Missouri to Great Sand Dunes Nat'l Park, CO

OK - so no internet availability until the Campground General Store area at Mesa Verde.

Here's the Catsup bottle from Collinsville, IL (just outside St. Louis)!


Kansas is a really long state!!  However, before leaving St. Louis we looked at roadsideamerica.com and found a bunch of points of interest (aka "oddities") along the way.  It slowed us down a bit, but we had a lot of fun seeing some interesting things.

 In Kansas City we ate at Fritz’s Railroad Restaurant.  Burgers, dogs, and shakes delivered to the table by a model train!!  We then went to the art museum to look at some great outdoor sculptures.  We loved that Elliot knew the artist who sculpted giant badminton shuttlecocks: Claes Oldenburg (with Coosje van Bruggen).   A shoutout to the art program at Hopkins Elementary!

We also saw "The World's Largest Spur" and a large sculpture of a buffalo.  We arrived late to a hotel in Burlington, CO. 

The trip from Burlington to Colorado Springs was just as flat.  But we had a great time in Colorado Springs, the highlight being a your of the US Olympic Training Center.  Especially exciting in an Olympic year!  Lillian was the first of our family to answer Olympic trivia questions and win a bookmark about the Olympians.

We stocked up on groceries, checked out the Garden of the Gods, and then continued on our way to Great Sand Dunes Nat'l Park and Preserve.




See next post :)