All 50 Road Trip-May 14, 2018, Day 3

(click here for today's pictures)

Denver, CO to Rock Springs, WY

We all slept incredibly well last night. Whitman only coughed a bit right as Robby and I were going to sleep, and then we never heard him during the night. At 6:30, we stirred, and Anderson was quick to jump up. He grabbed his ipad and started playing.

The rest of us began stirring this morning. We weren’t in too much of a hurry since we had our late night last night. The time change helped very much, and everyone was in a good mood this morning. Robby and a few kids took ice and a load to the car before breakfast.

Then we all went to breakfast. The breakfast items were pretty much the same as yesterday's. They did have a waffle maker that made small waffles so most of us had a waffle this morning. Reagan, Campbell and Graham all scarfed down egg and bacon bagels.

After breakfast, we went back to the room to grab our last load and then went to the car. It didn’t take long to load up, Our first stop this morning was the Red Rock Canyon. We had never been there and it was pretty amazing. I think that first concert there was in 1910. Their schedule looks incredibly full with events almost every day.

It was a beautiful place full of people exercising. The massive red rocks surrounded the stage. I wish that I knew more about geology. We walked toward the bottom of the stage. Surrounding us were people running across each and every row of seats. We struggled walking back up to the top of the amphitheater-it was quite a haul.

We had thought about doing a trail, but after climbing up the steps, we decided that we would pass on that! Honestly, we couldn’t really find a decent map of which trail we were looking for. We did get our waters in the car and headed towards Denver.

By this time, traffic wasn’t bad, and we drove right to the capitol. We walked around 3 sides of the capitol before we found the steps that said you were exactly one mile high. We took a few pictures and then continued our walk around the capitol.

From there we drove by the Rockies field and Union Station. We didn’t get too far from Denver, when Whitman said that he needed to go potty. It had been indeed been a while so we found a restroom-at Home Depot. There weren’t any gas stations or even fast food places nearby so we made do, When they went in, I figured that they might even come out with a purchase, but they did not.

We drove until the Wyoming border when Whitman said he needed to go to the bathroom again. We questioned him multiple times but he was insistent. After thinking for a minute, we remembered that he had drank his entire water bottle along with a can of coke in the last hour. We obliged, and it was the perfect stop.

The Wyoming welcome center was the next stop which was a perfect picnic place. The kids were able to throw the ball some before and after we had our picnic lunch. We also walked through their visitor center which was really hands on.

There we took a few pictures of Whitman beside the Wyoming sign. That was his 44th state and his second new state of the trip. Colorado was a new state for Keaton and Whitman. They are quickly catching up with everyone else on their state counts.

We probably stayed there a bit too long for just a quick lunch stop, but we enjoyed it. Cheyenne is the capital of Wyoming, and it is a much smaller town then Little Rock. We could tell that there were not many large buildings in Cheyenne, except one large grain silo type building. After driving a bit closer, we discovered that the grain silo was actually the dome of the capital covered up for construction!

Of all of the state capitals that we have seen, probably half of them have been under construction. Seriously! We did make Anderson hop out and take a picture of the construction site. We then drove the Governor's mansion for a quick picture stop.

The temperature was a bit chilly this morning with a light jacket being fine. By the time we left the Governor’s mansion and stopped at a gas station for gas and a movie, it was freezing. We jumped back on the interstate and zoomed on through Wyoming.

It didn’t take too long for us to see the rain. Then it didn’t take too long at all for the rain to be right on us. It poured, absolutely poured! Not just was it heavy rain but heavy rain fill with sleet. It was pretty wild for a few minutes but after about 10 minutes th rain had stopped, and the sky was brightening up again.

Before we made it to Laramie, we stopped for a picture by a statue of Lincoln. The statue was to honor Lincoln and was placed on the Lincoln highway which runs from NY to LA. It was a brief stop since it was still chilly outside. While we were there I read that Wyoming has more pronghorn than people! I thought that was very interesting.

I drove the next little bit. It started off a bit through the mountains and then ended up being a very flat road. Graham did claim his prize of sitting anywhere in the car and chose Robby’s seat while I was driving. He didn’t keep me much company since he was playing his ipad most of the time.

We stopped again at another gas station after an hour and a half. Anderson wanted to take their pictures by a dinosaur statue so that was done while I was changing Whitman. That boy forgot to mention he needed to potty! Urgh! Actually couldn’t have happened on a better day since laundry was tonight.

We made our 5 hour drive last all day long which was perfectly fine. Our supper choice tonight was Panchos, a 24 hour Mexican place. It was delicious, and we ordered enough food for another family of 8. The boys quesadillas were made with tortillas the size of pizzas. Keaton is the only one who finished her meal and even ate some of mine. Reagan had steak tacos so she was super pleased. When Robby went to throw away Campbell’s leftover nachos, he said that they weighed at least 5 pounds still.

We probably should have taken a walk tonight because of all of the Mexican food. However, when we made it to the hotel, we all got naked. Well, not really. We all did change into clean undies and clean pjs so Robby could start on the laundry. He had checked to see if the washer was empty when he checked in, and then it was a race to get there before anyone else did.

He was a bit worried about having to fill the machine up so full since there was just one, but everything came out clean-enough. It is now 10 and the dryer is still spinning. Robby and Anderson just came back with half of the clothes. I quickly became excited about being able to start on putting them away, but unfortunately, it was just half of the wet laundry. Hopefully, lightening the load will help the clothes dry quicker. Fingers crossed that it isn’t too late of a night and that we don’t use up all of our quarters tonight.

Current Dennie Kid State Count (May 14, 2018):

Reagan-needs Alaska

Anderson-needs Alaska

Graham-needs Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington

Campbell-needs Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington

Keaton-needs Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington

Whitman-needs Alaska, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington

Today's mileage: 411 miles