Road Trip!!

I love road trips. They are always fun and wonderfully spontaneous. I love the whole thing, junk food, cold Pepsi, cat naps, wild animals, beautiful scenery.
Last week, my sister and I took my mom and dad on an overnight road trip to celebrate my moms birthday. 
It was a hard week, emotionally. Since John's death, I seem to go through those with my family. We each deal with it in different ways. The focus was on my mom though, and we wanted her to get away from the house.

This is my mom and dad at the start of the trip. They looked so cute and so very hippie in their matching bandannas! On the scenic overlook on Wolf Creek. 

We drove over Wolf Creek and ate lunch in Durango before going to Mancos. My mom lived there as a young teen, so we got the whole tour along with a few good stories. If you know the road outside of town, you know the highway goes up a hill. It was on this hill that my mom went sledding one early winter morning, only to be found by a local police officer. She just happened to be with the judges son, so they all received a long lecture about the dangers of sledding on a major highway!
She then told us about the school blowing up, a bar burning down, and a rope swing over the river. Ahh, good times!
Here is a pic of mom with a bronze outside one of the many galleries in Mancos.

She is too cute!!
We then took a drive up to Mesa Verde. It was a National Park when my mom was younger. Her dad was from Norway, and loved anything that had to do with the "Wild West." They spent many weekends there when she was younger, before they had the paved trails. She remembers climbing all over the ruins and finding bits of pottery. 

Here are mom, dad, and Penny at the overlook near the Museum. 

We didn't walk down into the canon, we just drove around and looked at all the ruins. It was sunset when we were leaving the park and we made one last stop at the Fire lookout. Sunset over "The Sleeping Ute" mountain. 

Lady Bugs gathering on the scrub oak. I have never seen this before. I am sure there were thousands of them on a number of bushes near the lookout.

After spending the night in Cortez, we drove up to Telluride, stopping at the top of Lizard Head pass for this photo op. 

Home sweet home! F.Y.I. Telluride is beautiful, as always, but the people who live there are freaks! Seriously, we were almost run over by a guy on a bicycle, and we were in the truck! I watched a woman change clothes while parked outside of the cemetery! Seriously, she stripped down and redressed after taking a jog, ignoring me parked next to her and the passing traffic. The residents use the cemetery as a dog park where the dogs are encouraged to take care of business all over the stones and no one, including local police, mind who is getting stoned while sitting on their porch or walking down the street!!

Picnic at the park where as a child my brother taught me how to skip stones. (Yes, I skipped a few just for him, and yes, I still throw like a girl!)

My grandfathers name, (Magee, Carl Guy) on the mining memorial near the gondola entrance.

We rode the gondola up to the village, and then back to Telluride. This is not a mode of transportation I would like to take often. I still get that sick feeling in my tummy just thinking about how far up you really are!

Bridal Veil Falls. Still able to take my breath away!


We returned back to my parents house that night. Penny and I heard more stories about our parents adventures growing up in these amazing places and shared some good memories with one another. Although the time and places have changed, our roots have not. I'm thankful for being planted here in this amazing place!
Road Trip??!! 
I'm ready!