Wyoming Trip 2011 - Part 1

It may take me awhile to get this whole thing out, so just be patient with me please!

Remember how I mentioned that we like to camp along the way on our vacations, and bring all of our own food?  Um, yeah, that didn't work out quite so well this trip.  We left right after my dear husband got off work Wednesday the 17th and had planned to drive until we crossed the border into New Mexico.  But we were tired, the kids were grumpy, and so we stopped early and got a hotel room in Holbrook.  A little tip if you ever journey out this way?  Don't stop in Holbrook.  Ever.  It may seem like a good idea at the time, but you will regret it if you do.  (If I have any readers from Holbrook, I apologize, but we have never had a good experience there.) 

We both agreed on a Comfort Inn that looked promising, but the longer we were there, the worse it was.  The place was dirty, the blankets and carpet were badly stained, and overall it was just awful.  All I could think about was a possibility of bedbugs.  Had I not had two out of the three children settled we would have gotten our money back and gone somewhere else.  I did complain the next morning and get some of our money back anyway.  I'm not paying people my husband's hard earned money to not do their jobs.  Also, my normally sweet two year old (whom we found out later is not a good traveler) didn't sleep until around 1 or 2 that morning, finishing off a rough start to our trip.

Stopping early meant we needed to leave earlier in the morning in order to get to the place we planned to camp at early enough to set up before dark.  We set the alarm for 5 thinking we would be on the road by 6 and would only be about an hour behind schedule.  Do you see where this is going?  We didn't get on the road until around 7, and we forgot about the time change as you cross the Arizona border into New Mexico.  This means we were really behind by about 3 hours.  Keeping a positive attitude, we thought we could make up some of the time and it would be ok if we got in a little late.

The route we had planned on taking took us through the western slope of Colorado.


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We knew ahead of time that it would be a slower route than if we just took the Interstate, but neither of us had ever been in that area of Colorado, so we wanted to explore a bit.  First, it was not just a slower route, but a much s-l-o-w-e-r route.  And not because of the small towns along the way either, although that was part of it.  The mountain passes are the highest (and scariest) mountain passes I had ever been on.  And so gorgeous.



This is looking down from my window in the van.  Why, yes, that is the side of the road where one mistake will send you falling off the edge of the cliff.



An understatement if there ever was one.

The scary road, and the beautiful mountains.

My little Ladybug gets carsick, and I knew this going in.  Before we got on the mountain roads, I gave her a dose of Benadryl as our pediatrician suggested and a half dose of Bonine to Fritter.  Ladybug still made a mess in the van twice on our trip up.  Poor thing.

One town we stopped in was called Silverton, Colorado.  This town had one pass south of it at about 10,000 feet and another on the other side of town at about 11,000 feet.  When we stopped for a break Dan and I were both dizzy and the kids were fussy.  We played in a field by the gas station for a little while before braving the next pass.

Dan and Sunflower in Silverton.

Ladybug feeling a little better.

Picking wildflowers for Grandma.

A more honest picture of Ladybug.

It was a gorgeous, slow day and I don't think I have to say that we didn't make it all the way to our campsite in Dillon, Colorado and stopped at a Hampton Inn in Rifle.  I'm not getting paid to say this (although if they'd like to reimburse me in some way, I'm not opposed to it) but given a choice over a quaint little hotel that has character (or at least the potential for it) with the unknown of whether the owner really cares about the place, and a corporate run Hampton Inn, I'm going with the Hampton.  Until people learn to take pride in their work again and do what they are being paid to do, big corporations will continue to rule.  And I'm not taking chances with my sleep again.

My name is CMerie and I'm becoming a hotel snob.

Stay tuned for Part 2...