I woke up on the day we left Estes feeling nauseous as all get out. Derek packed the ar so I could stay in bed until the very last minute, but I felt super sick to my stomach. I downplayed it in the hopes I would start to believe I actually felt ok, but blerg. I felt yucky.
Our drive to Kansas City was 9 hours of not a whole lot. I napped on and off, took Zofran to calm my tummy down, and basically minded my own business until we got close enough to Kansas City for me to order our ramen from KC Craft. The plan had been for Derek and I to have a nice sit down together, but we left later than intended because I didn't feel well, and I also forgot to include the time change when factoring our arrival time, so it was almost closing time by the time we got in. Derek picked up our order and we went to the hotel.
We stayed at a Baymont this time, and this Baymont was like, a retrofitted old inn that looked like a ship got turned into an auditorium. We hadn't been in our room for fifteen minutes when the power went out at the hotel. Not just our room, the entire hotel went dark. Interesting. That's never happened before. It was maybe five minutes of the hotel being dark when the power came back on. It didn't bother Derek and I in the least, this sort of thing happens. Derek did make a joke about complaining to the desk to see if we could get a discount like we got at Grant Village for the lack of wifi (they gave us a 150 dollar refund), but I told him I bet they would, but I wasn't terribly pressed about it, and if the power went off AGAIN I would contact the hotel directly and just ask for a discount code for my next stay or something. The power remained on, and I begrudgingly ate my ramen and moaned about being too gross feeling to enjoy it.
As pathetic as I felt.
I was pretty tired of being awake, and as great as trips are, the end of them really calls attention to how busy you've been and how warn out you are. We had a wonderful time, but I was ready to be home.
I woke up the next day feeling better, but only by about half. I still felt greasy and icky, but no longer like I was going to hurl, so an improvement is an improvement. I either caught a mild bug or I got mild food poisoning from my warm slop.
I investigated the hotel room a little bit and commented that the decor looked like it was made from discarded bridesmaids dresses from David's Bridal circa 2007.
The art on the walls wasn't exactly museum quality, either.
Are they abstract? Impressionist? Just plain awful? Yes. Yes all of it.
Now initially, Derek and I talked about driving a few hours out of our way to stop in St. Louis and go to Gateway Arch National Park, closing out our National Parks Trip with the worst national park on the registry. However, I still wasn't feeling well, Derek and I were both exhausted with aching backs, and we just wanted to be home and rested and no longer traveling.
So home we went, jiggity jig. The drive is only about 3.5 hours, though driving through KC is a maddening exercise that feels like it adds years to your day. And that is it. We were home.
Since it looks like we're stuck here through 2028, I am trying to plan two mini trips to strike another few National Parks trips off of our list. We're within short driving distance of Hot Springs National Park, Indiana Dunes (we've been there before, but gotta get those stamps, baby!), and Cuyahoga National Park. We're a little further, but not unbearably so, from the Great Smoky Mountains. We're also a two day drive from my dad, where we could knock out the Everglades, Key Biscayne, and Dry Tortugas if we're feeling extra saucy and feel like flying there. We were aggravatingly close to Wind Cave National Park, it's only two hours from Badlands, and we're currently discussing heading back out there for Derek's birthday so we can properly rockhound in Weta (and possibly Omaha).
I'm angling to head up to St. Louis this upcoming Friday for my bi-weekly Costco run so I can finally get us our stamps from the Arch. Fingers crossed!
Anyway, that's it. That's the trip. The last entry I'm going to do for this trip is going to conglomerate every single day with its photos. Which are upsettingly bad. I had a wonderful time, and seeing everything was incredible, but I am disappointed in my photos. Yeesh.
Wait wait! Edited to add!
I forgot to put pictures of our local boozes.
That Absaroka Gin is so delicious. We bought four bottles. We haven't tried the Grand Teton Potato Vodka, but I'm sure it's...nice?
Derek has mentioned several times that he's very curious about this rum, and every time he says that I tell him I am very NOT curious about this rum. He hasn't opened it yet, but I DO want to use those glasses. They're so cute!
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