Cross country

Hello, friends!  Have been a little busy with work and some other considerations, and just got back from a week's vacation!

My wife and I traveled from our home in Kentucky to Colorado for our oldest granddaughter's high school graduation last week.  We had not made that trip by car in quite a while, but since my job requires me to drive a lot, sometimes for several hours at a time, we determined that this was a good idea, particularly with the performance of most of the major airlines being a little suspect at the moment!

We departed Lexington on Saturday morning, May 13.  The weather was OK, if not great.  Our route took us west on US 60 to Frankfort (Kentucky's state capital, for non-Kentuckians) and then onto Interstate 64 West.  We followed that highway all the way through St. Louis, Missouri.

During our trip we ran into some clouds here and there but nothing significant, but once we made it through St. Louis and approached the interchange to Interstate 70 West, we saw the skies darkening considerably and a major slowdown in the traffic.

Did not take long to see why.  Just a couple of miles onto I-70 we encountered what I would characterize as a severe thunderstorm, with very heavy rain and even some hail (thankfully, no damage to our car).  We continued slowly with flashers on until we moved past the major portion of this storm and finally exited it entirely in about ten miles.  Harrowing, but we made it.

We pressed on through Missouri and into the Kansas City area, with the weather improving as we continued west.  Hotter, too.  After the storm we decided to get fuel and snacks and keep driving rather than stopping for lunch, and finally stopped for dinner in Junction City, Kansas, then onward to Hays, which has become our family's informal landing spot for car trips between Kentucky and Colorado.

A good night's sleep left us with only a few hours to drive to our daughter's house, and it was great to get there and see everyone.  Had a nice Mother's Day dinner at a great Mexican restaurant in their area later that day!

Monday we took a trip north to Fort Collins, the home of Colorado State University, where our granddaughter will attend college in the fall.  Nice campus!  We got some souvenirs there and then returned home to grill burgers and brats in the cool but dry air.

Next day was some errands and shopping, preparing for a great steak dinner for everyone.  Our older grandson prepared one of the steaks in a cast-iron pan, while I manned the grill with the other meat.  Worth mentioning that we made a trip to a place called Savory Spice (they sell online as well as in their store) where I purchased some excellent spice mixes for our steaks and the roasted potatoes that accompanied them!

The weather was still stubbornly cool but was clear, at least on that day.  With the next day being our granddaughter's outdoor graduation, we were understandably keeping an eye on the weather.

Our faith was rewarded by a clear sunny day.  Incidentally, our granddaughter attended one of several high schools in her area that share an athletic field that's literally down the hill from our daughter's house.  Her school was the second to have their ceremony on the football field.  It was a LONG ceremony, with speeches and entertainment that was apparently selected by the graduating class.

Celebration continued through dinner with a visit to a Japanese hibachi restaurant and delicious cake!

Didn't do a whole lot the next day, went to a couple of furniture stores to accompany our daughter and son-in-law as they looked at some new items.  Relaxed in the afternoon and had a nice dinner of pork roast and sauerkraut (a family favorite).

Arose early Friday morning and headed out to do our whole trip in reverse.  Weather was still cool and overcast for most of the way.  Finally returned home on Saturday and enjoyed warm and sunny conditions all the way home!

So we're back where we started.  It was a kind of fast trip, but it was wonderful to spend some time with the Colorado branch of our family!


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Replacement value

Hope everyone's week is off to a good start. My premise today is rather simple.  When is it best to replace something that's older with a similar item that's newer?  What criteria do you use to make that decision?  Is it something you give a lot of thought to, or is it more impulsive? My answer, for better or worse, is that it depends. And I stand by that response. For instance, for fourteen years my car was a 2007 Honda Pilot SUV.  Bought it as a demonstrator with 4,400 miles already on it.  Went a lot of places in that car, numerous business trips to St. Louis, Birmingham, Atlanta, Nashville, Cleveland and many other destinations.  Transported me and my son to Cincinnati to see the Reds countless times, and later took along his two older children for games.  Survived a couple of multi-state baseball trips.  Went on vacation to Colorado for other lots of other weekend excursions.  I did all of the major required maintenance, but after the second timing belt was installed,
Read more

Latest and greatest

Happy Saturday, friends!  Hope.you had a good week and are ready for some down time. I don’t consider myself an early adopter of most anything, but I suppose that’s always a little subjective.  I resisted the iPhone when it first came out, not only because I really, REALLY liked my Blackberry at the time, but also because I didn’t want to have to switch to AT&T’s cellular service, which I believe was called Cingular Wireless at the time.  I have had Verizon Wireless for a long, long time, and like their service overall.  So that didn’t interest me right away. When I finally did get my first iPhone, I was pretty well blown away, and have been an enthusiastic user of various versions of this device since.  I actually had an iPad before I had an iPhone, but learned enough with the workings of that tablet that I was able to troubleshoot for members of my work team who had iPhones.  The rest came rather naturally, of course. I was also a little slow to adapt to HDTV, which is, of course
Read more

They were right

Happy Monday, friends!  Here in Kentucky, the locals are celebrating that it's Derby Week, which is code for non-Louisville residents to steer clear of that city.  Lots going on this week, and if you're unfamiliar with what happens where, well, you could find yourself in a lot of unexpected traffic! I come to you with a bit of an update to my last post about music appreciation while working.  If you remember, I mentioned that I have a Sonos One SL wi-fi speaker on my desk.  And that I was contemplating getting a pair of the new Era 100 speakers that are the One's replacement. As a Sonos user of several years, I find some utility in receiving their e-mails now and then, although a great many of their products are aimed at the home theater market, where I don't really have a stake (but we'll address that another time). A message from Sonos proclaimed a great savings event on refurbished Sonos equipment.  And one such item that they were offering at a substantial disco
Read more