You either get a fever or you're neurologically diseased: Colorado and Kansas trip day 3

I'm trying to make sure that I get all of this trip done as best I can. I never finished our Florida trip, and I would like to do that eventually because we really had a lot of fun in St. Augustine. Maybe I'll work on that tonight if Derek falls asleep earlier than me. Or if we have a night of mutual scrolling again. Though last night I DID find Rhyann an absolutely AMAZING gift, and if they hate it, I'm fuckin' snatching it. I want to post a photo of it, but I don't know if they look at my blog. I don't think they do, but on the off chance, I don't want to spoil it. 

So far today, Derek and I ha anther leisurely-ish morning? I woke up to extreme back pain from this fucking bed, which I know I already bitched about, but I can bitch twice. We had our breakfasts and wondered aloud about what in the ever living fuck this piece of art in our hotel room is:

Do you need a closer look? I Know I did, but I can tell you from experience that it won't help.

Is it...an abstract of the crucifixion of Jesus? The mystery remains unsolved. 

After giving up on figuring out Super 8's art exhibit in our room, we drove out to Calhan for Paint Mines Interpretive Park. It is just a bleak, dreary day today. 

Those clouds look VERY threatening. And I was again irritated that I couldn't see the mountains. Derek and I were moderately hopeful that the weather would be alright enough to tool around the park for a few hours, and I mean...

The weather was still super fucking drab, but not as ominous. We'll take it! We'll take it right to the park!

Signs! Signs on rocks for rocks! This is only my second time being here. Derek's, as well. For some reason I thought he had been here more than that before we went together, but I guess not. The first time we went it was almost sundown, so we barely got to see anything, and this time it's just blah out. Did we get to see more? Yes. But at what cost. 

We went to the main parking lot area first, where all of the "long" hikes start. To be clear, long means like, 1-2 miles. 

No rock hounding! Denied!! Honestly, if I'm not supposed to climb, wander off, or collect rocks, exactly how am I supposed to have fun?? This is bullshit. 

Obviously it isn't bullshit. This place is so fucking cool.

Derek and I looked at the map, looked at the weather, and determined we wanted to drive to the overlook parking lot an do the smaller walk through. So off we drove, a short half mile up the road. 

Neat.

We started off the rail making friends!

I am almost positive this gorgeous little friend is an orange belted bumblebee. Oh my goodness, what an absolute cutie. 

And of course, I got all up in the goodies of the flowers. There will be a bunch of flower pictures. And I think with my really real girl camera, flowers are all I took photos of, as well. 

If I am not mistaken, and I may be VERY mistaken, these are Prairie Bluebells? Whatever they are, I took a bunch of photos of them on my really real girl camera. 

We got to the lookout and then we looked out. 

I can't stress enough that it may be dull outside, but it is still fucking gorgeous scenery. Awe inspiring, really. 

As we walked down the trail, we saw more beautiful flowers. Some of them were very obviously desperate for a smooch.

I walked by a little patch of what I now know as two-grooved milkvetch and asked Derek for his macro, because I didn't bring mine. On accident, in fairness. I thought my 24-70 was my 100. Oops. That'll teach me not to pay attention.

I hung out there for about fifteen minutes, then caught up with Derek nearer the bottom of the canyon, at the actual start of the mines path. 

I just really think this place is beautiful, no matter the weather, but I couldn't help silently bemoaning the fact that it wasn't sunny out. It was pretty gently misting, and it was bordering cold, but aside from the lack of sun, it was a lovely day for a jaunt through the Paint Mines. 

If you're pining for the moors, but you can't get to the EU, I have the perfect place with very specific weather conditions for you! 

I could not determine if these were bagworms. It didn't seem likely t me, as there was only one...uh...bag. But I wanted to know for sure. I don't know why, sometimes things like this I just need to know. I am unfortunately now on a Colorado bagworms deep dive. I am unsure if this is a bagworm casing or not, it looks like the bagworms in Colorado are snailcase bagworms, and the little bagworms tha build themselves hotels on their backs. As much as I want to figure this out, I want to get this finished. Moving on for now. 

I think I think I THINK this is a bird's foot trefoil. 

Some light reading.

And into the mines area we went! Officially in the thick of everything now. 

What would Robert Frost do.

Derek was some ways ahead of me, because it IS a race and we are competitive people. I jaunted, Derek jaunted, but he wasn't getting ll up in the flowers like I was. I have always maintained that I am a shit landscape photographer, so I just busied myself with macros and enjoying the scenery while taking super crap posterity photos on my phone. 

And videos. 

It was starting to very aggressively mist, we had been wandering around for about an hour, and it was starting to make me cranky. I'm fine with rain, I'm fine with no rain, but half rain? I fucking hate it. Pick a fucking thing.

I also had to go pick up Rhyann's present, so I told Derek we should think about getting going. So we did a speed run through the next third of the area (we only hit two thirds, I think) before getting ready to turn around. 

When I sent all of these photos to the kids, they both exclaimed over how cool it looked and how pretty it is. They are both correct. I do not think Alex would have had a very god time, given the misty conditions and...you know...the outdoorsness of it all, but I think Rhyann would have loved it. 

So this little buddy bird is very far away, and I could not determine if it was a Say's Phoebe, a Meadowlark, or a Western Kingbird. I will never know for sure. My gut says it's the latter, just given the all over shape and the beak, but it could be any one of those. Or none of them!!!! I haven't lived here in a long time, and even when I did I was not out around enough plains birds to learn them. A mistake I would love to remedy. 

Derek and I made our way back to the car, and I was just fuckin' dripping huge droplets of water from all of the mist collecting in my hairs. We both went pee, and headed back into town to grab Rhyann's present, then took me to Sprouts to get my food for lunch, and then headed back to the hotel. 

I made my lunch (keto sandwich thins with garlic and herb goat cheese, mozz style goat cheese, basil vinagrette, and keto blueberry jam. I bought vegan bacon to put on it, but opted to  not make it), and though we had intended to go back out, Derek ended up napping instead. I started this blog while he was napping, and then woke him up in time for him to shower an get ready for our dinner with the Switzers. 

I have never really seen myself as the kind of person who, as part of a couple, needs or even WANTS couple friends. It's not something I've insisted on, and if it happened organically, cool, but I never thought that only couples, or couples with kids, would be able to match and understand married/family life. The Switzers are my favorite couple besides me and Derek. Maybe I like them more than me and Derek, honestly, but every time we're with them it's like being among family. I love Erica, I love Vin, I love their son Reilly, I just love THEM. They are the textbook example of good fuckin' people. We met up with them at Little Nepal at 6:30, and fuckin' closed the restaurant down several hours later. I didn't even get pictures of all of the yummy food we ordered, just a picture of the table after we had all been eating and talking for an hour. 

Reilly told me to order for him, and being a dutiful auntie, I asked him if he wanted a meat or a veg dish. He said veg. So I picked navratan korma. I asked him the heat level he wanted, he said he loves spicy things, so I triple checked with Erica and Reilly, and when I was absolutely assured that Reilly loved spicy things, I ordered him a medium heat. Reilly said he wanted to do everything family style like we had done the last time, so I ordered my saag at a medium heat, as well. I really think that Little Nepal's medium plus is the perfect mild eating heat, but I wanted to be able to share with Reilly, and I did remember that the last time we came to Little Nepal with The Switzers, Rei thought that the mild was perfect. But it had been almost a year, tolerance can change!

Erica ordered a shrimp biryani, Derek thought he ordered a chicken biryani but got a different dish entirely (he said it was delicious, but he was sad he didn't get the biryani because it had more food),Vin got the chicken vindaloo. Everyone at the table got a medium heat except Vin, who got hot. I ordered Rei a cherry lassi, which he loved, and ended up needing to suck down because his korma was way too spicy for him. He tried so hard to power through it, but it proved to be too much. What wasn't too much was the veggie platter. Rei LOVES the fried bananas. 

We talked for hours and hours and I could have stayed for several more hours, time doesn't really exist when we're with them. Bu Vin pointed out they were closing the restaurant and we should very politely leave before they started to hate us. We said our goodbyes and then Derek and I talked about how much we fucking love them the whole way back to the hotel. 

The rest of the night was pretty lazy. I looked up local coffee roasters so Derek and I could go grab a fresh cup in the morning, we chose our place, and fell asleep. 

On to the next day! 

You either get a fever or you're neurologically diseased: Colorado and Kansas trip days 1&2

Alrighty! So this was not a planned trip/vacation, but once we knew that we would be taking Alex to go live with her dad, Derek and I were like, well. Why not make a trip of it? We DO love Colorado. So here we are. An impromptu trip, not terribly planned out (which raises my hackles, but what are you gonna do), that we're doing our best to make the most of. 

Obvy I had to get snacks for he road:

Full diclosure, I took these at our hotel in the Springs. I normally take a snack shot before we leave, but I forgot this time. Anyway.

The first day was ju driving. Driving driving driving. I don't know if I've ever talked about this in one of our travel blogs, but Derek and I have a ravel playlist that we have to start our long trips out with. The first song is Also Spach Zarathustra, which is a holdover from when I was a kid. My mom and my step dad would play that at the very beginning of road trips, and as we would almost always leave as the sun was rising, it was a pretty perfect way to start trips, and I wanted to keep that tradition alive. I was just telling Derek that, while I have never seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, it is VERY funny to me that I associate that piece of music with sunrise, just not directly because of Kubrick's choices. So we start with Strauss, and then we move to Gotta Fly Now, then it's the Toots and the Maytals version of Country Roads (Take me Home), and then we finish strong with The 5th Dimension's Age of Aquarius. 

The kids do not care about our travel playlist. Alex was the only kiddo with us this time, Rhyann could not afford to take the time off, so she had her headset on and didn't even notice. Well. I suppose this music tradition will die with me and Derek.

We decided to break the drive up into two days, so we stopped at Ft. Riley in Kansas, at the oddly foreboding Candlewood Suites:

But the digs were pretty decent. Now I DO know I have mentioned that when i's jut Derek and I traveling, we are not terribly keen on staying in higher echelon hotels. We would rather take the extra money we're saving from upper sale digs and spend them a restaurants. But if we're traveling with more than just us, we try and pick comfier accommodations. Our place at Candlewood Suites was very nice for a pass through.

The couch where Alex slept. We offered to pull out the mattress for her, but she refused and said she'd rather sleep on the couch itself. Well. To each their own.

That bed was REALLY comfy, though. I slept like a dreamy little brick, during the moments I could get sleep. Derek didn't put his CPAP on, so he snored. All fucking night. 

We had a fairly leisurely wake up on day 2, which Derek said was very very nice, he went and had breakfast, I had my sugar free red bull while Alex had her donuts, banana, and orange juice, and then we got back on he road. A pretty uneventful drive to the springs, save for seeing murder villas like this:

We think this is some kind of tourist destination? One of the buildings not pictured because I wasn't fast enough with my phone said "SEE 6 STATES" an I read it to Derek and said, "six states...of decay? Nice try, murder house". I'm no sure the bulk of people who go in here ever come out again. 

The clouds were cloudy, but interesting enough for me to take several pictures. I picked the one I liked the best.

Just doing cloud things. 

When we crossed the border into Colorado, it's normally still about a half hour or so of driving before you can see he Rockies. Except we couldn't fucking see them...at all. The weather was not cooperating. 

This is about an hour from the Springs, and you fuckin' should be able to see mountains. I was driving, but I made Derek take this photo as I yelled about the mountains being disappeared. Obviously the reality is the weather was just not playing ball. Today is our first full day in the springs and it's pretty bleak out. 

We dropped Alex's stuff off a her dad's, and then the four of us went to dinner at a place downtown called Night Ramen.

Allen says there used to be a pizza place here. I feel like circa my time there this was a fuckin' mechanic shop, and I meant to look that up but forgot. 

In the vein of Jinya, it was a very like, hipster/gentrified feel, but super cute despite that.

Love that menu! Cutie!

Ok, lanterns, that's enough. 

The cucumber salad, Derek's beer, and Allen's negroni. That cucumber salad was VERY close to amazing, but it had a bit too much Mae Ploy on it. It didn't need to be that sweet. 

Alex's Tonkatsu Sando and the green beans, which Allen described as being like me and Derek's wok fried green beans, but with a sweet sauce. I tried one, they were VERY good, but he was right. The oyster sauce was very sweet. 

The chilled tofu, which was ALSO drenched in Mae Ploy (which like...really? Fuckin' learn about other ways t add a sweet zip to a dish, friendos) but still pretty good. Every time I looked at the way they configured it I thought of a playstation controller.

My mushroom miso ramen, sans noods as I brought my own. Allen got the same dish, so I didn't take a picture of his ramen. IT was pretty alright. I wish those enoki had been cooked, though. I wasn't keen on them being thrown in raw. Negative points, Night Ramen. A thousand negative points. 

Derek's short rib ramen. Which did not at ALL skimp on the shirt rib. That ramen bowl was packed with meat. It smelled amazing. 

After finishing up at Night Ramen, Derek and I did a little drive through Garden of the Gods. 

One of my favorite places in the world!

We got out to take a little jaunt about halfway up one of the shortest hikes in the park so I could send photos and videos to Rhyann. 

I love how they've made paths, but I am a little sad that the pathless, rocky charm that I was so used to at GoG is gone now. I kept having BACK IN MY DAY moments of remarking to Derek about how there weren't any paths 15 years ago. Well. I hope it's better for the conservation of the area. 

After that, Derek and I check in to the hotel, an just lazed about. To define what I said earlier about not nice digs, we are staying at the Super 8 off of Academy, right by the AFA. The bed is not comfy, nor is it uncomfy, it's just a bed. I woke up with pain in my lower back because I'm fucking 40 and I guess his is my life now. But that's the first wo days of the trip!

Today is our first full day here. We're going to go to the Painted Mines, hopefully the thunderstorms projected for the day don't hit until later, we've got dinner with our favorite couple in the fucking world tonight, and who knows what we'll stuff into the interim. I really wanted to spend my time here hiking, but I'm not sure weather will permit that. We'll see in the next one, I guess!