Colorado & Kansas 2025

Maddie attended a 2 week Summit Ministries conference in Colorado Springs this past month. Matt & I discussed options of getting Maddie to/from the conference and ultimately, decided to drive her out, making a mini vacation for us. 

We left around 7am Thursday morning, making our first stop in Omaha at a Culvers for an early lunch. This Culvers is pretty special because it is owned by one of Maddie & Will's favorite managers from Moline. The store had just opened for the day and (after asking) found out that Aaron wasn't there yet. His day manager came out and took a picture and sent it to Aaron in hopes that he would get there before we left. Sadly, we never got to see him. 

We drove along I-80, dropping down to Dorchester, NE. We were on a mission to find my 4th Great (Maternal) Grandmother, Elisabeth Bainter Huff. She is buried in Dorchester Cemetery, as well as 3 of her children (my 3rd great aunt/uncles). While the cemetery was fairly small, we were very thankful for Maddie's eyes! She located the grave quickly and we were able to snap some pictures.

It was VERY windy - but wow - what a beautiful day (and a beautiful cemetery)!

Thanks to some social media pages that Matt & I follow, we have added "oddities" to our travels. We've always looked up fun/quirky stops from RoadsideAmerica.com and now with the addition of the social pages, we have lots of fun ideas for our trips! One of those fun stops was in Hastings (just a bit further up the road from Dochester). We stopped to see Kool-Aid Man!! You'd never guess that he is capable of knocking down walls!!!

I'm not sure what Matt is doing??

We also made a gas/restroom stop in Hastings - Check out these bathroom doors! Funny story - I had gone in to use the restroom and (after seeing the doors) ran back out to grab my phone to take a picture. Evidently Maddie & Matt had been having fun taking selfies / pictures while I was gone!

Here's Maddie with a baby pinecone. She kept calling it an acorn, which we would then correct her, saying "it's a pinecone". Then she called it a pinecorn. The name stuck!

Leaving Hastings, we headed north back to I-80. 

If the Archway Museum is open, we always stop for a quick restroom, leg stretching stop. It is such a nice stop with fun statues, a walking path, gift shop, museum and visitor center. Well worth your time if you're ever passing by! We are always in the middle of our long travel day when we stop...one of these times we will take the time to enjoy the museum too.

Back in the car, we headed to Denver. Nap Time!

We grabbed dinner in Sterling (after snapping the above picture at the Julesburg Welcome Center) and then continued into Denver to find our hotel. We were all ready to get some sleep!

Day 2 - we had planned to spend the day in Rocky Mountain National Park. A few days before heading to Colorado, we decided to change that plan since the park had gotten a lot of snow and some of the roads weren't open for the season. We left the hotel with a tentative plan to head north into Estes Park. One of the things that Matt mentioned was stopping at his work's home office to meet the work team that he speaks/emails with on a daily basis. He reached out to Jenny, the Vice President, and found out that the office is closed on Fridays (everyone works from home). She then asked if we wanted to meet her for coffee in Loveland (where she lives). It worked out great! We only had one stop planned before meeting Jenny and that was Buc-ees!

After meeting with Jenny, we drove through Loveland into Estes Park - enjoying the amazing scenery along the way!

Heart Arch next to Lake Loveland.

Dam Store next to the Big Thompson River. At this point, the drive (Hwy 34) is jaw-dropping!

We drove through Estes Park, making a quick stop at the Dollar Tree to grab some needed items and then headed south on Route 7. 

Our first stop along Rt 7 was at Lily Lake. We decided to walk around the lake - that was the plan until we stepped outside and realized how windy and cold it was! We decided (quickly and unanimously!) to take a few pictures and then get back to the car. The weather was not cooperating with us! There was a group at the lake for a wedding - they were all wearing winter coats. Maybe if we hadn't been wearing our Chacos and light jackets, we would've done the hike. We were pretty bummed as the area was beautiful!

Further south on Rt 7, we drove by this building. As soon as Matt saw it, he turned around and went back. He mentioned that he had seen pictures of this (Saint Catherine's Chapel on the Rock) and wanted to see it if we drove by. It was very impressive!

We were pretty hungry at this point and pulled over to enjoy the roadside creek (South Saint Vrain Canyon) and make some sandwiches. 

Back on the road again, we continued along Rt 7.

We continued to drive until we stopped in Lyons and realized that we had missed our turn a few miles back (15 miles to be exact!). We drove around the town a bit (it's a cute mountain town) and made a quick stop at their library for a bathroom break. 

After backtracking to our correct turnoff (Rt 72), we turned south again and drove the half hour to our next turnoff. As we were driving, we noticed a car off to the side of the road. We slowed down to see if they had spotted some wildlife. Not seeing anything, we continued on. A few moments passed and Maddie said something along these lines: "I saw a moose . . . or an elk. I'm not sure." Matt asked, "Was it dark brown or light brown?" After she said it was dark brown she said she had seen one in a field. We turned around to see if we could find it. While finding that one was unsuccessful (it had walked into the wooded area), we did spot these 2 right along the road...Maddie had seen them the first time passing through and told us where to look). We were so excited to see them! 

SNOW!

The weather was wacky - from the moment we arrived in Estes Park until the time we got to Boulder. It was sunny and wam, cloudy and cold, windy, rainy (sprinkling) at times. We were so thankful to see the sun whenever it decided to pop out!

At Nederland, we turned East onto Rt 119 and made our way into Boulder.

Matt found the Mork & Mindy house (used in opening credits of the show). The houses in this area of Boulder were absolutely gorgeous! 

From Boulder, we headed back to our hotel in Louisville for a quick freshen up and regroup before we headed to Aurora for dinner with the Calzia & Neels families. How wonderful to reconnect with them while staying in Denver - great food (Las Fajitas) and even better company! I'm so thankful that it worked out for us to get together for the evening.

Day 3 - We checked out of our Denver hotel and headed south towards Colorado Springs. 

We didn't want to take the interstate the whole way though, so we looked for a scenic backroads route and the way we drove didn't disappoint. We wanted to walk around Red Rocks Park & Amphitheater, so we headed west and then south - the drive was wonderful.

I absolutely LOVE that we drove through Golden! What a great "western" town!! I loved that we got a great picture of the infamous "Welcome to Golden" arch too. I asked Matt to drop me off at the river so I could walk across the bridge and take some pictures of the statues along the way. 

Arriving at Red Rocks, we drove around the park, looking for a parking spot. It was a Saturday morning with lots of people out, hiking and enjoying the park. 

We finally found our way to the main parking lot and found a spot. First stop - restroom! Second stop - amphitheater. We could've sat here all day and people-watched. We saw some characters...

Don't worry, I didn't fall...I'm acting (my acting skills are stellar 😂)

We were HUNGRY at this point so we left the park and headed to lunch - Whataburger!! Matt was SO EXCITED when he found out that Colorado Springs has Whataburgers! Maddie & I played a round of bags while Matt went in to order (she won...barely)

Matt literally just took a bite only to look up to see Maddie taking his picture. LOL

As we were leaving, we stopped to take some pictures of the patio chairs. Fun times!

We stopped to snap a selfie with this beatle - a gift to Kaitee for her birthday (which was that day!).

We continued driving south to Canon City to drive Skyline Drive. This road is an approx 2.5 mile one-way narrow road, along a high ridge without guard rails. While it is terrifying to drive along...it is also impressive to look out over the city and scenic views. Just WOW!

We left Canon City and headed back into Colorado Springs to spend some time at Garden of the Gods Park. 

Once in the park, we stopped at the High Point Overlook to hike, climb, sit and take in the beauty. 

Leaving the overlook parking lot, we drove through the park and decided to hike the Siamese Twins Trail to end our day. 

My Cubbie Bear has an eye patch!

We left the park and grabbed dinner before heading to our hotel for the night. 

Day 4 - We had purchased tickets to visit Seven Falls in the (mid) morning, so we got to sleep in a bit before packing up the hotel room and heading to the Falls. 

You are required to park off site and shuttle in. Here we are, ready to go.

The bus dropped us off at the entrance gate and then we walked approx a mile to the base of Seven Falls. It was a nice, easy walk with cliffs and water surrounding us.

With a total of 224 steps (straight up!), our hearts were pumping and legs were burning! The view was amazing though!!

We climbed the additional 185 steps to the Eagle's Nest view point - another beautiful spot to see all of the falls.

We left Seven Falls and grabbed lunch at Maddie's favorite - Texas Roadhouse - before heading to Summit Ministries to drop her off for the conference. Matt & I said our goodbyes and headed south to Pueblo.

Our only stop in Pueblo was Roselawn Cemetery to look for my 3rd Great (Maternal) Grandmother's grave - Susan Williams. Thank you to Find A Grave, we were able to find the section and knew what her headstone looked like - we were able to track it down and took a few pictures.

We wanted to visit Cousin Eddie & Catherine's home from National Lampoon's Vacation. We'd read that the current owners are not fans of visitors so we just drove by the house (staying in the car and not pulling off the road) and took a few pictures. This house is in Boone, CO (the movie says Coolidge, KS).

While we drove through Fowler, CO, we saw these cute miniature statues and pulled in to see them up close/take pictures. So cute!

Our last stop for the day was in Coolidge, KS. While Cousin Eddie & Catherine's filming location was in Boone, Coolidge has embraced the fact that the movie says they are from Coolidge. Just after crossing into Kansas, we stopped in Coolidge to admire their murals and take some pictures.

Day 4 had come to an end. Matt & I were now on our way home after dropping Maddie off for an amazing 2 week conference in Colorado Springs. We looked at the map once at our hotel, figuring out our plans for the next 2 days. We were looking forward to seeing some new areas of Kansas.

Day 5 - We started our day in Dodge City. We stopped at Boot Hill Museum and walked around the town, looking for different statues and monuments - Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Boot Hill Cemetery, to name a few.

After we "Got out of Dodge" (see what I did there, ha!)...we drove towards our next stop in Wilson, KS. We made 2 quick roadside stops along the way. 

Kinsley, KS had a nice setting for a quick pull off for these photo ops, a restroom break and a few minutes to swing.

The second stop was Downey Park in Garfield, KS. Super cute little chapel. Sadly, it was locked.

We stopped in Great Bend for lunch and a few groceries, then continued north into Wilson where we were excited to see the World's Largest Czech Egg. Wilson is known as the "Czech Capital of Kansas" and you can tell as you drive around town. 

The Large Czech Egg stands 20 feet tall, 15 feet wide and weighs 8,000 pounds!! 

We found a handful of "miniature" Czech eggs throughout the downtown area and loved looking at their window displays as well. Well done, Wilson!

Evidently Kansas towns like their pay phones/telephone booths!

The Old Tobias Water Tower also doubled as the Old City Jail!

Driving north, we stopped in Cawker City to see the World's Largest Ball of Twine! It was Sunday evening, so the main street area was very quiet. It was also under construction, adding a bit of confusion for parking/walking. If the visitor center/shop had been opened, we could've added a few feet of twine to the ball. Sadly, it was closed. 

The town painted a trail of twine along the sidewalks...

The town also has lots of famous paintings in shop windows - all of the paintings have a ball of twine painted in. We took a few pictures of different paintings but the pictures were hard to capture because of the glares through the windows.

Stop #4 of the day was in Lebanon. The Geographical Center of the 48 States. 

The actual center is a few miles outside of town. Lebanon has done a phenomenal job with this stop! We really enjoyed our time here - it was so peaceful and beautiful!

We stopped in town to use the restroom and we played some tetherball.

Our next stop was a bit out of the way (more so than our other stops!). I saw this beautiful countryside covered bridge with a clocktower while researching and added it to our map. We drove some back country roads/gravel to get here, but it was worth it. We had the place to ourselves (plus the curious cows) and took our time, walking across the bridge and taking pictures.

So, Matt found this guy while walking back across the bridge to our car. Luckily, he was on the other side of the bridge from where I walked. He was large and he was very scary!! We aren't sure if he was even alive since he didn't move the whole time we were there, but looking at the picture, he sure looks like his head is lifted up and ready to move!

We made our way to our last stop of the day - Marysville, "Black Squirrel City". There is a large population of black squirrels in Marysville (said "to be the result of escapees from a traveling circus"). The town has embraced their black squirrels and has placed over 50 large fiberglass squirrels throughout the town. There is also a Pony Express Museum in Marysville. The museum was already closed for the day and we were quickly losing daylight so we drove straight into Marysville to find a few squirrels. 

While driving from the covered bridge to Marysville, the clouds started turning dark. We could tell a storm was brewing. The clouds were magnificent - we couldn't stop taking pictures! Once in Marysville, we were quickly losing battle with the daylight and impending storm so we parked downtown and took a quick walk around the square - snapping pictures of a few squirrels and the pony express rider. We were bummed that we'd run out of time to explore the town more, but thrilled that we weren't getting wet (yet). 

We drove from Marysville, KS to Lincoln, NE (90 minutes) - ate a very late dinner and got checked into our hotel. The skies opened up just before we pulled over for dinner! We were so thankful for a full day of great weather and that the rain held off until we were done with our stops!

We woke up Tuesday morning and had only one stop planned for the day as well as the drive home. Our one stop was downtown Omaha at the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail HQ and Visitor Center. We also walked the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge and found Omar the Troll.

Leaving Nebraska, we made only 2 stops through Iowa - lunch and Goodwill! We arrived home with plenty of time to unpack/start laundry/relax before heading to bed for the night. Our time away was wonderful! We never thought we would enjoy Kansas as much as we did. We saw some beautiful areas, as well as some fun, quirky things. We both agreed that it was a great decision to drive Maddie and take our time coming home.