K-L Odyssey #3–Philly & Chicago

Well, since Amy sprained her RIGHT ankle, she was unable to drive.   So, a last minute change was made to the Kreiling-Little Odyssey itinerary.   Laura left her car in Durham and we all piled into the Yukon to make the trip to Philly.  The camper also remained in Durham until we can find a spare tire/rim.  

It was decided that Maddy, Joey & Nicky would fly to Chicago from Philly on their own!!!   Tante Evi (actually Mark and the family, including little Logan and baby Natalie) would pick them up at O’Hare and Grandma & Grandpa Little would pick up Maddy from Tante Evi’s.

Here are the intrepid travelers on their own, in the airplane -

All three arrived safely in Chicago and are having a great time with family.

Meanwhile, Laura, Katie and Amy stayed in Philly to allow Amy’s ankle to heal, visit with Uncle Craig and let Katie do some horse shows.   I love to take pictures of Katie with her horses!

So, that’s Thursday, 21 July 2011.   Tomorrow, Laura, Katie & Amy make the drive to Chicago, rejoin the kids and spend Saturday with the Chicago grandparents.   Sunday, we’ll be on K-L Odyssey #4 – Thomson, IL with Nana & Grandpa Z.   All told, we’ve already put over 6000 miles on the good old Yukon.   Amy’s estimate of 5800 miles seems to be a bit under the mark.

More to come…

K-L Odyssey #2–Myrtle Beach

Our attempt at a 2-day drive home from Colorado became a 3-day drive when the tire on the camper blew out in Nashville, TN -

It took AAA two hours to arrive and help unwrap the blown tire from the axle and install the spare.   By that time, it was 9pm and we headed to Knoxville for the night (thank you, Uncle Craig, for using your bonus points to get us 2 hotel rooms for free!!!).   We definitely did not want to drive through the Smokey Mountains at night without a spare.

We arrived in Durham about noon.   We dropped off Walter and Nicky, and 5 hours later, Laura, Amy, the girls and Joey were on their way to the beach!  

I haven’t downloaded all the pictures from the beach, but here are the beach bums -

And a proud grandma with her grandkids -

A week at the beach was much too short for us, but the condo rents well and is booked until next spring.  So, we had to leave.   Note the beautiful kids and their new outfits – back to school clothes were purchased with a day at the outlet malls.   A shopping must for young teens!

Campsite pictures

Here’s our campsite -

This is the fire master schooling his apprentice in the art of making fire -

This is how Laura spent most of the vacation -

And here’s Maddy trying to get a good signal to talk to Uncle Craig -

More pictures from RMNP

Rocky Mountain National Park

The 2nd week of our odyssey, we visited the Rocky Mountain National Park.   It was beautiful.   Our campsite, Camp Dick, was located outside the park, about an hour away, but it was great, too.   No showers or running toilets but who needs those when you’re camping???  

Here’s the road one drives on to pass through RMNP -

And here are pictures from our mountain climbers -

Amy & Katie do not climb mountains, but Katie did go on a 4 mile hike to a mountain waterfall.   Amy, however, stayed at the campsite with her sprained ankle.   On the third day, all except for Katie & Amy went on a climb to two mountain lakes (Walter, would you name them in the comments?).  And on the fourth day, Walter and the boys climbed to the summit of Flattop Mountain.

In between mountain climbing, we drove through the national park, visited many gift shops in Estes Park, CO,  had picnics, and took lots of pictures.   It was great!

Attending a rodeo in Greeley, CO

How can you go to Colorado and not attend a rodeo?   So, on a Sunday night we made the trek to Greeley and attended our first rodeo.   It was quite the experience!

The kids were just trying on the hats – we DID NOT purchase cowboy hats for everyone!   Amy did look for a pair of cowboy boots but was unlucky to find a pair she liked.

What’s a rodeo without some good food?   Here’s Laura eating some BBQ chicken on a stick and Nicky enjoying a big, juicy BBQ sandwich -

Of course, there’s the main attraction -

Riding bareback on a bucking horse.

This one with a saddle but still exciting!

 Laura eating again – this time a yummy chocolate-covered strawberry masterpiece.

A fun time at the Greeley Stampede!

Grandkids + Grandma Jane

As part of our grand odyssey of the summer of 2011, we stopped in Myrtle Beach for a week at the condo.  Thank you, Grandma Jane for a GREAT week! 

We had wonderful weather for the beach and we even squeezed in a shopping day for those necessary back-to-school clothes the kids HAD TO HAVE!   Unfortunately Nicky elected to stay behind in Durham and run with his cross-country team – we all missed him.

Here are some pictures -

My, how those kids have grown!   Only three more years until the oldest goes to college – how can we (the parents) be that old???

Garden of the Gods

While staying in Mueller State Park at Colorado Springs, we visited the Garden of the Gods.

It’s a vast park of red rocks that are in beautiful formations.   Here’s the entrance rock that’s called Balanced Rock.

Here are some more pictures from the park -

 

A little farther up the road is the Cave of the Winds.   It was too expensive to visit the cave, but they had a ropes course near the parking lot.   We let the kids climb the ropes -

Pikes Peak

There was a thought among the group that they should hike to the top of Pikes Peak, but at 14K+ feet and with limited oxygen now available to us, the group decided to drive to the top.   It was quite a drive!   I’m glad Walter was driving and Laura was navigating so I could advert my eyes on those really narrow turns!   Maddy felt the same way!   Once we were at the top, it wasn’t very cold or windy that day so we explored.

Olympic Training Center, Colorado Springs

We took an afternoon to visit the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.   Both Maddy & Nicky (Katie on her horse?)  have Olympic aspirations so it seemed appropriate to spend some time there.   It’s the training center for weight-lifting, wrestling, some swimming, shooting and a bit of swimming and pentathalon.   A few other sports, too.

After the tour, our guide took a picture with the kids – she’s a 105lb or less weight-lifter.   Perhaps we’ll see her in the London Olympics!!!!

The end of our visit to Colorado Springs included dinner at the Paris Crepe.   Everyone enjoyed their dinner crepe and we followed it with a dessert crepe.   Here are some shots of our enjoyment -