Life After Cows...Part Five...

Well.  It must be Wednesday, my day off, because I'm finally sitting down at the computer to do another post about our trip!

Work has been good.  Busy, but good.  It's been a pretty big learning curve for me, and after working at home for 25 years, an adjustment.  It's not difficult work, but time management is probably the biggest thing right now.  I think I'm finally "over the hump", and if I can just keep caught up, it should only get easier.

Back to our trip...

After a hearty breakfast, we left my Aunt Alice's house on Sunday morning and headed south on Route 25 towards Colorado Springs.  The weather looked more promising that morning, and we could see the beautiful foothills as we headed towards Garden of the Gods, our destination for the day.  About half way between Denver and Colorado Springs, we saw this big rock to the east, just off the highway.

Castle Rock...

We had no tight schedule to follow, so we took the opportunity to stop and take a look.  We found a trail to the top, and enjoyed the hike and the view...
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We found this little painted stone along the pathway, and left it for the next person to find...

That felt good!  This is the kind of thing we had hoped to be able to do....see things along the way, and be able to stop and enjoy them with no real set schedule!

On to Garden of the Gods.

I was here once before, when I was about ten years old.  I still can't believe how rude (maybe that's a strong word, but still...) I was when I said to my Mom after being there for just a short time..."what's the big deal?  It's just a bunch of rocks!"  How things change as we get older and appreciate the creation that God has made, and how beautiful it is!

Sorry again, Mom!

The day became more overcast and a little bit cool as it went along, and we were a little disappointed to not see Pike's Peak, but it made for great walking weather!  We walked from one end of the park to the other, exploring, and couldn't get enough of looking at the beautiful scenery!  We definitely got our exercise today!

No descriptions necessary...

We headed back to our motel, which was just a few miles away, found a diner for supper, and called it a day.

On Monday morning when we woke up and headed out to pack up the car for our trip back east into Kansas, we saw beautiful blue sky!

Since we were literally only five minutes from Garden of the Gods, we drove back to the park, found a look out high above, and took a lot of pictures.  I won't bore you with them all, but here are a couple of my favorites...

It was so worth it!

We pointed our car eastward, and headed out.  Pikes Peak remained in our mirror for miles...

Next stop, Sharon Springs Ks

Life After Cows...Trip Part One...

When Jim and I first started thinking about selling the cows, we also began dreaming of a vacation.  We had each been able to get away on occasion...alone...but not together, and we were ready for that to change!

We are very thankful to our current employers, who saw how important this was to us, and who were willing to give us some extended time off so soon after we began working for them!

All that said, I'm excited to recap our vacation for whoever would like to follow along!  I posted on Instagram and Face Book along the way, but didn't give a lot of details.  I'll warn you up front...the posts will be picture heavy, but it's what I do!  I snap away.  After all, I wouldn't want to forget anything!

Here's the first weekend...

We left home on Saturday morning March 23.  I had filled up the gas tank the night before on my way home from work, so we started with just ten miles on the trip odometer.  (We typically drive older cars and run them until they die, so none of our current vehicles were trip worthy.  We found this car at an auction last fall and bought it with this trip in mind.  It's fourteen years old, but had only 45,000 miles on it when we bought it.  An older man was the sole owner, and he had kept it spotlessly clean and had it serviced regularly and garage kept.) The mileage will look a lot different when we get home!

About an hour from home, we hit a traffic jam.  A stand still, get out of your car and walk around traffic jam that delayed us about an hour.  There was an accident on the highway a mile or so in front of us.  We never heard if anyone was badly injured, but we could clearly see where it had happened after traffic began moving again.

Thankfully (for more than just us!)  it was the only accident we encountered on the entire trip!

Our first destination was to my sister and brother in law's home in Kimball, West Virginia.  They are location coordinators for SWAP (Sharing With Appalachian People) which is under the umbrella of MCC (Mennonite Central Committee)  It's a great organization, if you want to check it out!

One of my favorite things on this trip was seeing how the landscape changed from state to state...even from mile to mile!  This is somewhere between here and there, either in Virginia or West Virginia...

It was supposed to be about an eight hour trip, but it took us ten hours due to the accident and a leisurely lunch stop.  We still had some daylight left when we passed Pinnacle Rock along Route 52, so we stopped for a quick hike to the top.  It's not a long or difficult hike...but it's worth the view!  The Appalachian Mountains are quite different from the Rockies, which I'll get to later...but beautiful just the same...

On Sunday afternoon, Lee and Peg took us hiking at Brush Creek Falls.

Aren't the water falls beautiful?  That's a 33' drop, in case you were wondering.  While we were there, a couple of young people took the plunge.  They looked pretty cold when they got out of the water!

The first waterfalls were close to the beginning of the trail, but there was a second falls about 1 1/2 miles further along the trail.  It was a beautiful day, and we had no cows to milk...so on we went...

And this...THIS...almost got us off to a really crummy start on our vacation.  I slipped and my phone ended up IN. THE. WATER.  Totally submerged in about two feet of water.

Jim was closest to it, and he grabbed it as fast as he could.  I thought it was all over.  I mean really...we are so attached to and dependent on our phones!!  How were we going to travel halfway across the country for two weeks with no means of communication and no internet access??  Talk about a first world problem.

I am so very thankful to say, that after the screen went blank for about ten minutes (and me panicking) my phone came back to life with no apparent permanent side affects!  My case is mostly made of rubber, and I think that's what saved it.  I don't know.  But ANYWAY...we were fine.  Sigh.

Thanks for following along on the first weekend of our getaway.  More to come in the next few days...

A Quick Getaway...

It's been a long, long time (10 years!) since Jim and I have been able to both be away from the cows at the same time!  Other than just a couple (4, to be exact!) of times in the last few years where we've missed a milking together for a couple of graduation parties, a wedding and my parents' sale, we've had to divide and conquer when it came to taking time off.

This weekend, while we are in between hay cuttings,and before Jenna heads back to college tomorrow we were able to take a quick trip to Ocean City NJ with Jenna and a friend.  Eric would have gone along, but already had made plans with some college friends.

We left the cows in the trusted and capable hands of our friends Ivan and Victoria, and neighbor Daniel for three milking and we skedaddled!

Ocean City NJ is a short three hour drive.  We tied up the cows in the morning, and pulled out around 6 am.  Before lunch, we were relaxing on the beach...

Within the hour, thunderstorms rolled in, and the beach had to be vacated.  We hung out at the music pier for a while...

...saw a beautiful rainbow...

...and went to an Escape Room for some entertainment.  We were paired up with another group of four, and we found the pirate's treasure before the time was up!

The beach was closed for the rest of the day, so we checked into our boarding house and cooled off, and then headed to the boardwalk for supper .

Later, Jim and the girls rode the ferris wheel...

We bought our salt water taffy and walked the boardwalk for a while before turning in for the night.

This morning was beautiful!  Jim got up early (his body clock just wouldn't let him sleep in!) and went to the boardwalk for coffee.  Later, we all took a walk on the beach...

 The water was warm!

While Jim and I packed up the car, the girls headed out to the water for a quick swim before we headed home again.  It was just a quick trip, but it felt so good to finally get away from the farm for a bit of relaxation!

"Girls" Beach Getaway...

Ahhhh...

Doesn't this look like a relaxing place to be?

Jenna and I just got back from a quick two-day getaway to the beach with our good friends.  The weather was perfect...but a little windy, as you can see from our pictures on the boardwalk Monday evening!

The farmers' wives and farmers' daughters had a very relaxing, enjoyable time away...and now it's back to work in the morning!