Transmission Troubles...

Once in Denver, we decided to camp out at Cherry Lake Campground since it was very near the closest transmission shop we could find. Unfortunately, we paid $8 to get in the State Park only to find that there weren't any reasonable campsites available. So, we managed to find a dead-end just outside of the park and camped for the night. We were greeted at 6:30 in the morning by this little guy and 100 of his closest friends "barking" at us...

I've always heard of people in the midwest hunting these guys with high powered rifles which seems a bit much, but they ARE pretty annoying. First thing in the morning we headed to the Transmission Shop to drop off the Odyssey. The diagnosis was what we would have expected... Transmission rebuild. So, we called up Enterprise and got hooked up with a shiny new Dodge Journey for the couple of days that we would be sans Odyssey... Here's the scene at the AAMCO while we were switching everything over... including the roof racks.

Abour 30 minutes later the Journey and Lydia were ready to go....

So, at 12pm Monday we're ready to head for the mountains... First stop, North Fork of the South Platte.

Live from Jason's Deli....

To Denver in Two Days...

Finally, the time to leave on our adventure has come upon us! We loaded up the van to leave, and decided that we’d get on the road on Friday night as soon as I could get out of work. So, we left Greenville from GE at about 10pm. Here’s the van loaded up and ready to roll out.

Lydia decided that since she was working 3rd shif the night before we left that she’d go ahead and stay on 3rd shift and drive as much as she could Friday Night while I slept in the back. We made it as far as Land Between the Lakes National Park and found a pull-off in the park to sleep in at about 4:30am. I woke up at 8:30 and continued the trek. At around 11:30 we pulled across the swollen Mississippi River. Here’s the view of the Gateway Arch as you cross into Missouri.

We spent the Afternoon with Mom and Trajano and visited the Arch. Here’s a cool view of the Arch from below.

Here’s the new Busch Stadium from the Arch. It gives you some idea of how high up you are in the arch.

I mentioned that the Mississippi was swollen… Here’s a shot of the park at the Arch. I’m told that the river is about 20-30 feet over its normal level.

The next day we started the LOOOOONG drive across Kansas to Denver... The only interesting thing in Kansas, other than the fact that there is NOTHING in Kansas was this huge wind farm… There must have been wind turbines for about 5 miles.

Finally around 6:00 Mountain time we reached the Colorado Border. Here’s Lydia celebrating arriving at the other side of Kansas…We only stopped 3 times in Kansas, two for Gas and one when a Nice State Trooper pulled Lydia over to ensure our safety with a Speeding Ticket…
Just across the Colorado Line the Check Engine and Transmission lights came on and the van started shifting pretty poorly... Not Good. We changed our plans from heading straight into the mountains to sticking near Denver to take care of the van in the morning. Stay Tuned for the next update