GNAST: Day Four

Starting: Wichita, KS/Derby, KS
Destination: Camp Dick, CO
Distance: A [redacted] LOT (We lost count.)

Welp. Here we are. We are safely in our tent on our campsite, about 9500 feet above sea level. It was an adventure to get here.

We left the wonderful home of Jessica and Thomas this morning after a leisurely breakfast (I ate leftover mac n cheese because I'm an adult and you're not my real dad, and also because sugary breakfast foods like syrup make me nauseous first thing in the morning) and packing up and proceeded to defeat the interminable stretches of Kansas. The Flint Hills yesterday were beautiful, but the rest of Kansas was still pretty nice. It was utterly inoffensive, which the rest of the midwest cannot claim. I took about 50 pictures of Kansas. I'm not even kidding. That said, there was that moment where, after driving two hours to get back on I-70, our GPS (named Susan) said, "Continue 410 miles." That was slightly demoralizing. And then my crappy T-Mobile phone hit a dead zone that lasted approximately all of those 410 miles. It found a signal again in Denver-Boulder and then promptly lost it again.

The weirdest Kansas ever got was this random billboard by a field that had no words. Just a picture of Jesus peeking out of a wheat field like some kind of creeper.

We stopped in Hays, KS for lunch, at a diner and brewery downtown called Gella's Diner. It was fucking amazing. It was slightly pricy, but everything was totally worth it. I had bierocks, garlic fries, and house-brewed root beer (which had unlimited refills and cost the same as regular soda). Aaron had schnitzelsomething sandwich and asparagus. We devoured it, but weren't able to finish our last bites. Those french fries. They were heavenly. (I mean, the bierocks were as good as I'd hoped, too.) They were beer-battered and perfectly crispy, a healthy portion, and the insides were fluffy. Also, they were completely covered in legit, solid garlic and herbs. I am ruined for garlic or herb-seasoned french fries forever. FOREVER. Go to Hays, Kansas. Go to Gella's. Eat ALL THE GARLIC FRENCH FRIES.

At some point in eastern Colorado, we passed another car with a South Carolina license plate. We did slightly-spastic double-takes at each other.

Colorado so far is disappointingly smoky. The wildfires in Canada and Alaska completely killed our first views of the Front Range and some beautiful vistas of rolling plains. Leftover rainclouds and some mild misty showers from the cold front passing through combined with the smoke, and despite driving straight at the Rockies during sunset, we saw exactly nothing. Denver is under an awful lot of of construction, so the drive through Denver was pretty unfortunate. Boulder was prettier. We finally got on our mountain highway, winding through Boulder Canyon, and then the sun went down into mountain twilight, and we were driving through twisty, hilly, narrow, wet mountain roads in the clouds/fog/mist with like 30 feet of visibility, max. We finally found our campsite and when we got out of the car, it was full dark, maybe 50 degrees, and misting. We ran straight to the vault toilets next to our site.

Aaron is an American hero and an icon for pulling off that drive. Let me tell you. And then he put up the tent in shorts, a t-shirt, and flip-flops. I at least had a windbreaker and Jessica's snow pants. (And flip-flops.)

So we put up our tent, in the cold, rainy, dark, and promptly dove inside to change our clothes and huddle under the blankets and journal.

It's midnight Eastern Time as I write this. We haven't eaten dinner, coasting instead on our two hearty meals in Kansas and copious car snacks (read: rice cakes and soda). This is how you lose weight, y'all. We have food, but it's buried in the cooler in the car, and neither of us feels like digging it out in the dark, in the rain, at 'midnight,' just to deal with bear boxes and the like. I'm hungry. I'm not that hungry.

Tomorrow, though! Tomorrow we have all day in the Rockies. We'll hit Rocky Mountain National Park, refuel in Estes Park, and actually see what the hell we drove through. We figured God was hiding the views until we were in position to handle it and appreciate it properly.

But tonight, I am grateful for another safe and uneventful drive, for a dry, reasonably warm tent, warm, dry clothes, blankets, and a very warm husband next to me.