Minnesnowta and the Beginning of the End

What an adventure our past few days have been. You've missed a lot.

Being at the cabin was great, as usual. It was super relaxing, and I still managed to get a few "work outs" in. And by work outs I mean tubing and trying to keep floatie away from the dock on a super windy day. It's hard work. Trust me, I'm almost a doctor (har har). I also learned how to play bocce ball and didn't do half bad! I even managed to win (with my wonderful boyfriends help, of course) a game! Eventually I'm going to get around to investing in some Midwest outdoors games so I can practice more than once a year. Watch out.

I also got to experience my first Forth of July. Not really, of course, but the firework shows in Arizona aren't very good. Something about the whole state being on fire every summer or something. I think its a lame excuse, personally. So, I was shown an hour firework display that was pretty awesome. Kevin's uncle stocks up every fifth of July for next year's show. Definitely the way to go. Everyone around the lake and surrounding lakes were shooting off fireworks, so it was like having a bunch of shows in one. But Phil put everyone else to shame.

I really don't know how people live without having a lake cabin to escape to every summer, even if it's a small one. I say that half-jokingly (maybe a quarter) but it really is an experience that everyone should have once. I never knew water sports were so fun, or that escaping from the city life for weeks at a time could be enjoyable or relaxing. Even if we just pitched a tent on the side of some little pond.

We were only able to spend three days at the cabin, but it was a great three days. For the second year in a row we had a short visit. On the way out of Underwood we brainstormed ways to stay longer in future years. Maybe one of them will work.

The goal was to get to Vail in two days, putting us in Vail by Sunday night. We had to plan two eight hour driving days and cram in as much sight seeing as possible, and we did just that. I don't think I have ever seen so much in such a short amount of time.

Right after we left the cabin we stopped at Phelps Mill, since I had never seen it. Its a pretty cool mill in the middle of nowhere, but with a nice park attached. After touring the mill, we discovered a huge turtle trying to cross the road. It wasn't a very big road, but Kevin helped it cross the rest of the way. The crowd appreciated the show :)

The rest of the day was devoted to making it to the Bandlands National Park in Interior, South Dakota. We drove through a bunch of cute little towns in Minnesota and North Dakota, then drove through the boring parts of South Dakota.

When we were about sixty miles from our destination, it happened. This huge storm came out of nowhere. We looked up and the clouds closest to us started spinning and within seconds it was pouring rain and there were sixty to seventy mile an hour winds. We had to pull off the road because we couldn't even see the car parked ten feet in front of us. The Weather Channel suggested getting to the lowest level of the nearest building, but we had nowhere to go. We sat there for twenty minutes with pillows up against the windshield and ducking down as far as we could. I'm still convinced it was a tornado, even though I haven't seen any reports of a tornado in the area. Needless to say, I was sure we were at least going to be seriously injured just based on how much the car, and the stop sign next to us, was rocking. As soon as it cleared a little we got back onto the road and drove the rest of the way out of the storm. Ten miles out, the ground was dry and it was like nothing happened, the area hadn't been touched by the storm. Now that it is long over, we're a little bummed we didn't record a video of it.

The Badlands were pretty cool, but as we were warned, once you've seen one area, you've pretty much seen it all. And it kind of looked like Arizona. But it was weird that it was in the middle of the grasslands. By the time we finally got there, the visitors center was closed and we couldn't get our park stamp. After 30 minutes of stress about the plans for the night we settle on a little campground. This one, again, with free showers and WiFi. But the time we were settled in, we were both ready for bed and called it an early night so we could start early the next morning.

We did kind of miss out by staying the night by the Badlands, though we were able to have breakfast and five cent coffee at the famous Wall Drug in the morning. (it was just as cheesy as I imagined, but the coffee was delicious.) Mount Rushmore was just a nice stop and look, but the Black Hills were gorgeous, and there were so many things we could have done if we had the time. Like explore Jewel Cave National Monument, the longest cave in the country measuring 166 miles. We did stop and hike around the cave, but we didn't have two hours to wait for the next available tour. Now that we know what is out there, we'll have to go back and spend some time in the hills.

Now we are back in Colorado, with plans to go white water rafting tomorrow.

As always, more later.

Part I, Concluded

Well, so much for daily blog posts, eh? We got a little caught up and I didn't really have much time to post the blog, let alone write it. So here is a recap of the rest of Road Trip, Part I.

Saturday morning we toured the Balcony House at Mesa Verde, an old Pueblo Indian ruin right in the side of the mountain. We were told it was "the most adventurous tour" Mesa Verde offered, so we opted to take that tour over Cliff Palace, the icon of Mesa Verde. Balcony house is much smaller, but the views from the house were incredible. The first courtyard we entered was simple, it was an open space with a large wall. Then, we ha to crawl through a crack in the rock to make it to the second courtyard, where the natives lived. There was no wall on this side! But the views were so much better. Kevin and I wondered how many children went teetering off the edge and into the canyon. After this room we had to squeeze through a tiny hole and make our way up two ladders back to the top. The tour was short and sweet, but definitely worth it.

After Balcony House we make a quick stop at the Spruce Tree House. This was a self-guided "tour," that wasn't really a tour. More of a look. But we were able to go into a model kiva with a roof intact so that we could experience what it was like. Talk about a mess. Everyone wanted to go down inside of it, but no one was very good at taking turns. So, our five minute stop turned into a fifteen minute stop. At least we were able to check it out. The Spruce Tree house was pretty neat, bigger than the balcony house and had various rooms scattered throughout the hillside. Also a must see.

 

The plan from Mesa Verde was to book it and make it to Avon, CO for the night so we could see Val. We made it, but two hours later than we expected. The drive through Colorado is gorgeous, but slow (four speeds and mountains don't always work well together. At one point we had to pull over because it started to hail marbles. We didn't want the car to get dented or the windshield to crack, so we found a little gas station and hung out under an overhang until the hail subsided. After the storm, the temperature dropped to 50 degrees, well over half the temperature of home! Further proof we left for our trip just in time.

Our first stop was in Ouray, Colorado, "The Switzerland of Colorado." It looked more like Austria to me, but was still a cute little town. All of the old mining towns in the hills are pretty cute in Colorado.

We stopped at Ouray for a bathroom break, and found a little brewery right on main street. We stopped to sample all of their beers and pick out a couple for a birthday present. Instead of bar stools against the bar, Ouray Brewery had swings! It was pretty cute. Totally appealed to the kid in me. We got to chatting with the bartender, and it turned out she herself was from Tempe, and worked on Mill Avenue before it became so infamous. Small world.

We continued our drive to Montrose, Colorado where we stopped for lunch and figured out the next part of our drive. We decided to take US92 to US133, instead of following Google's recommendation to go through Grand Junction. Yes, it would have been faster, but we had already taken that route and wanted to see something new. So we headed on our way. About 15 miles out, though, we started second guessing our decision to skip over Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We looked up how close were actually were to it (15 miles) and decided to turn around a check it out. We didn't have a lot of time to stop, but we could check it off of our list.

Well, after seeing it, it might be worth a second look at a later time. We definitely weren't expecting what we saw. The views were amazing, the rocks seemed like that just jutted straight up from the ground. It was like a mini Grand Canyon mixed with Colorado National Monument times 1,000. I would love to go back at another time and hike down to the river, just to look up at all the rocks.

We didn't stop again until Avon, and made it around 8 pm. It was great to see Val, and the three of us went to Vail to watch some cougars (who looked my age) pry on some cubs. Oh what money can make you look like. We got to shoot some pool and enjoy the Vail night life. At least the summer edition. The plan is to return in a week so we can spend more time with Val.

The rest of the trip wasn't terribly interesting. Nebraska is boring to drive through, so I was able to finish my first novel of the summer (The Memory Keeper's Daughter, I would highly recommend it). But there was NOTHING to see until Lincoln. We didn't even bother to stop until we got to Iowa. We stayed the next night in a little Days Inn right outside of Des Moines.

Yesterday's drive was a short and sweet one. Four hours. And now we are in Woodbury until tonight or tomorrow morning, until we head on up to the cabin. Kevin and his mom are at work and his dad is already at the cabin, so I'm taking the time to enjoy the weather. I'm just sitting on the patio, writing this and looking out on the lake. Something definitely not possible in July in Arizona.

I probably wont post again until our trip home, but I'll make sure to include one of our time in Minnesota.

More later.