the davenport trail – day 10 aka the last day!

Ok, so I’ll admit that we finished our drive over a week ago now.  Things have been a little busy.  But I’m feeling a little less than motivated to unpack boxes as I’ve been on the phone half the day (doctor’s appointments, trying to get plane tickets – actually need to make that call again, phone company since our phone line has clearly been crossed with someone else, and the car insurance people) so I’ll finish up our trek.

We had stopped in Colby, KS which is pretty far west in Kansas so we really didn’t have too terribly much farther to go before we hit Parker so we really took it easy.

 
 
Will thought taking pictures of her in “jail” was funny.

I’m not sure what she thought of it…

Our first stop was in Goodland, KS to visit the world’s largest easel.
 

Of course there was a cache…

I decided to document the 10 days in on my shellac manicure while waiting for Will to make the long walk out to the easel for some size perspective.  Pretty good though you can tell how fast my nails grow. 

Will and P for some perspective. 

He was doing this the whole time – trying to log that cache. 

I wanted my picture with it too but the perspective shots Will took came out better.

Next up Colorado!
 
Welcome to your new home P!
 
If you can find the upside down bird in that tree, you found the cache.  We annoyed a lot of folks who wanted their picture with the sign by looking for it.  Will was glad I spotted it.    

We eventually got off the interstate to take CO-83 which becomes Parker Road which goes through – you guessed it – Parker!  It was a scenic drive with Will snapping pics from the backseat.
 
Proof that I did drive some of the time!

Babe’s not so sure about me driving.

horses!

Rolling hills. 

Roadwork in the middle of nowhere. 



Snuffles watching from the back. 



The Parker Hampton Inn is, well, weird.  It’s a triangle for one which made the hallways confusing and then it’s all earth toned and fancy on the outside like no other Hampton Inn I’ve ever seen. 

We were greeted with quite the storm – but at least they look cool. 

We were in the car waiting for friends to arrive for dinner. 


She’s almost got that thumb.  Though this was about as calm as she ever was in that hotel – she DID NOT like it one bit.  We decided that she didn’t like that it echoed.

the davenport trail – day 9

We had decided the night before (last night in fact since I’ve finally caught up to myself and we are still experiencing Day 9 as I work on this post) that we wouldn’t try to push through to Colorado today.  The reasoning for this was twofold: 1) there are no Hampton Inns in Colorado until you hit the one in Parker that we’re going to stay in for a few days before our stuff arrives and 2) why should we drive a ton today and have a short drive tomorrow when we could just have 2 even days that wouldn’t be too rough.

As a result we probably took too much time getting out of the hotel and getting to the Kansas Cache Across America.  It unfortunately was nearly 11am and already over 90 degrees out when we went looking for it.  The complicating factor of CAAs is that you need a photo to document it so I couldn’t just send Will off on his own and hang out in the car.  So he put the babe in the Ergo and I dug out my running shoes and off we went.

Will’s checking the coordinates and then sets off.



A thistle. 

This part of our search was not fun.  Those grasses were high and sharpish. 

Yay! He found it!  All that heat was worth it… well, I guess so anyway. 

This was supposed to show all the sweat that was pooling in the sunshade of the Ergo.

After this we took a long lunch break at Panera for everyone to cool off so we didn’t end up actually leaving Manhattan until like 12:30.

The wind turbines along the side of the road were our excitement for awhile.
 
 

We stopped at a random rest area to feed the baby and from the behavior of others it would appear that it is perfectly acceptable to wander around rest stops without any shoes on.  GROSS!

But there was kind of a neat rundown house that I walked over to take pictures of.


Given the state of the rest stop, Will elected to use a somewhat secluded picnic bench as a diaper changing station. 

Her resting face is one of mild concern and/or befuddlement.

So… the interstate decided to be only one lane in either direction… at least it was only temporary for road construction but still odd.
Proof that Kansas is boring. 

We saw this guy twice.  If you can’t tell it’s a semi-trailer tow truck towing not 1 but 2 similar tow trucks AND a Jeep Liberty.  I found this highly amusing.  Clearly, I am overwhelmed by boredom. 

Nom, nom, hands taste yummy…

But this is more what I do. 

Will’s been doing most of the driving.  He’s my hero. 


We finally got smart and decided to use a cart.

Baby’s not supposed to look at screens… oh no!

Will’s running from the storm after finding a cache in the Wal-Mart parking lot. 

The storm approaching. 

The view from the hotel in one direction is just, you guessed it, more corn.  The other direction is the interstate.
Accommodations in the Hampton Inn in Colby, KS – an actual porta-crib.