Day 25

We left McCook this morning with signs of more heavy rain. Our spirits are feeling a little soggy too knowing we are on our way home which means our holiday is drawing to a close :(
We drove thru Nebraska, into Missouri and then Iowa seeing some new things but also some things we've been seeing a lot of on our trip.
Irrigation lines to water desert or near desert fields.Today we saw grain drying systems
Today we also saw - wheat

good looking corn
soybeans
overflowing riverswind turbines
better looking corn.

and flooded fields.Each day I've learned something new - some things Tom has taught me and some things Tom and I have learned together. Today Tom taught me something... hopefully if you enlarge this picture you'll be able to see what I would call plateaus. These are actually called berms and are built by bulldozer to stop water erosion on the sides of hills. There are a lot of these in the states we drove thru today.Thought I would show you a picture of a typical road we drove on today. It was so exciting I could hardly take my eyes off it, or at least when I was awake I couldn't. lol
We passed this combine doing 120 km. - oh, Tom says I should mention it was on the back of a truck lol.
Tonight we're in Grinnel, Iowa.

Day 24

We woke up this morning to the sound of pouring rain and knew we were in for another wet day so snuggled down for a bit of a sleep in. When we got up at 7:30 the rain had stopped and we had high hopes for a dry, safe trip over the pass and into Estes Park. Then Tom decided to look outside and our ho9pes were dashed - it was snowing. June 13 and snow is just an oxymoron in our language but I guess not in Colorado. lol
After talking to other travellers in the motel we discovered that they had to shut down the top pass yesterday due to snow storms up there so there didn't seem any hope of it being open today so we backtracked and found another route to take and bypassed Estes Park.

This is what Tom saw when he looked outside at our car
These shots were all taken as we headed south to get out of the snow and onto some good roads. We went from snow to rain and then back to snow again with blizzard like conditions at times. The plows were out on the mountains dealing with slush build up but didn't help with visibility.


I know I mentioned the other day about there being some things I love, well obviously I can add one more thing - evergreens with snow on them.
Don't think I did too bad capturing the essence of our morning. Does this mean I win today's contest Tom
Not only did I throw this in as a tunnel shot (too bad they put lights on) but this was our only break from bad weather.
Finally, we left the mountains behind and found farm country. I think the Lord knew how hard it would be for us leaving the mountains behind so He gave us weather that we were thrilled to be on level ground again.
The change from high peaks to farming country is quick and very interesting. This land is desert but is irrigated. We saw corn, alfalfa, soybeans and wheat. We also saw feedlots that covered about 100 acres (Tom's attempt at a picture didn't turn out, oh, I guess that means I win today's contest).
We drove in rain off and on all day, mainly on. Tonight we're hunkered down in McCook, Nebraska and it is at least 10 degrees warmer here but since we checked in it has started to pour down and we've just learned they have storm warnings out for tonight. Go figure, we can sure pick them lol.

Day 23

We left Glenwood Springs this morning knowing we were heading north and would be seeing some beautiful mountains and canyons. This was a difficult day for me, the high was to be 13 and it was overcast and rainy.
We did indeed see some beautiful rock formations - hope you can see the colours in this.

Isn't this gorgeous

This is Hamilton, Colorado - a beautiful village. We just had to snap a shot of it. I was supposed to get a picture of the sign saying Hamilton but our timing was off - I guess I should say my timing was off. lol


We did see beautiful mountains and lots of overflowing streams and rivers.
The weather was quite cool and it rained off and on all day. I kept telling myself I couldn't complain, but it was really hard not to.
We ended our day in Grand Lake, a cute little town right beside the lake itself.
You would have chuckled with us as we ate at the Bear's Den Restaurant, we had a very friendly waiter who seemed to forget more things the longer we were there. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting this young man but decided we would never hire him ourselves. I've just read this to Tom to see if he agrees with what I said and he started to chuckle, so that must mean he does agree. lol

Day 22

We got a late start leaving Colorado Springs this morning but knew we didn't have far to go - 7 Falls was our destination. Not quite what Tom and I were thinking - we thought 7 falls meant 7 waterfalls :) Not so, it was one waterfall broken into 7 steps. Still beautiful and interesting, just not quite what we were expecting.




Our next stop was only 15 minutes away - the Garden of the Gods. This is a park in the city that has wonderfully shaped rocks in a flat area somewhat like Monument Valley. We thoroughly enjoyed driving and walking around looking and taking pictures.

All the rocks are a wonderful red
except this one!
Here he is again

Aren't these just marvelous


Tom has been teaching me how to take pictures of flowers and in our contest today he won hands down lol.
As soon as we saw this little fellow we knew he needed his picture taken. This is Tom's attempt
This is my attempt. I thought some kids might enjoy this mjore :)

We passed on our third stop of the day and did a Walmart pit stop instead and got our daily salad and bunch of bananas and then left for the great unknown - our favourite thing to do - drive and see what you can find.
Tom had been concerned that taking a 4 lane highway might prove a little boring but it was absolutely beautiful, really breathtaking.



This route took us through Vail, Breckenbridge and finally Glenwood Springs where we are spending the night. Very interesting seeing these towns and how they keep the old look to all there buildings.
We quit early tonight because I was tired after yesterdays hill walking so thought we'd just take it easy tonight - no laundry tonight!
Tomorrow is an adventure day (again), we'll see what we can find and see where God leads us.
I didn't tell you about the girls (women) we met on the train yesterday or the woman we tried to help on the top of Pike's Peak who couldn't catch her breath because of the altitude. Believe it or not they actually sell oxygen for those with asthma to use. But that's all a different story.