On Saturday Jeff and I fixed our broken gate hardware and installed a door closer on the door to our garage. The gate now stays closed without breaking wood off the fence and the garage door closes slowly and will no longer slam. Fantastic!
We were feeling somewhat antsy after this work and thought it could be fun to go pick up some dinner and eat it in the car somewhere with a nice view. After all, what's the fun of having a nice car if you don't spend much time in it?
So, after thinking for a while about it, we decided to just get in the car and drive in a direction until we felt like stopping. We felt that if we didn't want to drive all the way back home at that time, we would be happy to find a hotel for the night and return home in the morning.
So, we planned on heading north (Jordan wanted to go south, and I wanted to go east, but Jeff got us to agree that there are more stops if we headed north). I packed a small amount of things in case we stayed overnight somewhere (Jeff's contact supplies and our other bathroom needs in the kit we have on hand). I fed Luigi & the fish, and made sure Smoky had enough food and water. I then stuck a few drinks in the car, we grabbed our jackets, and were off!
Not thinking far enough ahead to grab our real camera, I found myself using my cell phone. Also, I failed to even consider taking pictures until the return trip (which proved better, since it was dark much of the "there" drive).
Here is an attempted shot of the
mountains - too far away for a decent picture
After traveling through Denver for an hour (we had to slog through the traffic surrounding two separate accidents - ugh), we were finally north of metro Denver and the roads started clearing out. It was amazing to see that metro Denver has grown north quite a bit since we lived up that way. I was unable to see any difference between Denver and Northglenn/Thornton, and there was only a slight bit of space between Northglenn/Thornton and Erie/Dacono/Frederick/Firestone (now just all mashed together into one city).
Here is another try at a
mountain shot - still too far away
Jordan, being an only child, has never had to deal with other kids on road trips. So, Jeff and I regaled him with various tales of road trip traditions. We talked about the slug bug game, how people have different fun things they do when they drive over railroad tracks, fun games to play with license plates & road signs to help pass the time. He sat in incredulous silence for a few minutes, then scoffed and said that we had weird childhoods, and then went back to his reading. Although we have a DVD player in the car (including headphones so only the movie viewers have to hear it), he refused to bring a movie and just chose two books. My kind of kid.
I will never get my mountain picture, apparently
We sailed past Fort Collins and Jordan began looking for the Colorado/Wyoming border. He's never been to Wyoming, so he was looking forward to adding it to his list of visited states.
A picture of the landscape to the east
By this time the sun had set and there was very little traffic on the road. Jordan kept attempting to read his book by using his cell phone light, but I put a stop to that. He has poor enough eyesight as it is without straining to read a book in a dark car!
I wonder if there are any owls along Owl Canyon
Road? I almost had us go check...
We hit the state border and he enjoyed reading the many billboards posted there. Most of his questions and comments revolved around the various radio & cell towers in the area, plus quite a few space-related questions had nothing to do with the journey.
The mountains still haven't gotten any closer
We found Cheyenne a few minutes later and pulled into a parking lot to decide what to eat for dinner. Jordan requested IHOP, so we found one and ate a very filling meal. We then declared that it was too late to comfortably drive home, so we found a nice hotel and got a room.
While trying to snap another mountain pic, I
indavertently got myself in the side mirror - silly (plus, the
mountains are proving to be permanently elusive today)
The hotel (Microtel - our first time in one) was fairly new (still had balloons, banners, etc.) and our room was very clean. The flat-screen TV was hung directly on the wall, which eliminated the need for the typical TV armoire that is found in most hotels. This made the room seem much larger. Jordan chose his bed and lay down to read. Jeff and I checked out the TV and found the quality very nice. We settled on an educational show from the History channel, about the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors to our planet. Jordan was unable to read very long, as the topic of the show drew him in like a black hole. He absolutely loved it. I have no idea what it was even called! We learned a lot, and he hasn't stopped talking about it.
Only 68 miles back to Denver
In the morning, we watched a couple of shows in bed (always fun to do in a hotel), then checked out. We had missed the continental breakfast (fine by me, but Jeff and Jordan seem to enjoy them) so we went looking for food. We decided we weren't hungry enough to eat at that time, so we just headed toward home with the intent of stopping for breakfast or lunch along the way. We made it to Loveland before our stomachs overpowered us and forced us to stop.
This is just a cool outcropping of rocks we found
along the road - it was maybe 500 feet long
Since we had arrived in Wyoming in the dark, on the return trip we had Jordan look out at the landscape and take in whatever Wyoming had to offer him. He was pleased to see the wind turbines spinning out at various wind farms. After we had been back in Colorado for about 15 minutes, he went back to his reading.
I don't know why I kept trying...
When we got to Loveland and stopped to eat, we agreed to try a new restaurant we had never been to: the Bent Fork. It was a new experience, and fairly expensive for lunch. With 2 sodas and a lemonade, a cheese plate appetizer, and 3 lunch meals, we paid $50 - ouch. But the food was good enough, the restaurant wasn't busy at all, and the atmosphere was nice. Since there is a movie theater near the restaurant, we drove by to see what movies are playing (we never know). It was strange to see that there were 8 PG, 3 PG-13, and 6 R movies. I've never seen so many PG movies in a theater in my life! Jordan showed no interest in any of them. Having received the movie information we desired, we continued on our journey home.
There was a giant buffalo statue on a hill - I'd like to
detour at some point and see what that's all about
We have rarely taken I-270 (I guess the road continues into other states, although the named 270 part itself is only in Colorado, making the Interstate label a bit erroneous). Our car's navigation system (Navi) told us that going that direction would be the fastest way to get home, so we ventured off our beaten I-25 path and onto 270. Heading through Commerce City is always interesting, and this is the first time Jordan's ever been interested in it. He loved every minute of the city. He enjoyed looking at various power plants, and even naming which source they came from (natural gas being the most common). He was intrigued by the Colorado UPS hub there and remarked on the number of UPS trucks parked in the lots. I've never taken that much interest in Commerce City, but he seemed to love it. Strange.
We also got to do the new(er) Parker/I-225 flyover loop and enjoyed that. We've done it going in other directions, but never from southbound I-225 to Parker. It was quite the adventure.
We arrived home about 10 minutes later and were able to walk through the garage door that has the newly-installed door closer on it. A thoroughly wonderful way to be welcomed home by one's house!
We got home just after noon, so Jordan still had plenty of time to do whatever he wanted before school on Monday, which is very important to him. He needs his alone time. :)
Overall, we had a spectacular spontaneous trip. Although we didn't go anywhere overly exciting, we were together, having a silly adventure that we'd never done before.
A side note regarding the pictures I took. All of these were taken in the car, going roughly 75mph. You can tell the motion in them, sorry. I'm not normally a mountain-viewer, and I have never understood why people love the mountains so much and strive to find lodging (house, apartment, hotel, camp site, etc) with a decent mountain view. But after seeing nothing but dry, grassy fields for an hour or so, finally catching a glimpse of the dark, snow-covered Rockies just made me need to take a picture. While none of the pictures are very good, at least I now have a better understanding into what people find so wonderful about the mountains. I didn't take any pictures of us, as I didn't want to distract Jeff too much while driving (it was really windy in Northern Colorado and Wyoming!) and Jordan was sitting directly behind me, so I couldn't get a good shot. But, with Jordan's birthday this week, I should get some more pictures of us celebrating his last year before his teens start. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment