Elevation change: 6,500 increase
We read that you should carb load if you climb a significant amount in one day, so we found a DQ in Cheyenne, WY and enjoyed. (Caleb had quite the debonair chocolate mustache going.)
Miles driven today: 452
Total miles: 748
Total spent on diesel fuel: Ha! Like I'm going to add that up as we go...total joy killer.
First things first, Matt found some coffee this morning. For a while there, we thought we might need to have another EMT call to Walmart. #walmartstatistic #peopleofwalmart
Second, we saw the Nebraska Mountains. They were kinda nice. Matt was mumbling something about a concrete factory, but whatever.
When presented with a fork in the road, you should pick up the fork so no one pops their tire. Today we chose to take I80 to Cheyenne rather than 76 through Denver. Was it the better route? We will never know if those who know never tell us. Ignorance can sometimes be bliss and we got where we were going in the end.
But the single lane construction on that route went on forever...and for our set up, when we saw a gas station we stopped because they were very few and far between.
While finding a place to park at DQ, we had to pull out onto a street with quite a hump where they had black topped it a few too many times. Our spare tire hit and the little butterfly's that hold it on were bent almost all of the way out. This is a picture of Matt finishing up the repairs while we ate our ice cream. In our defense, it was 95 degrees out and the ice cream was melting. He drank his. Oops.
We filled up one more time and started our final climb to Estes (approx 1600 ft), when it felt like we suddenly turned a corner and saw amazing beauty. Unfortunately, the sun was not my friend in this picture and the awesomeness is a bit lost.
Matt did a great job driving the camper along the twisty roads. (Was there ever any doubt?) We arrived safely at our campground in Estes Park. (More on the campground in a later post.)
We got set up, ate dinner, took showers, and put the state stickers on our camper map. As you can see, a very serious and heartfelt ceremony ensued. (Grace stopped crossing her eyes right before I took this pic.) What's funny is the I didn't tell them to be silly. I told them to smile and they all made rediculous faces. Wait... Maybe that isn't funny. I have no control. Oh well.
And for those of you who are wondering, we decided to put a sticker on every state the camper has been in, even if we didn't stay overnight in that state. By the end of our trip the only state we will drive in but not spend overnight, is New Mexico.
Vacations are a time for taking risks and living a little, so here are the risks we took today:
1) We woke up in a Walmart parking lot sandwiched between two truckers.
2) We let Matt drive 1.2 miles pulling the camper before he had his first sip of coffee.
3) We ate produce without washing first. Twice.
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