Travel report : Part three
May. 4th, 2008 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bookaddict43The last part of our travels. I'll do the con report with Adam squeeing seperately to save my family who just don't understand! :D
After our problem filled day the day before we had an easy day in Durango. I had wanted to go to Mesa Verde, but thought we'd do something more child-like and went to a Wildlife park in Pagosa Springs.
It was great to see some wildlife native to the area such as wolves, bobcats, elk, cougars and bears. The park had a baby bear just born in March and we had a great time watching him roll around in his cage. They also had goats and the little guy got a kick out of feeding them :)
The bobcat
A different kind of wildlife
After this we returned to Durango and walked around the historic town center, visiting all the galleries and shops and watching the train come back from Silverton.
Next day we were off again, heading toward Canon City. I'd picked that as our last stop before Denver and the lady at the tourist office had told me about Royal Gorge so that was where we headed.
It was pretty cold that morning as we started off and soon it started snowing! It was my first time ever driving in the snow so I was taking things pretty cautiously and was happy it wasn't snowing too hard. Of course I should never have thought that! :D Because as we got closer to Wolf Creek Pass(I had been looking forward to the scenic drive), the snow got heavier. There were signs everywhere about trucks putting on their snow tyres and chains and we saw several of them doing this. As we drove on there was a couple of signs suggesting cars do this also. Since we didn't have either I was a bit concerned, but we watched several other cars go through that didn't have any, so we drove on.
Well it was an experience for us, I can tell you. The road was very windy, the trucks were all going at about 20 miles an hour, the snow kept falling pretty heavily and the road was icy; we even saw snow plows! I've never seen one before :D To top it off, the little guy got short of breath (we were at 10,823 ft)and wanted to turn back. But eventually we made it to the bottom of the pass and the weather cleared a little. When we stopped for petrol (gas) the lady at the station said we'd had 6 inches of snow in that small amount of time.
The weather was much calmer after this and we enjoyed the rest of the drive to the Gorge, stopping at several of the rest stops alongside the river so the little guy could throw a snowball. His first ever!
The Arkansas River
The drive from the turn-off to Royal Gorge was very beautiful with lots of snow and scenery to look at. The park itself was great. Because it was still the winter season a lot of the attractions weren't open, but we rode on the cable car across the gorge, walked through the wildlife walk (we saw buffalo!) and then walked across the bridge itself. The little guy had fun tossing snowballs down the gorge and watching them fall.
Snow!
The world's highest suspension bridge
walking across the bridge
view down to the gorge
We got to Canon City in plenty of time and had a nice sleep ready for our final drive to Denver. The drive next day went well and we delivered the car to the rental place at the airport and arrived at the hotel for the con, (report to follow) where it was great to see Kimmie and Sue again and to meet the wonderful![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elsibet34!!
After the con we packed up our stuff and went to stay with Kimmie for a few days. The little guy and I went with her to school one day and gave a talk about Australia. He enjoyed himself so much he stayed for the rest of the day to experience school in America.
Kimmie took us to some great places to eat during our stay and we had great fun! We also visited the Denver Zoo and saw some more local wildlife.
It was with very sad hearts we packed up to go on our last leg of the journey. Since I was a dummie and forgot to book early enough instead of flying to Chicago - we drove. We drove through Nebraske, Iowa and Illinois to get there and typical of our luck, it rained most of the way :) I wish I'd had time to stop at the original Pony Express station and other points of interet along the way. But that gives us an excuse to come back and visit again some time :D
Anyway we finally reached Chicago and our hotel and the next day visited the Navy Pier and the Children's Museum. I'd like to go back there too and see more of the sites and the city. What I saw I loved.
Navy Pier
Sunday saw us back at O'Hare and boarding our plane home and we were on the final stretch. We had 12 hours to Japan and then 7 hours back to Cairns, then I only had 3 hours to drive back home.
It was so funny! After weeks of driving in the US and always getting mixed up with the wipers and indicators; I was now getting mixed up here! I wiped the windscreen when I should be indicating and vice versa!
So we're home now and I'm back to work on Tuesday, I need the money!! We had a wonderful time with all our friends. Thanks so much for having us *cuddles*.
Now I wonder where we might go next?...
After our problem filled day the day before we had an easy day in Durango. I had wanted to go to Mesa Verde, but thought we'd do something more child-like and went to a Wildlife park in Pagosa Springs.
It was great to see some wildlife native to the area such as wolves, bobcats, elk, cougars and bears. The park had a baby bear just born in March and we had a great time watching him roll around in his cage. They also had goats and the little guy got a kick out of feeding them :)
The bobcat
A different kind of wildlifeAfter this we returned to Durango and walked around the historic town center, visiting all the galleries and shops and watching the train come back from Silverton.
Next day we were off again, heading toward Canon City. I'd picked that as our last stop before Denver and the lady at the tourist office had told me about Royal Gorge so that was where we headed.
It was pretty cold that morning as we started off and soon it started snowing! It was my first time ever driving in the snow so I was taking things pretty cautiously and was happy it wasn't snowing too hard. Of course I should never have thought that! :D Because as we got closer to Wolf Creek Pass(I had been looking forward to the scenic drive), the snow got heavier. There were signs everywhere about trucks putting on their snow tyres and chains and we saw several of them doing this. As we drove on there was a couple of signs suggesting cars do this also. Since we didn't have either I was a bit concerned, but we watched several other cars go through that didn't have any, so we drove on.
Well it was an experience for us, I can tell you. The road was very windy, the trucks were all going at about 20 miles an hour, the snow kept falling pretty heavily and the road was icy; we even saw snow plows! I've never seen one before :D To top it off, the little guy got short of breath (we were at 10,823 ft)and wanted to turn back. But eventually we made it to the bottom of the pass and the weather cleared a little. When we stopped for petrol (gas) the lady at the station said we'd had 6 inches of snow in that small amount of time.
The weather was much calmer after this and we enjoyed the rest of the drive to the Gorge, stopping at several of the rest stops alongside the river so the little guy could throw a snowball. His first ever!
The Arkansas RiverThe drive from the turn-off to Royal Gorge was very beautiful with lots of snow and scenery to look at. The park itself was great. Because it was still the winter season a lot of the attractions weren't open, but we rode on the cable car across the gorge, walked through the wildlife walk (we saw buffalo!) and then walked across the bridge itself. The little guy had fun tossing snowballs down the gorge and watching them fall.
Snow!
The world's highest suspension bridge
walking across the bridge
view down to the gorgeWe got to Canon City in plenty of time and had a nice sleep ready for our final drive to Denver. The drive next day went well and we delivered the car to the rental place at the airport and arrived at the hotel for the con, (report to follow) where it was great to see Kimmie and Sue again and to meet the wonderful
elsibet34!!After the con we packed up our stuff and went to stay with Kimmie for a few days. The little guy and I went with her to school one day and gave a talk about Australia. He enjoyed himself so much he stayed for the rest of the day to experience school in America.
Kimmie took us to some great places to eat during our stay and we had great fun! We also visited the Denver Zoo and saw some more local wildlife.
It was with very sad hearts we packed up to go on our last leg of the journey. Since I was a dummie and forgot to book early enough instead of flying to Chicago - we drove. We drove through Nebraske, Iowa and Illinois to get there and typical of our luck, it rained most of the way :) I wish I'd had time to stop at the original Pony Express station and other points of interet along the way. But that gives us an excuse to come back and visit again some time :D
Anyway we finally reached Chicago and our hotel and the next day visited the Navy Pier and the Children's Museum. I'd like to go back there too and see more of the sites and the city. What I saw I loved.
Navy PierSunday saw us back at O'Hare and boarding our plane home and we were on the final stretch. We had 12 hours to Japan and then 7 hours back to Cairns, then I only had 3 hours to drive back home.
It was so funny! After weeks of driving in the US and always getting mixed up with the wipers and indicators; I was now getting mixed up here! I wiped the windscreen when I should be indicating and vice versa!
So we're home now and I'm back to work on Tuesday, I need the money!! We had a wonderful time with all our friends. Thanks so much for having us *cuddles*.
Now I wonder where we might go next?...
