137 Days And Counting

Much has transpired since my last post! Please forgive me for my absence. My job has been hectic and stressful, and instead of writing I've been binge-watching The Office, Everybody Loves Raymond, and whatever else Netflix has to offer!

The countdown has informed me that we have

          One-Hundred 

                    Thirty-Seven Days 

[and] 

                              Six[ish] Hours 

                                        until we take off for Colorado!

It's getting closer!
El, The Maniac, and I have been feverishly going over our Google Drive files, adding to the List of Ideas, the Itinerary, and a Packing List.
(I've also created a blog that we may start using to document the preparations and the actual event, so keep an eye out for a link. It should be up and running by the end of March.)
Here are a few things we're looking forward to, in no particular order:

• Driving through the night in 4-hour shifts
• Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs
• Focus on the Family Headquarters (El and I grew up on Adventures in Odyssey, so visiting "Whit's End" is a MUST!)
• Estes Park (there are plenty of fun shoppes to visit downtown! Including one devoted entirely to Socks.)
• Rocky Mountain National Park (This year is their 100th anniversary!)
• Horseback riding
• Maybe some gemstone mining?
• Discovering the best coffee shops in each town
• Visiting a good Indian restaurant (Maniac is a big fan of Indian food and good chai tea.)
• Journaling
• Photobombing the webcams in RMNP
• Souvenir collecting

Is there anything we're missing?

It seems the more I look, the more I realize that there is no way one week will be enough time to see and do everything.

There are so many
     museums,
          exhibits,
               trails,
                    mountains,
                         lakes,
                              restaurants,
                                   landmarks,
                                        ghost towns,
                                             curiosities...

So many options for souvenirs:
     Jewelry or t-shirts?
          Christmas ornaments or post cards?
               Worth the money or woefully overpriced?
                    Tacky or tasteful?

How do we choose?

You decide: Is it acceptable to decide your vacation's fate by drawing destination options out of a hat? What if it's an Indiana Jones hat?


--Kiwi d. Fruit

A Change of Plans

We are down to 

          Three-Hundred 

                    Seventy Days 

[and] 

                              Five[ish] Hours 

                                        until we take off for Colorado! 

I get rather excited when I think about it, but it's also bitter-sweet right now.
The "cousins" we planned to travel with are not able to come.
To be completely honest, that was going to be half the fun of the trip. The four of us are best friends. El and Emmers are both adventurous but cautious and sensible. KK and I are more adventurous and crazy. We would have balanced each other out perfectly!
There were so many plans, and now they have to change. Life doesn't always happen the way you plan it, so you adapt and enjoy. And sometimes the adaptations surprise you.

El and I started brainstorming immediately about who else we could invite. The two of us would be fun, but you know what they say: "the more the merrier and the cheaper!" She called up one of our dear friends who is living in Maine right now, but comes back to Wisconsin regularly. We were both surprised and amazed when she replied (paraphrase):

"Of course! I have no idea what I'm doing next year, but I would LOVE to go!! How much do you need? I can't pay all of it right away, but I can send you a check for part this week if you need it!"

How awesome is that? No questions, no "let me think about it," just "when do I pay?"

I spoke to one of my long-time best friends, Ruthie. She's spunky and crazy and adventurous too, but will be taking paramedic classes next summer (she had worked her way up to advanced EMT at 19!), so can't commit. That's another disappointment, but we'll see what happens.

Right now there's one friend pending decision, and we might have to start looking for a fourth adventurer if she can't go.
          But we'll see.
                    We still have three-hundred seventy days and assorted hours left.

--Kiwi D. Fruit

Another Trip?

Well folks! It's been what, 6 months since I posted here last? Pretty sad, isn't it. Eventful things have been happening in my neck of the woods, but most of them aren't really the "Share With the Interwebs" type of thing. I've been wanting to get back into blogging some, but frankly didn't know what to type about.
Then at the beginning of this month my sister and I started making Plans.
Big Plans.
The kind you Capitalize.
People, my sister and I are going to Colorado next summer, and we are stoked!

We're not leaving until July of 2015, which is 498 days away (yes, there is a Colorado Countdown Timer), which gives us plenty of time to plan, save, and scheme. As of March 20, the brief rundown is as follows:

• Arrive in Colorado Springs on Saturday morning, and explore the Garden of the Gods visitors' center, maybe Focus on the Family/Whit's End, etc.
• While in Colorado Springs we'll be exploring Garden of the Gods, the city itself, hike on Mt. Evans, celebrate our "cousin's" birthday, and whatever else we feel like doing.
• Then we're headed over to Estes Park, where we'll get to go into Rocky Mountain National Park during its 100th year of National Parkhood! (If you remember from my last post, I got to go stand by the sign but never actually enter!) We'll hike in RMNP, of course, and tour the town and buy souvenirs and take pictures. We also might take a horseback ride--that's still in discussion.
• We'll also spend about a day in Denver, touring the city and seeing all the sights.

My sister and I invited our "adopted cousins" to accompany us, and we're all so very excited about taking at trip to begin with--to be going with each other is even better!

I'll try to blog a few times as we continue to plan. We'll be doing hikes and walks in our area to start getting in shape for next summer. The next 498 days can't go fast enough. =D

--KiwiDFruit

Twenty Trip--An Unexpected Roadtrip

Wednesday, September 12th, 2012

Our last day of true vacation!

We left the Oregon Trail and continued back towards the East, quite melancholy at the thought of our vacation ending. Then panic set in.

Vacation? Done? Finished? Completely?! We can't have that! It can't be over that quickly! Besides, we still lack several souvenirs for the folks back home! Quick, turn the car around!

We left the hotel in Laramie and stopped at a gas station parking lot to decide where to go. The result?

Estes Park, Colorado!

My parents and sister had stopped there briefly during her Twenty Trip back in 2010, so we thought it would be a fun side-trip. 

Plenty of interesting shoppes to poke through and souvenirs to obtain.

Off we went. The terrain was most interesting, how we went from the flat, flat lands of southern Wyoming, into bluffs and hills, then suddenly we were in the mountains! These were impressive, but not as much so as the Beartooth or the Tetons. Those ranges just shot up out of nowhere, where as coming into Estes park the climb was more gradual.

Anyway, here are some pictures.

I should have kept count of the national forests we drove through.

The fog lent a fairytale quality to the mountains. Who knows how much further they go up?

Mom was trying to take a nice picture, but I hadn't photobombed at ALL for this entire trip! I got this one in, though. It's a good one.  

We stopped by the river (name of river: unknown) to take pictures. Oh, beautiful! 

It was chilly, definitely a mid-fall afternoon, but enjoyable.

One can almost see a castle atop this.

Dad and I on a (very slippery) boulder in the middle of the river. 

Mom stayed safely on dry ground, camera in one hand and 911 on speed-dial in the other 

for when we fell in.

Had to take a pic with Spidey! 

(Haven't you noticed him in previous pictures? He's in quite a few, the sneaky little photobomber.)

This is my new shop! I should have applied to work there--see that "help wanted" sign in the window? How cool would it be for a Laura to work at Laura's?

To polish it all off, we swung by Rocky Mountain National Park. Technically we never went inside the park, but I walked to the other side of the sign--that counts, right?

The end!

My Twenty Trip was over before I knew it. We drove late into the night, found a hotel in the middle of somewhere, and drove more the next day. My aunt and uncle in Gilman, Iowa

fed us lunch, then we made our way back home.

What a vacation. I'd change a few minor details, but nothing major. Another week would have been nice, but at the same time it may have been to long. 

I was glad to be home, but the travel bug has bitten.

Thank you for reading, folks! I'm sure I can sort a few more pictures into another post or two, but we shall see. I'm not sure where this blog shall go next.

Have a good one!

~Kiwi~