we ain't in kansas anymore!!

hello faithful followers,

tonight we are in idaho springs, not colorado springs. no we didn't get lost...well not exactly lost. let me review the day for you.

we started the day in lawrence, KS. it turned out to be a nice little town and after a stop at starbucks we were on the road heading west.

andrew started off driving duties.

we were pleasantly surprised that the eastern third or so of kansas is rather pretty. rolling hills, farms etc. we enjoyed this part of the drive very much.

this was the first california license plate that we had seen since texas!

we passed fort riley. nice line of hummers! i really, really want one of these. not a housewife hummer, a REAL one!

someone said something about the wind in kansas. it wasn't bad today but at least they are making use of it.

so much for the beautiful rolling hills!

did someone say corn, and corn and more corn...

flat as a pancake... or should i say a corn cake!

we didn't have time to stop and see the 800 lb. prairie dog... maybe next time.

i guess someone else is tired of kansas... wonder where they are moving?

some 'fun with the camera' shots!

not sure what he is doing here???

tom wanted to get the person passing us in the shot too (see, i'm not the fastest driver on the road!)

thanks....doubt it.

on to colorado. ha! never saw the 'color' part of 'color-ado'. :o)

kinda looks like kansas.

the welcome center. we didn't stop but tom got a good picture as we whizzed by.

the most beautiful sign in the U.S. of A!

jenn, entertaining her brother jimmy with her straw drinking skills.

it was a long day on the road! you have to find something to do!

a train!

with a CABOOSE!!!!

wait, this must be a different train...it's going the opposite direction!

denver! this is just how i like big cities...at a distance!

we had wild skies all day.

we have all gotten good at reading in the car. except for tom, he still gets sick.

golden, CO

so if you noticed, we decided not to go the colorado springs. we stayed on interstate 70 and took the turn off to golden. it is yet another cute little town. we started looking for a hotel...it's a college town...one would think that there would be a hotel....must be a hotel...we found a radio shack and replaced my lost phone charger....we found a big 5 and jimmy bought a knife....we looked all over this cute little town, BUT....no hotel. AND the coors factory is closed for tours, what to do?

we headed back out to the highway and continued west...there has got to be a hotel on the outskirts of town. so off we went...

this is where we went. not looking like the edge of anything and certainly not any hotels in sight. but we kept going. it turned out to be a beautiful drive, of course we had no idea to where and how long it would take us to get there. for all we knew it was a 10 hour ride over the rockies....oh well, hang on, mama's driving!

still trying to find where we were. no service on the i phone added to the adventure!

and this is where we ended up! a little gold rush town called idaho springs! while we were driving i was chatting with God and telling i was excited to see where He was taking us and we ended up in this adorable little town tucking in a steep valley. AND we are right next to interstate 70 which will take us out to ely, NV tomorrow! God is so cool!

now we were somewhere but we still didn't see any hotels...a little driving around town (which didn't take long) and we found the cutest place...

did i already say God is so good!

our cozy room.

and yes there is ivy growing along the bottom of the door.

my cute husband!!

our faithful ride. now if she will just get us over the rockies and the sierra nevadas it will be all downhill from there!!!!!

thank you for reading...everyone is asleep and one person is sawing logs...i think i will join them.

if you feel like praying a bit tonight...jenn isn't feeling well and is having left flank pain. pray that it isn't a kidney thing and that she feels better in the morning! thanks!

see you on the road!!

lauren

P.S. PRAISE THE LORD!!!! i accidently quit safari and thought that i lost all of this! 0_0 but when i signed back in, it had saved to drafts. yeah!!!!! good night!