A couple weeks ago, my wife and I took our first “official” extended vacation together since our honeymoon (1995). (“Official” because we have in fact taken weekend vacations, but nothing more than a few days). The reason? In all my years since our honeymoon, I’ve had to use my two-week vacation time from my job to work at the Minnesota State Fair.
So what did we do for our trip? Did we fly to some exotic location and lay on the beach? Did we go to Europe? Did we get our passports stamped?
Nope. We decided we wanted to travel by vehicle — but we made no plans and just got in the truck and began driving.
My first goal of the trip was to escape this crappy cold weather in Minnesota. Like a bear in hibernation, rousing the state from its wintery slumber takes more than a poke in the ribs.
So Tuesday, April 7 at 5 a.m. we headed south — 35º was the temperature when we left Big Lake. Northern Iowa wasn’t any warmer so we kept right on going through the Hawkeye state — breezing right through the state capital until we reached the southern border. There the weather warmed up like bread in a toaster.
When we reached Kansas City some eight hours later, the temperature read 84º and I was smiling like the cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland.
We stayed overnight in the largest city of Missouri and did some sightseeing. One of the most memorable things we did was visit the birth home of Jesse James — the American outlaw, gang leader, bank robber, train robber and murderer who was a celebrity when he was alive and became a legendary figure of the Wild West after his death. We took the tour, watched a video and took lots of photos, then decided to head west ourselves after Terri suggested we find some mountains.
We jumped on I-70 and headed towards Topeka. Kansas from the highway isn’t much to write home about but we did stop at the Dwight Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene (where he was born) and bought a few artifacts. We also veered off our westward trek temporarily to visit St.
Fidelis Church in Victoria. The church is considered one of the eight wonders of Kansas.
We also cruised off course to visit the Land of Oz in Liberal, KS only to find it wasn’t open yet — but we snapped some pictures from outside the building anyways.
Not much else to speak of on this eight hour, 23 minute journey across the wheat state except that we saw lots of Pronghorn in the fields that resemble the true antelope of the old world. Warm weather was again our friend as temperatures remained in the 70’s while we crossed the state.
The highlight of the trip was when we finally reached Denver and the grand, purply Rocky Mountains rose above the horizon to greet us. I had been to Denver twice before but for Terri, it was her first glimpse of the majestic range. The weather was grand, around 60-70 and sunny.
We stayed just outside Golden, CO to the west of Denver the first night and toured the famous Coors Brewery the next day as well as took a scenic drive up Lookout Mountain to the visitor center, then to the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave. We again took the museum tour and learned exponentially about the man and his legend and exited to the back of the building to view the plains of Colorado from 7,000 feet above sea level.
Returning to the plains level, we had heard about Estes Park in northern Colorado as being a destination worth venturing to, so we jumped on Co. Rd. 6 and traveled west through awe inspiring mountain and cliff terrain that made my jaw hurt from dropping. We encountered Big Horn sheep and followed a river that sprouted up dozens of trout fisherman standing in the streams looking to catch lunch.
The rest of the drive from the county road through Hwy. 119, then 72 was just as special and we couldn’t imagine any other place on earth being as more beautiful as the handiwork of our earth’s Creator.
Then we arrived in Estes Park on the border of Rocky Mountain National Park...wow!
There we stayed at a cozy, quaint hotel along the river and took in the sights and sounds of the park. We caught sight of a red fox one evening hunting for food along the banks of the waterway. Then, as we entered RMNP, we spotted a herd of 131 wild Elk feeding in a field in grandiose style.
A hike up the mountain beside Bear Lake proved to be a challenge in the thin air, but the view was magnificent. We really didn’t want to leave but we had more exploring to do.
We wanted to see Devil’s Tower in Wyoming on our way to Rapid City to view Mount Rushmore so we stopped at a visitor center as we crossed into the Cowboy State to get more information. We also inquired about Yellowstone — about six miles to the northwest of where we were. We were told the park was closed until mid-May.
I’m glad I asked about it before driving there. We almost ended up like the Griswolds.
From Devil’s Tower (which was a spectacular sight I have to admit) we went north to Montana. On all our days on our trip, this was the first time we came across inclement weather. As a matter of fact, we drove through blizzard-like conditions as we motored towards Billings, MT, where we ended up settling in for the night.
The next day was gorgeous weather again and we headed east and stopped at Custer’s Last Stand (Battle of Little Big Horn) in eastern Montana. It was a somber experience realizing so many young U.S. military men as well as hundreds of Native Americans lost their lives in this bloody battle. Two-hundred and sixty-three soldiers, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer and attached personnel of the U.S. Army, died fighting several thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors.
Our second to the last leg of our journey through central United States brought us to Rapid City, SD where I saw the faces of our presidents on the side of the Black Hills for the first time in my life. It was again sunny and about 65º. We also swung by and experienced the memorial of Crazy Horse and along the way saw a Mountain Goat and herds of Bison, as well as Mule Deer and sheep.
Our final trek was through the Badlands (strange place) and home in Big Lake by 4 a.m. April 15. The temperature when we woke the next day was around 70º — 35 degrees warmer than when we left a week before.
We put on well over 3,000 miles on our trip and never had one issue with Rover (my red truck) — thank God.
I’ve been to many places in the U.S. over the years including Manhattan, Tampa, Dallas, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco and Nashville but this latest trip was without a doubt my ultimate favorite.
The U.S. has so much beauty and history and even if we had planned our trip’s itinerary, we probably would have missed out on something valuable had we not just jumped in the car and headed a direction.
I highly recommend this method of vacationing. We saw a lifetime’s worth of sights in just eight days.
