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| Road Trip to Colorado!! |
For me personally, it was a life long dream. I had only been to Colorado one other time in my life and it was in passing. The Rocky Mountains seemed so mysterious and majestic. I just wanted to absorb the beauty of something like that. More importantly I wanted my kids to experience it! I had to get there for them, for myself and for Abbie's family. So...for years I wondered how I was going to make that happen.
Well, in order to make that happen I needed to figure out how I was going to house us, feed us, get us there, and how the hell we were going to pay for it. First things first, housing...well that just kind of fell into place. Abbie and I had taken the boys to Galveston and San Antonio in 2006 and to make a long story short, the trip kind of fell apart. Houston flooded while we were there and we had to hightail it to San Antonio, literally. We ended up spending all of our money on hotel and food costs and couldn't do most of the "cool" things to do.
Then just by chance we were walking by the Wyndham Resort "booth" in San Antonio and they snagged us. To be honest, at first I was VERY skeptical. But, after the crap we just endured I was willing to give it a chance. So, we went to the 90 minute sales presentation that turned into an all day affair. It did end up working in our favor though. I hustled a deal for them to give us enough bonus points for us to, you guessed it, go to Colorado!
OK, housing...check. We had enough Wyndham Resort points to rent an entire cabin for an entire week! Which also took care of priority #2, Food! The cabin had an entire kitchen, so we could reduce our food costs by cooking our own meals as much as possible.
Now for priority #3, getting us there. Well there was no way we could fly, it was just too expensive. So we would have to drive, but that really didn't bother us. Abbie and I loved the thought of taking our kids on long road trips. What better way to bond and spend time with each other than a 16 hour drive! Oh and I can't forget about David's family..they were coming with us. So, after talking with them they said they were going to drive as well. As it turned out they actually were planning on buying a new car right before the trip. Transportation, check!
Priority #4, well it is really #1...how the hell were we going to pay for it all. I had been working on that priority for about six years by this time. I had decided in 2001 that I needed to make something of myself and find a career that I could make a good living at. To do that I went back to school to get a degree in Software Engineering. Although I had not graduated by 2007 the Lord provided a computer programming job that would propel my career for the next 11 years (as I'm writing this)! By 2007 I was making some pretty good money and David and Dawn were not doing to bad financially as well. So with our bank accounts doing OK, we could afford an upper middle class vacation to Colorado!
So there we were, the five of us packed into our Expedition, "Cheryl", driving to Colorado. We couldn't have been more excited! I was really beside myself. I couldn't believe after all of those years of dreaming and talking about going, it was really happening. I couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment...
And the the entire trip was more than we could have ever imagined! The Rockies are beautiful! Everyday we had something planned. Hike, go horseback riding, drive to Silverton for the day, go to the gold mine in Silverton, go 4x4ing to an old gold rush ghost town in Silverton, go hiking again, go trout fishing, go to Mesa Verda and see the indian dwellings carved into the mountain, go play some golf at the resort, and of course...go hiking again! Everything was amazing and we didn't want the memories to end!
I'm so thankful that the good Lord blessed us with our trip to Colorado in 2007. And as we were headed back to our home in Texas, we were thinking how do we get back to Colorado?! :)
Take a look at all the cool pics we took in Colorado and enjoy!
Well, in order to make that happen I needed to figure out how I was going to house us, feed us, get us there, and how the hell we were going to pay for it. First things first, housing...well that just kind of fell into place. Abbie and I had taken the boys to Galveston and San Antonio in 2006 and to make a long story short, the trip kind of fell apart. Houston flooded while we were there and we had to hightail it to San Antonio, literally. We ended up spending all of our money on hotel and food costs and couldn't do most of the "cool" things to do.
Then just by chance we were walking by the Wyndham Resort "booth" in San Antonio and they snagged us. To be honest, at first I was VERY skeptical. But, after the crap we just endured I was willing to give it a chance. So, we went to the 90 minute sales presentation that turned into an all day affair. It did end up working in our favor though. I hustled a deal for them to give us enough bonus points for us to, you guessed it, go to Colorado!
OK, housing...check. We had enough Wyndham Resort points to rent an entire cabin for an entire week! Which also took care of priority #2, Food! The cabin had an entire kitchen, so we could reduce our food costs by cooking our own meals as much as possible.
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| Our Wyndham Resort cabin in Pagosa Springs, CO |
Priority #4, well it is really #1...how the hell were we going to pay for it all. I had been working on that priority for about six years by this time. I had decided in 2001 that I needed to make something of myself and find a career that I could make a good living at. To do that I went back to school to get a degree in Software Engineering. Although I had not graduated by 2007 the Lord provided a computer programming job that would propel my career for the next 11 years (as I'm writing this)! By 2007 I was making some pretty good money and David and Dawn were not doing to bad financially as well. So with our bank accounts doing OK, we could afford an upper middle class vacation to Colorado!
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| Here we come Colorado!! |
And the the entire trip was more than we could have ever imagined! The Rockies are beautiful! Everyday we had something planned. Hike, go horseback riding, drive to Silverton for the day, go to the gold mine in Silverton, go 4x4ing to an old gold rush ghost town in Silverton, go hiking again, go trout fishing, go to Mesa Verda and see the indian dwellings carved into the mountain, go play some golf at the resort, and of course...go hiking again! Everything was amazing and we didn't want the memories to end!
I'm so thankful that the good Lord blessed us with our trip to Colorado in 2007. And as we were headed back to our home in Texas, we were thinking how do we get back to Colorado?! :)
Take a look at all the cool pics we took in Colorado and enjoy!
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| Our amazing trip to Colorado! |
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