West Trip Day Nine

**At the end of this post I will talk finances***

Today we drove from the middle of nowhere Kansas to St. Louis Missouri.  Unfortunately, it took longer than google said it would take, and we were led on an adventure through residential Kansas City to get our lunch, and we got slightly detoured in St. Louis, so by the time we arrived we were too late to use our pre-ordered tickets for the arch.  We'll try again tomorrow morning before we leave.

It turns out that eastern Kansas is much more interesting than western Kansas.  It was also a beautiful day (70*) with no wind so that helped too.  

Once we hit Kansas City we found a place to get lunch.  I hate it when a restaurant is advertised on a highway exit but then you find out it is 1 mile or more away from the exit!  That happened and we found ourselves taking a nice tour of residential Kansas City.

I am so envious that the grass is already green here and the trees are budding.


Overall, Ollie traveled pretty well.  The front seat is wide open for him but he prefers to be near people, which aggravated Zack occasionally, but the majority of the time everyone was happy.

Waiting for someone to take him to pee

This night was a complete splurge...we stayed at the Hilton downtown a block from the arch.  I had to park in a parking garage across the street and can only imagine how feral we looked in sweat pants (comfortable driving clothes), dragging our old suitcases, carrying the fan, and trying to wrangle the dog, walking through this upscale lobby.

To add to the humiliation, we could not get the elevator to work.  Very entertaining we were!  First we got on one of the elevators, the doors closed but the elevator would not move.  So we dragged ourselves, all our stuff, and the dog off the elevator and tried the other one...same thing.  Repeat dragging everything off the elevator.  This time we ran into someone who was getting ready to get on the elevator and explained that they were not working.  He then says, "oh...you have to put your room key in the slot first."  It turns out there was a slot on the elevator and once you put your room key in the slot, the elevator worked fine!  

The room is nice but nothing I couldn't live without

Not the greatest view - 5th floor

We had to order room service because we can't leave the dog alone

A big beggar

I took Ollie for a walk to the arch while he peed on buildings (no grass) and pooped in the middle of the sidewalk (no grass)...so embarrassing...I can't take him anywhere. 

Of course, there is construction going on around the arch....there seems to be a theme here.

Construction on the bottom right 

***TRIP FINANCES***

Through the whole trip I only put $30.00 on my credit card (for a pet fee and only because the motel machine rejected my debit card for some reason).  

Before we left I withdrew $1000.00 from my checking account and separated it into 10 envelopes - $100.00 in each envelope.  Each day I took a new envelope and used the $100.00 for food, souvenirs, or other miscellaneous things.  Any money left at the end of the day was put in another envelope and I would take a new $100.00 for the next day.  This worked out so well and I have nearly $300.00 left over.  

All the motels (with exception of the first night and last night in Kansas)  were booked online and paid for with my debit card before we left.  The only other thing my debit card was used for was for gas and pet fees at the various motels.  

I am so glad I could do this for Zack and he was able to add the following states to his list
-Minnesota
-South Dakota
-Nebraska
-Wyoming
-Colorado
-Kansas

West Trip Day Eight

A very booooooring driving day.  The morning began a bit earlier than Zack would have liked but still a respectable hour (8:00).  We packed up and headed out  taking I25 down to Denver and then picking up I70 which will take us straight to St. Louis.  

I never knew there were states that were more boring than Wisconsin!  But, surprisingly, there are and Kansas is one of them.  Eastern Colorado is equally boring.  

The distance between cities is not to be believed.  You know how they have signs that say, "Rest Area...next Rest Area is 75 miles away?"   Well, they should have similar signs for cities here.  "City name...next city is 40 miles away (but it will feel like 400 miles)"

It's an absolute wonder I didn't fall asleep at the wheel...thank goodness I had The Office DVDs to keep me entertained.

Oh...and talk about windy!!!  The wide open prairie = WINDY!!!!  Every once in a while a tumbleweed would make its way across the road in front of me which also kept me slightly entertained.

We passed up opportunities to visit things such as "Prairie Dog Village" and the "Greyhound Hall of Fame" and "Dwight D Eisenhower Library and Museum."  Yes, I am serious.  I am sure Ollie would have loved Prairie Dog Village though!!!

We finally stopped for the night just short of my goal (which was Topeka) and we ordered pizza from Pizza Hut so we didn't have to go out.

Zack's bed is the messy one

Tomorrow: St Louis

West Trip Day Seven

Once we got moving this morning and Zack finished his school work for the day, we drove the 1/2 hour to Estes Park.  The drive itself was amazing as the road wound its way through the Big Thompson Canyon.

And then I saw this sign:



Am I the only one that thinks that this is obvious!

We had lunch at KFC/Taco Bell (yes, both in the same restaurant) and Zack was finally able to get his popcorn chicken. 

Then we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park. 

We followed one road up as far as was allowed - some roads are still snow covered and closed.  Zack did get out once or twice just to experience it and see everything, but he spent most of the drive lying down in the back seat scared silly.  He is afraid of heights.  

The only regret was that it was a cloudy day so the view probably was not as good as it would have been on a clear day - but it was still incredibly beautiful.

It was, of course, cold up there.  41* in the mountains but 63* when we returned to Loveland.  

For dinner we went to Cracker Barrel - we love Cracker Barrel!