Fort Collins

Tuesday July 17, 2012

It was so nice to sleep in a bed again. Laramie is not what you'd call fancy, but it did have a hotel. We are all clean and well rested before our short journey to Fort Collins to visit Natalie.

We're only on the road for what seemed a very short time when we are in Fort Collins and looking for the library which is our agreed upon rendezvous point. Using the GPS, we find it in a hurry and see Natalie for the first time in quite a while. She was sporting an interesting hair do for sure, but she looked good.

After exchanging our hellos, we're off to find a place to have lunch. Fort Collins is the home of Colorado State University and as such, it has all the familiar sights one would expect to see in a college town. We ultimately had lunch in a quaint downtown pizza restaurant.

After lunch, we drove up to Poudre Canyon to see the fire damage. It was a nice drive and sure enough, the trees were scorched black. There was a lot of charred forest but not a complete loss.

As it was getting late, we had to say our farewells to Natalie and get on the road. We have many miles to go and there are no rest stops planned. It was very sad to drive away and leave her.

Our plan is to drive non-stop to Lawrenceville, GA. The route we take is the I-25 south to Denver and then I-70 east. We made the Kansas state line just after sunset. Sight seeing in Kansas will have to wait for another trip.

Wednesday July 18, 2012

We're just entering Topeka when we have to stop for fuel. I'm getting a little concerned because I'm not seeing any facilities. Fortunately, we come upon one of those big travel plazas in the middle of the interstate. We fill up and keep going. It's about 4:00AM or so.

Our last stop of any significance is the Gateway Arch in St Louis. It's Wednesday morning when we arrive so parking on the riverfront street in front of the arch is not that big of a deal. Regardless, Debbie stays with the van while Audrey, Jill, and I hike up to the arch for a picture or two.

Once we finish with the pictures, we are on our way again with only one destination in mind: HOME!

Hooray! Atlanta Traffic

We roll into our driveway before sunset and are so happy to be off the road. It was fun for sure, but the driving has us completely exhausted. We've traveled 1628 miles in the past 24 hours and 5710 miles for the complete trip.

 

This trip was definitely an adventure and I hope everyone had a great time. I know I did and wouldn't change anything other than the hot dogs and better fuel management in Nevada. It's really wasn't that bad traveling in the van. With today's speed limits, you can make some serious miles if you're disciplined. Until next time.

Cheers