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!