The Hills Are Alive; With the Sound of Music

Day 3 of our Capitol Challenge Road Trip. We are expert planners on a mission to see as much as possible in 20 days. So far that has been a success! Here are the stats for today: 

States: 4 no new ones today

Capitols: 0 -- I know... tomorrow this part will be updated! 

Books read: none... still on the same chapter as yesterday. 

License Plates Found: 19 + 15= 33!  (Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, Maryland, Utah, Nebraska, California, South Dakota, Iowa, North Carolina, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana, and Idaho for today)

Crunches/Squats: 55! 20 in the morning to make up for yesterday and 30 this evening. Tomorrow is a day of rest. 

Number of people asking us about our trip: 0 but MANY people read the stuff on our car. We are just going to shout out to them what day we are on :) 

OK, so let's get back to today's adventures. Our morning started out by getting some breakfast at Village Inn. It was great! The pancakes were the best I have had! We did not buy pie today but we wanted to! Thank you to our host Melissa for taking us in and giving us the BEST hospitality! 

Our next stop was Hammond's Candy Factory. This is a FREE tour. Yes, you read that correctly, FREE! If you are in Denver it is worth the stop. It was really neat to see all the workers hand making the candy and then packaging it and getting it ready to ship out.

After candy it was time for Tea. We drove to Boulder, Colorado to take the Celestial Seasonings tour. Guess what! Are you ready? This was FREE also! Our tour guide was really funny and we had a great time listening to all he had to tell us. Then, you get to sample tea! Oh, did I mention that they also give you 4 tea bags if you take the tour?

We then took some long winding roads into the mountains. Our destination: Rocky Mountain National Park. So, the plan was to hike and eat at Bear Lake. Well... that was closed. As the ranger crushed our dreams we walked to the gift store to use the indoor plumbing. As we stood there in the gift shop trying to figure out what to do, a very nice lady who worked there saved us! She offered to help us and gave us a GREAT idea. She said to take the scenic drive up the mountain to Alpine Visitor Center. There were breathtaking views of the mountains, valleys, glaciers and much more. This seriously saved our day. I regret not getting her name so that I could thank her.

This is our first stop. We thought this was an amazing view... it is! But, there are so many more amazing views to come!

Oh yeah, that is an Elk. It was just grazing right off the road. What do people from Texas do when they see wildlife up close and personal? Take a picture of course!

Look! Snow!! I could not believe that there was snow still on the mountains!

The Hills are Alive, With the Sound of Music. We could not stop singing that song. I just wanted to sing and dance on those mountains!

Looking at all the snow

We were almost 2 miles above sea level!

"It's like we're in a cloud." ~ not said by Celeste!

61 degrees was really cold. The snow was not really melting. But, we are from Texas and July is 100 degrees usually, so we dressed for that!

We took one more picture before leaving the mountains.

We ate at Rio Grande in Boulder. It is located near Pearl Street. If you are ever in Colorado and craving Mexican food this is the place to eat!

Well, it was a LONG and eventful day. I can't believe it is only day 3! It feels like we have been on vacation for WEEKS! Oh wait, we still have 17 days! Thanks for reading!

Celeste has a blog too! Check it out! http://34justme.blogspot.com/

Pyramids in Kansas?

Day 2 is about over. We had a very eventful day today. We were on the go from 7:00-almost midnight and tomorrow is going to be an early morning. First for the stats for today: 

States: 4 (Colorado)

Capitols: 0

Books read: Started 1

License Plates Found: 6 + 13 = 19!  (WI, AZ, MO, OH, AR, ND, TN, WA, NY, IN, MN,NM, IL)

Crunches/Squats: 0! YIKES! We ran out of time! Tomorrow we will have to do 25 + 30! 55!! 

Number of people asking us about our trip: 2

So, our day started with a wonderful breakfast at our hotel: Hampton Inn. They had a wonderful breakfast of eggs, potatoes, sausage patties and other continental breakfast items. We then had to run an errand and then mail our postcards to the winners of our game! If you have facebook and are friends with either Celeste or myself you know we are doing "Where In The World are Michelle and Celeste" We are having fun with it and I hope you are too. We are going to stay true to our word and send out postcards to the winner everyday! 

We then left for our first destination: Chalk Pyramids/Monument Rocks. I have heard them both ways. After driving on a one lane highway for 3 hours and then turning onto a dirt road for another 20 minutes we made it to our destination. These formations are in the middle of farm land! They were really cool and if you are ever driving down highway 83 in Kansas they are worth the detour (especially if you have kids who need a stretch break). 

After taking some pictures of the rocks we went to Oakley, Kansas to find some postcards and mail them to todays winners. We found this sign and in the background you can see Buffalo Bill Cody roping a buffalo!

On our way to Colorado we stopped and admired the painting that is resting on the Largest Easel. We then stopped at McDonalds for drinks and a bathroom break. Two people finally asked us about our trip. We used window chalk to write: 20 states, 20 days, 13 capitols, #capitolchallenge and we were finally asked about it!

We made it to our 4th state!!! Colorado. This was not your typical welcome sign but it works!

Look at this cool rain storm in the distance. We only got a few sprinkles but it looked dangerous!

We took the scenic route to Castle Rock.

After dinner we went to Colorado Springs to enjoy the sunset at Garden of the Gods. It was so beautiful!

We even encountered a deer up close and personal! Watch out Bambi!

Last picture for a wonderful day! Stay tuned for Day 3! Thanks for reading! 

Celeste has a blog too! Check it out! http://34justme.blogspot.com/

It's a Twister! It's a Twister!

 Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore! Day 1 is complete!! In case you are keeping track here are the stats so far:
States: 3 (Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas)
Capitols: 0
Books read: 0
Magazines Read: 1
License Plates Found: 6 (TX, PN, CO, OK, KS, and FL)
Crunches/Squats: 20

Now for the good stuff! We started our day at 7:00. We needed to decorate the car so people can follow our journey. We came up with with our Twitter hashtag: #capitolchallenge That took the first 3 hours of our trip, ha ha! After a quick stop at Starbucks we were off!

 

Here is how the first 5 hours of our drive looked --

 Yep, that's right, not much to look at. But, you have to start somewhere! While driving through the boring part we thought it would be cool to try to make it to all the places in the song "This Land is Your Land" but guess what? You need to know the lyrics to the song first before you can actually make a list of places to go. Do you know the lyrics? They aren't "This Land is your land, this land is my land from the dada dadaaaa to the da dadada" See, you don't know them either! We were going to look them up but unfortunately 3G doesn't work in the middle of nowhere.

Anywhoo, here is the drive we made today:

After 5 hours of driving we made it to Shamrock Texas! This small town is along the old Route 66!

Here is an actual piece of the Blarney Stone! It was in a park... not sure if it really is legit but we still stopped and took pictures!

Old stop from Route 66. It is abandoned now but it was picturesque.

We then made it to Canadian, Texas. No, we are not in Canada... YET! Another super small town!

Then we hit construction! There were one-lane bridges where you had to stop at lights before you could go across! We had to do this 3 times.

Look! A new state!!

Guess what?? We made it to our first night's destination. Liberal, Kansas! This is the home to Dorothy's House and the Land of Oz! In this small town you can find many statues of Dorothy! They are EVERYWHERE! We made it to Dorothy's house which is on "Yellow Brick Road"! Let me tell you, if you ever have a chance to come to Liberal you must pay the money to go on this tour. You will not be disappointed... if you can make your own fun!

 Yep, that's a kitchen from the 1920s...

 If you look at the left part of the picture you will see Dorothy! She was REALLY there!!! Ok, so this is a different version of Dorothy but she told us that was her house, and her room, and her ruby slippers... please have us recreate this experience when you see Celeste and I! She hates her job.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road!

 If I only had a heart.

So, after our journey to Oz and back we went to this great Italian restaurant called Ruffino's. It was really good. The service was weird but the food was good. The restaurant is in the old train depot. A train actually went by while we were eating. You can see the tracks in the background.

After dinner we cruised around town and found many more Dorothy statues. Overall it was a fantastic day! See everyone tomorrow with another update!

Celeste has a blog too! Check her out! http://34justme.blogspot.com/html

Happy Birthday America (and me)!

July 3, 2013 -- I'm officially 29! I had a wonderful birthday! First, I went to see the Lone Ranger with my dad. It was pretty good. Not the best movie of the summer, but I would probably see it again. Then, I went to Chili's with my dad and sister. I had a great morning! 

At night, we wend to Addison to attend Kaboom Town! There is a big festival and live music. We had a great time! It was right by the Addison airport so we also enjoyed an air show before the fireworks. The only complaint would be that they set up the stage right where the fireworks were being shot off. Our view was a little obstructed. 

Now I'm off to the Melting Pot for a family birthday dinner! I've been going there for my birthday for MANY years now! 

 Part of the air show

 Live music! There was the armed forces band, the Dallas Wind Ensemble, and then a cover band. 

 Celeste and I enjoying the music

 Red and Blue "smoke" 

 Glider with its own pyrotechnics 

Cover band. We left when they started.