Another vacation is done and we’re back home again. There were some amazing moments and some less-than-stellar ones. And yes, there are photos.
Lots and lots and LOTS of photos. On the order of 5000 if I counted right. It’s will take months to get through them all. The ones in this post are just some of the first ones pulled at random. They’re not the best.
Seeing the kids and the grandkids was obviously great. It was the first time we’d visited the youngest son in Colorado and the first time I’d ever been to the Denver area. It was the longest continuous time I’d spend with his family and they were wonderful. His girls are aged 8 and 5, with wildly different personalities. G took the girls each a small stuffed animal. The youngest carried hers EVERYWHERE, even taking it to school with her. We also gave the girls some money for the book fair, which had them literally squealing in delight.
The NAY of the trip was that their house was two stories, with all bedrooms upstairs. The only way I could get there was crawling up on all fours. I did it – but it was slow and painful. (Adding to the challenge was the vaulted ceilings throughout – so the stairs at their home are actually more than a story high.)
Denver and vicinity surprised me. I expected it to entire area to be alpine forest. There were forested areas, but the majority was high plains.
After a couple of days with the younger son, we drove to Iowa, which was both a beautiful and a frustrating trip. We drove nearly an entire day without finding anywhere to stop and get food, not even a convenience store. The scenery was marvelous, but God help you if you need gas, potty breaks, or food, across the northern Colorado-Nebraska plains.
This farmhouse, set back from the road, was typical of most of our northern leg of the trip. So too was the haze, which drifted down from wildfires in Wyoming.
When we did find towns, they were tiny dots with a row or two of Little-House-On-The-Prairie-esque storefronts and a crazy quilt of mid-century, Victorian, and ruined homes.
Many of the storefront facades were boarded up, though a few were open for business.
These small jewels were a definite YAY for us. We love photographing them. The example above isn’t the best, but you get the general idea.
Iowa was beautiful, as always, though we traveled enough back roads to see some junky and failing towns. I told G they existed. I think he didn’t believe me until this trip. Great camera fodder, don’t get me wrong. Gimme a tumbledown house and I’m a happy camper with a camera. Living there is different story.
Of course, there were also amazing and beautiful old homes, like this gingerbread confection.
I snapped this photo in a tiny town called Moravia, Iowa, near Rathbun Lake. The entire area was gorgeous.
Most of the NAY experiences — other than the stairs, which were a challenge at both boys’ homes — also related to health and stress issues.
We don’t drive freeways, for several reasons. Among them, you can’t easily pull off the road to take photos if you’re on the Interstate. We also take lesser-traveled roads to avoid heavy traffic and big cities, Usually that works out great. This time around it mostly did – except for a 100-mile-stretch of Highway 54 through Kansas, which was literally bumper-to-bumper big rigs. The traffic was ridiculous, making photography a challenge and driving a nightmare.
Y’all, cruise control is NOT a luxury item for me. My physical issues mandate it. But for 100+ miles along the road, there was no way to use cruise control. By the time we finally turned off that stretch of road, I cried in relief.
The stretch of Highway 54 did provide a few photo opportunities, thankfully; plus we turned off into one of the small towns along the way and I did some just-before-they-closed shopping.
These are tiny sauce bowls that fit into the palm of your hand, and I freaking love them. I’d have liked one of all four designs, but at $9 each, it wasn’t going to happen. I did find them online here and a couple of other places, and might eventually order the others. I couldn’t justify — even to myself — spending $40 for a handful of teeny tiny bowls. (Just to clarify – I could have bought them. But I wouldn’t do it.)
The last three days of our trip home challenged me. We drove Highway 54 on our second day, which drove my BP through the roof. The next day was a bit odd. We did a longish detour to go to Roswell, NM. I had wanted to go and we were expecting a tiny, kitschy spot on the road, like everything else in the area. We didn’t expect a city of 50K people with a long strip of chain stores and restaurants. We had a good meal there and made our way to the older part of town. Other than lunch, though, we never got out of the car. By mutual agreement, we beat a hasty retreat. Roswell was, for us, a complete bust.
However, the drive from Roswell to our motel was AMAZING. We took a backroad through the mountains on the Billy the Kid Scenic Byway. It was enough to make up for Roswell. I haven’t touched that group of photos yet, sorry. The best part was a tiny community in the mountains called Lincoln – where nearly every structure included a historic marker.
This part was good. The not-so-good part was I was developing a cough and a scratchy throat, which grew progressively worse though the day. Overnight I woke at 2am-ish, genuinely wondering if I was going to be able to drive us the last leg home the next day.
We made it home about 4:30pm yesterday, though I’ve been a complete vegetable on the sofa since stepping through the door. That’s all I can do for now. I’ll post more after I’m well enough to rejoin the human race.
The vacation sounds like it was wonderful, in spite of a few problems. I hope you are feeling better by now, being back home again. Love the little bird dishes. I’m looking forward to your photos too.
Thank you, Terri. I’m unfortunately still sick, but just ordered Zicam and Vicks for delivery later this morning. Here’s hoping they help kick this stuff to the curb.