Tomorrow, we're leaving on a cross-country excursion to Colorado. The Rockies are a special place for my family - my parents met, honeymooned, and spent a lot of time out there - and they're bringing me and my brother out there to see it. We're using a convenient week that is bookended by two nearby conventions that my mom is going to to go out there.

We're leaving tomorrow and driving to Denver, where we're picking up my mom (who had a convention at the Arizona Biltmore) at the airport, then driving down to the Great Sand Dunes. We're spending three days each in Crested Butte and Beaver Creek, checking out the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in between. We're taking 80 back, and we're hoping to stop off in Michigan City (question for the Hoosier Club people - is it going to be open when we're there?) and along Lake Erie to lighthouse.

So, we're going to be gone for the next couple weeks. I'll have my laptop, my camera, and high speed internet (at least every other night, to upload stuff and check in with everyone). I'll be uploading photos to the Flickr page every time I can, and I'll post a link to the groups in this page.

BTW, if you're wondering where I was the past few days...I was on our annual sailing trip. We were planning to go from East Hampton (Three Mile Harbor) to Block Island to Newport and back, but the torrential rain (I did not know that clouds were capable of 24 hours of solid hard rain) kept that from happening. Instead we spent a day exploring the Hamptons, and then went to Mystic for an overnighter. Details and photos to come when I get the approx. 700 shots sorted out. Which may happen somewhere in Missouri.

Anyway...looking forward to the trip. Will definitely keep in touch (easier in hotels with high-speed than on a sailboat with no-speed). I went through a kind of CF withdrawl the past few days...

Sounds like a great trip Greg. Have fun!

Looking forward to your pictures, Greg! Travel safely!

We are really looking forward to the travel report! Sounds like a lot of miles ... but FUN!

Well, greetings from Columbus, OH! Left NJ today around noon after dropping my mom off at EWR for her flight to Phoenix. Drove through PA, WV (for 11 minutes) and OH to here.

Not much excitement today, except for my first midwest thunderstorm. It's a much different experience from those in NJ! It's much flatter out here, so you can trace the lightning from the ground to the clouds. It's also much more violent, it seems.

And of course, when do the windscreen wipers konk out? In the middle. :rolleyes:

Not much traffic, except for the last fifteen miles of PA. Considering their track record, it was actually pretty good, except the taking an hour to go seven miles part.

Tomorrow is going to be a MUCH more interesting day. Our goal is first to get to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, aka the Gateway Arch. We're also going to hit the Ulysses S. Grant NHS outside St. Louis, and finally drive out to around Kansas City, MO. If we're able to, we'll also stop off at the Brickyard to check it out. It looks like the American Grand Prix is in Ohio this weekend, so it should work out.

Should have some photos tomorrow night. Will, of course, upload them to Flickr, and let you know. I'm looking forward to the arch - it should be a great photo subject.

BTW, for those interested, Streets and Trips with my USB GPS system has been a huge boon. We've calculated the distances to restuarants, found our hotel, and used it to decide the best routes to places. Highly reccomended if you're going on a trip like this.

Think that's all for now...have to check the rest of the forums. See what's going on...

Take care...

Greg, I'd LOVE to see your shots of the Hamptons. I drove through there the first weekend of June on my long weekend to CT and RI - I ferry-hopped over to Long Island for the day. Have fun on your trip, and make sure to get yourself to the top of Pike's Peak!!

Greg, I think you may have left just in time, before the monsoon hit. Parts of PA and NY are sort of like "you can't get there from here". I missed a call this morning from my sister in WI. She's never seen my house but from the news reports she thought maybe I'd washed away since I live on a river. We're nice and high so are ok but some poor girl in the Southern Tier of NY did wash away, right out of her home.

Okay...finally have Wi-Fi again, even though it's someone's unsecured network, and I have to reconnect every five minutes. What do you expect in Crested Butte?

A quick recap, since I'm going to post the photos later, and will be more detailed with each stop with each thread. I WILL detail the Gateway Arch, though, since I'm posting those photos here.

Thursday, we stopped at the Air Force Museum and Wright Cycle Shop in Dayton, OH. The former was really, really, cool - my plane geek brother didn't know where to go. The latter was cool, but a little contrived. But it's still an NPS unit.

The Gateway Arch was INCREDIBLE. To think of how they built it...wow. The tram to the top was cool, and not at all scary once you saw the stairs were right there. The view from the top was INCREDIBLE, seeing the Mississippi and the city. It was really a great experience. For the photos, check out Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seagirtlight/sets/72157594183476898/

BTW, St. Louis is a GREAT city. And my reccomendation: if in town, stop at Hannegan's Restaurant & Pub for the BEST pork chop you'll EVER have in your LIFE.

Friday we stopped at the Ulysses S. Grant NHS in St. Louis (I'm on this Grant thing right now since I went to the tomb - he was such an amazing person, and I can't get enough Grant stuff). Neat little stop. We spent the rest of the day driving through MO and KS right to Denver - 14 hours of driving. KS was much different than I thought - more rolling praries than flat.

Yesterday, before picking my mom up at Denver International Airport (which is way the heck in the middle of nowhere, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stapleton_Airport for why) we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. As my first actual National Park (seen plently of NHS and NHP and N MEMs, just no NPs - there's not that many in the east here). It was GREAT! That's enough story for later.

Today, we did the Great Sand Dunes, which is IMMENSE - I thought Jockey's Ridge on the OBX was big, but it's an anthill in comparison. Also did the Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP, which was INCREDIBLE. We connected the two via the Blue Mesa Cutoff, a 15 mile dirt road through the twists in the mountains. ALL INCREDIBLE.

Tomorrow, we're hiking around Crested Butte here. Will make sure to keep in touch, now that I finally have Wi-Fi.

Great set of photos Greg! I have to get to the St. Louis Arch sometime.

Greg,

Glad the trip is going well. Nice photos of the Arch.

There's a place not too far from your home base that concerns U. S. Grant. It's the place he was staying when he died. Here's a link-

http://nysparks.state.ny.us/sites/info.asp?siteID=11

It's located in Wilton, NY which is between Saratoga Springs and Glens Falls, NY. It's located on the grounds of a NY State Prison and you ahve to go through a check point to get to it.

Here's a wierd little story- about 10 years ago I went there with my family and my two Aunts who lived in the Albany, NY area. I was driving my car and they were following me in thiers.

I got to the checkpoint and the Prison Guard at the gate saw me and something like Hey Dennis how you doing . Go right ahead. I was a bit confused (like how did he know my name) so I stopped anyway. He walked over to the car to see why and asked if I was going on duty. I said you must have me confused with somebody else. He took a closer look and realized i wasn't who he thought I was.

It turns out that there was a person named Dennis employed there as a Guard who looked just like me. The wierd part is at that time I was working as a Prison Guard in NJ. It's a small world after all sometimes.

You could stop there on the way to some of the Lighthouses on Lake Ontario and Lake Champlain.

Dennis

The Arch is very cool.

Well you have now been to three out of our four National Parks. Mesa Verde is waiting.

It'll have to be another time, though, unfortunately. It was a little out of the way, and it'd have required a decision between Mesa Verde and an extra day here at the Butte. Plus, with the centennial this year, it's supposedly filled with touristas (one step lower than a tourist - we're one step up, we're TRAVELLERS). But next time, I want to really hit it. Same kind of deal with Pikes Peak, as Jen suggested.

The 4th here in CB was REALLY cool. It kicked off with a wacky parade that could only be put on in a town like this. Stuff like the King and Queen of Floshing (that get to be driven in our friend Alan's Jeep) and the students from the biological lab that dress up in skunk cabbage (we thought that they were the ones that were pushing to legalise pot - that may have been a second message there). It's all just so fun. I'll post the photos when I get a chance - I took about a hundred just of that. We've decided that next time we're here for the 4th, we're going to drive in the parade with a sign that says "We Drove Here All The Way From New Jersey Just to Throw Stuff at You!"

Then we went almost to the summit of the mountain. Because of the lightning that came in, we didn't go all the way, but we still saw snow. Another group was near us that had the entire family following a guy and his girlfriend to the top so that he could propose to her at the top. Considering the fact that the lifts closed because of the storm and they had to send us down in a Suburban, they were not happy that they were pressing on and they'd have to send another Suburban up to save them. The Suburbaning down was a ton of fun, though, especially since we didn't want to walk down again (did it yesterday) and my mom is not big on downloading (riding the lift down - strange sensation).

Drove out to Gothic later, where aforementioned laboratory is located. This included driving through the world's largest aspen grove. Also went into the National Forest and took the dirt road there before it got too 4x4 (the Yukon XL may be a "4x4", but it's not a Land Rover, and the 4x4 roads out here are Land Rover roads). INCREDIBLE views, with the wildflowers, mountains, and river. It's really God's country out here.

The bad thing is that I got really dehydrated, and I got serious altitude sickness. I got a huge burger tonight ("biggest in town" at the Wooden Nickel), and I couldn't even eat it (though I'm nibbling on it now). All I could do was drink water - I went through an entire litre of it at the restaurant, and I'm still not 100%. I knew the altitude would get to me eventually, I just didn't know when.

Saw the fireworks tonight which were...okay. I've seen better. But it was still fun, and it was cool, since the sound reverberated around all the mountains.

Tomorrow, we're leaving CB and heading up to Beaver Creek. Whole different atmosphere. Along the way, we're going to visit the Glenwood Springs. It should be easier for me to visit the forums in BC, since the Wi-Fi is in the building, instead of the weak signal that I'm "borrowing" right now.

Photos to come at some point...though there's so many (already over 700 the whole trip) that "some point" may be "when we get home to NJ."

Greg, when I went out to Colorado in December 1996, I will never forget the trip to the top of Pikes Peak. We had a little Dodge Neon as a rental car, and my husband Matt had it floored as we got near the top and we weren't going over 5mph, due to the lack of oxygen at 14,000 feet! I have exercise induced asthma, so just the walk from the car to the overlook left me breathless! But the view and being at that altitude sure was worth it! I had a chance to briefly glance at your photos on flickr - I will make time to go back and look at the further. You've got some great shots of the Rhode Island lights in there from your sailing trip last year!

Greg, we really appreciate you bringing all that rain with you from the East. Five years of drought have been hard. "Crusted Butt" is a nice little town. Try sometimes to stop by Nederland (west of Boulder) to visit the Frozen Dead Guy. Nederland is where people live who think Boulder is too conservative.

Jen, the Pikes Peak Hill Climb had to be cut short July 1 because of it snowing at the top.

My wife's brother and his wife stayed with us for the 4th on their way to Yellowstone. Being from San Antonio they loved the weather, low in the 40's, highs in the 70's. Folks from flat places love it here.

After all the rain last week, I never wanted to see rain again. And I did. Funny thing is, they Suburban us down the mountain at 12:30, and the rain doesn't even start until 3 or 4. :rolleyes:

We just made it to Beaver Creek. We've got a great condo on the mountain. First thing you notice coming from CB: everything is new here, which is obviously because they built it 25 years ago. My mom, who's spent a LOT of time out here and knows a lot of the people that built the area (my godfather developed our condo building), remembers them taking her up on a Snow Cat and telling her how they were going to develop the mountain. She wanted to know what kinds of drugs they had out here.

A cool journey over here over Kebler Pass. Dirt pass through the aspens (I think that THIS is the world's biggest aspen grove, since it was bigger than yesterday's). Fortunately, another rainstorm cleaned the car for us. One thing about out here: wait 5 minutes if you don't like the weather.

Not sure what we're going to do here yet, but it'll obviously produce many, many more photos. Tonight, I'm going to try and get some more photos on Flickr - probably from RMNP. I'll post the commentary and all then.

Talk later...now that I have real internet, it's easier to log on. Good thing we have the 25 foot long ethernet cord.