Days 1 & 2 - August 16,17

Day 1: Friday

Day one was actually only a partial day...I worked part of the day on Friday, then packed my bags, and headed out that afternoon with Christopher to meet up with Mom, Dad, Bandy, and Julia in Salina, Kansas. So in a way, it was a very full day - just not full of vacation. We parked my car at an airport, transferred bags to the official vacation car, grabbed fast food dinner, and headed west into the setting sun. Our excitement was barely contained. We stopped in a small Kansas town to spend the night (I think it was about 9pm). Here are a couple pictures - I know they are not that exciting, but you have to remember that it is Kansas and there is just not much to see. The exciting pictures will come later. :)

Day 2: Saturday

Here are some pics of the travelers on Day 2!

 

It's not a Mills Family Vacation if you don't drive on empty at least once. We like to live on the edge.

I believe it was around noon MST when we crossed the border. We properly documented Julia's first time in the state of Colorado.

We stopped in Burlington at the welcome center and I snapped this photo because I thought it was humorous:

Mills Family Vacationing, at it's finest. :)

Oh yeah, did I mention that I had a final the day after we got back from the trip? I had to bring my massive textbook along and do some studying on vacation. Bummer.

The plains of I-70 don't provide a lot of food options so we drove through a couple towns and on our third attempt at finding a suitable place for lunch, we exited at Strasburg, CO. We were welcomed by a sign that stated we were nearing the OSU Memorial of the 2001 plane crash site. There was a collective gasp in the car as we realized our detour was Providentially guided. There was a local cafe at the first intersection (Patio Cafe, anyone?) so we sat down for a bite to eat, before heading into the countryside to find the memorial. We asked some of the locals for directions. It was on a gravel road a few miles east of town. The memorial was simple, but sacred. There was a gravel path leading out to the actual location of the plane crash; Oklahoma native grasses had been planted along the way. It was a very sobering moment for me; I remember that event, but never dreamed I would actually visit the site.

 

 

  

 

 

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I think it was around 4 or 5 when we made it to our hotel in Fort Collins. It was very hazy that day so the mountains that are typically visible from I-25 were nearly indistinguishable; we were a bit disappointed for Julia's sake. After we checked into the hotel and unloaded our bags, we went to Ellerslie to see Kaley!! It was a happy reunion. She gave the family a tour of the campus and then we went to eat at Chick-fil-A and went back to the hotel to spend time together before her curfew.

 

The Chick-fil-A in Loveland has a unique way of finding you after you have placed your order. They give you one of the state flags and assign it to your food order. They randomly gave us the Oklahoma flag. What a "coincidence." ;)

 

Julia was sitting in the passenger seat waiting for Kaley, but we thought it almost looked like she was driving! It won't be long before she really is...four more years!!

 

Kaley was relieved that Julia had not outgrown her yet.

 

Day 3 up next!!


P.S. I had an incredibly difficult time trying to get the pictures uploaded and the formatting also was not cooperating with me; I spent a few days trying to get this posted and it's still not quite right. Oh well. Better this than nothing.