USA Road Trip Part 1: Indiana to Colorado
Overall Route
The map shows the loop we made over ten weeks. I must add that we spent four consecutive weeks in Denver and three weeks in the San Francisco Bay Area. The trip was a mix of staying in one place and experiencing life and itinerant discovery. This is a way of travel that suits our family very well and respects our different temperaments.
Overall we drove over 8200 km (5200 miles) on this trip. That’s a lot of podcasts and audiobooks, and many opportunities to see things.
Part 1 From Columbus Indiana to Denver (I to H on the Map)
There are about 18 hours of pure driving time between the two cities. Once you reach Indianapolis it is Interstate 70 all the way to Denver. We drove this stretch twice and would have liked to stop in St. Louis to visit the City Museum, but it wasn’t compatible with our schedule. This leg of the trip is really our get to destination stretch. There are a few possible places to pause that are quite out of the ordinary sounding, like the “Oz Museum” in Wamego, between Topeka and Junction City. One place we did visit at every passing was the Oasis Travel Center in Colby, Kansas as they have food, coffee (tea ;-), a playground, and most extraordinarily of all, a dog play area!
If you are vegetarian, vegan, or have dietary restrictions this leg of the trip almost needs a travel warning… bring your own lunch/dinner/breakfast. And if you want to avoid needing nerves of steel, bring lots of diet-compatible kids snacks.
With 18 hours of driving, how did we split the trip with the kids and the dog? We’ve taken this stretch of road twice, once with two drivers and once just with me with kids and dog. Both times we drove the stretch westward, we drove until the kids were asleep, and then some, stopped at a Walmart parking lot and got the manager’s permission to stay on their premises for the night. With CCTV and the shop open throughout the night, it gives you a fairly safe environment to catch a little sleep without waking kids, avoiding spending at least an hour settling them into a hotel room and then waking them up way too early in the morning, only to put them back in the car. We left again before they woke and stopped at a park close to the interstate for play and dog walk (and a parent nap ;-) )
At least, that was the plan. This blog would not be complete without some epic fails. Here I was, waking up a couple of hours before sunrise, motivated for the second day of single-driver long-distance driving in a lonely Walmart parking lot mid-Kansas when the car doesn’t start! A device left charging had eaten up the battery. I had starting cables with me but was the only car around in the company of trucks. Making use of a “must absolutely have” on such long road trips AAA Plus Membership and hailed a tow-truck. 45 minutes later, from the next town over it arrived much to the excitement to the kids who woke up with the commotion. It took them 1 minute to start my car and westward we went.
Funnily enough, we have never been able to cross the Kansas stretch in fair weather. Kansas readers, please do comment below and reassure me that this part of your state does have beautiful blue-skied days, for I passed four times and have never seen them. The first time, we started out on a fair April 29th in Indiana and were one of the last cars to pass into Colorado (flee into Colorado?) before they closed the Interstate (!!!) because of a blizzard! On the return trip I had to guess the road and find a hotel ASAP because of a magnificent, but completely driving incompatible, thunderstorm.
Fun Touring Family fact: combined with a different road trip to Washington D.C. and Baltimore, we have traveled the full length of I-70, all 10 states of it ( Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Utah)
Denver
Part 2 Denver
Our stays in Denver were unique in that they were a mix of tourist visits and daily life. A time in our lives like a fermata in a piece of music. Meaningful, shapeable, and a mindful pause before a new beginning. As described in our minivan conversion article, we had chosen to camp in Denver during weekdays for four weeks. Two of these we spent at Cherry Creek State Park.
View from Cherry Creek State Park
Cherry Creek State Park is an amazing nature oasis within the Denver metro area. The campsite is well structured with big sites in midst of the State Park, giving the impression to be in the country. There’s lots of room to build fires, run around and play, as well as a hundred-acre off-leash dog park.
It is a place to create happy memories with chilly mornings hailing hot cocoa and hot porridge and warm afternoons for watercolors and sweet dog dreams.
The next two weeks were spent at Chatfield State Park in the Southwest of Denver. This has an entirely different character as it is slightly outside the city and has a magnificent view of the mountains.
By now it was mid-May and we were enjoying Denver’s warm weather until the weather forecast sent a warning on a water-play warm afternoon: the next day was going to bring snow! Snow? Yes! Abandon camping - book cozy hotel ;-)
