16-18 September

16th september - The Great Plains.

Great - no. Plain - yes. We left indianapolis on thursday I think, and today is saturday. By the time we get into Denver this afternoon we will have done about 1200 miles in three days. We're actually cruising through the eastern reaches of Kansas state - don't worry i'm not driving whilst I write, my able assistant is behind the wheel. She's clocked up about 600 miles, and I reckon I could get used to being chauffeured around.

I'm not sure how people can live somewhere so desolate. Kansas state is about 450m across, and their is nothing once you leave the western suburbs of industrial kansas city. The plains here are just undulating rolls and great flats of farmland and cattle grazing punctuated by the odd mcdonalds, motel, petrol station or sign for "the worlds largest goose" (my favourite) or "the worlds largest prairie dog" (jo's favourite). And we've just been past a sign for Hill City...

We left Indy on thursday after dropping the kids off (em and hen) at the airport (i had previously dropped the kids off at the pool). From there it was 250m across Indiana farm land to St Louis (pronounced Lewis). If you have a roadmap of the US, then you can follow the I-70 from indianapolis to denver. A pretty uneventful drive, but we got to St Louis quite early. Which was nice. St Louis, as well as being the home to Chuck Berry, TS Elliott and Nelly is also the gateway to The West. It sits on the convergence of the mississippi and missouri rivers and has a bloody great arch on it's riverfront which you can see for miles on your way in. St Louis has a large German population and is responsible for Budweiser beer. Everyone's prone to the odd error I guess... After a quick stint at the arch, and a muse over the attached museum, we walked on the mississippi riverbank and then cruised downtown. I think that we're still struggling to come to terms with US city structures. In most cases, downtown is just a collection of office buildings. No shops and few restaurants. Not like an english town centre. We've learnt that the best areas for eating and drinking in the evening seem to be the university student areas. St Louis was no exception and the hotel was near by. Result.

Yesterday, the 15th, was a bit of a monster as we clocked up 450m. Oooh, we've just been through a town called Mingo. So anyway. The plan was to leave St Louis early doors, have lunch and dinner in cosmopolitan Kansas city (it's all relative) 270m away, then do another 180m to Salina. Try and look it up. It's a mere dot on a detailed map. It's a farmers outpost town, which is full of cowboys. We were both amazed as we'd never seen real cowboys before... One even had spurs on! We went to a local steak house, all you could see were the tops of cowboy hats peaking over the booths. I had two types of wings. These were overshadowed however by the most amazing bbq beans:

Bean-watch - Wow, these bad boys rock. Put your Heinz baked beans back in the cupboard. 10/10.

17th September
Yesterday, when we were cruising through kansas state it was 30°. As we started into colorado and we got higher and higher, the temperature dropped off by 15° in about half an hour. We clocked up another 450m which took the total to something like 1200m in three days. The car is feeling like home away from home. I forgot to mention that we passed a rather worrying "bible and gun superstore" in kansas. Do the two have to go together...?

Denver is cold but impressive. It's a nice city which has the rockies as a backdrop. Today we are cruising even further up into the mountains, as tonight we are staying in Grand Lake on the edge of the Rocky Mountain National Park.

18th September
Wow it's cold. Here in grand lake it's about 4 or 5 degrees. This hotel is about 8000ft high. The drive up here was amazing through the mountain passes. We were at 11000ft at one point where the temp dropped to -2°. That was clearly a time to regret a lack of winter clothing. Ohhh... Today we were planning to hike or cycle, but it's just too damn cold, so we're going to drive up into the park instead. The view from our room is out over grand lake and also some snowy peaks, one of which we believe to be mount baldy. Seems to be appropriate...

Last night joey and I played shuffleboard in the hotel bar whilst sinking a few local brews. Joey's legendary competitive temperament came out and it reminded me why I don't ever play games with her!!!

Also, there was a rockslide on the I-70 yesterday not far from here where someone died. Boulders as large as cars came down and one landed on a truck. Scarey...

Joey's musings 17.9.06
Well.....i'm sure you may all be wondering, "who is this joey bird?"...I know, I haven't written since "Chi town" baby, but matt has been doing such a good job...(what does "undulating" mean anyway!) that I have left the bloggin down to him! We had a nice trip to Columbus and enjoyed seeing "baby Lyn" and Henry, also granny and grandpa too. The trip through Kansas to Denver was strange but somewhat amazing...there is literally nothing for miles (except the tin man - heidi I thought of you!). The sky hangs so low over the plains and the sunset was amazing, it was 90 degrees and windy with tumbleweed flying all over the place...kansas was on twister warning which was scarey but slightly exciting. We stopped off in a town called Salina to break up the journey, it was there that I encountered the best steak ever...the bar was full of real cowboys and the steak was straight off a Kansas ranch..we loved it. I have never been anywhere quite like Kansas but when I was driving along the road, listening to the radio with the sunset low on the plains and not a car for miles I thought this is what a road trip is all about. I liked to compare the romance of a road trip to Thelma and Louise, Easy Rider etc. However Matt prefers to liken the experience to the famous "Lloyd and Harry" in the classic american road trip film "Dumb and Dumber"....I opted to be Lloyd in a choice that was not exactly favourable!

Last night we stayed in Denver "mile high city" at the foot of the Rocky mountains. A great city, but a bit nippy after the searing Kansas heat. We are now staying in Grand Lake in the Rocky Mountains National Park...we are now at 8000ft but drove through the most amazing 11000ft mountain scenery ever. Snow expected tomorrow and about 2°C at present. No bikini's for me!

To sum up, this country is so diverse, we have now travelled about 3000 miles and seen lakes, waterfalls, snow, mountains, praries, plains, skyscrappers.....only desert to go now! Team Collins - see you in Vegas baby!

Thanks to those of you who have e mailed/ blogged, even though we are having a great time it is nice to hear from home and keep up dated with all your news..

Lots of love

Joey xxx