Cage Free Family

For the past few days I've had a verse from a great Led Zepplin song in my head:

...Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams
Telling myself it's not as hard
hard
hard as it seems....

Last night we headed out of New Mexico into Colorado, up the San Luis Valley. This is our first time seeing snow capped mountains, and our spirits were high as we decided to keep on despite the later hour.
We usually try to set up camp before dinner, but last night we had dinner a la carte, on the road, and kept on driving. As the sun set we were approaching Pancho Pass and our first night time drive in the mountains.

Jeff and I felt secure in our ability to make it up to the summit and find the public campground just off the pass highway, so we kept going, though I think we topped off at about 30 mph for the sake of my nerves ;-)

The kiddos played so happily yesterday and we were still singing Three Blind Mice when we realized they had fallen asleep. I think we've finally hit our groove and figured out the best way to get through the days. Our house and old life seem like a long ago dream now. Every few days we have to check the calendar when we try to figure out how long we've been on the road. Every day is a new world, and somehow, every day is better than the last.

As we approached the area the map claimed the turnoff would be had to turn on our spot light to locate the unpaved county road that took us off of the highway and into the mountains. It was pitch black and I have never been on such a pitted road; we felt like we might shake apart and could not believe it when both kids stayed asleep through the whole banging three miles that we had to take at a crawl.

We pulled into the campground and moved Neeka and Quinn from their carseats to their beds and stepped outside for some fresh air and to let the dogs walk.

Holy Mackrel! I've been to some pretty remote areas before, but I cannot recall ever seeing so many stars before. It was just unfathomable! We stood outside for the longest time, freezing in the cold mountain air, just staring up at the sky at a breakneck angle.

Today we're headed toward the Rocky Mountains and are stopped at a great little laundomat called Wally Lu-Lu's that comes with free WiFi, a kids play area, and showers.

I'm feeling especially grateful for the kids area and WiFi because just before we arrived, one of Jeff's servers went down and it is not wanting to come back online. But now it looks as if all of his machines are down, so some healthy-happy-server vibes would be awesome if you could!!

Some luck in general would be good because we're low on gas money and still 2 days from our destination too!

:-)

Never Boring!!

xo