Jack Nicholson, anyone?

The Stanley Hotel was the basis for The Shining. Taking a tour at 4. Somehow I doubt if we will see any ghosts. right now, we are eating pizza at Village pIzza which has great pizza. We found this pace the last time we came here. Then, its the grocery store and then camping.

Rose Larkins (from G1 phone)

Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park

Well, here it is at some Too Darned Early time before sunrise and John has decided to go into the park. I have decided to get some more sleep. Depending on cell coverage at the park, posts will start getting sporadic. John and Chris got the park pass last night after we checked in so they could get an early start today. It is the last day for showers (not for the faint of heart).

John tells me this trip will be around 2000 miles of nature and man made wonder. John is following a photographer's guide to Colorado. Unfortunately the guy doesn't write them anymore. It is 8000 feet up (give or take a few hundred feet) and the air is dry and my skin is feeling it. Water, I can't seem to drink enough of it.

OK, so we decided to go to the 30th Anniversary KKOA Leadsled Spectacular & Friday Run What'Ya Brung Drags Show & Shine. We have a lot more pictures, but they are on the big cameras. There were cars from all ages there and a bunch of hotrod muscle cars. Hot, though, even at 10 in the morning.

Next we hit the road out of Salina and lots (and lots) of corn, occasional sorghum and something that looked like wheat. We did see a wind farm and it stretched on for a while. Those things were huge. St. Ann's steeple attracted our attention from the highway so we dived off the nearest exit to investigate. It was built in 1904. Down the road was something that looked like a dilapidated grain silo next to a set of train tracks. Doesn't it look like it is about to fall over?

We stopped for lunch at Freddy's that served hamburgers and hot dogs, but what it really served is decadent desserts. OK, so we are eating a lot of ice cream on this trip. Christina drove a leg of the trip and she did pretty good. No screaming from me or the other drivers. Look at that steady concentration maintaining her speed with the exciting landscape.... Of course what would this post be without a picture of Mr. Anklyosaurus and here he is bustin a move to "I Wish I Was A Dinosaur" by Trout Fishing in America.

Finally we reached Estes Park and check into our hotel.

Lunch on the road

Freddy's appearently serves hot dogs. But their desert menu is bigger. Hays, Kansas.

Rose Larkins (from G1 phone)lunch

Day 2 and a recap of day 1

Due to tome non technical issues (i.e. I couldn't remember the right address to send my posts to) I was ver late in starting the actuall blog. For once we actually got started off early. (Wow, does that ever happen on a family vacation?  We got the car loaded up, house locked and hit the road to find our first gas station

During the trip my car hit a )momentous event, 100,000 MILES! Te celebrace we had shakes at Braums in Paul's Valley, Oklahome. (Who knew?)

Today we are going to take a slight deture. Appearently Salina Kansas has a very large Antique and Hotrod Show at a local part today. We pulled into the hotel last night and that  lovely black beauty was parked uner the portico. It was like wandering around  a Cars movie set. We even say a car like the Hudson Hornet!

Test post

Testing from phone

Rose Larkins (from G1 phone)

Here we are again planning this year's vacation in less than 2 weeks.

Looks like we will be headed for Colorado Springs and Estes Park areas. John has been nailing down camp sites and hotel rooms. Rose has been debating menu plans and how many meals the kids can cook. (OK, so it is really more like what is the limit of PB&J sandwiches.) Camping should not be about hours slaving over a campstove, so yes, I like pre-prepped meals. If I want to slave over a stove, I can do that in air conditioned (and bug free) comfort in my own kitchen.

"What?!? A Hotel Room?", you say? Given the choice between a tent squished into a tent city with noisy generators from pop tent travel trailers or neighbors so close it's like being in a bathroom with tissue thin walls (oh wait, they are tissue thin), I will take a bed and shower any day. It looks like we will be doing Pikes Peak, Royal Gorge, snow ball fight at the continental divide and hiking around Rocky Mountain NP.

This week at the house we have been laying out gear, making sure the stove works, testing out a new lantern we bought (Coleman EXP single mantle dual fuel, small and lightweight) and going through the kitchen buckets. Going to test a new method of baking in a bag on this trip. Should be fun. Wish us luck.