Lindsay, fully accepting the task of being our Colorado tour guide, took us all around the area so we could cram as many fun activities in our limited time there as possible. We saw Manitou Springs (an adorable touristy town that I immediately fell in love with) and took a short hike to see Graffiti Falls, which are aptly named because the rocks and bridge going over the falls are just covered in graffiti... the most popular message seemed to be "[fill-in-the-blank name] will you go to prom with me?" Photo credits go to Lindsay for letting me snag a few of her shots from our hike.
After our hike we went to see the Garden of the Gods, which are these magnificent red rocks that jut up out of the ground for seemingly no reason.
Back in Florissant we got a personal tour of the Florissant Fossil Beds (from the most brilliant staff member they have! [Lindsay]) and even got to do some fossil hunting of our own.
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| Some fossils that we (legally!) collected from the Florissant area. |
Chicago! Our drive here was a harrowing journey, driving day and night across some of the most boring parts of the country: Nebraska and Iowa. Scott graciously took the overnight portion of our drive and I took over once the sun came up. It took a little while, but we eventually got there. Gosh, our last stop, I can't believe we made it!
We stayed outside of the city and planned to take a train in, but were interrupted by a shredded serpentine belt on the way to the train station. Somehow we manged to drive all the way across the country and then halfway back before we had any major car trouble and we somehow managed to time our car trouble perfectly, as it happened less than a half mile from the best garage I have ever been to. Our mechanic reminded us in every way of Seth Rogen (the actor) and he replaced our serpentine belt in less than two hours for a reasonable price. I wouldn't believe it was possible to have this easy of a time with a disaster on the road if it hadn't happened to me personally. However, it worked out great and we even made it to Chicago before the sun set.
Our car trouble did set us back a bit once we made it to the city, as we missed our chance to experience a double-decker tour bus or see quite as many attractions as I was initially hoping to, but we did get to go up in the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) and soak in all that Chicago has to offer from 103 stories in the air.
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| We even braved the glass boxes that let you stand out over the city. |
After getting the birds' eye view we joined our fellow earthlings back on the ground and just sort of wandered around. We of course hit up the Magnificent Mile, which was a bit too ritzy feeling for me in my bright green rain jacket and jeans, saw the Chicago Tribune building, and ate some yummy pizza. Overall I really loved Chicago; Scott and I agree that it reminds us of a cleaner NYC and that we will definitely be back when we have some more time (and money).
Well, that's it! We left Chicago and headed home. All-in-all we traveled 9,442 miles, spent 26 days seeing 21 states, and did all of this while managing to stay under our initial budget. It was an incredibly rewarding experience and I would get back in the car today to start it all over again. Thank you to my amazing travel companions (furry + human) and thanks to all of you for following our journey!
To see all of the pictures from our trip (including many that I could not fit in this blog) see my photo album at https://plus.google.com/photos/112571264443479299689/albums/5747994912756501441
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