Toto, We're Not In Kansas Anymore

Just let me start by saying "Bad things happen in Kansas!"

First, the red lights on the dashboard, then VacationGirl's cute little travel mouse broke (frayed wires) and she is touch-pad impaired - it doesn't do what she wants it to do! Then on top of all of that, when she and Dear Family got in the Tahoe to head to CO, the air conditioning quit working - but only on the passenger side. Everyone else has wonderful, cold air blowing on them but the passenger in the passenger seat (which is typically where VacationGirl sits) is blowing horribly, hot air - not just warm - but HOT! The type of hot air one needs when on top of a snowy mountain - which we're not. She now has roasted toes!

So to recap:
1. Red lights on dashboards
2. Passenger air conditioning broken
3. Travel mouse broken
4. Rain
5. Dorothy & Toto (can't forget about them)

With VacationGirl's deductive reasoning powers, she has concluded that Bad Things Happen in Kansas!

After we filled up and left Junction City, we headed out I-70. She expected the mind-numbing wheat and corn fields for 7 more hours but surprisingly enough, for the first 2 -3 hours, Kansas was quite beautiful. The word that popped into her mind was serene. Of course, it wasn't serene in the strict sense of the word - there were white, fluffy clouds - but the landscape just rolled along - very calming.

When we hit Oakley, Kansas, we decided to get off the highway and take some back roads. So we headed down Rt 40 for several hours and then Rt 94. Definately back roads but pretty. At one point, we thought for sure we'd get our tornado - heavy dark rain clouds right over head but we only got about 5 minutes of rain and then back to blue skies!

Got to our hotel (Residence Inn on the North side of Colorado Springs) arouond 3:00 local time and vegged for about an hour then we headed off to Garden of the Gods. It is even more beautiful than I remember it from the last time I was here. We walked around the park for about a hour or two.

An observation - although beautiful - the Rocky Mountains (at least those in Colorado Springs) are not breath-taking like those in Washington & Oregon. Maybe it's because the altitude in Colorado Springs is higher so they seem less impressive or maybe because they're all bunched together - but they just don't take your breath away like Mt. Rainier and Mt. Hood. Of course, that opinion may change when VacationGirl heads up to the top of Pike's Peak and looks out over the same view that inspired America the Beautiful!

Tomorrow our first trip of the day is to the local Serra Chevrolet dealership to get the Tahoe patched up. I'll take pictures - won't they be great in my scrapbook? Hopefully, it won't take long and then we're heading to Royal Gorge Bridge. That should be pretty cool!

Here's some pictures from Garden of the Gods. Enjoy.