Life After Cows...Trip Part Four...

Finally, another post.  I'd better get this documented before I forget details!!

*Warning...lots of pictures ahead in these next couple of posts, as this was some of the most beautiful country that we encountered this time around!

Early Friday morning, we said good bye to Jenna and headed west on Route 70 through Kansas on our way to my Aunt Alice in Fort Collins CO.  The day started out rather dreary, and we drove through some rain, but by late afternoon some blue sky appeared.

I think desolately beautiful would be one way to describe eastern Colorado!

Grain bins in every town.  I might have to do a collage later, of all the grain bins I took pics of on this trip...

We arrived at my Aunt Alice's house around supper time on Friday.  It was so good to see her!  She is my Mom's younger sister, and has come to Pennsylvania many times to visit us.  (I was named after her and my great Aunt Alice, with whom I share a birthday!)   So many times we wished we could visit her, and finally it happened.  She had a yummy supper waiting for us along with a delicious apple pie for dessert...

She says that she has two cats...but I'm not sure that I believe her.  We only saw one cat the weekend we were there.  Here's Muffin...

Smokey didn't show his face even once.  The only sign I saw of him was a gray streak as something flew up the stairs when I opened the front door after one of our outings.  He apparently hid under her bed the whole time "strangers" were there!  Aunt Alice, you know I'm just giving you a hard time!  :)

On Saturday, Aunt Alice took us up to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was a cloudy day and we couldn't see the beautiful Colorado skies and the high mountain peaks, but it was still beautiful!

Here we are heading up into the foothills...

Devil's Backbone...

 About to enter Thompson's Canyon on our way to Estes Park...

At every turn (and there were lots of them) we were surrounded by beauty.  It's so different from what we see every day!  We kept our eyes out for mountain goats on the rocks, but our eyes weren't sharp enough to pick any out...

 As we entered Estes Park, we saw herds of Elk lounging around enjoying their weekend...

At the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park we were happy to hear that the road to Bear Lake was open.  I remember being there when I was ten years old.  Of course it looked quite different then because it was summer time.  I vaguely remember hiking around the lake.  This time however, the lake was frozen over and snow covered so we walked across it rather than around it...

Frozen water falls...

These baby pine cones caught my eye...

The photo-opps were many, and do you see that?  Blue sky peeping through those clouds!

We ended the day being hosted by my cousin Eric and his wife Xioma and family. I hadn't seen "big Eric" as we call him :) since "our Eric" was about two years old.  It was so nice to see him again and to meet his lovely wife and daughters!

This trip was about so much more than just seeing the beautiful sights across the country!  We were happy to spend time with family and friends along the way!

Next up...Colorado Springs and Garden of the Gods.

Life After Cows...Trip Part Three...

It's time I get back to the details of our trip!  Work has been quite busy, and we're still adjusting to life after cows, so some things aren't getting done as quickly as I'd like...

I left off the last time with our arrival in Hesston Kansas, where we met up with Jenna!  We stayed at the guest house on campus, which is super convenient when visiting someone at the college.  Our first full day there, Jenna had classes all day, so Jim and I did some adventuring of our own.

Over 30 years ago, Jim spent a summer on the wheat harvest, cutting wheat from Texas to Montana with a crew based out of Inman Kansas.  Before we left on our trip, he did some research and found what he thought might be a current address for his boss, Randy Ediger.  He didn't have a phone # though, so we were going out on a bit of a limb.  We punched it into the GPS and went for a drive.  As we came to the driveway, we saw harvesters lined up beside a barn, along with some grain trucks, and so we pulled in to find out if our search had been successful.  There was a young man working in an implement shed, and Jim hopped out of the car to talk to him while I waited.  A few minutes later, a man came out of the house saying "Jim!  You made it back!"  Randy recognized Jim right away, and we had a wonderful visit with him!  He was very gracious to receive unexpected guests, and made us feel very welcome!

Jim has a lot of great memories of his time back in the summer of 1987 on the wheat harvest!

After we left the Ediger farm, we headed just a few miles south to the little town of Buehler...

I had gone out on a limb of my own the day before, and contacted a fellow blogger, Kim, from Kim's County Line.  She's a fellow farm wife, and I've enjoyed reading about her life in Kansas for the past few years.  I knew she wasn't too far from where we would be (and in Kansas, an hour of travel feels so different than it does around here!!) and so I asked her if there was any way we could meet up.  She was also very gracious, and we met at a coffee shop in Buehler and had  nice visit!  We both regretted later that we hadn't take a picture, but we had a very nice time meeting in person and getting to know each other a little bit.  Thanks, Kim for taking time to meet with a near stranger on a whim!!

We took Jenna for supper in the evening, and turned in feeling like we had had a successful day!

On Thursday, our second full day in Hesston, all that Jenna had on her schedule was a violin lesson in the morning.  We've really missed hearing her play, so it was a treat to have her play several pieces for us that she's been working on...

We then headed out with Jenna for an adventure to a Salt Mine in Hutchinson.  It is an active salt mine, which Kim recommended would be a fun place to tour.  We were not disappointed!

We went from 630' high at the St Louis Arch, to 650' below ground for the tour of the mine. I thought it might feel a little claustrophobic, being underground, but it didn't feel that way at all.  The part of the mine that we were in was well lit, with high ceilings, so we didn't even feel like we were underground!  The underground temperature was a constant 55 degrees, so it was also quite comfortable temperature wise...

That chunk of salt beside Jim and Jenna weighs over a ton...

 The salt from this mine is used for road salt...

The large equipment inside the mine was taken down in pieces and reassembled once it was down in the mine.  It will stay there permanently, even after it's no longer in use.  This was an undercutter, which was used to cut a way a few inches at the bottom of each wall, which then allowed somewhere for the salt to fall once blasting took place...

...and this conveyor belt transported the salt out of the mine...

If you're ever near Hutchinson Kansas, I'd recommend it as place to visit!

We headed back to Hesston, and enjoyed our last evening on campus.  We strolled around the Arboretum...

...and enjoyed some welcome signs of spring...

As we prepared to leave Kansas, there was one other thing that I wanted to document, and that is the almost constant Kansas wind...

We had a wonderful time, and headed out early Friday morning for our next stop...Fort Collins Colorado to visit my Aunt.  More in a bit...