The Ride Home with Rosey

I can't believe that it has taken me this long to put something on the blog but there seems to be less time for blogging with a live-in girlfriend :)

Here are pictures from the trip:

• Mammoth Caves National Park
• Road Trip through Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri (Misery), Kansas and Colorado
• Rocky Mountain National Park

Rosey and I had an incredible time together on the way home from Alabama. Here is a quick synopsis:

• I flew in to Alabama on Friday night, went on a short bike ride through Rosey's neighborhood (down and then back up a killer hill) and then had dinner with Rosey's Mom at Jim and Nick's Barbecue.
• On Saturday morning we got up had breakfast at the Cracker Barrel (which Rosey affectionately refers to as the Ass-Crack Barrel) and then drove to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky.
• On Sunday we went for a short bike ride through the park where we saw a rabbit running away from us alongside the road. It was so frightened that it ran itself right into a tree stump and completely knocked itself out. It was one of the funniest and saddest things that I have ever seen :)
• Later on Sunday we rented a canoe and paddled 7 miles down the Green River in Mammoth Caves National Park.
• Even later on Sunday we went on the River Styx tour inside of Mammoth Caves. It was incredible to be walking through what used to be a massive underground River. The tour actually went down deep enough in the cave to where the river is currently flowing.
• Monday morning we got up packed up camp and drove through Kentucky, Illinois and Misery to Kansas. We stayed at the Hampton Inn (they have awesome beds!) in Lawrence, KS. I was ecstatic to discover that Lawrence had both a Perkins Restaurant and a Culvers Frozen Custard restaurant. We also discovered a kick-ass mexican place called On the Grill. Because of the three restaurants and the fact that we were tempted to stay an extra day in restaurant just to continue eating, we dubbed the area the Bermuda Restaurant Triangle.
• Tuesday morning we decided to sleep in and really take our time getting out of Lawrence. We wanted to enjoy our nice bed at the Hampton and have plenty of time to eat at Perkins and Culvers before leaving. After eating, taking a few pictures and stopping by Walmart to grab some additional camping supplies, we finally got back on the road at one in the afternoon. I still can't believe that we got started that late, but we had a lot of fun in Lawrence and it felt good to just take it easy.
• We drove all day through Kansas which was unbelievably windy. Our gas mileage sucked. But we did eventually make it through to Limon, Colorado where we stayed the night. After spending the previous night at a fairly nice hotel we decided to stay at the cheapest cherry-popper hotel that we could find in Limon. Fortunately there were plenty to choose from. We stayed at a bright pink hotel called the Safari Motel. The room was actually pretty nice considering how cheap it was.
• On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning both we unhitched a couple of Rosey's bikes from her truck and went riding through Limon. Tuesday night we just did a short ride through town to the Subway at the T&A truck stop. On Wednesday morning we did a slightly longer ride through the country side. It felt awesome to get out on the bike after spending so much time driving in the car.
• We managed to get back on the road at a decent hour (before 9AM) and made it through Denver and into Rocky Mountain National Park in the early afternoon. We did a short 5.6 mile hike up to Loch Vale before going to the Grocery store in Estes Park to stock up for the next couple of days.
• On Thursday morning we followed the advice of an 0ff-duty ranger and decided to hike up to Chasm Lake on the east side of the park. The ranger, whom we spoke to on the shuttle on the way back from the Loch Vale hike, gave us some good advice. He said, "You're always either having fun or building character". The hike up to Chasm Lake was a little bit of both. It was one of the most beautiful hikes that I have even been on in my life, but it was definitely challenging. The hike started at 9500 ft. above sea level and ended up just shy of 12,000 ft. above sea level at a huge lake in a hanging glacial bowl. It was wicked cool. We were actually hiking up above the clouds. We spent about an hour at the lake where we ate lunch and then laid back on the rocks and watched the clouds form and then disperse overhead. After lunch I read Rosey some poetry by Pablo Neruda. The whole experience was awesome!
• On Friday morning, sore and tired from the previous days adventure, we packed up camp for the last time. We drove through the park out the West entrance so that we could experience just a little more of the park on our way out. After a very long day of driving we finally arrived back in Spanish Fork shortly after 7PM.

This was the abbreviated version of our story. I would like to put something more detailed up eventually, but for right now I just wanted to get something up there for everyone to see.