Day 2! Driving, more driving, and hey look: Colorado!

ROAD WARRIORS!  3:57 am.  820 miles.  13 hours, 5 minutes

Let’s see…where did I leave off?  Oh yes!  We were in Kansas.  Boy, is that a long state.  When we entered KS, the mile marker said 420 and we were counting down to 0 in order to enter Colorado.  We hit the KS border at midnight.  I drove from 9pm-12am, Michael then drove from 12-3am, and I took over from 3-5am.  At that point, the kids had all started waking up because we had to stop for gas or coffee or something (all the stops are running together now), but both drivers were completely fried, so we had to stop at 5:00 for a mini-rest break.  We were at a rest stop for about half an hour before the sun started peeking up and we realized that Will was never ever going to go back to sleep.  YOWZA.  The kid has basically been up since 4:30 this morning.  Bless us all. 

Finally!  Made it to Colorado.  I had been waiting for a very long time to post a pic of “Welcome to Colorado” and I was giddy over my caption: “we’re not in Kansas anymore.”  [Rim shot]

Once the sun was fully up, and it was my real-life wake up time, my body kicked into normal gear and I felt fabulous.  I got a little caffeine going and was able to drive for a few hours and got us pretty close to Colorado Springs, our first official stop on our journey.

We went to the Garden of the Gods which is A.MAZ.ING. The rock formations there are nothing short of magnificent—they make no sense!  Physically speaking, most of them shouldn’t be able to stand/balance/remain upright.  We stopped at the visitor’s center first and ate breakfast out of the cooler (muffins! Yogurt & granola!) and did the most terrible task of my entire life:  cleaned out the van after a road trip.  UGH.  You couldn’t tell what color the carpet/upholstery in the van was anymore—it was covered with all manner of pillows, blankets, snacks, trash, coloring books, markers, headphones (I am paranoid of a headphone shortage, so we probably have about 8 pairs of headphones for the 5 of us!), and Apple devices. 

Look how strong they are!

With that out of the way, we headed to the actual Garden park and started hiking.  We spent a few hours there before eating lunch and moving on to the next thing.

Our other big excursion in Colorado Springs was a Cog Train Ride to the summit of Pike’s Peak.  It’s a 14,000+ feet mountain and my dad blessed us with the funding to be able to do that.  It was awesome!  Took us about 3+ hours to complete, round trip.  The train took us all the way to the summit where it was SNOWING and we were freezing in our shorts/t-shirts (because it was 90 degrees at the base of the mountain!).  Thankfully, we’d all remembered to wear a light jacket.

Now, we are on our way to set up camp in Buena Vista, CO.  It is about 80 miles from Colorado Springs and it will be the first time we’ve had real sleep since Wednesday night.  We. Are. FRIED.  Even the kids—nobody slept much/at all last night.  Michael & I each got a few little power naps, so we’re most definitely exhausted, but even the kids had a very short night.  Funny enough, however, we all fell victim to public napping today at some point.  The kids & I all ended up napping during part of the train ride up the mountain (it was about an hour & a half to the top), but Michael’s ability to nap in public put us all to shame.  Voila!

Yes. This is my husband, sleeping on top of a picnic table while waiting for a train.  We haven't been asked to leave the state of Colorado.....yet.

As we are driving toward our camp ground, I can see a HUGE rain storm on one side of the highway and a bright sunny sky on the other.  Let’s all gather in a word of prayer that our camp ground is on the bright sunny side?  OK? Thanks.

(UPDATE:  I just got WiFi again and could post.  It POURED during our tent set up. It was absolutely pouring while we were setting up camp.  Worst. Ever.  Anyways, it stopped now and we all have showers and are getting ready to hit the sack!)

(UPDATE UPDATE.  Lost my WiFi last night before posting, so this morning is looking great!  Rained a little on us an then everybody slept hard. HOWEVER....do you know how early the sun rises in CO?  Started getting light at 4:30 this morning and the birds!  THE BIRDS!  They love to sing.  Loud.  Next to our tent.  Starting around 4:30 as well.)