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With three drivers and two fur babies desperately ready to stretch their legs, we flew through the rest of the Midwest and found ourselves at our first "real" stop of the trip, Colorado, in record time.
This was meant to be a short stay, where we were planning on dropping off Inali and Gomez, visiting Leo's parents, reorganizing, and grabbing some produce before heading out again.
But of course, life is always full of surprises.
The day after arriving we discovered that what we thought was a minor problem with the jeep, turned out to be major. We spent some time weighing our options, talking with mechanics, researching vehicle reliability, and looking at cars.
(It turned out that the transfer case needed to be rebuilt, and in our possibly foolish optimism, we hoped we could cheat fate and take her on the rest of the journey anyway, only to have the engine misfire just when we reached the Wyoming/Colorado State Line).
Fortunately for us, we were stranded in Colorado, which isn't much like being stranded at all.
We were able to make the most out of our extended stay with Leo's parents, going to the Longmont Farmer's Market, visiting Boulder and Denver, enjoying restaurants, hiking, shopping, and hanging out with family on the farm. This gave me a nice opportunity to get some shots of all the lavender at sunset. Nothing beats Colorado sunsets over the mountains.
While we were visiting, one small hike we did was at Pella Crossing (aka: Pella Ponds) in Hygiene. This park has two short, easy hikes, and is located just outside of Longmont. This space is awesome for wildlife watching, especially birding, and offers a nice escape from the business of town, without heading into the mountains.
One evening we went out for dinner and drinks at Samples in Longmont. They have an extensive beer list, but I was very disappointed to see only one vegan item on the menu, a small-portioned Spicy Peanut Noodle Bowl for $14. The bowl was spicier than I prefer and overpriced for the size. If you ever go there, I'd recommend just going for drinks and then eating elsewhere.
We treated ourselves to some Illegal Pete's on Pearl St (Boulder) to recover from lack of dinner at Samples and grabbed a vegan cake from Whole Foods before heading back to the house.
Finally, after a few days of research, test driving, anxiety, and money spent, we decided it was time for something a little more reliable and bought a new car.
Goodbye Delphi the 2003 Jeep, hello 2005 Toyota 4Runner!
It was such a relief to finally be done with car shopping, and to know that we got something that was going to be a lot more reliable.
Unfortunately, we lost a few days we had anticipated being on the road, so we needed to revamp our trip plans a little.
To my great disappointment, we decided to cut Washington, Oregon, and Northern California from our plans. However, we were able to add a few places in Colorado that we otherwise wouldn't have visited, so that was at least somewhat of a nice compromise.
On Friday, the 28th of July we headed back on the road.
As we were headed westbound towards Utah, we quickly found ourselves stuck in a 2+ hour traffic jam. We could have looked at this as more bad luck, but the fog rolling over the mountains was so moving, it was easy to appreciate our surroundings despite another setback.
After finally getting past the traffic, straining to keep our eyes open, we managed to make it to Colorado National Monument, where we car camped for the night.
What a journey so far. All in all, I can't complain. We love every minute we get to be in Colorado, whether it's planned or not.
STATS:
Date: July 20, 2017
Location: Longmont, CO
Length of Stay: 9 days
Time from last stop: 15 hours
Miles from last stop: 1,024 miles
Accumulated # of Days: 10
Accumulated Miles: 1,739 miles
Highlights: Mountains, Sunsets, Food, Shopping, Heat, Wildflowers, Wildlife, City
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Colorado, you never let me down)
This was meant to be a short stay, where we were planning on dropping off Inali and Gomez, visiting Leo's parents, reorganizing, and grabbing some produce before heading out again.
But of course, life is always full of surprises.
The day after arriving we discovered that what we thought was a minor problem with the jeep, turned out to be major. We spent some time weighing our options, talking with mechanics, researching vehicle reliability, and looking at cars.
(It turned out that the transfer case needed to be rebuilt, and in our possibly foolish optimism, we hoped we could cheat fate and take her on the rest of the journey anyway, only to have the engine misfire just when we reached the Wyoming/Colorado State Line).
Fortunately for us, we were stranded in Colorado, which isn't much like being stranded at all.
We were able to make the most out of our extended stay with Leo's parents, going to the Longmont Farmer's Market, visiting Boulder and Denver, enjoying restaurants, hiking, shopping, and hanging out with family on the farm. This gave me a nice opportunity to get some shots of all the lavender at sunset. Nothing beats Colorado sunsets over the mountains.
While we were visiting, one small hike we did was at Pella Crossing (aka: Pella Ponds) in Hygiene. This park has two short, easy hikes, and is located just outside of Longmont. This space is awesome for wildlife watching, especially birding, and offers a nice escape from the business of town, without heading into the mountains.
Leo's mom, Yasemend, Inali, and Leo checking out the wildflowers on the path.
I was so excited to see a bat house on our hike! Bats are incredible and completely misunderstood. I'm glad to see initiatives like these spreading to lend them a helping hand.
[Eastern Kingbird]
One evening we went out for dinner and drinks at Samples in Longmont. They have an extensive beer list, but I was very disappointed to see only one vegan item on the menu, a small-portioned Spicy Peanut Noodle Bowl for $14. The bowl was spicier than I prefer and overpriced for the size. If you ever go there, I'd recommend just going for drinks and then eating elsewhere.
We treated ourselves to some Illegal Pete's on Pearl St (Boulder) to recover from lack of dinner at Samples and grabbed a vegan cake from Whole Foods before heading back to the house.
Finally, after a few days of research, test driving, anxiety, and money spent, we decided it was time for something a little more reliable and bought a new car.
Goodbye Delphi the 2003 Jeep, hello 2005 Toyota 4Runner!
It was such a relief to finally be done with car shopping, and to know that we got something that was going to be a lot more reliable.
Unfortunately, we lost a few days we had anticipated being on the road, so we needed to revamp our trip plans a little.
To my great disappointment, we decided to cut Washington, Oregon, and Northern California from our plans. However, we were able to add a few places in Colorado that we otherwise wouldn't have visited, so that was at least somewhat of a nice compromise.
On Friday, the 28th of July we headed back on the road.
As we were headed westbound towards Utah, we quickly found ourselves stuck in a 2+ hour traffic jam. We could have looked at this as more bad luck, but the fog rolling over the mountains was so moving, it was easy to appreciate our surroundings despite another setback.
After finally getting past the traffic, straining to keep our eyes open, we managed to make it to Colorado National Monument, where we car camped for the night.
What a journey so far. All in all, I can't complain. We love every minute we get to be in Colorado, whether it's planned or not.
STATS:
Date: July 20, 2017
Location: Longmont, CO
Length of Stay: 9 days
Time from last stop: 15 hours
Miles from last stop: 1,024 miles
Accumulated # of Days: 10
Accumulated Miles: 1,739 miles
Highlights: Mountains, Sunsets, Food, Shopping, Heat, Wildflowers, Wildlife, City
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Colorado, you never let me down)
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