My Trip

Whew! It's been a rough week. When I got back from Denver, I brought the flu home with me. Then I threw my back out again and am just now feeling back to normal. I think a lot of it was the stress of travel and the whole "son home from deployment" thing. My sister, Janice, and I flew out a few days ahead of time and got the house ready, did some shopping, ate out, looked at houses and basically had a great time.

I'm sorry this picture isn't better. If you are meeting deployed military personnel at the airport you can get a gate pass to meet them right when they get off the plane. It was so very exciting and emotional! Denver International Airport is only about 20 minutes away from my son's house. It is a huge airport, and after a couple trips there, I have it down pat as to where to park and where to go inside.

This is a great retro-type diner in Aurora. Classic 50's with great food!

Janice and I were able to look around at houses. She and her husband are not sure where to retire to so we took the opportunity to see what the area had to offer. How would you like that view every day?

This is a picture of Southlands Shopping Center in Aurora. It's new but made to look like middle-America main street. It has wonderful shops and restaurants. Janice said if she lived near there she would go there every day just to power walk around (and maybe visit the candy shop)!

Another view looking towards the Rocky Mountains. This is just a couple minutes away from my son's house. Beautiful!

We even had snow a couple days. Of course, it was melted and gone by 11:00 a.m. every day but at least Janice was able to see it.

After Janice went home I did some shopping on my own. I was really sad to see this quilt shop closing. The owners are retiring and I wish them well. Luckily there were other shops in the area that I was able to visit.

This was my splurge for the trip. I bought an I-Touch and hubs loaded The Pioneer Woman's book, Black Heels to Tractor Wheels on it for me to listen to. I do not absolutely know what I would have done without it!

We had beautiful scenery the entire way.

Enlarge this picture: See the little dots towards the left. I was looking at a map and when I glanced up there were three huge, magnificent moose! I couldn't get my camera up and on before we were past them. Drat!

Once we pulled into Reno, the problems started. California had a horrible snow storm just as we were arriving. After a couple attempts to continue on, and getting part way to Truckee, we were sent back to Reno. An avalanche had covered the track and the snow blower equipment and we couldn't go on. So Amtrak put us up at the Silver Legacy Hotel for the night. Course, by the time we checked in it was 3:30 a.m.. At 2:00 p.m. we boarded buses for the trip home. I don't think I have ever been so tired! I ate big breakfast because I had a feeling it might be my only meal for the day. I was right. I also had two candy bars and a bottle of water. If a train can't get through,why they thought a bus could is beyond me!

Snow, snow, snow!!!!

I sat right behind the driver so I had a bird's eye view of - snow!

Little bit scary here! What should have been a four hour trip, turned out to be an 8 1/2 hour trip. At one time we were stopped for almost an hour due to an accident. Our driver was awesome and I never really felt afraid. Although the fact that we were going over Donner Summit (as the Donner Party) didn't escape my mind. Once we got into Sacramento, Amtrak sent us all home in taxi-cabs. So rather than getting home at 6:25 p.m. on Sunday, I got home at around 1:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. Like I said, my I-Touch was a God send.

Now you know why I was so tired when I got home!!!