Day 27: Jackson Hole to Vail

We left our cute little cabin early this morning because we knew we had about 600 miles to go today.

Since Independence, Missouri we have been more or less on the Oregon Trail.  Today actually felt like it.  

First off, just barely out of Jackson Hole, our illustrious driver got pulled over again for speeding...

Thankfully the sheriff was a grandfather of 5 and thought our clown car was greatness, so no ticket, just a warning.

We did get to see a former pony express station on our way thru Wyoming...

This was just the marker commemorating it.

These were the actual stables for the ponies!!

This is really the only "cute" picture of the day.  I took this at one of our many potty breaks at a rest stop in Wyoming...

Kendall has been dying to pet some wildlife, so Scott convinced them to get out of the car and very quietly approach these pronghorns (antelope looking deer).  Of course they ran off the second our "herd" thundered their direction!

Siri literally knows all the roads, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are roads you want to travel.  Today she let us down this spur to a highway.  It was 20 miles.  It started out as asphalt with gravel on it and and then about 5 miles in...no asphalt, just gravel!!!  And NOTHING!  I think that it's possible that this was the actual Oregon Trail.  Wagon ruts and all!

Scott pulled up to this lone cow to see if the kids could call it over so Kendall could pet it!  Caroline opens the window and offers it a piece of the beef jerky she was eating!!  It took one look at all the crazies and walked off in the other direction!

 

We finally made it back to the highway...and civilization!

However, at this point we were in Colorado and it started to rain...hard.  We could see the lightening up in the mountains and we were on some pretty steep, windy mountain roads.  Guess what happens on mountains when it rains...mudslides.  Yep.  We encountered the aftermath of 2!  The second one the snowmobile was just getting there to clear it off...

The girls used this long day in the car to work on annotating their summer reading....

And of course there was lots of singing and dancing!

We made it to Vail about 7:30.  We have a great room at the Vail Village and a patio that leads to the hot tub, so you can guess where they all went when we got here!

Everyone is showered and in bed watching Chasing Mavericks.

Tomorrow we are checking out Vail!!

Blessings from Colorado,
Leslie