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Another Big Bite

Another Big Bite

Tag Archives: camping

Congress Blows Goats. So Let’s Go on Vacation! (Part 1)

08 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by anotherbigbite in On the Road Again, Out of Doors, The "Joy" of Parenting

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black canyon, camping, colorado, family, government shutdown, gunnison, monarch pass, nature, ouray, outdoors, park, road trip, rv, rving, Travel, traveling with kids, vacation

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Like nearly a million other people, we found ourselves with some extra time off last week.  Never one to pass up the opportunity to hit the road, we decided to get out of Dodge again.

After toying with (and sadly abandoning) the idea to truck out to Arizona to see my dad, we decided to stay a little closer to home and check out Ouray, Colorado.  Ouray is the ice climbing capital of the world, apparently.  Since it is past Labor Day, and nowhere near ice climbing season, we figured it would be a good time to visit.  And whoo-hoo, we were not disappointed at all.

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We took our time getting things together on THursday, and consequently only made it two hours to Buena Vista.  Since we had such a great time when we went there a few months ago, we decided to check out the same “free” campsite we had found.  Not surprisingly, there wasn’t a soul around for miles and we backed in around midnight.  When we woke up the next morning, the rain I thought I had heard was actually snow…  Finn was mighty pleased and was thrilled to be back at the same campsite.  Writing your name in the snow with your own pee may have had something to do with his excitement.

After breakfast at the Brown Dog Coffee Company in Buena Vista (seriously the best raspberry scone I had ever had), we pressed on to Gunnison.  We passed this amazing display of playground awesomeness; holy crap!  How could we not stop?  Three story tube slide?  Don’t mind if I do.

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The slide was awesome; and even Nathan and I were grinning ear-to-ear and racing back up to the top for more.  It was FAST… Alice could have done it all day, but one trip for Finn was enough.  He had his eyes on the rock wall.  And loved going down the swirly slide…. Which knocked him on his ass more than a few times.

Wipeout in 3.... 2..... 1....

Wipeout in 3…. 2….. 1….

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After a disappointing lunch at Pizza Hut (shock; I know) and hitting three separate Walmarts in 24 hours, we finally managed to inch our way up Monarch Pass.  A temporary road sign alerted us to the icy conditions ahead.  No more than three minutes later, we were driving through a decent snow…  And when we saw a bunch of cars and a crew of people milling about the pull out just shy of the pass, I thought of one thing.

Shit.  We didn’t bring chains.  It is barely even October.

Nathan must have been thinking the same thing; he pulled over to get the latest from the folks coming the opposite direction.  They all looked pretty grumpy and were furiously brushing off the snow from their vehicles.  When we got a little closer, and I started rolling down my window to talk to the nearest guy, I got that feeling that something was a little off…

All the cars were blacked out; Mercedes and tank-like trucks were surrounded by a clan of guys decked out in tactical gear; fatigues, guns, knives, bullet-proof vests.  Holy shit.  What had we just rolled up on?

“Uh… Is it really bad?  You guys needed chains?”  I sorta muttered to this guy who was obviously NOT in the military but had enough weapons to make it through the third round of the zombie apocalypse.  I start to notice the truck behind him is armoured and clearly ready to plow through a shower of bullets, machetes or anyone else, alive or dead, that stands in its path.

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“Nah..  Just a little slippery,” he tells us with a ridiculous level of nonchalance considering all the heat he is packing.

Nathan chimes in (in his “I’m an official bad-ass, and I know something is amiss” voice), “Are you a cop?  That pattern on your uniform is the new Special Forces stuff.”

A few more seconds into the conversation, and we’re told that they are in Monarch Pass filming The Fast and the Furious 7 (Whaaaaat?  THE SEVENTH MOVIE?  I must be living under a rock, and not following Vin Diesel’s career as closely as I could be.).  The snow has made it impossible to film.  After Nathan and I breathe a sigh of relief,  Nae asks him about the knife holstered in the front of his vest.

“Nah, man.  Just rubber, he bends the handle in half and I am amazed at how real it looks.  And how bizarre it is that this guy just “bent” his knife in half.  “Guns, knives, all of it is just rubber.”

“Are those trucks the real deal, too?” I ask.

“Nah, they’re empty.  No heaters, no radios, just shells.  Sucks, man.”  He smiles.

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When he asks where we’re headed, and we tell him we’re really not sure, he wishes us well, and tells us it isn’t too slippery up ahead, but we’re gonna get pretty dirty.  Of course, they’re worried about getting dirty.  We didn’t care.  He wishes us well and gives us a very cliché thumbs-up.  We wish him luck for the movie and drive off.  Over the next half hour, we pass three or four sets of identical black cars in triplicate – bigger trucks, and THE Vin Diesel car (or so I think, I’ve stopped caring about Fast and the Furious since I’ve had kids).

“If I cared about Facebook, I would totally put this up there,” Nae tells me.  I totally agree.

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Alice drifted off to sleep, and we got to see evidence of Congress’ work ethic.  Every pull-off for the recreation areas, and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, was shuttered up.

Fuck you very much, Congress.  Three cheers for our Nation’s leaders.

We stopped by the Dillon Pinnacles…

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And the Blue Mesa Dam.

And took in the sights of the Black Canyon.  From the road.  Since that is the closest we could get.

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By late afternoon, we pulled into Ouray and were taken aback at how picturesque it was…  It was like living in a movie.  Only not The Fast and the Furious.

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We took a quick tour around town and decided we would come back the next morning when everything was open.

Stay tuned for more!

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The National Forest World Tour

20 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by anotherbigbite in On the Road Again, Out of Doors, The "Joy" of Parenting

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buena vista, camping, camping with kids, colorado, family, nature, outdoors, parenting, pike national forest, san isabel national forest, Travel, traveling with kids

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A three day weekend is a terrible thing to waste. With the grand State of Colorado at our doorstep, we don’t have any excuse not to get out there and experience it every chance we get.

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Is going to the mountains ever going to get old?

Friday morning brought us to Buena Vista, Colorado. It is an adorable small town on the edge of San Isabel National Forest, and it lives up to its namesake.

Unbenounced to me, it is perfectly legal – even acceptable, to pull off the road in one of Colorado’s National Forests and just live there for two weeks. While there are more than any state’s fair share of regular campgrounds scattered throughout the Colorado wilderness, they fill up fast in the warmer months. Even if we wanted to pay $16 to park the trailer overnight, there wasn’t a single spot available to rent around Buena Vista. I felt a little bit like a hillbilly when we pulled off the state road and built a fire in the middle of nowhere, but by the end of the night, we were surrounded by four other groups of hillbillies.

Not that I was keeping score, but only one of the cars wasn’t equally nice as ours… I’m an asshole for giving two shakes what other people were driving, but it felt nice that I wasn’t hemmed in by homeless squatters in beat-up Chevy Novas. A Nova’s rust-blistered, pea-green paint and I go way back; we had a Nova back in the 80s. It was affectionately known as The Beater. The Beater had separate shoulder belts – which made it exceptionally exciting for a seven-year-old to plant their bottom smack dab in the middle of the backseat and crisscross the two belts from one side of the car to the other. I have zero memories of my mother lowering her standards far enough to ride in it, let alone drive it. If I came across my dad driving the same car (and wearing the same shorty-short brown athletic shorts, striped alligator polo and plastic aviator shades) in the wilderness last weekend, I may have felt the same way as my mom did about that car.

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We hung out most of the day while the kids did little more than roll around in the dirt. We tucked Finny in on the sofa in the trailer when he petered out, and upon investigating a loud thump, we discovered he had rolled off the cushion and into the dog bed. He was still asleep. We relocated a very anxious Waltie and set about making dinner.

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I’ve learned over the last fifteen years to stay out of Nathan’s way when he’s bent over a fire. He was the chef this whole weekend, which was fabulous, but it also meant that the kids and I be located elsewhere while he cooked. I was happy to oblige.

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After dinner, we roasted marshmallows, tucked in the kids and plowed through the remainder of the marshmallows ourselves. Nathan laughed at me while I wondered aloud what sort of animal sounded like it was playing the bongos in the woods (it was the stream behind us). We collapsed into bed and slept until eight the next morning.

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Nae made us pancakes for breakfast and we meandered into the woods in search of raspberries. We found tons of them; and after snacking on a few, we explored the creek bed. A toad startled the daylights out of Finn – Alice wanted nothing more than to pet it and love it and name it Natalie.

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OH GOD. The Dad Shirt is never going to die. I was wrong.

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After trying (in vain) to teach Alice how to use a pair of trekking poles, we packed up the camp and headed into town for lunch. We drove by K’s Old Fashioned Burgers and immediately knew it was one of those places; it was packed. The line wound around the building and as we walked up, the announcement over the loud-speaker made my heart skip a beat.

“Matthew McConahey, your order is ready.”

Wha, whaaa? My common sense kicked in as I realized they used celebrities’ names instead of numbers for the orders. Audrey Hepburn, Vanilla Ice and Sophia Loren picked up their orders just in time for the teeny bopper behind the counter to call for Bruce WILLIAMS. I can’t possibly be getting that old, can I? I live in a world where teenagers don’t recognize the real name of John McClaine?

Oh, Mr. Willis, I apologize to you on behalf of America’s youth.

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They announced Martha Stewart’s order and I grabbed my food and booked to a free picnic table beside the adjacent playground. Finn and Alice ate and ran, then noshed and climbed all the way through Denzel Washington’s dessert. We took the dogs for a walk and rolled out of town. Next stop: Pike National Forest.

We managed to score a site at the Blue Mountain campground. After taking a relaxing break lounging in the trailer and watching half of Rise of the Guardians, we started a fire and roasted some weenies for dinner.

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Once our food had settled, we laced up our boots and took a sunset hike up the Hardrock Trail. Finn navigated using his “treasure map” and we arrived at the summit just in time to miss that sunset… But it was beautiful anyway. Upon returning to camp, the kids were exhausted and zonked out.

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Nae ran into town while I was getting the kids down and picked up ice cream and wine. Nothing speaks of our high breeding like a King Cone and plastic, single serving bottles of White Zinfandel. We relaxed in the hammock and stared at the stars. It should have been ridiculously romantic, but was mostly filled with musings concerning mistaking rumbling bowels for a vibrating phone in your back pocket and our shortfalls as parents. What can I say? This is my life.

After another round of pancakes, we sucked up the hour drive back to showers and clean sheets… Alice took an epic nap spanning the entire afternoon and Finny vegged in front of the boob tube.

Since no weekend is complete without at lest one trip to Home Depot, we bought a replacement faucet for the leaky one in the trailer (which didn’t fit) and another drop cloth to reupholster the cushions in. Even after all the excitement, Nathan and I were awake until the wee hours of the morning working on our projects that spent the weekend being neglected.

But now we’re back home; where it doesn’t matter that we can see the mountains from the deck or we live two hours from Buena Vista… Whether it is here or Ohio, laundry still needs to be done, meals still need to be cooked and little noses still run. My phone still rings with tidings from Chicago… Or… That could have been the hotdogs from this weekend.

Ah, home is where reality sets back in.

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Breakin’ the Law at Mueller State Park

14 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by anotherbigbite in On the Road Again, The "Joy" of Parenting

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camping, camping with kids, coloardo, family, mueller state park, nature, outdoors, parenting, rv, rving, Travel, traveling with kids

Time to break out the House With Wheels again!

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Last weekend we headed up to Divide, Colorado for a visit to Mueller State Park. We didn’t have high expectations; growing up in the Midwest meant that a “State Park” was shorthand for “Nice Place to Sneak in Beer and Hangout Around a Fire With Your Underage Posse.” That description is two-fold; my dad loves camping and would sneak in a six-pack of Sam Addams while taking us camping over the weekend. That, and when we were in high school, Nathan and I would hide an entire case of beer throughout the car on the way to hangout with our friends and pretend that we were adults whist getting hammered on Nattie Light.

A State Park wasn’t for seeing the wonders of nature; that is what NATIONAL Parks were for. A State Park was simply a destination where you were legally allowed to light a giant fire and partake in the illegal consumption of alcohol. (I’m looking at YOU, Warren Dunes State Park.)

Mueller State Park was beautiful, though! Can I just say I LOVE COLORADO?

We arrived early on Saturday morning and immediately started setting up shop. The House With Wheels takes about four minutes to set up, but Nathan brought along his hammock. It was easily the most entertaining activity we engaged in the entire weekend…

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So cute, I don't even care that it is blurry.

So cute, I don’t even care that it is blurry.

Until one of the Park Rangers came by and ordered us to take it down. Apparently nothing is supposed to be hung from the trees. Including a family of four.

Busted.

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After the hammock debacle, we busted out the new BioLite Stove and made brats and grilled cheese pitas. This little gadget is something to behold; it is a tiny little cylinder you pop a host of twigs and sticks into, and in two minutes, you attach a little grill to it to roast your kiddos a couple of pitas loaded with Muenster cheese. And you can charge your phone with it – while it burns twigs. Amazing.

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We didn’t do much of anything all day. In the afternoon, we hauled the kids into town for ice cream. Both of them knocked out on the way there… Which translated to Nathan and I plowing through a pint of Haagen Daaz Five (coffee flavor; the BEST coffee ice cream EVER) in the parking lot.

Before we knew it, we were taking a break from watching the kids leap off of stumps and poke at bugs with sticks to make dinner. Nathan spectacularly sliced open his finger while cleaning his knife – just in time for marshmallow roasting. Another Park Ranger came by; we wondered what we had done this time… Turns out, he was walking from campsite to campsite with a coyote skull and pelt to educate little campers with.

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Nothing like a dead animal to get the kids’ attention.

We hit the hay early – maybe nine? Nathan and the kids were snoring away while I stared at the ceiling, my mind buzzing away with little projects to beautify the House With Wheels… Finally I fell asleep and dreamt of birch wallpaper from Cole & Son, Hudson’s Bay blankets and collapsible chrome RV faucets.

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After breakfast in the morning, we packed up and took the kids to the Dragonfly Children’s Nature Trail for a “hike.” It was a short walk around a pond filled with water striders and (you guessed it) dragonflies. There were little activities for the kids; a jump pit to see which animal you could beat in the long jump, a giant log to crawl through and brass castings of poop to fondle.

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They loved it.

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We called it a day and headed home.

And I’ve realized that not much has changed in the State Park business. Sure, the scenery is better here, but you’re still apt to do nothing more than sit around a fire and break the rules; whether it be sneaking in Nattie Light or illegally hanging from the vegetation.

We’re such rebels.

Faced with a long weekend ahead of us, we may rebel again this weekend. (Maniacal laugh)

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I totally get John Denver right about now.

03 Friday May 2013

Posted by anotherbigbite in On the Road Again, Out of Doors, The "Joy" of Parenting

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camping, colorado, estes park, fern lake, hiking, parenting, rocky mountain national park, rocky mountains, Travel, traveling with kids

 

 

Yes, we went out-of-town two weeks ago.  And yes, we did it again last weekend.  We are gypsies.  Gypsies, I tell you.

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Finally we had a weekend where the weather in Estes Park was going to be nice.  We jumped at the chance; only to realize that as nice and sunny it was going to be, it still isn’t tourist season.  You’d think that would be a good thing.  And it is.  Only problem is that half the campsites at Rocky Mountain National Park aren’t even open yet, and the ones that are have zero running water.

Not that we let that daunt us.  When we went to the sand dunes two weeks ago I (unintentionally) went two days without brushing my teeth.  Surely I could handle peeing in the wilderness.

For being ahead of tourist season, the place was crawling with people.  Don’t get me wrong, it is beautiful, but if it gets busier than THIS, I’m not going to be back until the fall.

I’m happy to report that our journey out there (by night, the same as last weekend) was delightfully uneventful.  When we woke on Saturday morning, it was beautiful as we expected, but both Nae and I were in serious need of caffination.  We ventured out into Estes Park proper and hit up Coffee on the Rocks for breakfast – oh, yes.  All four of us left happy campers; Nae and I got the buzz we needed, Finn got the bacon he has been so desperately craving since we went veggie/vegan.  Alice had a very hard time concentrating on her breakfast; we were seated next to a duck pond stocked with water fowl…

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After we ate, the kids had a ball feeding corn to the ducks and geese.  I, however, could have done without the damned Canada goose biting my finger.  I have a deep-seated hatred for these animals – I was attacked by one when I was a little older than Alice, and I think it may be my first memory ever.  Those ugly winged bastards.

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We headed up the Fern Lake trail to get a good hike in.  It has been forever since I broke out my hiking boots.  So long, in fact, that I had completely forgotten to take the proper precautions…  Lo and behold, I got a blister on my heel, therefore cutting our hike down by half.  Alice fell asleep and Finn was stumbling away before we even hit the trail head.  This was NOT what I had pictured when we set out, but I ended up carrying him the entire first leg anyway.

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When I was about seven, my dad stayed up with me all night while I had the flu.  (I think it may have had something to do with guilt; he made me take this medicine that I am pretty sure was Barbasol and it made me puke even more.)  He told me about him and my mom in high school – how she refused to take her coat off at a concert once and he dubbed her Susie Snowflake; a name she despised.  The furry mice on my bed whose Velcro-laden arms perpetually embraced each other; she gave them to him senior year.  And one time the two of them went hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park…  It was warm enough to wear shorts, but there was snow on the ground.

I grew up in Chicago, yo.  There is no such thing as wearing shorts in the snow.  I was in utter disbelief.  The image of my parents tramping through snow in summer garb was so fascinating that it stuck with me.  I thought of it when Nathan, my dad and I went backpacking in the Cascades many years ago.  And I thought about it again on the Fern Lake trail.

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We settled in for lunch overlooking “The Pool.”  We ate peanut butter, strawberries, sugar snap peas and an cartload of Goldfish crackers.  Filling?  For the kids, yes.  For us?  Not so much.  We were nothing but pack mules to them.

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1 RMNP 7Tummies grumbling, Nathan and I switched kids, hiked back to the car, drove to the campground, put the littlins back down to sleep and noshed on bratwurst (again).  Deeeelicious.

We headed back into town after the kids woke up to pick up marshmallows.  We stopped at the Stanley Hotel for a moment – you might know it as The Overlook Hotel from The Shining (one of the two used in the movie).  Maybe back in the 80’s things were different…  It was more than slightly comical that the fabled hotel, known for its isolation, is smack-dab in the middle of town – a stone’s throw away from a grocery store and a cluster of condominiums.  Ah, movie magic.

Crazy-ass Jack Nicholson or no, it was a little eerie.  Even with the view of the Safeway roof.

We did little on Sunday except for pack up.  Just before we were ready to leave, a group of deer decided to bid us farewell.  It was pretty cool, and again, Alice was completely beside herself.  She booked after the poor beasts, scaring the bejesus out of them; much to the dismay of a herd of picture-snapping onlookers.

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All in all, it was a peaceful weekend.  Another success with the House with Wheels…  But I think we’ll stay close to home this upcoming weekend.  I think we could all use a bit of a holiday from vacation.

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The Mountain Beach

24 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by anotherbigbite in Nerd Alert, On the Road Again, Out of Doors, The "Joy" of Parenting

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camping, colorado, great sand dunes national park, lathrop state park, road trip, rv, rving, spanish peaks, Travel, travel with kids

Dunes NP 7

Oh, it has been a while.  The blog hasn’t exactly been riding shotgun the last few weeks…  I would like to tell you it is because we have been up to something really spectacular; maybe renovating the house or traveling the globe.  Then I would be lying.  I haven’t really even been super-duper busy.  You see, a few weeks ago, I had a major nerdgasm after watching The Hobbit…  The next day I pulled the book off the shelf, blew off the dust, and when I had finished that, I decided to re-read The Lord of the Rings.

Alice and Finny have some major geekage in their genes.

I’m only 60% of the way through the book(s), but I had to watch the first movie (extended edition, obviously) after I finished the first book.  That took Nathan and I a few nights and a weekend.  Now I remember why I was pining over Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen in my early twenties.

I can whip through all the Twilight books and movies in a single weekend, but, whoa – you gotta be a dedicated individual to geek out over Tolkien…

All that is neither here nor there; and it isn’y particularly interesting; listening to me wax philisophical over whether Legolas and Gimili are the original Bert and Ernie (if you catch my drift).  The real excitement came last weekend, where we broke out The House With Wheels for the first time this spring.

Wagons ho!

We packed everything up on Friday afternoon and around dinner time, treated ourselves the kids to McDonald’s, changed them into their jammies and headed south.  Within twenty minutes they were both asleep, and Nathan and I had a glimpse of our younger years – back when it was just the two of us speeding down the highway in the middle of the night…  I loved road trips with that man then, and I love them with him now.  Even with the four complaining mouths we drag along with us nowadays.

By the time it was midnight, we were almost to Great Sand Dunes National Park.  We were the only people on the road – but we had company.   Lots of hooved company.  We saw the first deer about forty miles out from our destination and by the time we saw the third one (with an entire herd in tow), we slowed waaaayy down. Nathan drove like a grandma the rest of the way.  We easily passed over a hundred animals on or immediately next to the road – deer, hares, a massive herd of even more massive elk, and a moose…  Hot damn, it was a very tense forty miles – inching away at thirty miles per hour.

We were settled in by two in the morning and were promptly awoken at six by another herd – a bajillion Boy Scouts – playing football as the sun was cresting the mountains (because why wouldn’t you??).  Holy shit, I wanted to strangle them.  But as I peeked out of the curtains, I was aghast at how BIG the dunes were.

via National Geographic

This, by the way, is my favorite part of road-tripping.  Making camp by light of a headlamp and being completely surprised at where you’ve ended up when the sun comes up.  It is like Christmas; only you are the present and you can’t WAIT to get out of the box.  It dulls the urge to want to throttle sixty fourteen-year-old boys, anyway.

As Nathan busied himself with a spectacular tantrum after Alice flung an entire packet of instant strawberries and cream oatmeal on the floor of the trailer (“In BEAR COUNTRY, Lisa!!  Do you have any idea how much bears love berries??  I’ve seen grizzlies just sitting in strawberry batches gorging themselves until they were drunk on them; Christ, do you have any idea of how serious this is?!??!”), the kids and I did a few laps around the campground, throwing evil glares at any Boy Scout who crossed our path.  At least I did.  I’m pretty sure Alice was, too.  It was chi-chi-chi-chilly.  Finn and Alice didn’t mind.  They were just happy to be playing outside ALL DAY.

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After a good traipse around the area on foot, we headed over to the dunes and had lunch.  After a nice hot bowl of Top Ramen and peanut butter sandwiches, we packed Alice into the backpack and headed out into the sand.  I have no way to describe just how enormous the dunes are; the pictures don’t do them any justice whatsoever… I realize now that I totally should have paid attention when my dad was trying to teach me about choosing the correct exposure when photographing sand and snow…

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But see those little black specks way off in the distance?  Those are people.  

We didn’t hike all the way to the top (a four to six-hour round trip – in the sand, with the kids?  Not this time.), but we make Finny happy…  He had fun at the “mountain beach.”  He kept urging us forward; “C’mon, let’s go vay-cay-sh, guys!!”  Vay-cay-sh, I’ll have you know, is what you do when you are on vacation.  I learn something new every day.

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It was all a little much for little Alice.  She crashed five minutes into the hike.

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After a healthy romp in the sand, a second lunch and a few miles, the kids both pooped out in the car and Nathan and I had some time to ourselves again.  We headed back towards the Spanish Peaks to travel The Highway of Legends.  Oh, it was AMAZING… We started in La Veda and were blown away with how amazing the landscape was.  Green pastures gave way to giant, rocky outcrops; I didn’t take any good pictures.  We were too busy getting excited over the wildlife – “Ah!  Bighorn sheep!  Like, right effing there!!  Oh my god!!”  We saw pronghorn and mule deer, more elk and whitetail deer.  This time, in the daytime, so we could appreciate them and not think of them as potential road hazards.

The Spanish Peaks – via byways.org

We spent Saturday night at Lathrop State Park.  We shared the entire campground with two other people.  We cooked up brats for dinner (sorry – we don’t eat vegan when we are on mini-vacation) and were snoozing by nine thirty.  When we woke up the next morning, we had a lazy breakfast and watched Finny play with rocks and sticks for two hours.  We explored the bathroom seven or eight times – to its full extent; such is the life of a four-year-old.  By the time we packed up and headed home, it was lunch time.  Of course we ran into the pack of Boy Scouts at Wendy’s on the way home.  Ugh.

Now that it is starting to warm up (sort of; it snowed all day today), I am getting the urge to get back on the road… Again.  Even though it means sixteen extra loads of stinky campfire-laundry.

Which begs the question:  Does anyone have a recipe for adolescent boy repellent?  I’ve spent hours looking and haven’t found a THING on Pinterest.

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Howdy. It’s Lisa!

Welcome to my corner of the universe, where we fly by the seat of our pants.

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