The Great Midwest Adventure

Ten days, 2,200+ miles, many many gallons of gas, and several gas-station Frappuchinos later, Travis and I have returned safe and sound to Denver. Neither one of us pushed the other out of the moving car, so I guess it was a success! LOTS of things packed into a week, so I'll (try to) be brief :)

Thursday night - brief stopover in E-town to stay at Mom and Dad's before getting up at 0'dark thirty to get back on the road.

Friday - Monday - in the quad-city are of Iowa/Illinois. I'd never been there before, and Travis's impression of a "loo-ee-tee-ana gader cundry" (Louisiana gator country) accent entertained me on the last hour or two before we arrived. We stayed in Orion, just outside of the quad cities, with his aunt and uncle. It is a small town of about 1,800, but it so happened to be their fall festival! So we hit up the midway and rode the rides, browsed local craft stalls, watched the parade, and went to the go-kart races. OH! We also went to a wedding also, which was the whole reason for the entire trip in the first place! I didn't get any pictures of that...oops.

Orion town center for the parade.

Go-Kart races in... Rock Island, maybe? Pretty cool!
The sun sets on a corn field in IA. There was a pretty good Midwest-style thunderstorm that night, which I had been hoping for!

Monday - on our way back West heading to South Dakota! Had to stop here, of course...

Tues - Thurs - at the lake house! Everyone else had to go home for work/school, etc., but Mom and Dad stayed a couple of extra days. There was a LOT of water in the area and the spillway on the dam was open for the first time since we'd been there. We didn't have the greatest weather for being on the water, but it was still great to be up there.

A bit windy :)

Mom and Dad toured us around Devil's Nest in the area - a meant-to-be very fancy resort before the economy tanked in the 70s. In operation for three years, but now it is mainly abandoned, with all of the infrastructure still in place.

Old ski lifts. Yes, they even had ski runs there!

"Ski Devil's Nest"

A bit worse for the wear, now!

Travis and I stayed a couple extra days and were able to take the boat out once more. Travis is hooked. His words, "I guess I need to get a boat now." And, perhaps a hat :)

Leaving the lake on Friday. You can't see it, but it is out there! At least it is easier to leave the lake on a cloudy day than a sunny one

Friday - back to E-town to have a bonfire with family and friends. A huge thanks to everyone who was able to make it out - it was so great to see you all!! However, I did not get any pictures of that either, dang. But it was a great time, as always!

Saturday - 5 a.m. and on the road to Denver. Had to be back for grad school orientation on Saturday afternoon. Not the best way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon, but catching up with friends from school made up for it :)