A really, really, REALLY long day

Well, we started the morning refreshed from our night in hotel beds (well, I was refreshed because Lucia slept in Paul's bed and I got a queen bed to myself! - the "perks" of having spent all day in the car with her :-)) We hit the road fairly early, again, not sure how far we would actually get today, but hoping to definitely cross into Colorado.

Another day on the road, she is an old pro.

Cool moth at a truck stop

When you drive cross-country you are reminded of where all the crap you get at Wal-Mart, Target, etc...comes from. A real, live person drives it to you! I used to work at a trucking company, and I've got a soft spot for those rough guys (and gals)!

Saw quite a few of these in Kansas and Colorado.

Nothing like leftover pizza in the car so we don't have to stop for lunch! She didn't complain!

Kansas. Although, surprisingly not as flat as the Eastern Shore :-)

We totally did see this sign when we crossed into Colorado, but were too focused on making progress to stop and recognize our accomplishment. Source: www.colorado.gov

We kept checking in with each other over the radio, and initially were aiming for Limon, Colorado.

We hit the scariest storm EVER between Limon (after deciding not to stop there) and Louisville. Couldn't see the road in front of us for a few minutes, everyone crawled to a stop. I was praying to not see a tornado.

But we arrived safely, and now that we had internet, Lucia could play the games that required Wifi, that she had wanted to play in the car but couldn't.

This day of driving is really just a blur of sky, wind turbines and feeding Lucia snacks and movies. We made it to Limon for "dinner" and decided to press on to Louisville (a more affordable suburb between Denver and Boulder) that put us within 20 minutes of Boulder the next morning. Our plan was to drop us and the truck off and scope out where our unit was and park the truck accordingly, then Paul would go get the keys and my Dad and Julia (who were already in town) would meet us to start unpacking. We were too exhausted to really let it sink in that we were almost there. All in all we clocked 10.5 hours in the car today, which was by far our longest day of driving.

Even Google thinks we should have just flown.

A boring day of driving with an "exciting" end

Google took us through some country roads to get from Mammoth Cave NP to the interstate. We really enjoyed our time in Kentucky, despite the humidity. Mammoth Cave is a busy National Park for its size, but we would definitely recommend checking it out if you have an opportunity to go. The campsites were really nice, the tours were well done, the visitor center is nice (and air conditioned). 

Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri = 6+ hrs

Headed towards the interstate

Lucia settles in for a long day in the car

Didn't realize it until we compiled all our photos but Paul and I both took pictures of this nuclear power plant during our short time in Indiana (seen from the bridge crossing the Ohio River).

My picture

Paul's picture

Indiana = boring
Illinois = boring
Missouri = construction, traffic, storms

The rain finally caught up to us just west of St. Louis

Gnarly looking storm clouds.

I had randomly chosen a hotel off the freeway in Columbia. Not five minutes after checking into our hotel (after fantasizing about taking a hot shower all day in the car), there was a tornado warning. Everyone in the hotel, and a group of softball players and parents from a nearby field all crowded into the interior laundry room of the hotel. Uh, it was pretty darn scary.
Things calmed down enough to smile about it and snap a photo in the laundry room. We went out to the car to get our luggage and then not five minutes after getting our luggage upstairs, there was another tornado warning, so we went back downstairs.

Just hanging out in the hotel laundry room, nbd.

We finally got our showers and pizza...and they were both amazing. 

We also got to talking over dinner about the next day and how far we thought we could go. Our original plan was to stay the night in Kansas, then enter Colorado on Monday, the day that we could get our apartment keys. But the more we though about it, the more we wanted to get as close to Boulder as we could so that we could start unloading the truck as early on Monday as possible. We went to bed that night, not really knowing what the next day would bring. 

Mammoth NP Day 2: A hot hike and another cool cave

We started Day 2 heading over to the Visitor Center to get our tickets for an afternoon cave tour. Since we didn't do any hiking yesterday (opting for just driving around to explore), we decided to see some of the above-ground features of the park in the morning. We took a trail just off the Visitor Center that went down and along the Green River and looped back up to another area of the Visitor Center. 

The boardwalk down to the trail was the perfect time to bust a move.

Lucia approves of Mammoth Cave NP

Family pic at Green River overlook

Hiking - in motion

Little girl, Big tree

Finishing up her Junior Ranger work during lunch

Particularly interested in how chemical spills have affected the Green River

Junior Ranger work being reviewed

She passed! 

Our Junior Ranger!

Our second cave tour of the trip was called the "Domes & Dripstones" tour and was a completely different cave experience from the large cavernous Mammoth Cave. This tour still had a lot of actively forming features (hence the dripstones). We took a bus to a different entrance and learned more about the history of cave exploration in the area. Before it was a National Park many different individuals were attempting to gain fame and fortune by finding new caves and leading tours. Unfortunately no good pictures of the inside of this tour. There were a lot of stairs. Another item of note were the GIANT spiders that we had to walk under as we entered the cave. Big and ugly.

After our cave tour we headed back to the campsite to pack up and relax. We're done with camping and hoping to make it to Columbia, Missouri tomorrow. We have recommendations for a good pizza place there and very much looking forward to showers!