Nebraska to Colordo

Trip Odometer: 3570

Miles today: 445

We began our day in a campground surrounded by the cornfields of Nebraska and ended up at a campground in the suburbs of Denver. When I got in the car in the morning and put my hands on the steering wheel in their accustomed position and started heading down the road, it felt like pure torture. I knew I had hours to go before I would reach my destination. After about an hour, it got easier. On long driving days, my knee starts to ache from being held in the same position for so long. I’ve done two things to try to make the long driving days more bearable for the children. One: we rent Redbox Movies for $1 each whenever we can. It’s frustrating because the GPS will tell you where lots of different businesses are, but not Redbox. We’ve figured out that every Wal-Mart and Walgreens has a Redbox and search for those. Two: Before the trip I went to Dollar Tree several times and picked up things for the children. Dode wrapped them all up in brown paper for me and on days when there are no movies or they’re just not cutting it, I pass out a wrapped gift to everyone. They all love getting something new.

About two hours into our trip, we stopped at the Bailey Rail Yard in North Platte, Nebraska. It is the busiest rail yard in the nation. They build over 150 trains there a day and handle over 10,000 individual rail cars daily. There is a viewing tower where you can see all 8 ½ miles of the rail yard. I think it would be really relaxing to sit there and watch trains being built and watch cars coming into the yard. Unfortunately, Miriam had not wanted breakfast when we were leaving and was tired so everything was making her mad and she was letting us all know it. We stayed about an hour and then were back on the road.

she wouldn't even get in the photo

We made pretty good time to Denver, with just one bathroom stop between the rail yard and the campground. There are lots of construction areas where they drop the speed from 75 mph to 65 mph for miles and miles, and believe it or not, I feel ripped off!
When we got to Denver it was so hot. We set up camp as quick as we could, I made dinner, and then we headed down to the lake. We seem to have brought hundreds of earwigs with us from Nebraska. They are in everything. I hope I don’t get in trouble for transporting them across state lines! We stayed at Cherry Creek State Park which is 18 miles from the city of Denver. The park surrounds the Cherry Creek Reservoir. The water was muddy and had a strange smell but was a welcome relief from the heat of the day. There were all sorts of boats on the water and this appears to be a popular place for Denver residents to play.

 
 

I'm not the only one worn out at the end of a long driving day, and she even got a nap in the car!

the state park is very scenic with these meadows and trees

I can't believe I've made it two weeks!  I am plenty tired at the end of the day and the distance between my sleeping bag and me seems far too long as I take care of camp for the evening, get the little ones to bed, deal with fighting among the older ones, and then finally can relax.  Three weeks is a long time but there's so much we're missing.  There was a freeway exit in Cedar Rapids that advertised a Czech and Slovak Museum and an African American Museum.  We could have got both sides of Jacob's background in one stop!  I bet we could have even found some Havlicks.  I would have liked to tour the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Omaha, the Buffalo Bill Ranch in North Platte, Laura Ingles Wilder's home in South Dakota, and have just finished off our cross country trip with a dip in the Atlantic, we were already 3/4's of the way across!  Well,  I'm young and so are the kids, we have plenty of years for more adventure.  The kids are bursting with excitement that Boma is joining us Friday.  Anastaya wanted to know if she's "carpooling" with us.  I guess she thought Boma would rent a car and travel alongside us, not a bad idea considering what can happen inside this van!