Search This Blog

Recipes

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Tales From Our Trip

Well, it's been a while since I last posted anything. Just about two weeks, I think. Long enough to have had our vacation and be back to "normal". So here's a little synopsis of how our trip went.
Last day before vacation: I packed, packed, packed, trying to make-up lost time from getting sick. I was on an antibiotic and prednisone, so I didn't even get to sleep. I did blog and said we were leaving at 6 am in the morning if nothing happened, which something usually does happen to make us leave late.
Day 1: Something did happen to make us late! Colin had been opening and closing the doors on our van most of the evening before and early in the morning. I noticed a funny clicking noise and we realized we had a dead battery. AAA came at 7:30 am and jump started our battery so we could head out. We purchased a new battery for the van as the one we had was marginal at best and probably not what we wanted to rely on for a 3000 mile trip! God was watching out for us on that one. It was much easier to deal with at home rather than somewhere on the road.
After replacing the battery, we drove through Washington and Oregon. We stopped for dinner in Ontario, OR. I was ready to stop at this point, but Colin had reservations at a KOA in Twin Falls, Idaho (or just outside of it). So we drove on, with me muttering about getting a motel room sometime soon and could we just forget about the KOA? Well, no, we needed to get there. Colin was bound and determined to get us there. We got there, but by the time we got there it was 10:30 at night. Colin had forgotten that we crossed over into Mountain Time somewhere near the Idaho border. It was pitch black by the time we got to the KOA, Colin's eyes were bugging him after driving Idaho roads after dark (we will never do that again. Those roads need to restriped! You can't see the stripes on the highway and it's a curvy road and the speed limit is 75. Talk about scary!). We drove to our campsite only to find that it was beside a road in the campground. That would have been handy to access our site if two vehicles hadn't parked there completely blocking the road and the good access to our site. Since it was already 10:30 we couldn't really go and find the owners of the vehicles and ask them to move. Plus, somehow Colin had managed to bury the tent somewhere in the bottom of everything we packed. So I voiced the same idea I had voiced off and on since Ontario. Could we please find a motel? So Colin used the GPS that he had borrowed from his dad and started looking up motels in the area and calling them.
Motel # 1: Days Inn...completely booked.
Motel # 2: Best Western....$130 a night with a AAA discount...uuuhhh, no thank you.
Motel # 3: Holiday Inn Express...$107 a night with AAA discount....good-bye yard sale profit....hello sleep!
So we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. It was great! Nice room, nice beds, really good breakfast (scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage gravy , biscuits, cinnamon rolls, juice....I'm not sure what other things they had, Colin brought my breakfast to me). I would go there again in a heartbeat!
By the way, we were driving for about 14 hrs. I never want to be in any vehicle for that long again, ever! I think 10 hrs. is pretty close to my max.
Day 2: We left Twin Falls after a quick stop at the mall for more things to plug into the DVD player and getting gas in the van at $3.85 a gallon. I wanted to stop at Shoshone Falls, but Colin couldn't find it. The GPS did one of it's many interesting things and led us out of town in a weird out of the way direction. I'm sure it was something Colin clicked on, but by the end of the trip I was telling the GPS it didn't know anything. I'll try to explain as it comes up. Let's just say for now, both times we were in Twin Falls it got Colin lost. Colin gets lost in Twin Falls no matter what. He did when we were there in 1999 and he did again this trip. Silly.
So this day we drove about 10 hrs. to Laramie, Wyoming. We saw huge energy windmills on the way, tons of them. By the time we reached Laramie, I was craving a steak because every third billboard had an advertisement for steak (it is cattle country). So after we checked in to the Comfort Inn, we went to a restaurant nearby called Wingers. They had good steak, but the service was pretty slow and they have the dumbest appetizer....popcorn. I am SOOOOO glad I was never a waitress at a place that serves popcorn for an appetizer. What a mess! Ian loved it! He did end up having to eat some of his popcorn off our freshly cleaned table as he started digging for the really yellow pieces and dumped a whole bunch on the table. After our yummy dinner we crashed in our motel room. What a long day!
Day 3: Time to finish the trip. We woke up and headed out of town (a weird way again thanks to the GPS. I know this GPS is a girl, it has a girl's voice and it likes to send us on the scenic route!). It only took us about 3 hrs. or so to get to Colorado. We met up with my family in Lyons, CO and followed them to the cabin. The cabin is at an elevation of 8000 feet. Hello altitude!
Okay, it's late. I will continue this later.

No comments: