Nebraska to Colorado

Our night at the KOA in West Omaha was a good one.  This is the only night thus far (according to Josh that our air mattress did not deflate.   I couldn’t tell because I was the first one who got up first and he was the one who woke up on the ground.  KOA’s are in general really awesome, family friendly campsites.  We’re sleeping a tent, but still had electric and running water.  Camping has really kept the cost of the trip down since most of these sites only cost between $20-$30. 

Nebraska, as one might expect, is mostly flat and entirely used to grow corn.  Upon further research, we learned that the whole state is divided up into grids that are numbered and lettered, as apposed to having actual street names.  These girds being huge farm plots probably established before Nebraska was even a state.  Driving through it all is overall pretty tedious.  Some of us might be tempted to speed through it as fast as possible being that the speed limit on Rt 80 in those parts is 75 mph, but trust me, there are police as I learned when I got my first out-of-state speeding ticket.  I will proudly be paying the state of Nebraska $123 for going between 11-15 over the speed limit; so worth it.

Road to Colorado and into the Rocky Mountains

The beginning of Colorado was also quite desolate.  And again there was more corn.  But when you first get a glimpse of the Rockies in the horizon adrenaline starts pumping.  We diverted from rt 80 onto Rt 76 into order to have this experience.  Denver unfortunately is south of Rt 80.   As we were driving we saw signs for Denver, but at first could not see it.  We were more interested in seeing and setting up our campsite. 

We had no expectations for Denver because neither one of us knew much about it.  It is, however, a nice city.  The architecture is both traditional and modern, but it all fits together really well.  Unfortunately, we arrived there at rush hour and it is comparable to that of rush hour in New York City.  It took us about 15 minutes to go 2 miles.  But we made the most of it by checking out the sites from our car.  We would have loved to spend more time there, but our schedule would not allow for it. 

Denver

Golden Gate Canyon State Park is beautiful and on the east edge of the Rockies.  Our campsite was actually at 9,280 feet above sea level. If you’ve never been above sea level it is quite an interesting feeling.  Just setting up the tent caused both Josh and I to be out of breath.  However, that did not matter when we got a glimpse of the night sky.  I have never seen so many stars in my life and as Josh pointed out (he’s our resident astronomer) because we were so close to Denver we actually were not seeing all the stars we could have.  This was also the first time I could see a satellite in orbit, which when you stop and think about it is really cool.  Due to the fact that this campsite does not have Wi-Fi or even cell reception we used that opportunity to just hang out and look at the sky.  We also looked forward to sleeping in cooler climates, but it got downright freezing last night. 

Up to the Campsite

As I write this, we are traveling on the western most side of Colorado after making it through the Rocky Mountains, heading toward Salt Lake City, Utah.  But the account of our trip through the mountains and into Nevada requires a description all its own.

(Josh’s nicknames for the Rocky Mountains: The Great Pointies. The Grand Bumpies.)