Colorado Trip 2017 - CO Arrival (9/5-9/7)

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The Wagners woke up in Lamar, CO excited to make the next 2-day trek in to their final destination of Almont, CO! But first, looking forward to a stop in Manitou where many Wagner family memories have been made. We had a late, light breakfast at McDonalds in LaJunta near Bent's Old Fort - remember this place kids?! It was a bit cool this morning and no more smoke from the fires out west in the air. We were told a cold front cam through last night.

Lamar, where we overnighted, is where there were sidewalk sales one year and a young Jim bought little Kristie a pair of bright red sandals with his own vacation money. Shortly after, he bought the whole family donuts for breakfast in Canon City was out of money for the rest of the trip!That was also the year we camped our vacation at Cutty's.

(As a side note, when this conversation was taking place on the family group text messages, Jim had a quick reply to Mom's memory which stated: "I don't remember running out of money but i do remember running to the bathroom after riding horses at Cutty's because I had to poop the whole horse ride..." LOL! to which Dad responded: "Not all memories are so pleasant! 😄"

Once on the road, the view was of many, many hayfields and cut sorghum fields. We passed mile after mile of this view on the way from Lamar to LaJunta in eastern Colorado! 

    

As we approached Pueblo, our excitement mounted as that is generally where we are able to catch our first glimpse of the mountains, however, we were so disappointed at 1:30pm local as we could not see them from Pueblo or on the way in to town as we were coming west.

First hazy glimpse of the mountains!

In another aside, we had a check engine light that came on in our car after we gassed up last night and  were not sure what it could signify. After speaking with Lisa, we thought it was possibly just a loose gas cap and decided to go on. There was no Dodge dealership in Lamar but we stopped in Pueblo where there was. We had them check our yellow light and they said not to worry. When we fuel up it runs some sort of test which this time found something that didn't fit quite right so it flipped the light on. They said it will reset itself after it cycles a few times or if not we can have a dealer do it when we get home.

Once we reached Pueblo and turned north toward Colorado Springs and Manitou for the night, we could see the mountains, we finally get our first glimpse of the mountains around 3pm! Lots of smoke again but it is still a beautiful day! With some imagination, you can share the vision we have of the mountains in the distance.






TO BE CONTINUED...