The Specter Family Blog

Matt -- Steph -- Faith -- Mari -- Robby -- Hannah -- Salsa -- and........



Friday, June 15, 2007

2 more things

First of all - make sure you all scroll down when you stop by - we just posted about 4 times in 20 minutes - things tend to all happen at once. So if you see a new post, it might not be the only one.

Secondly, wanted to send one more picture along - this one pretty much sums up life on the road with the Specters. A bizarre combination of high-tech and faux-roughing it. Talk to you all tomorrow.




Matt

"Good job, God!"

Phew! The past two days have been fairly exhausting yet mindblowing! As Matt and Bob already posted, the Rocky Mountains National Park was pretty amazing! For those of you who have been to Glacier National Park in Montana, Matt and I put it this way: RMNP is bigger than Glacier for sure and has more trees. Not at ALL to diminsh Glacier because we still LOVE it but it has less to look at, if you can believe it!

It was great to spend some time walking around Estes Park and shopping and eating lunch before we went up in to the RMNP. I had been pretty confused all along -- this whole time I had thought Estes Park was the name of the Rocky Mtns Park. I was so confused when we got to Estes and it was this very adorable and pretty shopping and eating area. Hm. I'm all straightened out now!

Karen's cousin Ivy was with us of course, and we loved having her with us! Faith warmed up to her pretty quickly which is great. ANYway, Ivy took us on a very short and very level walk around a cool lake called Bear Lake. Faith was excited because she got to put her hand in the water. "Oh, Mama, it's so COOOOLD!" Eventually we made our way up to the highest point (about 12,020 ft). Karen and I had some issues with it -- the usual shortness of breath and headaches -- but it was SO SO worth it!j

The drive today up and through the Rockies was pretty awesome. Matt and I had driven through it eastbound on our trip in the summer of 2003. It was cool to come the other way this time. Matt and I agree that it seems like once you finally get over the Utah border, the scenery seems to change pretty quickly. Think desert, HUGH caynons, mountains, red, red rocks. Just so cool.

At one point Matt and I were in the back of the rv with the girls and Matt, who has always sort've had a special fondness for the Utah scenery since we drove through in 2003, looked up to see some pretty awesome rock formations. He said, and he is very spiritual but not usually overly vocal about his spirituality, or well much of a lot of things really, "Good job, God!" I laughed but totally think that that statement sums up this trip so far really well! We feel so blessed to live in this glorious, geographically blessed nation of ours. It is just beyond words and since I'm not the best at words, I'll just let Matt's pics do justice for themselves.

By the way, as I type this, I'm sitting at the dining table/bench in the rv and Mari's in her pack 'n play across from me in the "kitchen". She's supposed to be sleeping but she keeps peeking her eyes just above the top of the railing and cracking up then falling back on her tummy. Aye. I hope that she sleeps in past 5:45 in the morning since the younger of the 4 Specters share a bedroom!

Love you all and miss you all! Steph

Quick pics

Really tired - 2 long days of driving. We're taking a day off tomorrow - hopefully I'll be able to post more then. For now, get a load of this - this is the actual view from just outside our RV at the campground. We can see this out the window. Look closely at one of the photos and you can actually see 2 arches - Arches National Park is only a few miles away.

Matt




Bob's Thoughts - Day 7

Well, we made it down the west side of the Rockies and arrived in Moab, Utah at 4:30. The driving was not all that bad, but we had to take it at no more than 30MPH down some of the sections of road. There was one 8 mile stretch that had an 8% downgrade. Thank goodness for exhaust brakes. All the trucks were going slow and using their brakes so much that it smelled like burning brakes everywhere (we probably added to this).

We also had two motorhome "glitches" today - both related to the leveling jacks. It took us a long time to get one of the jacks fully retracted before we left Denver, and then that same jack needed to be retracted again two hours into the drive. Oh well - I will get that looked at when we return.

When we left the mountains, we saw the outside temperature start to climb ... and climb ... and climb. By the time we got to the RV park, we had seen a high of 104!!!

It would be unfair of me to not spend some time talking about the scenery. Wow!! Magnificent!! Unbelievable!! Matt will post some pictures later to share the grandeur of what we saw today.

We have decided to take it easy tomorrow and not do anything much. All of us have been on the go for a week now, and a day of R&R sounds great. We found a Utah winery nearby, and I hope to do some tasting and shopping. The weather will remain in the triple digits tomorrow, so some time at the pool might also be a good idea.

That's all for today.

Bob's Thoughts - Day 6

Our last day in Denver. Wow has the time gone fast.

We met Ivy at 8AM and headed into the Rocky Mountains. Our first stop was Estes Park, which is a small town just outside the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP).

The shops and atmosphere were a lot of fun and we stayed there through lunch. I was happy to find an outlet for a Colorado winery (Wines of the Winds). We had wanted to get a bottle of Colorado wine for Dave and this seemed the perfect opportunity. Unfortunately, when we got there, it was closed. Rats!!!!

We had lunch in Estes Park, and then started the drive through RMNP. What a magnificent place. The views were magnificent. The drive takes over an hour and goes up to an elevation of over 12,000 feet. In some places, there was still snow on the ground.

Hopefully Matt can post some pictures of the day's highlights when he gets a chance.

Tomorrow we drive to Moab, Utah. In Moab, the weather forecast for Saturday calls for a high of 103! We have talked a lot about tomorrow's drive through the mountains, and I will be glad to get it behind me.

That's all for now...I will post again when we get to Moab.