Colorado and Its Beauty

Hello from Colorado! Last night we drove in from Arizona and spent the night in Durango, a beautiful mountain town. For those of you in our area, we both agreed it was similar to Lititz, PA. Our hosts were wonderful and after two nights of camping a hot shower and warm bed made us feel like we were floating on cloud 9! In the morning Lynn and Julie made us french toast and chauffeured us around on a tour of the town, talk about above and beyond what was necessary. We loved every minute of it and were sent off with some attraction suggestions and great directions. We stopped at Treasure Falls as we headed up towards Fort Collins and Denver...there is a trail there but bullheaded Brittany doesn't know how to use it!!!! (...we did some exploring instead and it didn't end well...[no bones were broken, for those worried]). We got to Denver just before rush hour and managed to slip through without any trouble. We are in Fort Collins at the moment and will be heading to our hosts' in a few minutes. Here is hoping some of our beautiful weather makes it home!

camping and stuff

So, after two nights of camping, we finally have time (and wifi) to send out an update. At the moment we are cruising east to Durango, CO after a lovely morning at the Grand Canyon! Wow, the Grand Canyon is breathtaking! There just are no words for it and even the pictures are unable to capture it fully. Although we were lucky that we camped nearby, as the memorial day traffic was just starting up as we left! We had the breakfast of champions this morning – thick chocolate shakes and a cookie each! We shall see if that decision decides to bite us later, haha. Let me backtrack a little and fill in the pieces since we last posted.

On Saturday we drove from San Fransisco to just south of the Sequoia National forest and camped in Pioneer Point. We passed the campground we had stayed in before- Sandy Flat, on the way over and lets just say this camping experience was completely different! The campground was complelety full and we were glad we had reservations. There were people everywhere and it felt more like a normal camping experience, kids, campers, etc. We were glad we didn't have to worry about any animals coming around, but there was more noise from all the people. We discovered that Zzquil actually works quite well, haha.

On Sunday, we tore down our campsite and headed out. We stopped just down the hill for gas, milk for breakfast and oil...since we discovered that we were very low on oil!!! Oops! We have been checking that more often now. We had lunch at Taco Bell and realized that we would be driving right through Las Vegas!! Woohoo! No, we didn't stop along the vegas strip, but we did go to the post office. For supper we decided to get some warm food at a place called Black Bear Diner, which was wonderful! This sort of put us behind schedule though, so we didn't get near our campground until 8:30. Finding our campsite turned into a whole other fiasco! The directions we got online were not helpful and our GPS had no idea where we were. We ended up driving around until 10:30 trying to find somewhere to sleep! God had a guiding hand on us though, because as we got to a full hotel that we had hoped to stay at, we saw a sign for our campground! This eventually led us to the campground and the sight of our empty reserved campsite was the most beautiful of the day!!! Ahhh, we were so relieved and tired that we just pulled out some blankets and slept in the car.

And that about wraps it up, we are cruising through Arizona at the moment and if all goes well, we will be writing tomorrow from Colorado!  

Ahhh yes, San Francisco

Although leaving our motel was bittersweet, we were ready to continue our journey, heading north to San Francisco. Tonight we stayed with a student from Berkeley who despite his small studio apartment, made us feel very welcome and made sure we had a comfortable place to sleep for the night. Today we are back-tracking a bit so that we can hit the Golden Gate Bridge! The next two nights we will be camping in California again and near the Grand Canyon. We will do our best to stay in contact via McDonald's wonderful free wi-fi! 

A perfect day

Okay, so I know nothing is perfect, but today comes pretty close! This morning we awoke in our own beds, which are so soft and comfortable. After an amazing continental breakfast at our hotel, we went down to the beach! It was nearly empty and we were able to relax in peace - so much different from the east coast! After spending the morning sun bathing (or vitamin soaking, as we have decided to call it) we stopped at a pizza shop and brought some fresh made pizza back to our room. Then we sort of lost track of time while relaxing and had to zip around a bit to be on time for our horseback ride! That's right - we spent and hour and a half winding through the mountains along the beach on horseback with gorgeous views and an awesome guide! Muffin and Splash proved to be great companions and we are happy to be sore. That should soon be gone though - as we are headed off to the hot tube now! Sorry to have this update up so late, I keep forgetting about the time difference to back home. Hope everyone is staying cool and having fun!

California - living the dream

Terribly sorry that we were not able to post an update yesterday... it was a long nine hours to California and we forgot to stop somewhere for wifi before setting up camp for the night! Yesterday we did not stop for much sightseeing, as we were in quite a rush to finally make it to California. The only stop we made all day was for bathroom breaks and a lunch at Taco Bell to reward ourselves for making it all the way.
 Our camping site - Sandy Flat, was incredible, once we were able to find it. Let's just say that the only road to the campsite is about as adrenaline pumping as a roller coaster and about as high up! We were the only ones camping there for the evening and the camp host made us feel very welcome. A fire restriction has prevented us from doing any marshmallow roasting so far though.

Today we explored the Sequoia National Forest looking for some great sequoias. After about an hour and a half of driving hair raising cliffs we found the trail of 100 giants which are some of the largest trees on the planet and too say they are incredible is putting it lightly. Unfortunately, to find our way down from the mountain our not-so-trustworthy GPS saw fit to take us on a backwoods adventure of little more than packed dirt for about an hour!!!!! (over that time we did some serious soul searching and pondered the end of our existence!) We were never quite so happy to see paved road as we were today! The rest of the trip to Santa Barbara was not quite as eventful and our beautiful hotel room has made the day much more relaxing Ahh, the comforts of civilization.

We arrived in Albuquerque, New Mexico safely last evening and enjoyed a picnic supper in one of its public parks before going to our hosts for the evening, Bob and Myrna Calkins. They are a wonderful couple and their dog Maggie spent nearly the whole evening by our side. They got a chuckle out of hearing about our camping escapade in Texas and we had a great time with them.

This morning we slept in until 8am, and were treated to a lovely little breakfast while Myrna did some gardening (Bob had special pinon(?) infused coffee that he made us). We headed out then and spent the morning exploring Albuquerque's old town plaza, with wonderful native american creations and old time shops! Needless to say, we may have done more shopping than we intended, haha. We only had a three hour drive over to Holbrook, AZ then so we were in no rush. Lunch was just a roadside pit stop and we even fit in the National Petrified Forest before arriving at our wigwam for the evening! (It was well worth the drive and free because of our national parks pass!! - see picture below) Our wigwam is a cozy little individual structure - basically a concrete teepee(note: picture is somewhat stretched for some reason, sorry). We will turn in for the night soon and hopefully send an update tomorrow. It will be a long days journey to California!

Greetings from McDonalds!! Haha.

Time Constraints

So, we have discovered that McDonalds' wifi is fairly slow and to cut down on wasted time, we have collectively decided to limit the pictures we post to one per day, so that we can get more done! If we have some extra time somewhere we will try to upload more, but it can be a real hassle. Sorry about that.

So yesterday, we started off by doing a little backtracking to see the infamous route 66 blue whale! It was a fun side trip and then we were off on our way to Lake Meredith, Texas. The name is somewhat deceiving however, the area by our campsite was dried up, but the views were fantastic.

This morning we are headed towards Albuquerque, New Mexico. Before getting on our way (and before breakfast!) we stopped at another route 66 attraction - the cadillac ranch outside Amarillo. Janae made sure to leave our mark and I think my work on a cadillac's new pink bumper was impressive, haha! It is a short leg of the journey, so we stopped for lunch at the route 66 restaurant, where I discovered I am my mother's daughter - we got locked inside! (apparently we came right around closing time on a sunday, oops).

That is a short update for now, as always, more adventure-some stories coming soon!

You never know...

So, to update you on our progress, we stopped for the night last evening in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after a LONG day of driving. We decided that our day was summarized in three smells - bacon, camels and car grease. To explain, we started our day making a big breakfast of bacon, eggs and home fries, then went for a camel ride before leaving Edna's (even nana decided to try it), then we discovered that the annoying sound that had been getting louder (NOT GOOD) was actually a loose front wheel that needed its lug nuts tightened, which we proceeded to fix at a local auto parts store. I must say we looked really ridiculous but we got it done, and will check on our work periodically now :) we are now making our way towards amarillo for the evening - it will be our first night camping!

Please bear with us....

So for those of you following our blog or trying to text/call us, we are very sorry. Apparently wifi is not the mid-west's strong point. To appease your dismay, here are a few pictures of us from our first day. Wednesday night we stayed with the Kanagy's who were kind enough to show their houseful of treasures in which they collected while traveling all over the world. After indulging in their delicious home-cooked baked oatmeal, we set off for Arbela, Missouri. Here, we stayed with Brittany's great-aunt, who as expected, was wonderful for us. Pictures will follow of some of our interesting adventures that we have encountered thus far (...there are camels in Missouri).

And we're off!

We are officially on our way to California! Our first stop is on Archbold, Ohio tonight where we will stay with our first Mennonite Your Way family. We just stopped for lunch in Sideling Hill, Pa. Everything is going smoothly so far and we will continue to update as we move along on out journey!