Roaring River

So I'm posting for the sake of posting. What should I write about? Don't really know, but I do know that once again, I want to write on a daily basis on this blog. The trouble is that everything that happens, happens so quickly that it's difficult to keep it up and write it down. I have an app on my phone to also blog, but again, taking those few moments to sit down and type it all out is difficult. I figure it is just best to write about whatever is happening, so here goes.

Over the recent July 4th weekend, we went out of town with the Queen's family to Missouri, since her parents and grandparents have fifth wheel spots in the Roaring River State Park area where we also go fishing. I really don't like to fish. The Queen's grandfather has been having some heart related issues, and he has always been the one to "clean" (odd word for skin, gut, chop, and fillet fish) the fish for everyone. I refuse, so my brother-in-law, aka Darth Vader, volunteered to be the one to do it. He did a good job.

He and Padme then suggested we head over to Branson to a shopping center called Branson Landing so they could shop for a particular toy for Luke that they can only get there. The store is called Ridemasterz, or something, and is basically like Build-a-Bear with cars. You pick your chassis and customize it till your heart's content. They invited everyone to go as well, and then they took the longest road possible to get there (in total deference to both our GPS and theirs). We had the "privilege" of sitting through the longest five miles I've ever had to sit through to take in the horror that is Branson, MO.

We called it "Little Vegas" just based on how it was setup and the sorts of sights we took in during that five mile stretch. We had a lot of time to look while parked in traffic. If Vegas is where old stars go to wind out their careers with a steady job, Branson is where they go to die. We saw billboards for artists that seriously made their careers in the 50's. Bill Haley, for example, who is best known for the song "Rock Around The Clock" that came out in 1954. Yeah, he's still performing...in Branson. Also saw a theatre that does concerts of "The Legends" such as Garth Brooks, Liza Minelli, Stevie Wonder...Elvis and Michael Jackson. Oh yeah, they are all impersonators. The real artists don't perform in that theatre. No, when you watch "The Legends," you are watching a bunch of people sing and perform like the actual artists. And this wasn't the only Elvis show either. No, I saw at least three Elvis shows on that strip. In addition, if you're down with the old time photos, you have lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of choices of studios. Heck, there were two of them in the shopping center we went to. There were a couple of interesting amusement parks, but other than that (not to be overly negative) it really seemed like one of the most pointless places I've ever been to.

However, this shopping center had a candy store where we were able to call Rock Girl on something she said once. She said if she could get some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, she would try them. Well, the Harry Potter promo item was made by Jelly Belly, and if their buttered popcorn flavor tastes that accurate, I shudder to think of the vomit flavor. Anyway, this store did not have Bertie Bott's, but they did have some every flavor beans with flavors like puke, booger, skunk spray, curdled cheese, and other equally bizarre and stomach turning choices. Rock Girl declined. So we got Margarita, Strawberry Daquiri, and Piña Colada instead. They were good.

The main lesson we learned from this weekend's experience was that we really need to get the princesses more practice playing Uno, Skip-Bo, and Phase 10.

Oh, and the resort we stayed at had unadvertised Wi-Fi that we totally jumped on.

Colorado Day Two Continued

The original plan after Pike's Peak was to have some lunch and then go to Garden of the Gods. So we went to a Mexican restaurant called Jorge's in Old Colorado City where the Queen and I had some tamales (the reviews said they were very good), and they were very good. Following this, we hit a couple shops to see what we could see. One place was Rocky Mountain Chocolate and the chocolate was incredible.

We headed over to Garden of the Gods and thought we'd start at the visitor center. This was a good thing since it started pouring rain shortly after we arrived. We hung out there for awhile but finally decided to hit the mall and maybe try GotG later or on another day.

I wasn't sure how well hanging at the Citadel Mall would go, and in the end, it was only ok. We got some cookies, and they were good. So that was something.

We saw that the rain had stopped, so we thought that we'd try GotG again. We saw some awesome rocks, and got some great shots such as the one above. We saw some clouds rolling in and figured we should get moving.

It rained. Oh my, how it poured! It rained so hard so fast that roads flooded instantly and at one point, I pulled off the road to wait a moment. We finally got back to the hotel and when they got out of the car, we got one of the loudest thundercrashes I've ever heard that made all 3 princesses scream so loud that the hotel concierge came out to see what was wrong. They were shaken for quite a while after that.

The rest of the night was calm. The rain subsided. We went swimming. And now we prepare for tomorrow.

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Colorado Day Two

Today, we got up early to take the cog railway up Pike's Peak. A little drama awaited us when we learned that we should have (could have) made a reservation. I hadn't read through the rules to the point that I knew that was possible. Anyway, we were put on standby and started to plan for switching Pike's Peak to another day. I asked about the chance of getting on and I learned that there was a group of 40 that had not yet showed yet. Fortune smiled. They never showed. We went up the mountain.

It was an awesome experience. The picture in this post is just a taste of the pics and video we took. Had some high altitude donuts and got a couple souvenirs and after not nearly enough time, we were heading back down. The princesses were thrilled to be touching the mountain.

More to follow.

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Colorado End of Day One

At the end of our first day, we got settled in our hotel room, ate at a novelty pizza place called Fargo's, went to Memorial Park (which was awesome), marveled at the mountains, and the Queen bought a souvenir Colorado deck of cards and a Pepsi from the local Walmart.

When we were approaching Colorado Springs, the mountains were hidden behind the daily cloud cover so we couldn't see them right away as soon as were close enough. since the princesses had never seen mountains before, they weren't sure what to expect. Ladybug asked when they would know they saw them, and I assured her that she would know. Basically, if you have to ask, you haven't seen then yet.

This point was best illustrated by Sassy Pants, who had ridden up here behind the Queen. She had not seen the mountains once they were clearly visible so the Queen moved her head so Sassy Pants could see through her headrest.

Initially, Sassy Pants said she could not see them, but she was apparently looking in the wrong place. We guessed the second she spooted then when an elated "Oh my gosh!" drifted out of the back seat. She wasn't wondering anymore.

And tomorrow, we go up Pikes Peak.

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Colorado Day One

So many years ago when I was in the Army, I lived at Ft Carson on the south end of Colorado Springs. I really liked living there, but when my time in the military was over, I didn't have the life experience to actually continue living there, even though I would have liked to. So I returned to Oklahoma. 4 years later, I returned with the Queen for our honeymoon, and she also loved it. But since our families were in Oklahoma, we dvid not pursue trying to live there. We wanted to go back for some time though and this year, we finally saved up the money to do it.

As I write this, we have been on the road foralmost 8 hours. The Queen is taking a turn at the wheel, and the princesses are in the back playing quietly. They are very good girls and always have been. They go crazy sometimes but they make us quite proud in public, and they even get complimented occasionally.

I figure since notating a vacatipon on Facebook is idiocy, a somewhat anonymous blog of my life is perfect. We are about to stop for lunch, after which we have approximately hours of driving left.

Most interesting thing to happen recently was the fear of not knowing whether that dump truck in the construction zone was going to want out on top of us or not. Fortunately, he just pulled over in the zone, but we were worried for a moment when he matching our speed.

More to follow. Stay tuned. I mean it this time. I can post anywhere from my phone. Makes it easier.

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