Chasing Life

 Day 22 Iowa, Minnesota Today we drove home, briefly stopping in Worthington, Minnesota to see our grandparents. To summarize our entire trip, here is a quote we saw at the Great Platte Archway.

 Day 21 Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa We started today by driving to the Great Platte Archway. It is a museum located above Interstate 80. Once inside, we were given handheld audio devices to listen to while walking through at our own pace. There were numbered transmitters throughout the museum that you simply tapped your device on, or manually punched in the number. We really enjoyed it and learned a lot of history ranging from the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails, to the Golden Spike of the transcontinental railroad, and even to the present day. They had a radar gun (speed) in an upper window that you could use to see how fast people below you were driving. After finishing the tour (we spent about 2 hours), we checked out a gemstone/fossil sluice that was on the main level. While we didn't purchase any of the rough (sand mixture), we found several small bits of interesting rocks and fossils. After piling back into the car, we drove to another museum. This one was about the winter q...

 Day 20 Colorado, Kansas This morning we drove to Great Sand Dunes National Park, planning to check them out and see if we wanted to rent sand sleds/boards. Partway through walking to them, we decided not to rent anything because it was so much work trekking through the sand. We climbed the first steep hill we found and had fun running, sliding, and rolling down it, and making sand angels. We also noticed the sliding sand looked like an avalanche/mudslide. After getting sand in our shoes, clothes, and probably hair, we walked back to our car to clean up before starting our drive. We drove until it was dark and stayed in Oakley, Kansas.

Day 19 Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah We left our hotel in Durango and headed for Telluride. Instead of taking the faster way, we decided to drive the million-dollar highway (a more scenic route). It was a beautiful drive, and the roads luckily were dry. Along the way, we stopped at the Ouray Ice Park. It is a river canyon that the town sprays with water creating a multitude of icicles, and attracts many ice climbers. After leaving the awesome spot, we continued on to Telluride. Once there, the free public gondola was our destination. We boarded on the edge of the city and rode it up to the highest (next) station. We got off there and walked around a restaurant located at the top. It had a room full of slippers for ski/snowboarders to wear while they left their equipment in the room. After that, we boarded the gondola again, and this time continued on to the town of Mountain Village, where we caught another gondola, and something called the Chondola because it had a gondola car sp...