Day 2 - and Day 1

Okay, here's the recap from day 1:

July 27

9:04 AM
Just outside of Oklahoma City
We left around 4 AM, then had to turn right around and go back because SOMEONE forgot the sandwich stuff in the fridge (me), and then the line at Whataburger was kinda long, so we got off to a late start, but anyway, who cares? We're on vacation, so I plan to enjoy every minute! Traffic hasn't been bad so far, but the roads in Oklahoma – geez! I guess we're spoiled in Texas with our pretty decent roads (on the highway, anyway).

The next waypoint of our trip is Amarillo – just a little over 200 miles away now. After that, I hope to find the Giant Ice Cream Cone of Yore – more on that in the next post.

July 27^th
11:16 AM
70 miles east of Amarillo
The stretch of I-40 from Oklahoma City to Amarillo has to be one of the most BORING drives in the entire USA. No scenery other than grass, trees, and farms. Ughh, worse than Mississippi. Anyway, the only thing of interest so far happened when I stopped for gas earlier. I thought I gave the cashier a $20, but it was really a $50. I walked off to fill the car before she could give me the change, but good ol' Colby was still inside waiting for the restroom to empty – he got my change for me. What a kid.

3:50 PM (Mountain time)
We stopped at a roadside park for a potty break near Sierra Grande Volcano. The restroom had a sign with two buttons. You could vote for whether it was a good restroom, or a bad restroom. How cool is that?

(Later that day)

We finally made it to Pueblo!! A very long drive, especially when we stopped to check out the Capulin Volcano in New Mexico - see Flickr for pics. There were tiny little fruit flies everywhere there - at least I thought they were fruit flies until they started biting us! When we got back to the car, it was covered with them (see the pic on Flickr)

Anyway, now it's Saturday, and we're spending the night Colorado Springs. Today we did just a little driving - it was much more about the DOING, today! First, we got up and checked out the Royal Gorge near Pueblo. Very awesome - in some ways, even more impressive than the Grand Canyon, since you can walk out over the gorge itself. We met an older couple there from Connecticut, who had been through Colorado Springs already and several other places we had planned on seeing. They advised us not to take the train up Pike's Peak since we didn't have reservations - we most likely wouldn't be able to get a ticket! So we decided to drive up Pike's Peak instead. They were headed for the Grand Canyon, and i told them to be sure to check out Horseshoe Bend. It was like an exhange of travel information - very helpful for all parties.

After Royal Gorge, we drove up to Colorado Springs to see Garden of the Gods - now that was awesome (see Flickr for pics, although I haven't posted those yet, ha ha). From there we checked out the Cave of the Winds (as suggested by Mr and Mrs Connecticut) - again, an awesome tour underground of some majestic rock formations.

And then finally, we drove up Pike's Peak. 20 miles of windy uphill (and then downhill) roads. It was 34 degrees at the summit! See Flickr for pics - again, these aren't posted yet, so it'll likely be tomorrow before you can see them.