Please excuse the 8 month interruption, we were busy. So, after Wyoming, we spent two weeks in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Steamboat Springs is an awesome town, great hot springs, fly-fishing, mountain biking, skiing. We stayed at the Steamboat Campground, right on the Yampa River, with a free bus to dowtown and the ski mountain. We loved it here.
And, we were able to visit with Joel, Martine, Oscar & Hector, our first overnight Airstream guests. The boys were thrilled to spend time with their cousins.
Next stop, Dinosaur National Monument in Vernal, Utah. This was an unexpected highlight of the trip.
We camped at the base of Split Mountain alongside the Green River. It was quiet and beautiful, the boys had a blast playing in the sandy beach beside the river and we hiked right from our campsite.
And of course, there were dinosaurs. The quarry exhibit hall has over 1,500 dinosaur bones that were left in place in the rock, some you could touch.
From Dinosaur, we drove all day to reach Moab, Utah for Silas' 11th birthday. Unfortunately, after a Herculean effort to squeeze our giant Airstream into a small downtown campground, Silas decided it wasn't right. So, we loaded back in the truck, hit the road, driving in the rain and darkness, headed for Durango.
We spent three weeks in Durango, right across the street from Trimble hot springs, where we spent a lot of time soaking.
Silas turned 11.
We explored all the old hot spots.
On Halloween, Silas and Levi joined a local homeschool group in acting out an interactive play set along the banks of Junction Creek. They enjoyed the play, but really missed making costumes.
Future FLC graduate?
Visiting Mesa Verde was one of the spots we were most looking forward to while planning this trip.
When a polar vortex starting descending across the US, we decided we needed to return home. After Mesa Verde, we spent a night near the Great Sand Dunes National Park. We didn't have nearly enough time here, the boys really loved it and would like to return. We camped and swam that night in the geothermally heated pools at the Sand Dunes Swimming Pool, that was a big hit too.
The rest of the drive East was pretty miserable until we hit Jackson Center, Ohio, home of the Airstream Factory. We spent the night in the Terraport in the parking lot and took a tour of the factory the next day.
There was ice and snow on the ground when we rolled into Portland. We were able to take advantage of Cabela's free rv dump station, where we winterized the Airstream, and then headed straight for J's Oyster Bar.
Our adventure lasted two months and we drove over 7,500 miles. We were not at all ready to come home, we were hoping to spend time in Arizona, but we had a house to buy back in Maine.
I've so missed the blog updates! Just stumbled upon this tonight. Thank you for sharing. Love your travels and photos. The boys are so grown up!! And these are from last year. Hope to visit at some point this year.
Love, Suz
Posted by: Suzanne | May 26, 2015 at 10:49 PM
I agree with Suz, I haven't been looking at the blog but I absolutely love these photos and miss seeing all that the boys are doing. They are the best photos. My favorite, of course, is the five boys together. I will treasure that photos!
The next favorite is your family photo. I'll have to print those out. The scenery is so beautiful. I was looking for the first photo we ever received from you of Silas. Think it was taken at the hospital. Mark emailed it to us in Germany. I was wonderful if it looked at all like Leo. Do you think we could ever get all seven boys together? I guess almost impossible but maybe someday. Please keep the blog going, I really miss it so much and now you have so many exciting things going on. I know it requires a great deal of time but I love looking back at all the years and all the comments. It is better than a photos album. Love, love, love the photos of your trip!
xoxoxo Nenny
Posted by: Nenny | May 28, 2015 at 07:38 PM