Rocky Mountain High

At this writing, we’re pretty bushed! On Sunday afternoon we visited Price Canyon on our way to Wellington, Utah, where we spent the night.

Our evening routine is to put Sarah to bed and then wait patiently in the hall until she’s asleep. During this time, we can blog, read, etc. Last night we watched an episode of Warehouse 13 on Hulu while fending off mosquitoes and watching the locals inexplicably set off fireworks.

Then today, Monday, was a power day. We covered 414 miles, starting by crossing the Colorado border and eating lunch in Fruita. There, we visited a dinosaur museum that featured a life-size, animatronic T-Rex!

After that came the long, steady climb through the Rocky Mountains, with our little weighed-down Honda Civic sometimes slowing down to 40 mph as it wheezed, “I think I can! I think I can!” Luckily for us, it turned out it could.

We reached the summit at Vail in mid-afternoon – at over 10,000 feet, we realized it was as if we were most of the way up Mt. Rainier! And then we crossed through the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel, a mile-and-a-half-long bore through the Continental Divide itself – 11,158 feet above sea level. And, of course, us being us and all, we listened to John Denver's ode on my iPod at the very top.

Now we’re in Denver, resting, recuperating, and preparing for a much easier drive tomorrow to Oakley, Kansas—a mere three and a half hours away. That will give us plenty of time to play first in the Denver area.

Throughout all this, Sarah has been an amazingly versatile traveler. We know we got her started right by taking her to El Salvador twice, at ages two and three. Of course, it helps to use the road-tested strategy of pulling out a surprise book or toy every day at lunchtime.