Day 7

Day 7 We have been gone almost a week already. Time flies. Today started out long. This portion of I-70 through Utah is very desolate and barren. It is almost like driving through the moon with a backdrop of plateaus and vistas. There is one stretch where there is no gas or services for 110 miles. Once this passed the drive got better. We turned south and made our way to Bryce Canyon. The kids

were getting restless at this point and a stop was needed. Bryce Canyon was fairly hot, but we decided to do a short hike and have a picnic lunch. We walked along the rim of the Canyon and ate. We then noticed sirens and lights and several park rangers showed up followed by woodland paramedics and fireman. Something was up. Grant, being Grant, ran right up and asked them what was going on. They told him that someone fell at the bottom and they needed to get them. They had some sort of stretcher that looked like a wheelbarrow they began to wheel down. This must have not been feasible, because they had to call a helicopter for the evacuation and for the first time in 20 years they landed the chopper on a tiny ridge down in the canyon. Yikes. I wonder what happened to the fellow. We continued on through some colorful high desert and made our way to Zion National Park. This area is amazing if you ever get the chance to look. You leave some scrub desert and enter this beautiful canyon with amazing color and views. It is very stunning and peaceful. We parked the trailer and began a short hike to watch the sun set on the rocks. It was beautiful, and we plan to go back tomorrow to try and do another quick hike. Tomorrow it’s on to Las Vegas.

Day 6

Day 6 Today we almost died. Almost. The day started out well enough. We got packed up and going as usual. 1 mile down the road Grant realized that Alex had unbuckled the tethering to her car seat so we pulled over to fix that. We continued on out of Estes Park taking a scenic route that led us East and then South down out of the mountains. It was a very scenic slow going road with lots of wildlife. We saw, deer, elk, and a moose. The weather was perfect. We ended up in an old mining town named central city that is about 7 miles from I-70. There is a long highway that connects the city to the Interstate. It is 7 miles long, four lanes that are divided in the middle, and an 8% grade downhill. This is a fairly steep long winding downhill. Towing a trailer required some transmission braking and the like to help keep your brakes cool. This is when it all went wrong. I was behind some red small car. A Scion I think. This car pulled over onto the shoulder, and I instinctively moved over into the left lane to give him space, in case he opened a door or something. The red car then inexplicably made a U turn right in front of me. I was going about 60mph and the car was about 30- 40 yards in front of me and turned really slowly. I had barely enough time to react. I pressed the brakes as hard as I could and braced for impact. As I did that, with the amount of momentum we had the trailer, she jackknifed and the trailer slid out sideways from the Sequoia and the Sequoia began to go into a flat spin and pitch like the whole rig was about to roll over. Suddenly I heard some sort of alarm siren go off in the Sequoia, as if I fighter jet had been locked onto by a missile. I felt several thuds and thumps and the Sequoia took the controls from me and fixed the spin and roll and then released and we were angling toward the shoulder which I was able to correct. Apparently the Sequoia has some sort of computerized skid control that detects such impending disasters and applies differential braking to the four wheels couple with transmission work and the like to correct the situation. This all happened in a matter of seconds. My thoughts went from fear, to wanting to kill the driver of the other car for putting my family at risk, and then relief. We had to pull over shortly after as this situation caused one of the rotors and brake pads to overheat. I think it has warped just a bit. Nonetheless we live. The Toyota Sequoia gets props for being a hell of a tow vehicle. We got onto the Interstate, which at this point and for the next 100 miles or so, is high altitude grades and descents. Very fatiguing driving. We stopped in Vail, and found a local park to make lunch and have a picnic. The park was clean and beautiful so we ate hot dogs and played a family game of soccer with a mountain backdrop. We continued on through the mountains which changed to high plains desert as we entered Utah. We decided to take a scenic back highway on the way to Moab. This was an excellent choice as the road wound along the Colorado river and afforded some awesome views of some rock formations in the Canyon. We arrived in Moab in the evening, dropped our trailer at the campsite and went to Arches National Park. The setting sun cast some amazing light and color in the park and we went on a short hike to the arch. All in all a very relaxing evening to end a stressful day.

Day 5

Day 5 So I finally got a touch of altitude sickness as I sit here typing this blog I have a splitting headache and feel numb and weird. Perhaps I overdid it a bit today but it was worth it. We decided to have a lazy morning and slept in a bit and got up to get ready to hike. This was a mistake. Apparently the main road that goes through Rocky Mountain National Park is getting resurfaced this summer

. This means that the main road is closed from 9am to 4pm all season. Today was the first day of this. The rule is that you must park just inside the park and shuttle busses will take you to the desired destination. I know this may come as a surprise, but a federal agency was woefully unprepared for a contingency. The bus system was a disaster. They would not come for an hour and then come all bunched up. It literally took us 2 hours to get to our trailhead which was just a few miles from the gate. We were not able to start hiking until noon. Nonetheless, it was a wonderful hike up to a string of alpine lakes. The kids and I had another snowball fight and just relaxed next to the lake. There was something about that level of solitude combined with the view and weather that just made me feel at peace. If only for a moment. We continued back down the mountain to deal with the bus fiasco yet again. By this time the baby was melting down and we were very pleased to get back to the car. The children had completed their junior ranger badge workbook so we stopped by the ranger station and they turned it in to receive their badge. They still get very excited by this and its fun to see them get so happy. We left to go back to the campsite and cooked the trout from yesterday in foil with some lemon pepper and butter and some brown rice with beets and beet greens we had squirreled away from our garden. It game out splendid. With full bellies we put all three now miserable children to sleep. We are worn out and there is laundry yet to be done, but a good day nonetheless.

Day 4 I sit here typing today’s entry as all the kids and Amy are passed out. A fun day it was indeed. We got up and had big bowls of oatmeal to get ready for the days hike. Since it was Memorial Day we expected large crowds in Rocky Mountain National Park. It actually wasn’t crowded however. Initially, we were going to repeat a day hike we did last year, but Amy felt the kids got tired and bored on that one. We decided instead to do a loop hike to an Alpine lake called Bierstadt Lake. The first portion of the hike had quite a bit of uphill trail segments. To the kids credit they seemed to handle it well. Harris rode on Amy’s back while Grant and Alex hiked. They were excited to hike this time because they were able to wear the new Camelback water pouches they had. Once we got up to the lake, the wind was whipping around something fierce. We stopped for lunch and froze while we quickly ate. There was still snow up at that altitude, so of course Grant wanted to have a snowball fight and of course I obliged. We did this for a bit too long as my hand began to ache and throb. I convinced Grant it was time to stoop and we continued on. The second half of the hike was amazing. It was a series of switchbacks along the side of the mountain that afforded some amazing views of the mountain range with its snow capped peaks. We had to stop several times just to take in the views. We slowly made our way down to the shuttle bus stop which took up back to the parking area. Halfway on the hike Harris actually wanted to walk and probably hiked almost a mile by himself at 9000 ft elevation. Not too bad for an almost 2 year old. We decided to take a drive along Trail Ridge Road. Trail Ridge Road is a road that goes along the Alpine Ridge in the park and is very narrow and winding but has some spectacular views. We arrived at a scenic overlook high in the mountains on a sheer cliff. We stopped and watched a family of idiots climb over the security wall and horseplay on the 3 foot ledge in front of that that dropped of into oblivion. The foolish risks some people take never ceases to amaze me. They climbed back over the retaining wall and then got back to their car. I then heard the father screaming and swearing loudly. “Who locked the doors ^#&^#%%” . Then the wife responds. “Oh, no the dog did it”. These people left the keys in the car high up in the mountains miles from anywhere with a Chihuahua in the car to horseplay. Apparently, the dog stepped on the door lock switch and locked it up. They were SOL. The boy was at the window screaming at the dog to please open the door. We sat for a while and watched this comedy unfold and then proceeded on down the mountain. We again witnessed human stupidity. I was going the speed limit of 35 down the mountain road. Some idiot began to tailgate me and then for some reason decided to pass me going around a blind curve in a no pass zone. Once he passed I noticed he had Texas plated and it was from Round Rock Toyota. Idiot. Embarrassing to Texans. We continued on out of the park and went back to the fishing pond. Today our luck was different. The winds had died down and the fish were biting. We managed to catch a couple. I went to trade in one of the rods and the guy gave me one with a spoon. This was like cocaine to these trout. I hooked one and let Grant try and land it. He got a little too excited and jerked the rod so hard it pulled the lure out of the fished mouth. The lure flew back and ended up buried in his scalp. I investigated it more and the hook was pretty well embedded in there. I went and asked one of the fish workers to loan me a pliers to work on this. I went back to Grant who had a very frightened look on his face. I told him to take a deep breath and pushed the hook through. I clipped the barb off

and removed it. Kudos to Grant for being tough. He didn’t even cry. I guess all that training good for something. Grant and Alex made up for this setback by catching 7 fish. They shall make a nice supper tomorrow. We went back to the campground and played a bit of put putt golf roasted marshmallows and got the kids to bed. Tomorrow there is more hiking to do. Pictures to be posted when I get a better internet connection.

Day 3 Today we got up semi-late and decided to take it easy since the drive to Estes Park is not really that long. We made a pancake breakfast and then made the short drive to Garden of the Gods Park for a short morning hike. Last night some sort of wind storm blew through and there were all sorts of downed tree limbs and such. This wind also seemed to blow out a lot of the dust and smog. The views were amazing and the temperature just right for

a hike. We hiked for about an hour and a half. Even Harris insisted on walking a good portion of the way. We went back to the trailer and my Dad and I tore down the trailer for departure while Amy my Mom and the kids went to the springs to fill up our water bottles with spring water. We set out North towards Estes Park and at the last minute decided to swing by the burger joint called Hamburger Mary’s. It is kind of crazy driving through downtown Denver with that trailer rig, but the burgers are delicious so we decided to hazard it again. If you will remember last year we got stuck in some side Alley and had to reverse that thing the whole way out of there. This year I was much more careful in selecting a route. Amy parked the trailer in a lot a couple blocks away while my Mom and I ran over to pick up a to-go order. We then took the food to a city park and parked the trailer in a city pay lot. This was no big deal since it was Sunday and there was no traffic. We ate in the park and the kids kicked the soccer ball around for a bit. There were many sleeping vagrants in the park and I had to watch the kids closely to make sure they did not nail one of them with a ball. We left the park, bellies full and made the drive to Estes Park. We drove through Boulder and ran into heavy traffic as there is some sort of marathon or something called the Bolder Boulder going on that seems to have caused traffic jams. We arrived at our campsite at a good time, got set up and had some time to burn. We decided to take the kids fishing again at the local trout pond to try and catch some fish. They had so much fun doing that last year we decided to do it again. This time however luck was not with us. The winds were still high and despite our best efforts not a single fish was caught. Grant was crushed. He is fiercely competitive and seeing a few other folks catch fish upset him. We returned to the campsite with a very disappointed Grant. We told him we would try again. By this time I think the fatigue of the past few days began to catch up with the kids and they all fell asleep early. Harris even fell asleep in mid crawl on the floor of the trailer. Tomorrow is our first full day of hiking and it is better the kids get some rest. My Dad seems to have a touch of altitude sickness and spent much of the evening resting. Hopefully that resolves by tomorrow.

Day 2 Wind. That was the theme of the day. We got started a bit later than expected in leaving Amarillo. Apparently some sort of front has come through and there were all sorts of winds today. I went to log in to my weather iphone program and there were severe wind advisories throughout much of today’s route. Towing a trailer in winds that are gusting up to 50 mph is no fun at all. It is very fat

iguing and can be frightening at times. We made our way across the panhandle into New Mexico and made the same lunch stop as last year at Capulin volcano national park. It is essentially an old dormant volcano that has some short hiking trails and makes a good place to stop over for lunch. This year Grant has developed a fear that the volcano will spontaneously erupt and kill us. Alex wanted to know what dormant meant. I told her it’s like the volcano is sleeping. She then became very concerned on our hike that the volcano would hear us talking and wake up. Kids. We ate some sandwiches and continued on our way. Amy was driving after this as a strong gust of wind caused the open car door to slam on my knee and it was still throbbing and painful. We ran into some sort of dust storm that the wind had kicked up. Once you got into it there was almost no visibility. It reminded me of how my brother described the dust storms in Iraq that would blow through. The rest of the way to Colorado Springs consisted of fighting the crosswinds and pressing on. We arrived at our campground in Manitou Springs in one piece and quickly got set up and cooked spaghetti dinner. Our campsite backed up to a babbling brook and we ate dinner right next to the sound of running water. After dinner we went to downtown Manitou springs to the penny arcade and let the kids play on many outdated rides. They are the sort of thing that would have been at Showbiz pizza when I was a kid but now, there is no way they would meet safety standards. I was struck with a bit of nostalgia while watching them play on the same ride toys I grew up on. The kids began to melt down not long after and we headed back to get them to bed. Harris for some reason these two nights has refused to go to sleep. It must be the excitement of new surroundings and the like. Tomorrow it’s on to Estes Park.