On the Road Again!

Starting Point: June 24, Sedalia, CO
Ending Point: June 29, Charlotte, NC

Wow, the last 5 days have FLOWN by! I honestly feel like I just started this adventure... I can't believe its about to be over. Six weeks sounds like an awful lot, but when you're living it, time can't go slow enough...

This has been a busy week for us - mostly amazing, with a few hick-ups, but all good. This will be my last road trip post... unfortunately I'm not gonna be getting into quite as much detail as I had hoped... but I hope the pictures speak for themselves.

Wednesday, June 24, Clinton State Park: We finally had to leave the comfort and happiness of my sisters butte. This day was spent bonsai-ing through Kansas, with one stop at a brewery where we had the most amazing cheese covered lunch! We had to make it to the East side of the state by sundown so we could pitch our tent and camp for the night... another doozy... goodness there are a lot of bugs here!

Thursday, June 25, still in the car.... This day got all turned up on its head! Oh goodness! It started out as a normal day - a wonderful day even, full of side trips and exploration - but then BOOM! No LITERALLY - BOOM! All the sudden the thunder starts! Then we see the lighting, Then the rain... ooooohhhh so much rain we couldn't see out the front window! 3 hours we were in the worst storm Chad and I had ever been in... it was insane. By midnight this day Chad was putsing along the highway at a crazy fast 32 mphs...

 Fort Scott

 World's largest rocking chair!!!

This was taken at 11:34pm... soo much lightning!

Friday, June 26, Shepherdsville, KY: Finally we made it to our hotel just south of Louisville. The goal was to hit up the Kentucky Bourbon Trail - which we spent all day Friday doing! It was fun! We went on a couple tours and a of course tastings! It stormed again that night so we just hung out at the hotel - some needed downtime after all the crazy.

 This was my favorite of the day: Knob Creek Smoked Maple

 I don't recommend the bourbon here...

The aging house at Heaven Hill Distillers

Saturday, June 27, Powell, TN: Mammoth Cave National Park!!! Wine tasting!! Woot!!

Sunday, June 28-29, Charlotte, NC: Our last stop before our big arrival in Jacksonville! Staying once again with our awesome friends in Charlotte! But... we had one last wine stop before we got there. We spent these two days eating, laughing, drinking and hangout out on the porch. The perfect end to the *almost* perfect roadtrip!

Next stop: reality!

The Butte

Stay: June 21-23, Sedalia, CO

The few days we spent in Colorado where some of the most inspiring days I've experienced. My sister and her partner are amazing people, accomplishing amazing things.

We spent our days on their amazing property, in their beautiful home - that they have been remodeling  and adding to for the last 2 years. Our evenings were spent on the upper deck with a cold beer. Our mornings on the lower patio with coffee and a book. The days spent hiking and drinking. I mean really, is paradise defined in any other way?

Sunday:

From their house we could see a far off mountain - Devil's Head - so we hiked up it! Went up to the fire watch tower, 9,748 feet above sea level. Later, we celebrated our accomplishment with gin and tonics and some stargazing! Their telescopes are so wonderful that we saw Saturn's rings!

Monday:

We started today off with a mellow hike around the property and up into some state open space. Upon our return we headed to an awesome watering hole - oh my goodness - cheese jalapeno brats, cheese dip AND beer? Yes please!

Tuesday:

We took it a little easy today - I was in full-blown head-stuffed-allergy-mode and my sister had gotten stung by a wasp and it was attacking with arm swelling force! So mostly we spent the day reading, eating and visiting another amazing place - a coffee shop/tap room! Later it was dinner with some additional family and packing... I took no pictures today.. but luckily Chad took the one below during a quick stop at my sister's mother in laws house.

We had the most wonderful time on the Butte. Hopefully we'll get to come back sooner, rather than later!

Colorado Hates Me

Starting Point: June 20, Park and Ride, Fruita, CO
End Point: Sedalia, CO
Miles: 274

Ok, maybe the whole state of Colorado doesn't hate me... but the pollen part.... ooooohhh Colorado pollen hates me!

In any case - we had gone so far and slept so little last night that we had a whole day to just putz around and lo and behold! Colorado National Monument was just 3 minutes from our Park and Ride!

The problem with National Monuments (and Parks for that matter) is that Milli isn't allowed on any of the trails... so Chad and I have to be very careful when choosing our hikes. Luckily for us, this morning was beautiful and just cool enough for us to take a 2 mile round trip hike out to Window Rock.

What's the best way to spend a day after a hike? Lunch and a beer. Thank goodness we found Glenwood Canyon Brewing! Everything was delicious - everything.

Next stop: Sedalia to hang out with my sister for a few days!! Woot!

Fruita in Two States

Starting Point: June 19, Fallon, NV
End Point: Park and Ride, Fruita, CO
Miles: 756

Bare with me, this is my first post done on my phone. Chad and I haven't had a stable Internet connection in almost a week and SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED! I'll attach pictures later.

Let me just start with: holy crap... today was a long day... and again it all stems from camping being a fickle beast.... oh.. that and I'm addicted to National Parks. But, let's blame camping.

Started off nice and easy, with a weird packaged, Indian influenced, continental breakfast from our equally weird hotel. Luckily, the coffee was good and we were on the road by 6:30am.

The goal was Capitol Reef National Park by 5pm. That's when visitor centers generally close and were gonna camp there. Easy peasy. Until, I realized we were a mere hop, skip and jump from Great Basin National Park! No problem! We have time!

GBNP was wonderful! We did the drive through version of visiting - going through the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive. I really wanted to see the bristlecone trees but the hot weather and lack of shade prevented us from leaving Milli in the car for an hour... or two... so instead we saw Wheeler Peak and it's glacier from afar and enjoyed the 10,000 foot altitude.

I was excited that even after seeing the Great Basin we were still gonna make it to Capitol Reef! That was until we hit the new timezone in Utah... and I found out the stupid visitor center closed at 4:30... oh well - campground was still open!

Open but... FULL! Fine. New plan: We'll just enjoy the park this evening and stay in a hotel for the night. Wow. Capitol Reef is beautiful and a little more hands on than many other parks. See, it used to be an old Mormon homestead, a place where a man could hide the fact that he had multiple wives from the authorities.... anyway, that's a lot of mouths to feed so they planted these massive orchards of fruit trees! The area is now called Fruita (so is the campground). The best part though is that you can pick the fruit! As much as you want to eat! We found some heirloom plums that were tart and awesome. A little too early in the year for much else.

Ok, time to find a hotel. What?! EVERY HOTEL IN A 100 MILE RADIUS IS FULL?!? Crap.

Fine. We'll keep driving. And heck we might as well enjoy the rest of the park since we now won't be back in the morning.

Yes. We will be back. It's beautiful.

New plan: stay closer to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks and spend the morning there!

Ummm... no. All those hotels are full too...

How about driving all the way to Grand Junction, Colorado.

Nope. Apparently they are having a MASSIVE music festival... so... and I'm not exaggerating at all...

ALL of those hotels are full too. And it's 1am... and we're tired.

Time to sleep in the car. At the Fruita, Colorado, Park and Ride... luckily it's free, there's space and we're warm and safe. Comfort has never been ALL that important to me.... no really... Least that's what I kept telling myself.

Onwards and upwards tomorrow - the only way we can go!