Colorado!

I actually made it to Colorado on this trip! The original plan didn’t include going through Colorado, but here we are. How awesome is that!

After leaving the Grand Canyon we headed to Monument Valley. After a few pictures we went on to Four Corners, which was just a big marker in the ground. It was a 3-dollar charge to see the corners. What a rip-off!

Well, once in Colorado we made our way to Alamoso, and stayed the night. We stayed in Buena Vista the second night, and went to Mt. Princeton Hot Springs. I was slightly disappointed due to the spring run off because we couldn’t sit in the river. We had to join everyone else in the big hot springs pool. Don’t get me wrong, the pool was fun and very refreshing, but sitting in the river is just too good of an experience to miss lightly.

We spent today in Colorado Springs eating at Schlotzsky’s Deli and walking thru Garden of the Gods. Neither of the guys had seen the garden before, so I thought it would be a good experience for them. I sat down for a while watching people climb the rocks. When I say climb I mean climbing with full gear. The park does not allow people to climb without gear, experience, and a permit. Maybe I will have a change to rock climb in the garden someday myself :)

Tonight we are staying at the Limon KOA, and will head out first thing tomorrow morning for Kansas City. Keep praying, and pray God keeps the oil running good until we get home. Right now it looks good, and I think it will make it no problem. But we still have over 1500 miles to go, and I really don’t want to change it on the road.

JDAS

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Grand Canyon

What can I say; the Grand Canyon was a “Ginormous” canyon with no free showers, cell signal, or Internet.

We stayed at Mather Campground for the first three nights. The showers cost $1.75 for five minutes, so needless to say we refused to pay such a ridiculous price for a shower. You guessed it, not one of us took a shower the entire time in the Grand Canyon. Yes even David.

The guys from Colorado showed up the first night, and camp next to us. We had burgers, hotdogs, and Bushes Baked Beans. Yum! After dinner we hung out by the fire and talked. The guy’s names were, Neil, Josh, Chris, and Bryan. We all left the fire and hit the sack around 12:00 P.M.
For breakfast we had bacon, grits, and pancakes. The food was split and shared between the 8 of us. It was a grand time for our first day and night in the Grand Canyon.

That afternoon after the guys left (they only stayed the one night) we drove down to Sedona. Sedona was a small town set mainly on “new-age art” and “cowboy” themes. We didn’t care too much for the town as much as the landscape. The surrounding land was a big red rock canyon. Axel and David got some pictures. Maybe if you all ask nice they will put them on the website.

The next day (day 3) we were going to hike the Rim Trail, but “DAD” had other plans. The sky was overcast that day so we thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of the cooler day and hike into the canyon. The reason for this is the canyon can get extremely hot the farther you go down. Why you may ask? Well the canyon’s top is at about 7,000 feet and drops more than 4,000 ft. This means the temperature is much cooler on top than on the bottom. The hike was a lot of fun; however Axel (more than anyone else I think) really wanted to hike all the way down to the river. We went to Skeleton Point which was a 6 mile hike round trip. I was told the temperature reached 100 in the canyon that day.

The fourth day we went about 3 or so miles on the Rim Trail; the Rim Trail follows the top edge for about 11 miles. This became a nice slow day hike for us, which was nice after the hike we did yesterday. After hiking we set of for Desert View. We stayed the night and headed of to Colorado! This was a change of plans from our original schedule. We thought it best to go home a different route; plus we want to stop at the new Creation Museum just out side of Cincinnati, KY.

Well that’s it in a nutshell. Hope to tell you all more in person. Keep praying we need it!

JDAS

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White Sands and Christ

Here we are finally at the Grand Canyon! It took awhile, but I've enjoyed our trip thus far. Let's see, I believe I left things at Roswell. Well, Roswell wasn't much, but we knew that. It was more of a "Been there, done that" sort of thing. I even asked someone from town what was worth checking out. He said the museum was about it, which we had already seen. Sooooo, Roswell was cool, and I'm glad I can say I've been there. But I would definitely say I don't need to go back.

After Roswell we headed out to White Sands. That was the coolest thing yet!!! We stayed in the town Alamogordo, which was about 15 minutes away. We arrived in town early evening, so after setting up camp we went to White Sands. The park closed at 9:00 P.M. but they didn't start kicking people out till 10:00. So you might have guessed it, we stayed until 10:00. The park and the sunset were sooooooo awesome. I would say
it was one of the coolest things I've done and seen! That includes the second night as well. See, we found out if we showed up right at 8:00 A.M. the next morning we could clam a spot to sleep out on the dunes that night! Need I say more!

Once we sadly left White Sands (knocking Axel out and putting him in the car blindfolded) we made our way to Petrified Forest. That was pretty cool, and we got lots of pictures. I think the best part of my day was that night. We set camp next to 4 guys who had just graduated from High School, and were on a road trip to see parts of the Western US. Get this. They were from Colorado Springs! Well, anyway to make a long story sort, I talked with them late into the night. We talked about lots of things, but soon the conversation came to religion and God. So if you know me well you can bet were this went next. I asked them all, what their opinion was on God, and whom they thought Jesus was. Of course after telling me, they wanted to know mine. Well, that was the start of a very long discussion. There's no way I could explained what happen now, but I will say I feel "Dad" really used me. The guys said they have never heard Christianity put that way before. They wanted to know more and we went till about 2:00 A.M. because they wanted to keep talking. They said I answered questions they have been wanting to ask for a long time. We exchanged contact info, and Sunday they are giving me a call so we can have a cookout at the Grand Canyon.

-JDAS

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The First 2000 Miles

Well, I would have to say the trip is going just as I expected. A lot of photo stops, moving at a very casual speed, and watching “DAD” make things fall into place when we give Him the schedule!!!

The order of the trip has been like this:
-Leave Virginia via 81, and take 40 west all the way to Oklahoma City
-Arrive at first KOA past Oklahoma City Monday evening (very tired).
-Leave for Roswell, New Mexico
-Arrive in Roswell by Tuesday evening (hung out with the Aliens)
(The Aliens wouldn’t let us take any pictures :( )
-Leave for Alamogordo, New Mexico (stay for 2 or 3 days)

We packed the car with no real set time for departure. I was thinking late afternoon or early evening sometime. Well, while packing the car we noticed storm clouds starting to roll in, fast! So we finished packing, and I kid you not, literally seconds after packing it down poured! We waited maybe five minutes, and decided to hit the road anyway, and the rain slowed to a light drizzle. How awesome is that!

No matter how many times we stopped, or became delayed from any type of schedule (I was trying to keep), we always made it where we needed to go at the time we needed to be there. And believe me, with all the time we took out for photo stops, we should have never made it to our first KOA in time (which also gave us an unexpected discount because I was a Veteran). Just goes to show, giving the scheduling to “DAD” and taking the time to enjoy what He brings your way, you can never lose!

So here’s the deal about Roswell. We were actually not going to stay in Roswell because there were no KOAs. The closest KOA was about an hour and a half south. That would mean we would back track up north to see Roswell and than go right back down to see White Sands. Well, with that being the case, we decided to try and find something in Roswell. Here is where I will never forget God showing up (in the town of aliens no less). I walked into a gas station just as somebody was trying to shoplift, and noticed that half the people at the station knew who he was. They told the guy working at the counter not to make a big deal because he was the town crazy man. Believe me if you saw him you would know! Anyway, I took the opportunity to ask everyone there if they knew of a place to camp near by. I guessed if they knew the guy they must know the town :). They were slightly amused at my humor, and one of the ladies there said she knew of one just 4 blocks down the road. In fact she was the owner! Can you believe that? What are the odes? Talk about perfect timing!

So that’s where we are now, and we will checkout Roswell today!

-JDAS