The Colonel and Me

So it has been quite a bit of time since we last posted and for that we are sorry. We have been doing a lot of visiting this week so we've been enjoying time with friends and therefor neglecting this blog. 

After our visit to “Witt’s End,” we began the long drive to Haviland, Kansas to visit an old YWAM friend of mine. We were warmly greeted by Amber, who is a California girl attending Bible college in the middle of nowhere. Her town is so small that we biked around it in about 7 minutes. We were shown all the highlights of town: the bank, coffee shop, and of course the college. It's also flat. If you were on the outskirts of town you could look up one way, down the other and literately not see a single thing. The town certainly had its appeals. For instance, your neighbours essentially become family and the crime rate is 0. We were there during Canadian thanksgiving so to celebrate we made meatloaf and mashed potatoes. It was great to relax and have some home cooked food.

Our next stop was with some more of my YWAM friends (Jake and Nancy) near St. Louis Missouri.  Again we experienced some more small town America, complete with a trip to the local pumpkin patch with their children. We were able to see the historic town of St. Charles, a charming strip of shops and restaurants lining the Ohio River. Most of these buildings are over 100 years old! Anyhow, we found the whole town very pleasant. We were also fortunate to get some fantastic home cooked food while visiting Jake and Nancy.

Hay ride at the pumpkin patch. 

St. Charles

We continued on our way to Louisville, Kentucky. However, we had some time so when we saw billboards for a legitimate city called Santa Claus, Indiana we just knew we had to stop. We were not disappointed. This town completely plays up every aspect of Christmas all year around. Complete with Rudolph Lake, a Holiday amusement park and a huge shop wall to wall with all your christmas needs. Basically Maclean Carlson's dream town.

 As we got closer to our destination in Louisville, we became enchanted by the quaint red brick homes and the towering oak trees. As we pulled into the Hanson’s neighborhood, we felt that it greatly resembled the old Shaughnessy neighborhood of West Vancouver. 

The next day we began our grand tour of of Louisville with the Hanson Family. We began by visiting Keith's seminary school. The campus was beautiful, with sprawling lawns and large columned buildings.

Our next stop was to visit the grave of Colonel Sanders, the creator of the famous Kentucky Fried Chicken. But we couldn't go there empty handed so we stopped by a KFC to pick up some chicken and to pay tribute to the Colonel. 

Afterwards, we went to historic Louisville to check out some seriously old houses. We checked out some of the the housing prices in this fantastic neighborhood and were blown away by the prices. You can purchase a hundred year old beautiful home for about $250-300,000. Not bad! 

Our final tourist stop was to Churchill Downs, the home of the famous Kentucky Derby.  Just so everybody knows, I (Natalie) grew up reading horse novels that always took place in Kentucky. I guess I could say that Kentucky has been a place tucked away in my subconscious, a place where everyone owns horses and goes to the Kentucky Derby. Going to to Churchill Downs was awesome, as we were looking around we found a bored security who was willing to show us around a bit. I would love to see the Kentucky Derby one day! 

The Hansons were great hosts, feeding us, making us lattes, and toting us around Louisville (Loo-Vill). We were also introduced to the wonders of Lefska! A Norwegian flatbread. If you haven't tried it, gather up any remotely Norwegian friend or distant relative you have and make an evening of it. On Sunday morning we were invited to join the Hansons at their church, then following a hearty lunch we set off for Northern Indiana.

Little Luke rolling out the Lefska

It was a great week with lots of catching up with old friends and family. 

Until next time,

Natalie and Luke

I'm talking about a little place called Aspen

I’ll just dive straight into this.

     The rest of Wyoming didn’t have much to offer, we stopped by a couple gas stations and the fact that I felt that that was worth mentioning pretty much sums up the state. I’ll let this bumper sticker explain.

     So, Natalie and I were/are currently determined to find any books on tape, but actually on tape, none of the CD nonsense. We tried several spots, which of course didn’t have any. However, this incessant search did lead us into the town of Laramie. Now don’t get your hopes up, there weren’t any B.O.T’s there either, but there was a sweet vintage main strip and a historic mansion. The tours of the mansion were $10 each and already over for the day, but Seth, the college kid closing the place up, gave us a quick run through for free! Nice guy that Seth was.

     Wyoming also has wind. In fact, the last three states have been particularly windy, but WY. was straight up blustery. Nearly blew Hobby the trailer over on numerous occasions. Nonetheless, I will give Wyoming recognition for their sunsets. Very nice.

     Now don’t judge, but Natalie and I needed a hobby to pass the time. So, we’ve taken to collecting Monopoly pieces from McDonald’s.  The theory is that the winning pieces are spread out around the country. Therefore, we’ve very craftily found the loophole by traveling over so many states. Right? I’m glad this thing only lasts three weeks, because I don’t know how much more fat my arteries can take.

     We’re finishing up our stay in Colorado today, and besides Oregon, this has been my next favorite state. We camped for two nights in Cherry Creek State Park, which is a beautiful chunk of nature place neatly in the middle of Denver. I’d say it’s equivalent to camping in Stanley Park, but less tress and even more enclosed by the city.

     On our first day we went all out tourist. First we went to the Coors Brewery! The biggest single brewery in the world! This is where they invented the first aluminum beer can, as well as the first recycling system where you get money back for your empties! The tour also had free beer. Free beer.

     This was located in the small gold rush town, Golden. Go Figure. This place was a total old-west kinda town, with everything from a massive chili cook-off, to Buffalo Bills actual grave! “Golden: The 2 Hour Vacation.” I don’t think the people of Golden care much for the happenings of the outside world, seeing as one lady asked me if it was weird getting used to driving on the other side of the road in ‘Merica

And in typical Lukas fashion, I found twenty bucks and was given a discount scratch and save which resulted in the “highest discount they’d ever had.” Not even joking.

     After that we went to Red Rocks, a unique and very impressive amphitheater in the mountains. All the heavy hitters have played there, including The Beatles and Springsteen. And yes, I consider Springsteen as a heavy hitter. Foolishly, I tried my hand at sprinting to the top of the seats by taking only one step on each bench. I tried twice, and let’s just say, I wasn’t quite myself the rest of the day.

     Until, we went to Applebee’s and everything was better. Try their Boneless Buffalo Wings with the honey BBQ sauce. It will change your life. Seriously.

     That night we got a chance to meet up with another former TWU classmate, Natalie Marsh. Her and her boyfriend Sean showed us a sample of downtown Denver, which was unusually similar to Granville and Robson. I was quit taken by the place. Plus, I got to skate Denver skatepark! Mind boggling!

     In the end it was too far out of the way to go to Aspen. That didn't really matter, because the only reason we were going was to quote Dumb and Dumber and take a picture by the sign. However, we did check out Focus on the Family, only because I had the address engrained in my mind from hours upon hours of Adventures in Odyssey as a child. The down side was that it was Sunday, so they were closed, and on top of that Witt's end apparently doesn't exist. No milkshakes and no Imagination Station.

     Well, off to a small town in Kansas to meet up with one of Natalie’s old YWAM friends!

    That’s enough for now.  

To Utah and beyond!

Hello again,

Well it’s safe to say that our road trip has taken a bit of a detour. Instead of heading completely East after Oregon as planned, we decided that we were too close to Salt Lake City not to see it. After that we decided that we might as well cut across some more central states and then head North to Chicago. Not that major, but definitely different then the original plan.

We stayed in Salt Lake City long enough to visit the Mormon Temple square. It was nuts! We weren’t actually allowed to go in the temple, but we sure managed to learn a lot about Mormonism! 

After our disastrous night at the Flying J truck stop we decided to try and find a campsite before it got dark.  We were rewarded with Rockport State park in Peao, Utah. We were the only ones at the campsite and set up the trailer right next to the lake. Talk about a complete turnaround from the night before! The sunset was gorgeous and the park host was friendly and we were totally refreshed.

The next morning we meandered in our five star campsite long enough to go for a lakeside jog. We slowly packed up and headed into Park City (a ski town a few miles away) to find some WiFi. As soon as we came into Park City I almost felt like I was back at Whistler. The people just look healthy and the McDonald’s was super nice. Park City is where I found my new favorite store: Whole Foods. Totally organic and overpriced, it made me feel like I was back in Vancouver and it gave us a chance to actually eat some healthy food.

We reluctantly hit the road, destined for Colorado, but heading through Wyoming to avoid some nasty mountain passes. However, we were hit by a malevolent storm at 7000 feet, 2 degrees, and enough slushing rain to make it off the freeway and into our trailer =( . Just as we were about the pull over and find a campsite, it began to clear up. So we pressed on as we passed giant windmills and another majestic sunset. It was definitely an answer to prayer.

All along the freeway were signs for this travel stop called “ Little America.” It was the type of place where you could get a slice of cheese on your apple pie. We stopped there for the night when we learned that we could stay for FREE and have Wifi! It was like a dream come true. The Little America place blows Flying J right out of the water. However, the next morning we asked to use the showers and were disappointed and bit shocked to learn that they were $10, each! So we hightailed it out of there and hit the road. 

Today we are determined to make it to Denver, Colorado. Adios!

Natalie and Luke