The End of One Adventure and the Beginning of Another

Day 39- All we did today was repack the car and relax. Coffee and movies...

Day 40- Headed to Chicago today, after having breakfast and saying goodbye to my aunt and uncle. We arrived at my friend's, LizB, place at Moody later that afternoon. We walked around Chicago, went to the lake and got smoothies at Cassava Cafe.

Day 41- My last day with Susan. We left early from the apartment we stayed in and met LizB for coffee and breakfast before she headed to work. Then Susan and I went to Millennium Park, we saw Cloud Gate, also known as the Bean, we sat there and talked to Trina on the phone for a while.

We headed to the airport early so I could drop Susan off. We said bye and I headed to meet Beth, Beth and Ashley.
When I got there, I transferred my things to Beth's car, left my car, and we all headed west, off on another adventure! We stopped in Macon, MO for lunch at a little place called Ashley's Apple Basket, such good food and amazing pie.

We made it to Kansas City, to BG's uncle's place, where we stayed for the night.

Day 42- We left around 7 AM this morning and got coffee at Scooter's and free donuts at Krispy Kreme. We drove all day and made it to Colorado Springs, CO. After checking into our hotel, we headed to Seven Falls. We hiked to the falls and climbed the stairs to see them better. Then onto Manitou Springs for dinner, we ate at the Phantom Canyon Brewing Company, walked around town and laughed at the people playing Pokemon Go!

Day 43- Today we went to Cave of the Winds, the Cliff Dwellings.

"Dreams of mountains as in their sleep they brood on things eternal." 

Eddie made an appearance at the Cliff Dwellings.

Since we had 6 hours before we had to be at Pike's Peak, we went to Garden of the Gods. We only saw the Siamese Twins because it was so crowded there.

We headed to Manitou Springs again and walked around by the springs, we even tried one of the springs, mineral water. We found a little cafe where we tried a drink called mate, so yummy! Then onto Pike's Peak, we climbed about 400 steps of the Maintou Incline.

Then we sat at the train depot while waiting for the train to take us up the mountain. We rode the train up to the peak, it was under 50 degrees up there, we walked around, and took a few pictures. The elevation is 14, 110 feet at the top and I definitely noticed that it was harder to breathe up there.

Back at the hotel we ordered pizza and went to bed.

Day 44- We all got up early this morning and went to Garden of the Gods again to see the sunrise. On the way we stopped at McDonalds for coffee and breakfast. The park was amazing and no one else was there, so perfect!

Back at the hotel, we got ready for the day and had some more breakfast food. We decided that we would eat our meals today like Hobbits. Breakfast before the Garden, second breakfast back at the hotel, then onto Chick-Fil-A for elevensies. We may have eaten too much at elevensies because none of us were hungry for lunch or afternoon tea. On the way to Denver, we stopped at the Air Force Academy.

We took the scenic route to Indian Hills, near Denver, where we were staying with some friends of mine. We had dinner and headed back to the house. It was so good to see Brianna and Katrina again!

Day 45- This morning was our day in Idaho Springs, we went white water rafting. On the second big rapid we all went overboard, except for our guide, he was able to pull us all back into the boat very quickly. Other than some bruises, we were all alright and had a great time.

We went to BeauJo's for pizza for lunch and headed back to Indian Hills. After cleaning up a bit we went to Casa Bonita for dinner, after eating, we watched the diving and explored the place. We went into Denver and walked around the 16th Street Mall for a while, met BG's friend and he showed us around a little bit.

Day 46- We went to the capital building and took the tour just so we could go up to the dome to see the view of the city.

Met BG's friend at some food trucks for lunch and then we went to REI. BG and BK went to a coffee shop and as Ashley and I headed to the coffee shop, we stopped at the river and talked for a bit.

The four of us wandered around 16th Street Mall again, had some dinner and went back to the house. We wanted to spend some time with my friends since we were staying with them, so we watched the Bachelorette with them.

Day 47- We left Brianna's today and went north to Boulder where we stopped at the Celestial Seasoning factory and took the tour. So much tea!

Then onto Estes Park, we had lunch and drove through Rocky Mountain National Park, we saw lots of elk, deer and marmots and a moose and her baby from a long ways away.

Day 48- Woke up early today to go hiking in the park. Went to Bear Lake, Emerald Lake, and Sprague Lake, we kept our eyes open for animals but didn't see anything more than elk.

After our day of hiking, we headed to Cheyenne, WY to stay for the night. Ashley and I walked downtown Cheyenne and we found the plaza. There was live music and food trucks, so we split a pizza and got coffee.

Day 49- We left Cheyenne this morning, taking I-80 all the way across the country through Nebraska and Iowa. It was a long day of driving and we stayed in Davenport, IA tonight.

Day 50- We had breakfast and headed to Chicago. We picked up my car and Ashley and I drove back home together. It was good to get home, see my family and my cat.

The end of this adventure but soon I will be continuing on with my adventure of nursing school. Only one year left and then who knows what. ;)      

The End is Near...

So sorry this has taken so long to write everyone. I have had some personal things going on in my life right now that are more important than blogging, and I have not had much wifi, so no blogging for me.

Let’s see. We still had one more day in LA... 

Day 28- After having coffee and breakfast, we joined my family and we all went to Laguna, CA for the day. There is a beach there called the Thousand Steps Beach, it actually only has 218 steps down to the beach but the beach itself is supposed to be only 1000 steps long. Even though there were quite a few people there it didn't seem crowded at all. The waves, however, were very strong, we kept getting caught in the undertow. We left the beach and back at the house enjoyed the pool some more. I had to go and get my phone fixed because it decided to go dark. Got that fixed and back at the house Luis made us an authentic Mexican meal. It was delicious!

Day 29- After packing all of our stuff up and into the car we headed out. We made it through Sequoia National Park and saw the General Sherman tree that we didn’t think was that impressive. It was just a big tree in the middle of a bunch of other big trees. We were also a little bit sore from climbing up and down the 218 steps to get to Laguna Beach, and then walking on the sand. We decided to just keep driving and made it to Yosemite that night. It was later and all the campgrounds were full so we parked the car next to a bunch of other cars that were just parked there. We hoped that nobody would notice and just leave us alone. Alas, that did not happen. We were awoken a couple hours later when two park rangers knocked on the car window. Susan and I were still half asleep and just talked to them through the partially opened window. They told us that we were not allowed to sleep anywhere in a national park but in a campground. So we drove about an hour to get out of the park and slept in the car in a turnout by some other people doing the same thing.

Day 30- We woke up early again and went back into the park. Went to Half Dome Village and marveled at the raw beauty of El Capitan, it was a pretty humbling morning. Then we moved on to the next park, Death Valley, which happens to be my least favorite place on earth. I don’t do well with heat so the 118 degree temperature while we drove below sea level, was not the best. We had to turn off the AC so my car didn’t overheat so it was even worse. Susan loved it because it is so different from anything in New Zealand. Which, it is very different from anything I’ve ever seen, it has its own beauty just like the rest of God’s creation, but I don’t ever want to go back there again. One time was definitely enough. Once we got into Nevada, we opened the windows and the cool breeze was delightful. I think it was still over 90 degrees outside, but it felt so amazing we didn’t care. We ate at Dairy Queen that night and had blizzards because we decided we needed some ice cream to counteract the hotness of the day. And to continue with that theme we stayed in a hotel with AC and a pool. It had just been so hot that day that we needed a pool and a shower to bring our bodies back to their normal temperatures. It was nice to be able to sleep in a bed again.

Day 31- We left the hotel and had to put some anti-freeze in my car, it was getting a little low. Las Vegas was next on our agenda. It was so hot when we were driving through that we just decided to not get out of the car and to just take pictures as we drove through. We then headed to Zion National Park,  it was beautiful. Zion is definitely a must see! We just drove through it, because again, it was too hot to do anything else. But Zion reminded me of a colorful Yosemite, it has the high mountains, but they are red rock. Bryce Canyon was the next place we hit and also just drove through. It was cool but definitely liked Zion better. We drove to Lake Powell and slept in the car again.

Day 32- We checked out Horseshoe Bend, which is super cool! It is very pretty and definitely worth the half a mile walk to see it. Then on to Antelope Canyon, we found out when we arrived that you have to pay to see the canyon. It is on Native American land so there are tours that you can do to see it, but we are too cheap to do that. We decided we’ve seen canyons before and they were cool. So we went to Antelope Point Marina, there were pictures of Antelope Canyon so that almost made up for it. Next, we headed to the Grand Canyon, and let me tell ya, it is a very grand canyon. It is huge! I’ve never been there before so it was cool to experience it with Susan. We just stood there and looked and looked at the canyon. The place is beautiful but there are so many people there that it isn’t as fun, we did get Dippin’ Dots though.

Finally, we made it to Megan and Luis’s place in Tempe. They made us dinner and we all just relaxed for the rest of the night.

Day 33- I needed to get my oil changed and tires rotated so we did that all morning. It took forever, and it was hot. I think we left Phoenix area after noon and drove all day. We made it to the place we stayed, near El Paso pretty late. The family we stayed with was great. They have 10 kids and all of them are still at home. They made us dinner and throughout the whole meal they kept asking us questions. It was fun though, we were even asked to join in their family worship time after we ate. We slept in a little house, a casita, which is on the property they are renting. It was adorable.

Day 34- We all had cereal for breakfast and Mrs. Flory made some chai tea and gave us some for the road. This was the day we drove from El Paso to San Antonio; it was a pretty boring drive. So when we could find nothing on the radio we called people. It seemed to work out pretty well, except when we ran out of cell service. Finally arrived in San Antonio at Susan’s relative’s place, Anita, and she took us to Buc-ee’s, a Texan convenience store. It was huge! So many gas pumps!

Day 35- Anita took us to breakfast with some more of her family. It was great to meet them all. Then we all went our separate ways and Susan and I went to the Alamo. I love history so that was pretty cool to see. We drove to Houston then. Susan’s mom has an Indian friend whose daughter lives in Houston and her mom happened to be visiting now so we stopped to meet their family. They were all so lovely. They made us a meal and we visited for a couple of hours. We got back on the road and kept heading north. We made it to a rest area a little bit south of Texarkana and slept in the car again, our last night without a place to stay.

Day 36- Another day of driving with nothing exciting to stop and see. We made it through Arkansas and into Tennessee. We arrived at the place we are staying, the couple we are staying with started the Above Rubies magazine. They are from New Zealand and are very sweet. She made us okra and we talked for a very long time. Then we joined their extremely large family for a prayer meeting for their grandson who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma not too long ago. 

Day 37- We joined the family for breakfast and family devotions in the morning. Packed our stuff up in the car and stayed and talked to a couple of them for longer than we had planned. We didn't make it to Nashville until after noon and all we did was walk around downtown. It wasn't as great as we had hoped it would be, it was also hot so we decided to just keep driving. We made it to West Alexandria, OH where we stayed with the family of a friend of Susan's, David. We had a really great time, they fed us, they showed us around the farm, and we played on the trampoline with David's little brothers. 

Day 38- After eating with the family we packed up our car and actually left on time. We headed to the Ark Encounter, it was a pretty cool experience. Walking around and exploring how they think Noah and his family lived on the ark with all the animals. There was even a part that showed how they think the world was before the flood, pretty interesting stuff. Then we decided to go check out the Creation Museum, it was about 45 minutes from the ark, we explored around there for a bit and headed north. We made it to my Aunt and Uncle's house last night and they fed us while we told them all about our adventures. It was really fun to relive everything we've been through, we have been so blessed on this trip to just be able to do a trip like this and with all the people we have met in our travels. God has been so good!