Traveling to Colorado!

Monday Morning Nate, Grandma Fran, and I left for Colorado. We drove about 13 hours the first day traveling through WI, MN, IA, and NE. We spent the first night in a hotel along the Platte River. Here are some of the sights we saw.

We stopped for lunch at a rest area in Iowa.However the shelters there were not really shelters, as you can see in this picture the roof doesn’t keep sun, wind, or rain off. I guess this is what they might call modern art?

Here is a butterfly that came visiting during lunch.

We saw quite a few wind farms in Iowa.

More art? I have no clue what this thing is.

I like the covered wagon on Nebraska’s road signs.

Towards evening we visited the pony express station.

Did you know that the pony express only ran for about 18 months?

Day 2:

We did some more sight seeing as we finished crossing NE, drove though the corner of WY, (though Cheyenne), and then finally we entered Colorado. I was glad to see the sign that said “Welcome to Colorful Colorado”! Denver was a challenge. Nate is not fond of cities and this was the worst traffic we had been in. It didn’t help that we came through at 4:00 and that it was starting to rain, but we made it. Safe and Sound. We still had several hours to drive but it was through the mountains so it was new scenery. We saw such a variety of scenery that day. From the sand hills of NE to the flat, flat plains of WY, to mountains. Finally over 1300 miles later we reached our destination near Buena Vista, CO. The place we are staying is right in the mountains. and from the bedroom window I can see the sun rising over the mountains.

First we found an Oregon trail marker and a friendly man offered to take our picture.

Nebraska tells you they are coming!

Crossing 6 railroad tracks at once! Plus just after this we crossed 2 more.

We pulled off on a side road in the sand hills for a few minutes and I took these plant pictures. The fourth one down in prickly! (Trust me, I know! I ran in to some of it coming down a foothill yesterday.)

Windmills are still used to pump water for cattle. We saw quite a few of them in NE.

We stopped at a sod house. I don’t have real great pictures of it though.

The first critter I saw--- a lizard. I have never seen one of these before.

Courthouse and Jail rocks

Chimney Rock

I also have a bunch of scenery pictures but after you have seen the really thing pictures don’t do it justice. I still might post some of them later. I will hopefully do a post of CO pictures later but not when I am burning daylight!