This past Easter weekend Katie, Tim, Patrick, Jessica, and I went on a road trip to Colorado from our home in Carrollton, TX. You see, we were going to visit Josh and Christy Hewitt (Katie, Patrick, and Jess’ family, and former staff members of GFA), and their two adorable children Annie (3, almost 4) and Wesley (just turned 2). The week before we left, Wesley had a birthday, and we were going to celebrate it on the Saturday before Easter. So as a surprise we bought him a gigantic, red, crab sandbox with great big eyes on the front of it. But fitting it in the Volvo we were borrowing from another staff member was not going to happen. Thankfully we had rope, so the guys tied it to the roof of the car, and the Thursday before Easter (right after work, at around 5PM) we were on our way towards a road trip we will never forget.
It started off great with Tim and Katie up front, and Patrick, Jess, and me in the back. Was quite cozy and our intent was to drive till we got to the Hewitts 14 hours later. On we went with a few of us falling asleep periodically (I was drugged with Benedryl for the first few hours because I had a slight allergic reaction to Coconut towards the end of the work day, so I was rather sleepy), and some wonderfully interesting music playing. As we were passing through New Mexico, we saw SNOW on the side of the road! I was rather excited, considering I hadn’t seen ANY SNOW this entire winter. After a few shifts of driving between Katie and Tim, I was getting antsy and was wide awake (at 2AM?). Since Katie and Tim were exhausted, I decided to drive the remaining 5 hours of the trip.
As I was driving, we entered very VERY thick fog. So, insead of going the speed limit of 75 mph, I had to stick with 40 mph since I couldn’t see more than 5 ft in front of me. After a while the fog started to clear up a bit and I was able to speed again (80 mph in a 75 mph… so no worries, no craziness at this point in the trip. hehe). As I was travelling at about 80 mph there was all of a sudden a huge THUNK! and the car swayed a little and gone was the giant red sandbox that had been strapped to the top of the car. Needless to say, I stopped on the side of the road and we all got out to assess the damage and to see if indeed we lost our dear companion.
We had. So, Patrick and I took a flashlight and started walking back along the interstate looking for the sandbox. After about 5 minutes of walking, we figured it must be pretty far away, so we ran about half a mile more, and it still was nowhere to be found. But considering it was 4AM, on a dark interstate, with semi’s and other vehicles rushing by at 75 mph or more, we kept walking looking for the sandbox.After about 5 more minutes I saw a dark shape sitting in the middle of the right lane of the road. THE SANDBOX! We ran over to it and after Patrick picked it up we started our trek back to the car whose hazard lights we could see blinking in the distance. It took FOREVER to get back to the car that seemed to not grow any closer (we had to have been at least a mile away), we tied the sandbox back to the roof of the car, a little more securely this time, and continued on our way.
After a few more hours it started to get light outside and we were ever nearing our destination. Pulling into their parking lot we were greeted by Christy and it was COLD outside! And there were mountains in the distance, and we were all exhausted. After taking a quick nap, we all hung out for a bit, played tiredly with the kids, and once Josh got back from work he took Tim, Patrick, Katie and me to this awesome store named Jax. Jax is a store that has all sorts of weapons, camping gear, military surplus, outdoorsy stuff, etc. I LOVED it!! The first day we went to Jax, we pretty much just took a tour of the store, and then headed to a grocery store to get some needed items for Katie, and then went back home to rest some more.
After our return to the Hewitts house, Josh pointed out that there were a whole bunch of Prairie dogs out in the fields by their house. So Patrick, Katie, and I took our cameras and attempted to get close enough to the prairie dogs to get their pictures. Sadly, these animals are rather skittish and have a very reliable security system. As soon as we reached the closest side walk to their field we heard this chirping alarm coming from the prairie dogs that were acting as the sentries. Needless to say, we didn’t get close enough to get close up pictures of them, but hopefully if we zoom in to the pictures we got from a distance, then it will work well enough.
I honestly don’t remember most of that first day in Colorado…we were all so tired, that I’m surprised that I remembered all that I just wrote about. I do remember when Annie first saw me again, and she said “Alleeeeey! I like you, and I like playing with you. Do you want to play?” Was cute to know that she still remembered me, and was quick to give me a hug hello. Wesley took a little while to warm up to everyone except Jess (he snuggled with her most of the weekend). After a while, I ended up falling asleep on the couch and got sent to bed by the rest of my companions. So I headed down to the basement where the girls were sleeping, put my headphones in and set my ipod to my “sleep” playlist, and promptly fell asleep.
So ends the first day of our journey to Colorado, stay tuned for the rest of our adventures.
(a heads up, the drive back home is quite interesting)
