Places You'll Go: Family Vacation

Hmmmmm.... The topic tree is running kind of low on fruit. If any of the 12 people who might read this today have a suggestion on a location, trip, experience or adventure they would like for me to write about, I am open for suggestions. After reviewing statistics on readership, I see that the Pi Day Roadtrip blog entry was the most popular one I had in the last few months. Beyond that you guys seem to like blogs that have a lot of pictures. So, I'm thinking since Pi Day only comes around once a year, today we are going with pictures. These aren't going to be the high quality digital pictures you are accustomed to. So get ready for scanned pictures from almost 13 years ago! Enjoy!

In June of 2000 my family went on a trip to Colorado. Now, when I say my family, I mean me, my parents, my older brother, his wife and three sons, and my younger brothers son and daughter. My younger brother Ronnie and his wife didn't make the trip, but their kids did. Mom and Dad have a motor home and they were traveling in that. They arrived in Colorado before we did. I don't remember how long they were there before us. But since they were retired they already had a campsite and were established in our location at Canyon City, Colorado for the first half of the week. My sister-in-law, Eileen and I had gotten together and decided that it would be fun to take the kids on a white water rafting trip. We also, thought it would be fun for us. We knew going in that Rebecca and Tim, the two youngest wouldn't be able to do it. But we were hopeful that the three bigger kids along with me, Eileen and Rob could have a great time rafting while Rebecca and Tim spent quality time with their Nana and Papa.

Bob Wills Monument

I drove to Nacogdoches the night before we left and stayed with Robbie and Eileen so that we could all travel together. For most of the trip to Canyon City, Colorado I drove my car with two kids in it. When we stopped for food, drinks and gas, kids would switch cars. Yesterday I talked about how Mom kept us entertained on roadtrips prior to built in TV's with DVD players in cars. Well, Eileen had a different angle on this. She just brought a 9 inch color TV with a VCR along in her minivan and plugged it into the cigarette lighter. As long as there were no fast stops that caused the TV to roll around the back of the minivan everything was good. So the kids all watched Star Wars movies all the way to Colorado and it was hard to get them interested in coming over to my CR-V with no TV.

Eileen also brought walkie talkies so that we could talk between the two cars. Eileen has always been into technology. On our first night we stayed in Amarillo but before arriving in Amarillo we discovered that if we stopped in Turkey, Tx we could see the world famous Bob Wills monument. Okay, I might have oversold that slightly. Perhaps it isn't world famous. But it was an attraction for us. The monument was okay, but what we really loved was the city limits sign. It really doesn't take much to entertain a Meyers....

Robbie in Turkey

After leaving Turkey we made our way to our next stop at the Palo Duro Canyon. We spent an hour or so there and took a few pictures. Here's what all of the kids looked like back then. From left to right that is Chris, Tim, Jacob, Rebecca and Matt. They've changed slightly since then. If you've never been to the Palo Duro Canyon, stop by sometime when you are heading to Colorado. It is well worth the visit. It's a pretty part of Texas that a lot of people never see.

Current Douglass HS senior and Homecoming Queen

After spending the night in Amarillo we made our way on to Canyon City the next day. Rob, Eileen and the boys got a cabin and Rebecca and I stayed in the motor home with Mom and Dad. Rebecca and I are no fools.....

If you've never been to Canyon City, there is a ton to do there. First of all, it's the home of the Royal Gorge. When Robbie, Ronnie and I were about the ages that the kids are in these pictures Mom and Dad took us there and we walked across the bridge. I had no interest in doing it again. I guess I should have for the kids. But I didn't. So Robbie and Eileen took them. In fact I think they even took them horseback riding. So the kids did get to do all the Royal Gorge stuff and I got to sit around camp... win-win.

Camp life is pretty sweet when you are in an RV. In the photo below the kids are roughing it at breakfast....

Of course the main reason for the trip in the first place was white water rafting and we finally got to do that following this breakfast. We had decided that Mom and Dad would keep Rebecca and Tim and take pictures of us going down the river while the rest of us were in the raft. Once we got to the RiverRunners White Water Rafting Co. we found out that Chris was too small to do the class IV water so, he had to stay with Mom and Dad until we passed the class IV water and then get it. Chris didn't take that news too well. But after the battle we were ready to get underway.

Here we are just before leaving on the trip already in our wetsuits and gear. Notice Eileen had the sense to stick kids in front of her while I was standing there like an idiot. Prior to getting in the boats we got a safety talk where we were told what to do if we fell out of the boat and they explained to us that the water was newly melted snow so it was kinda cold. Basically, if you fall in.... get back out fast! Apparently June is the best time to do white water rafting on the Arkansas River in Colorado since there is plenty of snow melting then which means a lot of rapids. They say if you go too late in the summer the river slows down to just a trickle. But in early June while we were there it was perfect!

Here we were getting settled in our raft. Our guides name was Nick. He did all of the rowing. Our job was simply to hang on. Nick was up to the task. I'm not sure I have ever seen a pair of arms like he had in person before or since. :-) To start with, Jacob and I sat behind Nick. He sat in the middle rowing and Robbie, Eileen and Matt sat in front. When Chris joined us, Matt moved to the back of the boat with me and Jacob.

In the picture above we were in our only class IV water of the day. It was so fun! I wasn't sure what to expect but I think when it was over we all felt like we had gotten our money's worth out of it. We found out in this section just exactly how cold the water was. None of us fell in, but we were all wet. In the photo below Matt has moved to the back of the boat and Chris is now between Robbie and Eileen in the front. He was so happy to get on board.

After we left Canyon City, Mom and Dad went on to Las Vegas and Robbie, Eileen and I took the kids and went to Colorado Springs where we spent a couple of days in a cabin at a KOA campground. At Colorado Springs we went to Garden of the Gods and we made it to a Colorado Springs Sky Sox baseball game. They are the Triple A affiliate of the Rockies. Jacob and I split off from the rest of the group and went to the Air Force Academy. After we got back to the campground we found out that they had gone too and we could have all gone together. But it worked out fine. Since you are suffering through so many scanned family photos, I'll treat you to one digital image of Garden of the Gods from the internet. It's a beautiful place.

There are a ton of things to see and do in Colorado Springs. On this occasion we didn't make it up Pike's Peak. But I have done that before and I think Matt and Jacob did it also with their Nana and Papa. I'll leave you today with a few more scanned photos from that trip nearly 13 years ago. Have a good weekend and a Happy and Safe Easter!