Showing posts with label driving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label driving. Show all posts

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Colorado: Day 1--Driving!

**Please see my blog created specifically for this trip! It's located at http://coloradoconversations.blogspot.com/
I'll post abbreviated versions of each post on this blog (trying to revive it a bit!), but the full posts (with more pictures!) will be at Colorado Conversations. Some of the other girls on the trip might post there as well--we'll see. You are welcome to comment on either blog, and follow the links to the corresponding posts on Colorado Conversations. :)

Evening 1--July 31, 2015
Day 1--August 1, 2015
Wisconsin to Bettendorf, Iowa
Bettendorf, Iowa to Calhan, Colorado

We left the house right on schedule: 6:30 pm! ....And then we had to stop 20 minutes down the road. Mainiac had accidentally left her phone, drivers license, and debit card in her family's car, and we needed to pick that up before heading out of state. Thankfully we discovered it was missing before we made it to Colorado!

Driving west into the sunset, we watched a rosy sunset ahead of us and the blue moon rising behind us. It was enormous and beautiful. (see picture below)

KT and El took the first driving/navigating shift, then we paused at my grandparents' house long enough to say hello, change into comfy clothes, and pick up the GPS.
I took the next leg of the journey and made it almost to Council Bluffs. Mainiac made a wonderful navigator, and kept me awake with funny stories, trivia pulled up on her phone (thank goodness for 3G!), and classic Newsboys/Michael W. Smith sing-alongs. Sometime between 1 and 2 AM I realized that driving any further would be a very unwise decision, so we switched out with El and KT and slept until we reached Kearney, Nebraska.

Blue Moon around 2-3:00 am.
From Kearney we dropped down into Kansas on a road parallel to the railroad, taking us through small towns such as Long Island and Funk.


Some might think that the drive through Kansas would be boring, since the road is so flat and straight, but I thought it was beautiful. We drove through fields of sunflowers and over the west end of beautiful Harlan County Lake.
Driving through Kansas might have been my favorite drive of the trip. Okay, maybe not The Favorite. The Peak-to-Peak Highway and Trail Ridge Road both had some fantastic scenery! But this was pretty and quiet and peaceful.
Harlan County Lake
Abandoned house close to the Colorado border
We're here!! (That's not us.)
Allow me to introduce the Colorado Crew!

El, back there reading
Mainiac, living up to her name. ;)
I think we were singing along to Fiddler on the Roof...
There's me, Kiwi!
KT finally fell asleep. (she doesn't sleep well in cars.)

 
First glimpse of mountains! Taken a little ways east of Calhan, Colorado.
You really have to squint to see it, but there's a mountain there!

Next post: Paint Mines Interpretive Park!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Grad party!

Okay, sorry for the dismal/depressing feel of the last post. =/ I was (obviously) in a rather dismal/depressed mood for it.
The good news is that yes, I did graduate!! =D With [a] flying color. ;) My great and wonderful friend, Bethany, helped me through the last few lessons of Government--if it wasn't for her, I don't know how long it would have taken me to finish!!
We had the party at a park just a few minutes from home, but sadly it was too windy to use most of the decorations I had worked on. =( So the decor consisted of tablecloths, three bunches of balloons, and flowerpot saucers of Skittles. Without the actual flowerpots, the saucers didn't make much sense, but I guess the tables looked okay. =/
TONS of friends showed up, all the way from Iowa and Illinois! My Aunt Jan and Uncle Steve win the prize for the longest drive to get here, I think--they came all the way from western Iowa!! (Thank you for coming!) Do you know how difficult it is to constantly switch from group to group, trying to talk to everyone and introduce people to other people and make sure you get some cake...? It's difficult. I tried to spend more time with the out-of-towners than the in-towners, since I see them every week. Hopefully none of you felt slighted!
Sorry for the shortness of this post! I'm at the library and my session is ending in a few minutes, so I've gotta cut it short. =/
Long story short, I had a great time and hope everyone who came did, too! And thank you for the encouraging comments on the last post! =) They were helpful.

~Kiwi~
p.s. Please pray for me tomorrow! I'm taking my road test for my license at 1:00. =O A leetle scary! I doubt I'll pass, just because I'm a bit pessimistic, but I might! Please pray I don't crash into anything, or pull out when I'm not s'posed to, and that I get the hang of Parallel Parking within the next 24 hours...Eeep. =)

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Titleless in Blogland

My ACT scores arrived!!! And they're pretty decent, too! =) Not perfect. Not lousy. Just good. C= I was best in English, then came reading and science, and guess what I did poorly in! Math. Told y'all! But it was still okay, because I wasn't expecting to do exceedingly well. I think the paper said that I did better than seventy-odd percent of ACTers in math. Well then, I'm happy.

I drove down to my Grandma's house in Illinois and back today. =) I like driving. To some extent. "Okay, turn left." I turn left. Halfway through the turn: "And turn right right away." I'm thinking he means at the next road, because when someone says next right, they usually mean the next road so I continue towards the next road. "No, I said right away! I meant turn into [this little gravel drive that leads to] the coffee shop!" Blah blah blah. The trouble with driving with Dad is that I'm supposed to be able to drive, pay attention to speed, cars, and road, and read his mind. I can't do that.
But he did let me eat Twizzlers while I drove, which Mom might not....

Good day, all 'round. =)
~Kiwi~

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Wanted: Some Extra Oomph for Volleyball.

Sitting here on my bed at 10:00 Wednesday night and I realize I forgot to blog yesterday and today! I can't believe I did that!
So now I'm faced with choices. What to write about? My first volleyball game of the year? The baseball game I went to Saturday? The cd I'm listening to? Choices, choices, choices.
I'll choose the first and maybe the last as well.
Sunday afternoon was the second church volleyball game of the year, my first. I really need to get back into shape for volleyball! After all that jumping and leaping and stretching I was Worn Out. And my legs hurt the next day. Guess who needs to do jumping jacks?
Soem genious thought that boys vs girls was a good idea for the first two games. I use the word 'genious' losely, because it was a girl who suggested it, and it was the girls who lost both games. For some reason, we can talk and talk and talk when NOT playing volleyball, but once the game starts we all clam up! The first game was really bad in that respect, but the second was a little better. We remembered "got it!" sometimes, but there was still an awful lot of watching the ball go by and thinking someone else would get it.
The next two games were the best, because we mixed up the teams and remembered to talk to each other. My team won both. =)

Once half the people left and we were just hitting the ball around, I got so frustrated! I've been working on my overhand serves, but since I have no net to practice with I just have to hit it as hard and as high as I can. Sunday I practiced with a net. I can get the ball within an inch or two of the top of the net, but I can't give it that extra oomph to make the ball clear the net!! SO close! *sigh* I guess I'll have to find that extra oomph somewhere before Sunday. And then that other team better look out! Just you wait ('Enry 'Iggins, just you wait.. ;)!

Sorry, but I don't have time to tell about the cd! We're at the library, then headed home, then Mom's taking me out driving! (That's your warning)

~Kiwi~

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Reflections on 18 Years of Life




In the past 18 years of my life, I have learned many many things. 
How to walk......how to talk...to tie my shoes....to ride a bike.....how to read.....how to avoid punishments....I've learned to do handstands (sorta) and cartwheels. I've learned to drive some, and how to fill up a gas tank (Dad: "You fill it and keep filling it until the gas pump shuts off. It shuts off by itself. The tank is FULL when the pump shuts off. It is not full until the pump shuts off. It is 9:20 on a Monday morning: when I ask you about it later I expect you to know that! Unlike your sister."). I can quote to you many many random quotes from random movies I've watched over these past 18 years. I've learned to play volleyball, softball, dodgeball, foosball, soccer, and (against my will) some football. I've made it through almost 12 years of schooling already! 

I'd say I have a decent amount of accomplishments for 18 years! =) 

Now to go find and open those Mysterious Packages that people have been trying to sneak into the house.....
And get some cake. It looks like a good cake! German Chocolate.... C=
~18 year old Kiwifruit

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

50TH POST!!!!

I wanted to say something before I forgot it, but am now beginning to think that it's too paltry a post for this honored position. Fifty posts. And since I've been on since Wednesday, June 11th, 2008. That makes fifty posts in 167 days. Averaging .2994 posts per day, about 2.08 per week. While Soul Skittles, for example, manages to churn out a lot more in the same amount of time.
Of course, all that was typed last Wednesday, so now my average has dropped even more. :'( I need to post more.
So, when was the last time I posted? Ah, yes, Saturday, the 22nd. What has happened since then?

Sunday (23): Nuthin. Church, as usual. I can't think of anything else.

Monday (24th): Instead of school, we cleaned some, then went to the library. I got a really stupid book that had a deceiving cover. It's called In the Shadow of the Ark, and it's about this girl, Re Jana, who travels to where Noah is building the ark. She falls in love with Ham (That sounds so funny. "Oh, I'm in love with Ham! *sigh*"), who loves her back, but he has to marry this other lady, Neeleta, because of her financial status. Re Jana's mother dies (actually, she knows she's dieing so she has her husband burn her alive to get it over with), so Re Jana's father builds her a reed gondola, as is their people's custom because they used to live by the sea and put the dead bodies in the gondola, then set fire to it and let it float out. But the mother refuses to be put in the gondola, so it just stays there. Then, after a whole lotta stuff happens, the flood starts, Re Jana's adopted brother, Put, is secreted onto the ark by Neeleta, and Ham sneaks Re Jana on, also. So long, complicated story short, Japheth's wife finds Re Jana and forces her to sacrifice some of the animals (including Noah's dove) to the old gods, hoping that then the waters will go down. No one notices that half the quail are missing, or some of the other birds. And then, it ends up that Re Jana, Put, and even their father (who floated in the gondola all that time) survive, even though they were not the Chosen People. It didn't make any sense to me, and I don't recommend it.

Tuesday (25th): Ummmmm... I made the scalloped corn for Thanksgiving dinner and stuck it in the freezer. I also discovered that I hate this kitchen. It's nice and large, yes, but the cabinets come down too low, and the counter isn't wide enough. And there's no counter next to the stove (that fact will play a role in my next adventure), so I had to keep scooting back and forth between the counter and the stove.
For supper, Mom made 'Cheesy Ham Potatoes'. The pan was sitting on the stove with a dish of corn beside it, and I was dishing up my food with my plate in one hand and the spoon in the other. Suddenly, the pan decided to scoot, and it burned my hand! Thankfully, Mom saw right away and was able to move it quickly. If there had been a counter by the stove, I could have set my plate down and avoided that mishap. >:-[

Wednesday (26th): I made a Cherry Pie for Thanksgiving. We went to our church's Thanksgiving Eve service. Oh, and I finished Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas card. Here's the front:
It's actually a bit brighter than it appears to be here. Inside, in the same font and color as the 'peace', is 'Peace on earth and goodwill to men.' That earned me $20, minus the $3.50 Mom and Dad charged me for paper and ink. $16.50. Sweet.

Thursday (Thanksgiving, the 27th): We drove three hours back to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Iowa for Thanksgiving. I LOVE the smell of turkey! And I love Thanksgiving meals. And we had PIE, four kinds of it. Cherry, Pumpkin, Apple, and Pecan. I'm sorely tempted to re-post my PIE post, but instead I'll just put that link up.
We watched about six and a half hours of Newhart. WGN was playing a marathon of it. I like Newhart! My sister said that afterwards, I was starting to sound like Stephanie! I think that's bad....

Friday (28th): We left Grandma and Grandpa's house after lunch, and stopped by Borders book store so Rapunzel could get a book. I had hoped to run into a friend or two there, but nope. Then, Dad drove until we crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois, and then he pulled over and (here's the good part) they let me drive!!! It went well. I had to pass a tractor *shiver* and only one person passed me. I need to work on my turns a bit more, because the other two drivers in the car who kept telling me what to do and distracting me, so I couldn't concentrate. I will name no names, but they're my parents. I like driving. :) I drove all the way from the Iowa/Illinois border to an unnamed little town near the Illinois/Cheeseland border--about two hours of driving. :) Driving is fun.

Saturday (29th): We carried, dragged, lugged, and hauled boxes into the basement from the garage. Big whoop. Quite entertaining.
After lunch, TOO (my new nickname for my twelve-year-old brother. The Odd One.) informed me that some friends had been walking by on the street behind the empty lot behind our house, and invited us to go explore the woods by the park with them. TOO left about five minutes before I could, and it was agreed that we'd meet at the park. I arrived, but no TOO, no friends, nobody. Long story short, they weren't at the friends' house, where I checked next, so I went back to the park and found them then. While we were back in the woods, we started construction on a 'fort' or 'hideout' or whatever you want to call it. I think I'll suggest calling it 'The Stronghold' or 'The Keep' (the safest part of a castle) instead of 'The Fort'. The Fort sounds more like some little hideout a kid would build, while The Stronghold sounds better to me. It's sort of a hexagonal structure. Starting at the west corner and going counter-clockwise, it's pine tree, tall-skinny-unknown tree, tall-skinny-unknown tree, pine tree again, another unknown forked tree, another unknown forked tree, then back to the first pine tree.

Sunday (30th): I woke up around seven-thirty and it was unnaturally dark. Looking out my window, I found the problem. Snow. Probably about an inch and a half? I don't know. Then while we were in church, it all melted. It was snowing hard most of the way through the service but not sticking. Then we came home, ate, cleaned, and a new friend (who just happens to live about five minutes away) came over and we watched Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in The Road to Morocco. We were going to watch The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, but that VHS tape wouldn't work. The library needs to start replacing VHSs with DVDs. We made hot chocolate (hint: add dried coffee creamer to the chocolate mix. Hazelnut is good. Or, if you put milk in it also, replace some of the milk with coffee creamer. It makes it even better.), and as we watched the movie about three inches of snow fell.

Monday (1st): I did my school work, which involved watching Amazing Grace for history. I really like that movie! We saw it in the theater either the day it came out, or soon after.
I finished a scarf I have been knitting since late October. It's taller than Monkey by quite a bit, and almost as tall as TOO, who's just over five feet. It's long enough for me to wrap around my neck twice and above my eyes 1 1/2 times! Sort of like the scarf Randy Parker's mom put on him in A Christmas Story. Then, we called up our friends and went out into the woods again. You would not believe (okay, maybe some of you would....Dagmar and Matt) how different the woods look when they're covered in snow! Two of the pine trees we had used as landmarks were unrecognizable, as they were bent over with snow--all the way over! We got more work done on the Stronghold. Saw deer tracks. Heard voices in the woods. Saw strange footprints in the snow. Heard something that sounded like a cross between yip-yap dogs, birds, and a group of wild indians. Picked up two trees. (they're about twelve-twenty feet in length, and they're the tall, skinny ones without many branches. The trees fall over, sit there on the ground for who knows how long, then we pick them up and prop them against things.) So far, all the walls have framework, now what we need to do is weave other sticks in with the big branches and logs.

Tuesday (today, 2nd): I finished my work quickly, except my STUPID LITERATURE where they ask me DUMB QUESTIONS that I don't have answers for. Dad gave us ice cream after lunch. I started serious work on our Christmas card for the year. No picture of that yet, not until it has already been sent out.

I'm planning on going tramping again today. There's not really much else to do. Read, computer, television, paint, wait impatiently for the Fourteenth of December. I need more exercise. Oh, that's something to do! I'll look up the My-ville ice skating arena and see when they let us mortals who are not prodigies at skating in. Perchance after Christmas we can go skating.
Now, I have a tag to do, but I'm going to save that until tomorrow. If I post it now, I won't have anything to post tomorrow, will I?
Goodbye. I'll try not to freeze.
~Kiwi da Fruit

P.S. I sat down and figured out that I have only recieved ummm.... three letters here at this address. I have about ten friends who promised they would write to me, and still have not. It makes me very unhappy, very unhappy indeed. Please write to me, Dagmar, Avalon, Catfreak, Miranda, Abbie, Rachel, Avalonandcatfreakssisters! I miss you! Write soon!!

By der way, Thanks for the comment, Rachel!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Tomorrow...

Oooooooof. Sigh. *flopps down on the couch and vows never to stand again* Groan. *begs for a foot massage, which she doesn't get*
My feet are killing me. I feel like I did the day after Adventureland, when I walked so much in wet shoes. Last night I felt so tired I could have cried. I wasn't sad, just tired!


We got the house cleared out, but not without mishap, however. The rain had slowed by ten, but Dad had already called some of the people who were going to come, telling them that we wouldn't start loading until about one-thirty or two-ish. Dad and Grandpa got the deep freezer out of the basement with some grunt work, and out to the U-haul. The truck bed was wet and slippery as Grandpa helped pull the freezer up while Dad pushed it. He lost his footing and slipped, and as he did so, the freezer tipped and fell on his legs/hip. Grandpa's okay now, but his legs hurt and he's using a wheelchair and crutches. We had to call an ambulance for him, then Mom and Grandma followed it to the hospital, where they were for most of the day. The good news is that no bones were broken as far as they could tell. But this means that Grandma and Grandpa won't be coming up with us tomorrow and helping us move in. :~(

A total of nine people came to help us, ten if you count a little boy who mostly played with Monkey (my seven-year-old bro). One family was supposed to bring Sloppy Joes and other food to eat after we had gotten most of the work done. But since we didn't start until two, and most of our food was packed or at G&G's house, all we had were baby carrots, hard-boiled eggs, string cheese, and one slice of a Subway sandwich left over from Friday's lunch. Monkey had the sandwich. There was no salt for the eggs. How can you eat hard boiled eggs if you have no salt??? I had had one like that for breakfast on Friday, and it was just plain dull. I had to go down to the local inconvenience store and buy some. Why do they sell just plain pepper and pepper-and-salt, but no just plain salt?? That was all I wanted! Plain ol' salt! But noooo, I had to buy unwanted pepper, too, and with my own money! *sigh* isn't life aweful? :-D

Now that G&G aren't coming up with us, the plans have changed. I'm not sure whether they're for the better or the worst.
The original plan: Dad drives the truck and Mom follows him, taking the boys with them, and leave around 5:30 a.m. Then Grandma takes our Astrovan and Grandpa their van, and we leave around eight or eight-thirty.
The revised plan: We all get up at the unGodly hour of four-ish in the morning, and leave by five-forty-five-ish. Dad drives the moving van with at least one boy in it. Mom, and possibly one boy, follows in Dad's work car, the Maliblue (It's a blue Malibu. Maliblue!). Rapunzel follows Mom in the Astro. With me in it. Did I mention she just got her driver's license on Thursday, and this will be her first time driving solo? *stifles a shriek* I'm scared. This should be interesting.
A good thing about this is: Mom and Dad have to make a final walk through the house at 8:30. Since I'll be coming along, I have a better chance of presenting my case and receiving the room I want. The house has five bedrooms. It has already been decided that Rapunzel gets the downstairs one. Of the four upstairs, I get one, Mom and Dad get one, the boys share one, and the fourth is the schoolroom. I want the one on the southeast corner of the house. It's the front left room if you're facing it from the road. They want me to have the southwest room, on the back of the house. It's the smallest bedroom. I think it's big enough for the schoolroom, but M&D don't. I hope it is bigger than they thought it was, because I don't want a really long, skinny, small room.

Bored. I should get off now, but there's nothing to do. The others are watching some boring show about guns (sorry, anyone who likes boring shows about guns), and I'm tired of sitting and reading.

I'll post again as soon as possible, and who know when that'll be. Forgive me, Judi, if it takes more than five days. At least I have an excuse!

~Kiwifruit

Saturday, September 6, 2008

I Drove Today!

Just a quick little note to keep Miss Judi satisfied. ;-P
We had a load of junk that we took to the dump today, so guess who drove! It was my first time on the road, and let me tell you, fifty-five miles/hour is a LOT faster when it's you behind the wheel! My brother, who comments with the name 'Asdef' so I'll call him that, rode along, and it wasn't bad enough that I was rather a little freaked, he had to whimper and squeal too. I'm not taking him along next time. He's too distracting.
After we went to the dump, Dad had me drive out west of town to Avalon and Catfreaks' place, so I could show off my new skills and get a bit of practise driving on gravel. That was better, because the road was deserted and I could drive at a more comfortable pace--about thirty-five to forty. Unfortunately, they have cats and a dog, which made it even more frightening trying to avoid hitting one. I think I killed a butterfly, but thankfully, that was it. A moment of silence for the poor butterfly, please.

Okay, that's enough. So I still find driving fun, but it is just a little nerve-racking. We need to find a nice, large, yellow magnet that says, in black letters, "WARNING: STUDENT DRIVER". Dad said maybe we should get some flashing yellow lights to put on top while we're at it.

I packed up all my paint supplies yesterday. :-( I miss them. Hopefully, I'll get a good enough sized room to put my paint table in.

Well, my friends, that's all I have to say at the moment. Comment away! By this time, a week and a day hence, we will be either unloading the u-haul or done with that and on to organizing the boxes at the new house. See ya!
~Kiwifruit