Road Trip Day 1 (5/20/09)

Yes, I know that this isn't being posted directly as the trip happens. It's more work than we realized and usually the last thing we want to do after a long day is update the blog. Also, the fact that we didn't have internet for the most part of the first half doesn't help. At any rate, here's the first post, others will follow. Eventually, the whole trip will be documented.


The twelve hour journey to Colorado Springs from Monett started at 10 am. The only thing we had to look forward to was crossing the end of Kansas. About an hour later, we crossed the Missouri-Kansas line, and decided to stop and take a picture…of the beginning.

By 2 pm we had reached Wichita where we only stopped long enough to eat lunch; we’ll be spending plenty of time here this summer. Unfortunately there’s not much to write about Kansas, unless you would find watching the wind farms & oil wells as you drive by the least bit entertaining. Luckily about halfway between Wichita & Hays, we found a slight bit of humor in the form of a simple street sign. Crawford Street was exit 92 and gave us a good chuckle. Derek Crawford, one of the TJ senior staff members is apparently important enough to have a street named after him in Kansas. If you don’t know Derek, well, he is almost always looking for some form of recognition. Well, Derek, we found it…in the middle of nowhere.

After we had laughed way too much about Crawford street, our next stop was in Hays. Entering Hays, we’re almost certain that we passed one of the tallest structures in Kansas; the water tower. Much like Wichita, we only stopped long enough to get gas and scrape a wide variety of six-legged creatures off of the windshield and grill of Jeep (note: “Jeep” is capitalized, because Tom refers to it or “him” as a pet).

Sometime after departing Hays, we encountered a suicidal Hawk who abruptly decided to stop munching on his fine road kill and fly into our path. Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal, we know. At 75 mph, however, this could have caused major damaged and resulted in Janelle having a heart attack. Luckily, at the last minute the hawk decided that death is a terminal choice and veered up and over Jeep. Yes, folks, that was the highlight of Kansas – a true once in a lifetime experience.

Finally, and to our greatest relief, at 7:21 Central, 6:21 Mountain time we crossed the Colorado State Line. As you can see in the picture below, we’re pretty darn excited to be out of Kansas. Plus, the Colorado sign looks pretty cool and the legal speed limit was 75 mph.

We stopped in Burlington, CO, briefly to grab a bite to eat, fill Jeep’s belly, and scrape off even more unwanted friends that we had picked up along the way. Tom might pick up window washing as a side job since he’s gotten so good at getting the windows squeaky clean.

As we continued into Colorado, the sun was setting and we were approaching a storm front. Thanks to the storms, Tom was not blinded by the sun and we were able to safely arrive in Colorado Springs at 11 pm (CT). We were both worn out by the drive and very thankful to be able to spend the night in a hotel, fully aware that we would not be so fortunate the next night…yes, night 2 would be spent sleeping in Jeep.