Family Road Trip - 2015 (Part 3- Ouray, Colorado)

Day 3: October 17

We were truly sad to leave our campsite and the Colorado Springs area - there is so much we didn't have time to see and experience.

As I mentioned before, Grant made the run into town to get the battery changed while I fed the kids and supervised showers.

On our way back to the trailer from the showers, we were delighted to run into some beautiful (and very well fed) mule deer just roaming around the campground. They were completely unconcerned about our presence and basically just watched us.

"Never mind me....just grilling some meat here...."  

That was a fun way to start the morning!

Our drive to Ouray was one of the prettiest drives I've ever experienced. The six hours seemed to just fly by. Grant wasn't able to enjoy the scenery as much because he had to focus on driving that trailer through the mountains. He and the Sequoia did an awesome job. I'm sure glad I wasn't driving!

We drove alongside the Gunnison River for a couple of hours. 

Seen at a gas stop - I want one!

At the top elevation on this drive - Monarch Pass Summit. Elevation 11,312 ft.

We got to our RV park (a few miles north of Ouray) in the late afternoon. It wasn't a fancy park, nothing to write home about, but it was inexpensive, actually open in the late fall (most campgrounds in the area were already closed for the season), and boy, were the views fantastic. Here's a look from our campsite. 

The trailer next to us belongs to a permanent resident - fortunately for us, he was out of town for a month and the park owners allowed us to borrow his fire pit. 

Makes me want to move to Colorado. Except for that "snow for seven months of the year" business. I could do without that.  

That night I made a really simple dinner of chicken bacon Alfredo (boiled the pasta, opened a couple of jars of bacon Alfredo sauce and warmed it with two cans of chicken, then stirred in the cooked pasta), green beans, and garlic bread (frozen loaf, warmed in our itty-bitty oven.)  Super easy but my family felt like they were eating at a restaurant. hahaha!

Day 4: October 18

Morning selfie with the girls to text to the grandparents

I had grand plans for the day - and they most definitely did not include this. 

A completely flat tire on the trailer. One of the three brand new tires purchased right before our trip. Upon inspection, Grant found an enormous screw embedded in the tire and the patches he carries were most definitely not sufficient to mend it. 

To complicate matters further, it was Sunday. All of the tire repair shops we could find within a 30 minute drive were closed.

Well, there was nothing we could do about it. He put on the spare and determined we wouldn't worry about it until Monday, when we could stop somewhere on our way out of Colorado to get it fixed. 

So quick re-cap. 

We're on Day 4 of the trip, and so far we've had the following issues:

• Replace the mass air-flow sensor on the Sequoia
• New front brakes on the Sequoia
• New battery on the Sequoia
• Flat tire on the trailer 

On the upside, we were profoundly thankful that God had protected us through each issue and nothing had really affected us while driving. Everything was getting fixed at reasonable costs and at just the right time. 

So off we went, our packed lunch in the car, meatball soup prepped in the crock pot for dinner, and we were ready to go for a hike. 

That is, we thought we were ready for the hike. 

I had picked the easiest one I could find, one rated extremely positively on Tripadvisor. It was called the Perimeter Trail, accurately named as it circles around the town of Ouray for about 5 miles. We had no intention of doing the entire trail, but that was okay, since there were several places you could leave the trail and go back into town.  

Sounded great. 

The first section of the trail was just basically stairs and a gravelly path that kept going up. It wasn't long before Ellia and Miranda started to look at how high we were getting and the panic set it. They both started crying and refused to go further. With a little persuasion and in Ellia's case, talking her into pretending she was a mountain goat, we managed to proceed. 

Well, the picture doesn't quite do it justice, but eventually the trail became this single-file ledge on the side of a cliff. It was essentially a drop off on that right side. For what felt like 500 feet. Okay, it probably wasn't that far, but it was certainly far enough to be catastrophic if a person were to fall. Let's just say it was mildly terrifying to supervise 5 children on this trail, especially when Annika started to skip. SKIP!! down the trail. That girl has no fear. 

But the views.....Oh the views. You can see why they call Ouray the "Little Switzerland" of America. 

We finally made our slow and careful path to Cascade Falls, which was quite lovely. I felt like kissing the ground when we made it off that mountainside. Seriously.

We had our picnic lunch on the rocks beneath the Falls. 

And then we decided to take our leave of  the Perimeter Trail. There was a trail/road back into town at that point. Isn't this house cute? There were lots of Swiss-inspired cottages in Ouray. 

We celebrated our survival of the trail with ice cream. 

With the rest of the afternoon on our hands, we decided to attempt a journey to Yankee Boy Basin, a popular viewpoint up in the mountains that requires 4-wheel drive vehicles at the very least. Many people hire tour guides with Jeeps to take them up there. 

But not us! We have a Sequoia, remember. 

Since it  was late in the season (ie, very few tourists) and a misty day, we mostly had the road to ourselves. A fact for which I was profoundly grateful. 

See, it's a 2-way road, but in many places, it's just 1 lane. With a sheer cliff on one side. 

To say I was tense on most of this drive is a bit of an understatement. But again, the views were incredible. The first part of the road was just a dirt road that basically any vehicle could handle. Then we came to a section that said "High Clearance Vehicles, 4 wheel drive Only". 

We kept going. 

The road got more technical and extremely slow going as Grant maneuvered the Sequoia over large rocks that could barely be labeled a "road". 

Eventually we made it to the last .5 mile of the "road", but the sign there said, "High Clearance, Short Wheel Base Vehicles Only". Meaning, only Jeeps and 4 wheelers/quads could handle it. We had to stop there. 

It was misty and rainy, so our views were not as far as hoped for, but we had reached an elevation of over 11,600 feet (from the town of Ouray, which sits at 8,000 feet). 

 Our "Toyota commercial" shot. 

We were amidst the same snow capped mountains we could see from afar at our campsite. Alone at the top of the mountains, with the temperature hovering at 45° (20 degrees colder than in town), rain gently falling and the thin air barely filling our lungs, we just stood in awe. 

You can see we had made it to just where the tree-line stops. No more golden aspens up here!

And then took a family selfie with our waterproof camera. 

It was one of the most breathtaking moments of our lives. 

On our way back down the mountain, we stopped to get some photos of a waterfall we had bypassed on the way up. 

Again thankful for the waterproof camera, as it was raining pretty steadily. 

One of the more harrowing sections of the road, simply because of the SHEER DROP OFF on one side, the single lane road, and the fact that you CAN'T SEE if someone else is coming from the other direction. YIKES! (sorry for screaming....but it was scary. To me, anyways.)

One of my favorite shots from the day. I was standing on the edge of a cliff and the water was at least 200 feet beneath me. 

We made it back to the campsite just in time for dinner - our awesome meatball soup (I omitted the zucchini and added a can of cannellini beans). The rain had stopped and we enjoyed our soup around the campfire, soaking in the gorgeous surroundings before the sun set.

Despite the anxiety and hair-raising terror of the day (primarily of yours truly) , it really was one of the best days ever. 

Part 1: Background and the First Day
Part 2: Colorado Springs

Part 4: Zion National Park

Family Road Trip - 2015 (Part 2)

Here's a look at our trailer at our first campground. 

Day 2 (Oct. 16): 

When I was first researching RV parks in the Colorado Springs area, I was disappointed to find that all of the ones close to town that I was interested in were booked for our desired dates. 

I had to expand the territory in which I was looking and found this gem. It was about 25 minutes south of town, but it was the best I could do.

And boy, were we glad once we saw it. 

Nestled in some gorgeous forested hills, it was a true camping experience, not like the parking lot RV parks in town. Our site was enormous and at the back of the property.

Once we pried ourselves out of bed that morning, we wasted no time in getting outside to explore a little. Following a dirt road on the hill behind the trailer, we quickly found ourselves enjoying these views. 

The anguish the kids had felt during the long drive yesterday melted away and they were delighted with the fresh mountain air and the gorgeous scenery.  

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Brief Note about Food:

For breakfasts, I planned very simple meals. Varieties of instant oatmeal, yogurt with homemade granola, or bagels were the fare nearly every day of our trip. We didn't have room to store much milk in our tiny fridge, so cereal wasn't an option. 

Lunches, both on the road and for picnics on our outing days, were either peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or lunch meat with cheese, apples or clementines, and often chips.

Snacks included cereal bars, granola bars, trail mix, cheese crackers, that sort of thing. Easy to pack and transport. 

Dinners on driving days usually ended up being fast food, because we were always running later than we wanted and wouldn't get to our campsite until 8 or 9:00. For days that we weren't travelling, I had planned ahead and made some freezer meals. Six soups, actually. Here are the recipes I used. I followed them nearly exactly, except to add some beans to the chicken soup. 

The six gallon zip-locks with the soups just barely fit in our trailer freezer, but I made it work. So on outing days, I would just pull out the crock pot, empty one of the bags in there (which was easier if I had let it thaw in the fridge overnight, but sometimes I forgot), add a quart of vegetable broth, and set it on low for the day. Couldn't be simpler. 

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So this first day, I popped a bag of sausage spinach tomato soup into the crock pot and packed up a picnic lunch and we were off to Colorado Springs. 

First stop was the Toyota dealership, to pick up the sensor that we needed. A quick install (by Grant) later, and we were ready to go. 

I had visited the Garden of the Gods before, but none of my family had and they really had no idea what to expect. 

As we meandered through the trails and got a little more adventurous about climbing on some of the rocks, the excitement mounted and everyone was just overwhelmed at the beauty surrounding us.

The kids are sitting on the Siamese Twins - a set of conjoined rocks that you can look through to see Pikes Peak in the distance. 

Another view of the Siamese Twins from up the hill further

The kids got so brave about climbing and exploring on the rocks. Made my heart stop a few times, to tell you the truth. 

 By mid afternoon, we had made our way through the park and decided to take a little detour on our way back to the trailer to see Helen Hunt Falls. 

A lovely scenic drive up a mountain led us to this. 

We were too tired to attempt the strenuous hike up the mountain, so we just lingered at the Falls for awhile and took some photos. 

Just chillin' out

We were getting hungry and were definitely tired, so we headed back down the mountain. As we drove with the windows down, we noticed a squeaking from the front brakes. 

Not good.

We quickly called a Firestone dealer to see if we could get squeezed in to get them checked out before they closed. It was already 5:00. They were open until 7:00, so we were in luck. We made our way to downtown Colorado Springs and dropped off the Sequoia. With no car, our options were pretty limited. Fortunately, we were able to walk a couple of blocks to a nearby restaurant for some frozen custard. 

Grant called Firestone and was told the discs as well as the pads need to be replaced. Wow. Providential timing, really, since we were driving over the mountains the next day. Imagine doing that with bad front brakes. 

With more waiting on our hands, we did the only reasonable thing we could do. 

We walked to a candy store.

Happy kids - with ice cream in their bellies and bags of candy. 

Even better, there was a playground right in the square of downtown, so we spent awhile there before heading back to Firestone. 

After getting a great deal on the brake job, we were also told that they had tested the battery and it wasn't good. Great. We're only on day 2 here - with our 3rd mechanical issue. 

Fortunately, Grant was able to run back into town the next morning while I helped the kids shower and exchange the old battery for a new one at Walmart - for free. That was a blessing.

Now that it was past 7:00, we were really exhausted and hungry again. Back to the trailer where our soup smelled amazing and was ready to be devoured. We ate around a campfire and not a single kid complained about spinach in their soup. Probably because it was so dark, they couldn't see it, but whatever. 

It was a really awesome day. 

Part 1: Background and the First Day

Part 3 - Ouray, Colorado 

Family Road Trip - 2015 (Part 1)

This is the trip that almost didn't happen.

It all started about a year ago, when Grant's cousin, Jessica, got engaged. Although she and her fiance live in Denver, they decided to get married in the Napa area of California.

Grant is originally from San Jose, California, and his parents still live there. On his dad's side of the family, everyone lives in California, Arizona, Colorado, or Nevada, except for us and his brother's family, who live in North Carolina.  Because of the great distance between us and cost of traveling, especially considering the first 9 years we had kids when we lived in Virginia, we never took the children to family gatherings. None of the extended family had even met our girls.

But just thinking about plane tickets and rental vans and hotel rooms put the idea of taking the children to the wedding right out of the picture. Grant and I were planning on leaving the kids with my parents and flying out for a few days for the wedding festivities and leaving it at that.

And then.

One evening in early spring as we were lying in bed, nearly asleep, Grant exclaims, "I have a crazy idea!"

"Huh?" I drowsily murmured.

"Let's buy a camper and drive to California!!!" He was obviously very intrigued and excited about the idea.

"You have GOT to be KIDDING me." I was in disbelief. I had a wretched experience backpacking/camping once in college and have refused to even entertain the idea of camping ever since.

I thought he was just delusional in his exhausted state and shrugged it off.

Except he wasn't.

Within a few weeks, he had found a 2006 trailer on Craigslist and arranged for us to go look at it. He convinced me that we could try camping a few times throughout the summer to practice for the big trip and it would be so much fun! This would be our chance to see lots of places we had dreamed of taking the family in a much more economical way - and if it turned out we didn't like camping so much, we could always sell the trailer later.

Four "practice" camping trips later (just weekend trips within a 2 hour radius), we were beginning to feel as though we were getting this trailer thing down. Learning what was needed, what wasn't, how everything worked best, etc. Countless hours had been spent planning and packing and preparing and the TRIP was upon us.

(Oh, and I might add, the weekend before we left, my gorgeous younger sister got married, so we were ultra-busy for the entire month of October)

So here goes - a day by day rundown of our adventure of 2015.

Day 1 (Oct 15).
We drove. And drove. And drove. Through the corners of Northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri, and into Kansas, which lasted forever.

At a rest stop somewhere in Kansas

Kansas does really have some beauty - especially in the southeast corner. And we got our first looks at windmills. They look so tiny in the distance but when you get a chance to be close to one, they're staggeringly enormous. 

We realized that our first error in the trip planning was in trusting Google maps's estimation of drive time. See, when speed limits are 70 or 75, but you can drive 60 mph either to save gas mileage or because of the heavy winds (of which Kansas has plenty - hence the windmills everywhere), it slows you down significantly. Plus we had to stop for gas more frequently than a normal car, plus all the potty breaks - well, let's just say that our first day, which was supposed to be 12 hours, turned into 16. Not a super great start.

Oh, and part way through that day, Grant realized we needed a new mass air flow sensor (don't ask me what that is) and we spent a good portion of the day calling Toyota dealerships along our path to see if they had one in stock. They didn't. We had to wait until the next day in Colorado Springs to get one. 

Watching the sun go down and realizing that we still had at least 6 hours more to go was a little disheartening, to say the least. 

So we finally made it to our campground south of Colorado Springs somewhere around 12:30 am. Grant and I had to set up the trailer in pitch black night, with little girls who were upset at being awakened from our stop screaming in the car. Good times, good times. 

Part 2 - Colorado Springs