3,300 Miles of Fun...

  Day 2:  First Stop: Colorado Springs, Colorado

(Thursday, July 22, 2011)

This summer we took a true pioneer trek for family vacation many, many miles across Kansas, Utah and Colorado (3,300 miles to be exact)!  We may not have been pushing handcarts like the pioneers, but I think riding for days in the car with three toddlers is equally impressive:)  Our ultimate destination was Salt Lake City, Utah to enjoy the great states Pioneer Day festivities, spend time with Grandpa Bell, reunite with friends and family, while of course enjoying time in the mountains!

We were so very grateful for my cousin Jared and his wife Ann allowing us to crash at their place for a couple of nights.  The pic above is a view of Pikes Peak from their neighborhood.  We're especially grateful they chose to live in Colorado Springs because it is almost halfway between our house and Utah, makes a perfectly long "rest stop".  After an entire day driving in the car with the kiddos, their home was like finding and oasis in the desert.  On top of that Ann made us wonderful food (we're now in love with German Pancakes:), Jared kept us laughing the whole time (stayed up way too late every night talking), 

and we made many memories!

 It wasn't enough to just look at Pikes Peak, we had to see the top of it!  Pic above is Ashlyn and Preston posing at a rest stop along our trek up Pikes Peak! I guess I should clarify that we didn't hike it, surely that didn't even cross your mind:)  Its insane to even think about hiking to the top of Pikes Peak, let alone with three toddlers!  Luckily you can drive all the way to the top, our kind of mountain "climbing", but driving along narrow roads with sheer drop offs is quite an experience in itself...

 You can tell its the first day of vacation because we're taking tons of pictures, even of rocks, and the kids are actually posing with smiles (by the end of our trip they were not willing to take any more pictures)!  Notice we already have our jackets on, the weather was perfectly cool and were not even at the top yet.  We hoped this little rest stop would give our bodies a chance to adjust to the rising altitudes.  Considering we live in Missouri which is only at 400 feet above sea level, then we arrive in Colorado Springs which is 6,035 feet, and the next day we climb up to 14,110 feet above sea level.  Needless to say it didn't help, we still suffered...

The view from the top, well worth the drive!  Notice the road pictured in the bottom right corner?  Do you see how close it is to the edge of the mountain, no shoulder, no guardrails! It felt like any slip of the wheel would send you all the way down.  Michelle and Ashlyn were both very anxious, it was very tense driving up Pikes Peak.  Ashlyn said, "I feel like the car will just flip over and fall."  Ashlyn was literally a nervous wreck the entire drive up the mountain. It took an hour and a half to drive to the top, 

but only 45 minutes to drive back down.

The reward for making it to the top...a donut shop!  Known as the highest altitude donuts in the world, it must be true because the line was very long.  Waiting for the donuts turned out to be our downfall, they suggest you only stay 30 minutes at the top, because of the high altitude and lack of oxygen to your brain, but we were probably there 45 minutes.  By the time we took some pics, finally got our donuts and grabbed some souvenirs at the gift shop we realized we had been up there way too long.  

We knew before we reached the top that Preston was very tired, so when he was extremely cranky (even more then usual) at the top I figured it was from lack of sleep.  Then I started getting a headache, feeling faint and equally cranky, that is when I realized that we were suffering from altitude sickness.  I finally had to carry Preston through the gift shop, as we where trying to hurry up and get off that mountain,then Preston goes limp on my shoulder!  I honestly didn't know if he just fallen asleep from pure exhaustion or had passed out, so I panicked.  I'm trying to get Kendall's attention, wrestling Preston to get him conscious again, as we all rush out of the store to the car so we can move to a lower altitude a.s.a.p!  Ashlyn is the only one that didn't seem to have issues, but she also panicked when Preston was out and hurried everyone to the car because "Preston is sick, Preston is sick, hurry because Preston is sick!" Finally Preston woke up, Kendall drove us safely back down the mountain, then once we were back below the tree line where it was safe to sleep again,

 everyone of us did, except for Kendall of course:)