July 7 through 9, 2012 - Back to Colorado

The 7th was the day we finally had to leave. We didn’t bother getting up early or anything, since the drive was long enough it wouldn't really matter when exactly we got started. We did part of the needed horse care for the day, and said goodbye to the herd.

The boys.

Aladdin and Jupiter.

The girls.

Kat and Bebe.

Me, Kat, and Larenta.*

Kat headed into town with us so we could enjoy a last air-conditioned break at Starbucks to steal some internet, and then we headed out.

This sign made us laugh every time we passed it. First, I’m from Lakewood, but there is no Lakewood in Maryland.
And second, it’s the Lakewood Church of Cod.

“For Cod so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Sunfish…”

Which ALSO reminds me that we heard no Lon Solomon commercials this time while we were there. He broadcasts these religious commercials about how you need to convert or burn in hell, and always ends with “Not a sermon. Just a thought.” Last time we decided it should really be “Not a salmon. Just a trout.”

Hardly starting off, and Cy is already sure he's suffering.

Look, mountains!

I wanted to find a "Welcome to Maryland" sign,
but instead settled for the welcome mat in the visitor's center.

Maryland flag.

Roses from their garden.

Picture of me. We were trying to get the flags to cooperate, but they didn't want to.

Lovely lily.

It was rather warm. (That is 108... the display is a little broken.)

Rocky Gap. It's... a rocky gap.

West Virginia.
(A friend told me I should have gotten pictures of the ridiculous signs you see  alongside the road...
I agree, but sadly mostly just got state signs, so you can see our route. Next time!)

Pennsylvania.

Taylor is my sister. She has a town, apparently! (We were for some reason sent off the highway here.)

Nice clouds.

Ohio.

Blurry Indiana.

I fell asleep before we crossed over into Illinois. We slept overnight in a rest stop,
and I looked around for some kind of Illinois sign, and this was the closest they had.

I think their dog looks kind of like a monkey with floppy ears.

While in Illinois, we visited Cohokia. I have a BA in anthropology, and Cohokia is one of the most fascinating sites in North America (in my opinion.) But I’d never been there, and we noticed the sign for it on our way out to Maryland. On the way back to Colorado, Alex asked if I’d like to stop there, and see it. It gets its own post, though!

Gateway Arch.

Bridge.

Welcome to Missouri.

The arch, again.

St. Louis had a lot of abandoned buildings along the road.

Sunset.

Clouds.

Blimp!

I also slept through the Kansas border. But these are the glowing lights on
windfarm turbines in KS. They're watching us!

And welcome back to Colorful Colorado.

The trip was long and exhausting, and it was sad to come back, since neither of us really wanted to. Oh well; vacations are never long enough.

*This picture is from Alex's camera.

June 30/July 1, 2012 - From Colorado to Maryland

For the first week or so of July, Alex and I were on vacation to Maryland.

We left on our roadtrip on June 30. Sadly, it was a trip that couldn’t last nearly as long as we both wanted it to, and far too much of said time had to be spent on the driving to and from, but it was still wonderful to get away.

A drive to Maryland from Colorado is pretty serious. Google maps tells me that it’s 1,652 miles from my city to the one we stayed in.

Now, we decided to drive straight through, switching off driving and sleeping. This worked well for the first few states. Then something pretty awful happened, which I won’t go into anything more about, but after that we… didn’t switch driving anymore.

We still made pretty good time, arriving very early in the morning (I think around 2 or so?) on the 2nd.

I didn’t take many pictures on the trip out there, but here are the few I did grab.

We stopped at a rest stop in Kansas for a leg stretch:

Welcome to Kansas!

There were actually a lot of butterflies around.

Baby swallow!

And partway through Kansas (HOW LONG IS THIS STATE?!) we picked up this:

...as a sustained temperature reading. 108, seriously?

In Missouri, I tried and failed to get a picture of the St. Louis arch:

Nighttime is not conducive to pictures from a moving vehicle, unfortunately.

And in Illinois, I took a picture of the Effingham giant cross:

Feel that religiosity. (Alex may be the only one who fully understands why Effingham, IL is a comical thing to us. But it is.)

We got lost in Pennsylvania for a little while, after we failed to take an exit we should have, so we were delayed for an hour or so trying to find a town with a population in even the triple digits, but we came through all right, reaching our destination in the very early morning of July 2nd.

And I do promise that the rest of our trip was a little bit more exciting than this!