Welcome To Colorful Colorado

The next morning I went out and checked on the car, hoping that the tire hadn't really been leaking air or that it had magically fixed itself overnight. Alas, it did not. It was completely flat. This was on a Sunday morning in rural Kansas, and I was nervous that there wouldn't be any places around that would be open and could fix the tire. But after some calling, we found out that the truck stop in Oakley could look at it for us (which was nice, since they usually just handle truck repairs).

The maintenance guy at the hotel was kind enough to pump some air in the tire, enough for us to limp over to the truck stop. Elliott (who is still obsessed with cars) wanted to tag along, thinking that the truck stop would be more exciting than a hotel room. Which I don't think it was as exciting as he thought - we ended up in a tiny waiting room where the only entertainment was a TV showing Fox News. Fox was showing some of documentary about Wall Street, talking about its history dating back to Alexander Hamilton and going all the way to the 9/11 attacks. A trucker, who was also waiting there, decided this was a good moment to begin talking about how he thought the 9/11 attacks were faked using remote control air planes. So yeah, probably the hotel room would have been a more exciting place to spend the morning.

Luckily we didn't have to wait too long, and the tire was fixed and we were good to go. We went back to the hotel, loaded up the car, and then continued on. We crossed over the state line into Colorado, who greeted us signs saying "Welcome To Colorful Colorado." The landscape of eastern Colorado is flat, but the drive starts to pass by some hills as it heads further west. We were eager to get to the mountains, but I did exit the freeway one time to get some pictures of this neat old barn (it worked out because the kids were wanting snacks anyways).





And next to the barn was this little dirt road, heading off toward some fields.



We then headed further west, heading towards our destination of Estes Park. We were staying at the YMCA Of The Rockies, a massive complex of cabins and lodges situated right next to Rocky Mountain National Park. It's a good place to stay, especially if you're traveling with children. There are a ton of kid-friendly activities there, and it is located just minutes from the entrance to the Park. This is the view from a fishing lake there, just before sunset.



That evening I went into Estes Park to get some groceries. Estes Park is a charming little city (population around 6,000). It's a touristy town, but nowhere near as tacky and overcrowded as Pigeon Forge. Probably the most prominent building in Estes Park is the historic Park Theater. The movie theater was built in 1913, and it is the oldest single house motion picture theater in the country that is still in operation.



It was showing Toy Story 5 while we were there, with future showings of Minions & Monsters and The Odyssey.