Road Trip: Father's Day

This past weekend we ventured across the entire great state of Colorado to visit Zack's dad for Father's Day. The drive takes roughly 11 hours from point A to point B, if you don't take any breaks. We decided to take our puppy with us on the road (since our puppy-sitters decided to move out of STATE for the summer and couldn't watch him for us). We left on Friday around 10:45 and set off.
"It's always fun to go on a road-trip," said the girl with no children.
We get a few books on tape or CD to listen to. We bring all the good music CDs. We bring our handy little cooler and fill it with healthy snacks and water. We bring our favorite games (Cribbage, Phase 10 Dice, Yahtzee, and this time I also brought alone some game cards from a game I found for $1 at the D.I. It's called "30 Second Mysteries"). We were set. Because we were bringing our puppy we also had to bring along his food, doggy dishes, doggy stain and odor remover (which we never had to use. Good boy, Maxwell!), bones, toys, Maxwell's blanket, and the doggy gate. Good grief! I can't imagine taking a child on a road trip if that's what it takes to bring along a dog.

So like I was saying, we left at 10:45. We drove for all of 45 minutes when we hit gridlock in Utah County. Neither of us thought to check the traffic report before we left. "Say, what if the freeway is shut down in American Fork because a truck carrying a freakin' mobile home crashed and spewed mobile-homeish debry over all 4 lanes?" Luckily, we were only detained at a standstill for all of 20 minutes.

Maxwell enjoyed the ride a lot. He loves going on car rides. (Even after the 11 hour car ride his ears would still perk up when we said the word "drive".) We made a nice little home for him in the back complete with his blanket, toys and bones. However, his favorite place to relax was on the floor in front of the passenger seat. Maxwell sleeping next to his "lucky cow". He recently ripped it's neck open and lovingly pulled out most of it's stuffing.

Maxwell also enjoyed sticking his head out the window when we had to slow down for some road construction between Grand Junction and Vail.

Here's a better shot of the scenery.

We stopped in Green River for gas and a puppy-potty break, (way to poop right in the middle of the cement where the cars come in, Maxwell! Who'd want to poop on the side where the weeds, bushes, rocks and lack of people and cars are?) and to switch drivers. Zack drove us to Vail where we decided to finally stop and get something to eat (around 6:00 pm). We decided against Micky D's and got a pizza from Domino's. We ate it on the grass and mingled with the summer ski bums. It was a nice break. We didn't stop again until we were outside of Denver and wanted some ice cream. Then we drove the last leg of the trip through "wide open spaces" full of wheat, corn, and miles and miles of no civilization.

We decided to listen to one of our books on tape, "Black Beauty". We'd both read the book when we were younger and seemed to like it. Basically it's 6 hours of "how to take proper care of a horse" in story form, given from the perspective of a horse. We liked the book, but our favorite part was what we listened to at the beginning of the first tape. The instructions on how to "fix" a tape that wasn't working. This is what is said, and I quote, "Should a cassette fail to play properly, hold it flat in the palm of your hand and slap it smartly against a hard, flat surface." We couldn't help but start laughing. We had to play it back a few times to really understand what to do. Here's the visual we got:

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We arrived in Burlington around 10:30, just shy of 12 hours. Once there we had a good time visiting Zack's dad, playing games, and of course, "hiking" the famous Longhorn Trail.

So, is the head of the trail the Comfort Inn or the Pizza Hut on the other side?

Amid all the excitedment I didn't forget to give Zack his Father's Day present: "Night at the Museum". He and Maxwell both enjoyed watching it.

I also got to talk to my Dad on the phone and wish him a happy Father's Day. I had to wait in line, though. He was already talking to my brother who lives out of state. Out of five kids, he had to talk to three of them on the phone because they were all out of state. What happened to you family? You used to live close.