View of Boulder and Artist's Point

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

We took a quick little drive up the hills and took in some amazing views of Boulder and the surrounding mountains.

Click the picture below for more pictures.

Bike Ride in Boulder and trip to Denver

Wednesday, June 25, 2008



Heather and I had a great morning bike ride around Boulder (about 17 miles or so) with great views of the surrounding mountains in the morning - For more pictures click here.

In the afternoon, we hopped an express bus down to Denver to check out the city. (I'll upload more pics of Denver soon!)

Trip to Portland - Boulder, Colorado

Saturday, June 21, 2008 through Tuesday, June 22, 2008

So we did make it to Boulder alive! A beautiful day was found after the storms had passed through and we had a great first day in Boulder in the company of Heather’s brother, Scott.

We spent much of the day biking around on cruisers and were treated to a wonderful dinner with friends, followed by a very enjoyable nighttime bike ride along the many bike paths of Boulder.



The remaining days we hiked in the Flatirons, biked around Boulder some more, listened to/watched the St. Petersburg String Quartet, and looked for places to live in Portland. And, there was found occasional relaxation.

For more pictures from the good times in Boulder, click the picture below:

Trip to Portland - St. Louis to Limon

Friday, June 20, 2008

The majority of Day 2 was uneventful and quite normal.

For pictures from Day 2, click here.

However, inching ever closer to the Colorado state line in the afternoon and evening hours, we began to become excited realizing that we were making good enough time to possibly make it into Boulder in the late evening. But, as darkness fell upon us, so did some remarkable storms.

We were now on the phone consulting with my brother David back in Georgia giving us weather.com updates and relaying to us which areas were in red and exactly where tornados had been spotted on the ground. After waiting out a few storms at a local gas station, we decided we might be able to push through after one particular storm had passed. At this point in the evening, we were in eastern Colorado, and had passed through Flagler Ariba, and Genoa. We were observing large storms off in the distance with spectacular lightning displays. We pushed through Limon and aimed northwest towards Byers. This is where things got rough.

We started to realize we might have made a bad decision when we saw semi-trucks slowing down and noticed there were no other cars on Interstate 70. However, the kicker came when we happened upon two identical white panel vans with small antenna boxes on the rear of the roof. They too began to slow. As we slowly passed by them, our heads turned to look in and through the front windows we saw computer display screens and were convinced now and realized that we were alone out there with storm chasers.

Around this time it began to rain horribly and lightning increased. I was of the opinion that since we were next to the storm chasers, we would be safe because they probably knew exactly where the storms were the worst, and assuming they are not suicidal, they would keep at a proper distance. However, Heather was of the opinion that that is exactly why we should turn around and get away from the storm chasers and head back towards Limon and seek shelter immediately. So, I obliged and we turned around in a panic at the next ramp.

Now is when things were scariest for me, the driver. I was realizing that perhaps we were exactly already in the worst of it, and now that we were turning around and heading back, it would be with us a while. The best thing to do would have been to slowly drive with the emergency flashers on, right? No way – I was blazing to keep up with the rear taillights of a large truck because that was the only thing I could see. The road must have been there, but I could see none of it through the storm. So eventually we did outrun the storm and immediately sought shelter in Limon and decided to put to rest this eventful evening after two long days of driving.

Trip to Portland - Atlanta to St. Louis

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Within the first hour after departing our beloved city of Atlanta, there came an interesting happening. Our great companion on the trip, Heather’s cat Maggie, had a small accident. Maggie was in Heather’s lap in the front passenger seat with her two front paws up on the window so she could peer outwards and watch the action occurring outside the window. We slowly passed a large red semi truck and Maggie appeared a bit scared. She crouched down and replaced her front paws back on Heather’s lap, then proceeded to cross over into my lap in retreat. We smelled something horrible, and both looked down where Maggie had come from – Maggie had left a (solid, thankfully) surprise in Heather’s lap – and, as Heather says, she had the crap scared right out of her. After moments of heavy laughter and me trying to decide if I should grab a camera or not, Heather cleaned up the mess and on we went, westward bound. As for the rest of the car trip, Maggie did very well. Instead of crawling into the back floorboards and hiding, she preferred to spend most of her time in our laps and not in the cozy confines of the back seat that we had painstakingly planned out and arranged for her.

An Addendum, by Heather
While Jeff has done an amazing job chronicling our journey, he has left out some very important facts of our story. Mainly, it must be noted that the following video was taken during a very long drive across Kansas. I am thankful for Kansas and all of the amazing corn it provides, however it is not the most exciting of all states. It's flat. And green. In case family and friends were worried that I have taken my self described cat ladiness too far, fear not! It was just Kansas! I promise. I do still talk to my cat every now and then, but have not danced with her since that fair state. I promise. Okay, somehow this little explanation makes me feel like I have a bit more pride. Sort of.

We proceeded on through Chattanooga and Nashville, but stopping off in Paducah, Kentucky. Here we stretched our legs a bit and took a look at the nice downtown area and the panoramic paintings along the banks of the Ohio River.

Crossing the great Mississippi River and into St. Louis, we stopped off at the gateway arch and observed the floodwater heights of the Mississippi River. We did not see the devastated local areas, but rather just the view from the Interstates passing through and a quick peak from the gateway arch park.

For pics, click the picture below: