Rock on!

It's official - we're back from the great western wilderness known as the Colorado Rocky Mountains. 2000-plus miles later, we're back in hot & humid Hannibal. But what a week.

I've (Scott) been to Colorado before, though it's been nearly 20 years since my last trip west. Tammy and the boys, however, haven't ever been any further west than Kansas City, sans a plane trip Tammy took 14 years ago to her friend's wedding in Phoenix. What an amazing trip. Like Tammy said, we'll be wall-to-wall over the next few days on coverage of our little journey, but for now, I'll start the first day…

We left early on the afternoon of Saturday the 21st and stopped for lunch in Kingdom City at the visitor's center/firefighters' memorial at the intersection of Highway 54 & I-70. My little budget nazi (Tammy) packed lunch food in a cooler for us to use all the way out & back again (we loaded up on food again for the return trip when we left Colorado Springs) so we could save a little coin wherever possible. Plus, it was quick and gave us a little chance to see some things we might not ordinarily have seen - like the firefighters' memorial and the visitor's center at Kingdom City.

If you've never been in that place, drop in next time you're headed to Columbia or Jeff City. They've got huge Lego renditions of Faurot Field and Mizzou Arena that are just phenomenal to view. Amazing.

From there, we headed west thru Columbia and to Kansas City, Kansas. If you've never been to the Legends shopping & lodging area - adjacent to the Kansas Speedway area - you've got to go. We didn't stay at the Great Wolf Lodge because, well, we'd like to eat for the next few years, and we hope our kids go to something other than a correspondence college. But, we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, and after checking in, we went to the Dino restaurant and watched as Jonathan & David each built their own Dinosaurs: Jonathan built Tom Rex, and David built David Tops. Fantastic.

That's day one. Day two - which I'll leave to Tammy, as she'll express her thoughts of her initial visit through the land known as Kansas - is on the way soon.

BTW, at some point in the relatively near future, we'll start giving our point of view on our actual time in Colorado (Day 3 - Day 5). For an opposing view, please don't hesitate to visit Brandy's blog.

You'll understand why soon, won't they, Brandy McNally :)