pick up speed.

Oh and yeah..  thats our first apartments in Littleton. That was the spot that I blew up the bullet.  Wasn’t any lasting damage on the sidewalk so I just took a pic of the whole area.