Comfort Inn Burlington

WARNING: The following story has ABSOLUTELY no point! NONE! You've been forewarned.

To be honest, I've never really liked packing much. In fact, I flat out dislike it all together. There it is...I've said it and I'd say it again if I had to.

Low and behold this packing opportunity that I've recently been presented with has helped to provide me with yet another reason to dislike the task. It makes me lose things ...

... then I stopped. I suddenly realized how worried and stressed I was about those two little aspects of the trip, not to mention a whole host of other 'preparations' I had every intention of thoroughly preparing for before I left (lesson planning ideas...still wasn't even sure what subject I'd be teaching, conversation starters, gifts from Kansas...I could go on and on). Then the answer to my exhaustion over the past several weeks came into focus very clearly . It ...

... applied to a theme we were given.  Each group picked their favorite example to share with the group.  The first theme was 'summer'.  Everyone had upbeat, fun, driving songs to share.  Next was 'family'.  Some groups chose songs with overarching family themes, and some chose something that was specific to one person's experience.  I shared 'Bright Side of the Road' by Van Morrison since my family started every road trip with that song.  The next theme was 'a song that ...

... good dog. We finally arrived at the Golden Prairie Inn in Stratton Colorado. Stratton is so small they share a town drunk with the next town, and the mayor has to double as the village idiot. The only restaurant for 20 miles is the one attached to the Inn (think Mom & Pop Motel). We went in at 5:30 for an early dinner, and the only person in there was one of the ...

Got up early and drove to Vail, Colorado - a beautiful little mountain ski-resort town. Walked around Vail some - stopped to get a pizza at a restaurant in town. Drove to Denver. loved the city =) and as we were walking past an open-air restaurant, a woman exclaimed "Denison! Are you from Ohio?" "No," I replied. "I'm from Illinois. I just go to school ...

... and remember it's never too late to unleash the inner social commentary. Next we stopped at the Cathedral of the Plains (St. Fidelis) in Victoria. Heck, it was Victoria. When it opened, it claimed to be the largest church west of the Mississippi. I guess they thought all those Irish immigrants that were coming at the time would just keep coming. Didn't look like it, so the place is a bit out of place, but impressive still. Those yellow bricks are local limestone and it looks ...

... middle of what looks like totally nowhere. The museum included a blacksmith shop, church, schoolhouse, general store, gas station, barber shop, barn and an old house. All were fascinating and brought back some very old memories. We had great expectation of Fort Morgan, Co. The brochure lead us to believe there was a museum, old soda shop and a saloon with toilet seats on the wall framing ...

... Nebraska football stadium;WOW. We kew we had to get going and left about 1:30 with hugs and tears from all. Thanks LA and Lar! We got off the interstate today and took US hihway 6 west out of Lincoln through central Nebraska. The temperatures were in the mid 70's and sunny as it always is in Big Red country. We did 243 miles today and are staying in the Holiday Inn Expess in McCook,Nebraska. Please write notes to our blog as we would love to hear from you! Phil

Today we travel from Mineola, Texas to Burlington, Colorado. Took IH-35 north out of Dallas through Oklahoma and into Kansas where we headed west on IH-70 into "post-rock country" before stopping in Burlington, Colorado for the night.