Day 25 of Western Adventures (Central Indiana)

We repack the car for the last time on this trip.  This was stay # 21 and the guys are pros at this, but they are sick of it and ready to be home. It is Sunday, but we have a hard time knowing what day it is, much less the date.  The drive today is a short one as we motor across Illinois and into Indiana. We change time once more and the last of our trip.  Of course, Jerry has “Back Home Again in Indiana” on his hard drive and we play it over and over again as we entered our home state.  He also had the “Hail Purdue” song and we loved singing that one over and over, too.

   Our co-pilotsBob was the bookkeeper.   One last Mc D stop for coffee

He and Jerry alternated who filled the gas tank.  We purchased 389.25 gallons of gas at an average cost of $ 3.93/gallon and a total cost of  $1530.44 for our gas.  We drove 7,629 miles from Jerry’s brother, Fred’s in Muncie and back to Fred’s.  We each have over 400 miles yet to travel back to Maggie Valley and Cheboygan.

 

 

                We don’t seem to be any worse for the trip .This is the first night ( in nearly 4 weeks) that  we don’t have to pick a place to sleep or decide where to eat. We all have less than 2 weeks to regroup and recover before we are back in Indiana at Purdue for Homecoming and the 60th Anniversary for Twin Pines Co-op where Lydia and Joyce were roommates. ( 50 years ago)  We all laugh at what we think “old” is, and we can’t seem to grasp that we are old enough to have known each other for over 50 years.  Joyce joked that we can fast forward 10 years, and we will all be at University Place in West Lafayette waiting on the bus to take us to the Purdue Homecoming game!  We can only hope for good health 10 years from now so this could be a reality.

Day 22 of Western Adventures ( Part B Pikes Peak)

      

 

We stopped in Breckenridge, looking for McDonald’s coffee and never found any….actually found no chain restaurants. The town looks very different in the fall than it does in the winter with all the snow, the skiers and the shops all open.

 

From Breckenridge, we headed out southeast through the valley and toward Pikes Peak area.  At times, we thought we were back in Montana or Wyoming as the land stretched forever until it hit up against the mountain range. We crossed the Continental Divide at Hoosier Pass (11,139t.f ) and wondered why the name. ( all 4  of us are native Hoosiers) Also saw Mt. Lincoln at 14,296 ft.  

 

As we neared Pikes Peak, it was time for lunch and we ended up in Manitou Springs at a neat little place called Adams Mountain Café.  They advertise “ slow food” as everything is cooked from scratch.  This probably wasn’t the day to try out “slow food” as everyone was in a hurry to start up Pikes Peak, but the food was good and soon we were off for the peak.  Jerry is the only one of our group who had been to the top nearly 30 years ago and he ( along with the rest of us) was stunned that the charge was $40 per car to drive up 19 miles to the top.   And on top of that, we could only drive 15 miles as it was SNOWING at the top!!  We were all spoiled over the past 3 weeks using our Senior National Park Pass for all the National Parks and saving over $200.  We didn’t even make 15 miles as it started snowing a lot, and we turned around to go back down.  So, Jerry is still the only one to reach the top of Pikes Peak.

 

 

 

Late afternoon, we headed out across the Colorado Front Range and into the flat plains of eastern Colorado, staying in Limon. Colorado for the night. We dodged the bullet with a bad thunder storm and were in a great position for the trip headed back to Indiana the next day. We were rewarded by a splendid rainbow as the rain moved off to the southeast.

We have been gone three weeks and the guys  still can’t decipher the “back seat code” the girls use all the time. ( We keep it that  way!) Ha.

Day 22 of Western Adventures ( Part A)

Another crisp morning  with wake up in Glenwood Springs, Colorado greeted us today. Our plans were to drive over to Pikes Peak for a quick look at the fourteener near Colorado Springs.  We heard that Andy Williams had passed away, so we listened to Moon River from Jerry’s list of over 9,000 songs loaded on his portable hard drive. We enjoyed a scenic drive along I-70 and the Colorado River.

  We saw the first snow at Vail Pass.

 

We were hoping to see some leaf color in the aspens and we weren’t disappointed.  Vail, Beaver Creek and Copper Mountain ski areas looked lonely, but we know from past experience that things will perk up soon.  Bob and Joyce have been to Vail and Copper to ski some time ago.  Friends Lynn and Mike Bull will arrive soon at Copper for the winter season where they both work.