I have made an executive decision. No more unnecessary stops. We are just going to power through. This is, of course, a terrible idea. Three kids in the car all day with no real stops is a recipe for utter disaster. I am aware of this. But we're never going to make it, so we are just going to go for it. I am willing to accept the consequences.
Driving through the Rockies was beautiful, and now I'm excited to go back someday and explore them with Mike for real. Our bag of Cheetos exploded, and I'm pretty sure Jackson's ear drums did, too. He spent most of the morning crying, and now that we are down, he is still complaining of tinnitus. Oh well. They'll heal, right?
Driving through the Rockies was beautiful, but everything east of there was something of a nightmare. Did you know that there are almost 200 miles of Colorado east of Denver? Why is there so much Colorado not in the Rocky Mountains?? And did you also know that, on the Eastern Plains of Colorado, you can see for miles and miles because there isn't anything to break up the view? And because there's nothing to break up the view, not even trees, there's never any reason to curve the road? And did you know that there are more than 400 miles of Kansas? And that they are pretty much exactly the same as those last 200 miles of Colorado? That's 600 miles of NOTHING in a very straight line. Let me say that again. 600 miles. Now, I am positive that those 600 miles must contain some beautiful scenery somewhere, and I'm sure they are full of good, hardworking people. But cheese and rice, that drive should be reserved for people who probably shouldn't be in jail but need something a little more extreme than community service. I never, ever want to do that ever, ever again. The only thing that seemed to break up the day a little was that these boys needed to stop to pee every other exit. I spent the day looking for places to pull over so the kids could pee out the door. (Yes, we pee on the side of the road. I have boys. They can do that. Also, we would never make it anywhere with dry pants if we always had to wait to find a restroom.) Incidentally, i found it very interesting that the roads in most of eastern Colorado are only paved for about 5 feet off the exit where they unceremoniously turn into hard-packed dirt roads. Even the roads that lead into what passes for towns out here aren't all paved. Do the ski resorts of Colorado really have so much pull in the state government that the good people of the Eastern Plains can't get some asphalt? I'm not here to judge, but, well, it seemed a little strange. By no means are all the roads in New York paved, but most of them are. The ones leading off the Thruway definitely are.
We are spending the night in Junction City, KS. The goal for tomorrow is to make it as far as Terre Haute, IN. If we don't, we will never make it back to Seneca Falls by Monday night. I really need to make it back to Seneca Falls by Monday night.
We spent the day driving, but Tucker took several pictures from the backseat of the van. So let me amuse you with the photographic antics of my 5 year old. I took the Cheeto pictures, but he took the rest of the pictures in this post.
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