Back home

We're all back home and as of today all back to work. The girls are getting up earlier after 2 weeks of staying in bed as long as they wanted and Ilm back to church. After Colorado Springs we spent a day with my Dad's oldest sister in the Nebraska panhandle.

Our last 2 free days were in Hot Springs South, Dakota. We were coming back to the hotel after the lighting ceremony at Mount Rushmore when we saw a buffalo on the highway in Cave of the winds National Park. As we slowed to go passed one buffalo we saw two others silouetted by the moon on a ridge 40 feet to our east. I sure wish I'd had the presence of mind to slow down and get a great picture.

Back in Colorado Springs

We're pretty regular visitors to Colorado Springs. My sister lives here so it's not unheard of for us to spend a week or two here each year.

One of our new stops in Colorado this year was at Santa's Workshop at the North Pole. It's located just west of Colorado Springs on US 24.

It's a great amusement park for families with kids under 10. There were very few rides that weren't right for our whole family.

On Thursday we left the Springs with our niece joining us for 3 nights of travel and headed to Denver and then west up I70 into the mountains.


My beloved's cousin lives in Frisco. She gave us a tour including a stop at a top notch play ground and a small mountain pond called Rainbow Lake. One really fascinating and disturbing part of our stop was all the devastation that we saw happening in the forests in Summit County and Grand County. The Pine Beetles are wrecking huge stand of timber in a matter of 5 or 6 years depending on who you ask. Some estimate that up tp 90% of the Ponderosa and Lodge Pole Pine will be gone after this infestation runs its course.

After Frisco we headed to Winter Park for a night and then to the YMCA of the Rockies and to Snow Mountain Ranch for a reunion of my wife's family.

Vacation posting

We've covered some real ground this week.
We started with the prairie of Southern Minnesota, Northwest Iowa, Nebraska, and Northeastern Colorado. Most of these photos are from the arch at Kearney, Nebraska. Its a great view of travel across the prairie from the Native American hunters who followed game trails, the prospectors and pioneers who came across in covered wagons, the Pony Express. Notable to our girls were all the things left behind as people crossed to the west because they didn't want the furniture, books, or other items they had thought necessary to pack for their trip.

vacation on the road

What happens when 4 people get in a van and drive west? Vacation.

we've covered a lot of miles, and a nifty wireless web device makes posting possible. We've had 2 good stops all 4 of us would recommend.
1 Wells Dairy Visitor Center in La Mars, Iowa. it's a top notch ice cream shop in the middle of Northwest Iowa. We headed downn the road next to US 20. The road winds through Nebraska's beautiful Missouri River Bluffs. Even West of Kearney the whole state has been green from this years considerable rainfall.
2. Our second notable stop was the Great Platte River Archway Museum just east of Kearney. It's a neat museum complete with life size wagons, welcoming costumed staff, audio accompaniment, and ok special effects.