Sunday Drive

All three of us have been sick for over a week with a cold. Poor Keith has been sick since Hawaii. He thinks he got over what he caught in Hawaii and now he is sick with a second version of the cold. We were planning to have Oliver's first birthday party tomorrow, but we moved it to next weekend. He seems to be feeling better today, but Keith and I can barely talk and we're still recuperating.

Last weekend we had quite the adventure. Oliver wasn't napping for more than 15 or 20 minutes. We decided to go to the kid friendly, Red Robin, for lunch and then take a drive. Our theory was that Oliver might sleep longer in the car. We only wanted to be gone for an hour or two and we didn't want to get too far from home since he might be very cranky waking up in his car seat. Besides, the Broncos were playing at 2:00 so Keith wanted to be home at least by half time.

At 1:00, we headed west on HWY-285. A couple of years ago, we did this drive and found a road that headed South in Conifer and hooked up with a road the wound around to Kipling and C-470. Sunday, when we drove through Conifer (30 mins west) we thought we took the same road to the south. We drove and drove and eventually ended up at a T in the road at the Platte River. Hmm.... we decided this was the wrong road, but SURELY, it will hit a major road, even though this was a dirt road. There were several Sunday drivers passing us going the opposite direction, so clearly there was an out. After driving for what felt like forever on a wash board dirt road, we saw a sign that said 12 miles to Sedalia. The road was a dirt road. OR, we could go straight and it was paved. (lesson learned, the paved road is not always the best route. Sometimes you have to bear a few bumps in order to reach your destination). We couldn't exactly remember where Sedalia was, so we took the paved road and drove and drove and drove. All the while, Oliver was sleeping (YAY) and Keith kept checking his blackberry to see if his gps would work. We didn't have a signal so we kept driving. Jokingly I said we were going to end up in CO Springs (hour south of our house on I-25). By the time we got cell service, we were about 20 minutes outside of CO Springs and with no other road to go East on. UGH! As we approached CO Springs, Oliver woke up and was quite vocal about sharing his dissatisfaction about still being in the car. We saw on the gps that we could cut through CO Springs by Garden of the Gods. This back-fired on us and all we got was a driving tour of the G of the G and ended up on the same HWY we started on. Somewhere between CO Springs and Castle Rock, Oliver fell asleep. According to the gps, there was a short-cut from Castle Rock to Chatfield, we decided to take it. This road went right by Sedalia. UGH... we should have opted for the 12 mile dirt road!!! A 4 hours drive later, Oliver slept for 3 hours, Keith missed the Broncos game, we saw some beautiful parts of Colorado, and Oliver was MUCH happier that night. We think the three hours of sleep did wonders. This brings a whole new meaning to "Sunday Drive"

Keith and Oliver leaving Red Robin.

Ya, I know they don't LOOK sick, but they really are. How can they not smile; they just had yummy food and Oliver had a balloon to bang around!!!

Not long after we left Red Robin, Oliver was sound asleep and had a good long nap... finally!

Just what the doctor ordered, even if it was in the car.

We didn't dare stop to look around since we had a sleeping kid and had no idea where we were. Mental note, bring a map for the next Sunday drive.

I did take a couple of photos while bouncing down the bumpy dirt road.

Snow on the mountains by Colorado Springs. We think this might be Pike Peak, but I'm not sure.
Our driving tour of Garden of the Gods. We need to go back sometime when we don't have a loud siren in the back seat. Oh ya, Oliver SCREAMED the whole way through the park that we THOUGHT was a short cut.