Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, Colorado

Hey Everyone,

Yesterday, August 30th we got up early and got all our school done by 9:00 AM! We left Valeda's house (our dad's mom's cousin) at nine and started on the hour to an hour and a half drive to Rocky Mountain NP. We got to the park around 10:30 and proceeded to drive up the beautiful Trail Ridge Road. There were twelve stops along the way, looking out of the windows you could see the gorgeous Rocky Mountains.  They were breathtaking, everywhere we looked there were trees, mountains and an amazingly blue sky. It's hard to describe them...Like I told one of my friends when talking on the phone, they're so colorful, greys, blues, greens and even purple, they aren't anything like the Appalachains, they're HUGE!!  At the highest point on Trail Ridge Road we were up 12,183 feet above sea level. The day was gorgeous, until we were at our last stop, an old homestead, when it started raining on us.  When the rain slowed we made the half mile trek back to the van......here are the pictures! Oh, by the way, we saw some Elk!  Did you see the new poll about our favorite stops on our first quarter of our trip? Vote for your favorite!

A panoramic view of part of the Rockies

Told you, colorful!

At the park

Eating lunch at the park

The first herd of elk, they're hard to see, so I circled

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL....

Hello All,

Well, you might be wondering what else we did for Dad's Birthday on Saturday, well let me tell you! We left Pikes Peak and headed to who knows where for all of us. We got lost in a neighborhood behind a really nice hotel. We parked, took the shuttle to the hotel and proceeded to find out that we were staying at the Broadmoor, a 5 star hotel where dad, his parents and brother stayed about 35 years ago when they came out west.  We were so shocked, we were expecting to go to a canyon or something, not a 5-star hotel! We got changed into our swimsuits and proceeded to the pools, one large one outdoor, a lap pool, about 3 hot tubs and an indoor pool.  After about an hour of fun in the sun we got cleaned up and went to Front Range BBQ, voted best BBQ in Colorado Springs! Sunday we went to Omelets and more for breakfast, came back to the Broadmoor, went back to the pool for about an hour and a half then checked out. The rest of Sunday was spent driving to Valeda Gebauer's house, my Grandma Torre's cousin.  She is almost 77 years old and a very nice lady! Here are the pictures from the Broadmoor:

The Master Suite

The Kids' suite

One of the beautiful views outside of the hotel

Daniel coming off the water slide

Saturday, August 27th, Colorado Springs

Hello All You Blog Readers,

So, you might be wondering what's so great about Saturday, August 27th? Well, it wasn't just a normal day for the Torres, NO, it was Dad's 48th birthday! So, we started the day around 7:00 AM, like we normally do.  We ate a a quick breakfast of Biscuits and Gravy (if you know us, you know that this is a family favorite for breakfast!) and headed out to Pike Peak in Colorado Springs. Here's a few facts about Pikes Peak: 


* The most visited mountain in North America and the second most visited mountain in the world behind Japan's Mount Fuji.


*  At an altitude of 14,110 feet above sea level, Pikes Peak is the 31st highest peak out of 54 Colorado peaks.

*Pikes peak is the farthest east of the big peaks in the Rocky Mountain chain, which contributed to its early fame among explorers, pioneers and immigrants and made it the symbol of the 1859 Gold Rush to Colorado with the slogan, "Pikes Peak or Bust".

* The 19-mile Pikes Peak Highway, paved most of the way, is open year round, weather permitting.

Here are some beautiful pictures I took from the top of Pikes Peak. 

Looking out on our way up Pikes Peak

Still on the way up, looking over the Rockies

At the top of Pikes Peak

Again, at the top of Pikes Peak

Dad enjoying a 'World Famous' donut at the top of Pikes Peak

USAFA: Colorado Springs, Colorado

Josh got a tour of the United States Air Force Academy here in Colorado Springs on Friday.  Here's what he said:

Yea so Friday I got to go to the college that I have always wanted to attend, the United States Air Force Academy or USAFA of AFA.  I had previously scheduled a cadet shadow tour which is when you go with a cadet to all of their daily activities.  Some of these activities include: classes, a parade review, and a tour of the athletics complex.  My tour began at 8:45 A.M. mountain time.  For the first 30 minutes I learned more about what I would be doing that day and about what the Academy was all about.   After this “Briefing” I was paired with a cadet.  My cadet was studying to be an Astronautical engineer; in short he wanted to be a rocket scientist.  I attended 2 classes with him one of which consisted of solving complex calculus equations roughly 8 feet long.  The other class was an Electrical engineering class that was not totally over my head.  After these classes we went and watched a graded the formation and parade to lunch.  This subject I had a pretty good grasp on being the CAP and drill savvy guy that I am.  I watched this impressive parade and then went to lunch.  After a most scrumptious meal, I was shown all around the athletic facilities.  The Academy has a world class athletic facility consisting of an indoor football stadium, an indoor track, and 2 indoor pools.  Once this was completed my cadet and I talked for a while about the military and the academy and then it was time to leave.  I said good bye to my new acquaintance and left.   So that was my day.  Pretty cool huh?  Let me know what you think about it in the comments section.   JTT

Whit's End-My Favorite Place

Hey ya'll, it's Annie and they're letting me post about our time at Focus on the Family's Whit's End that we went to on Friday. Focus on the Family is a ministry in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  It's a really nice place with a soda fountain, a two story corkscrew slide, a playground, a puppet theater, a dress up room and a stage.  In the corkscrew slide you wear a bag over your legs and socks over your arms (I hope they are clean).  Your head hits the sides of the slide as you go down.  The Whit's soda fountain serves snacks and ice cream.  I had a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone and it was spectacular!!  Inside of Whit's End we met the Johnson Family from Nashville, Tennessee, and guess what, they're homeschoolers too! The playground reminded me of a Burger King playground with a slide and an airplane.  A model of Jason Whitaker's airplane is downstairs and it's a fun place to play.  Daniel and I put on a puppet show for my mom and sister.  We used two fish puppets, two alligators, a horse, a dog and a parrot. If you ever make it to Colorado Springs, you must go to Whit's End; it's my favorite place on the trip so far!!  Miss you all...

annie

Enjoying an Ice Cream in Whit's End

The Johnson Family from Nashville, TN.

Carmeuse Sand Company Tour

Hello all of you avid blog readers! As you may have already guessed by my salutation, this is Ben. We went to a sand processing facility today August 26, 2011 in Colorado Springs. We have an Aunt in Augusta, GA who works as an accountant for Carmeuse sand company. She pulled some strings and pretty soon we were on our way to the great sand dunes of Colorado Springs, man made of course. In the infamous words of our tour guide Mr. George Munger, sand processing (and moving) is “a bunch of overgrown boys with overgrown toys in a giant sandbox”. This is a true statement because they use loaders and dump trucks to move their sand around the sandbox. Everywhere you looked there were conveyer belts, sand silos, and chutes which sand came out of to fill trucks and trains. We had a chance to get out of the trucks we were riding in and play in the large sand piles. Daniel and Anna climbed to the top of a pile while Josh and I dug tunnels. We had a great time playing in the sand and meeting the nice workers there. All in all we had a fun time!

Anna in the loader

Josh "driving" the loader

Don't pick Daniel up!

Us with our tour guide, Mr. George Munger

Garden of The Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Hello All!
We got into Colorado Springs Wednesday night and are staying at Mountaindale RV Resort. Yesterday, Thursday, we did school in the morning and went to the famous Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. if you don't know, here is a little history of the Gardens: The founder of Colorado Springs urged his friend, Charles Perkins, the head of the westward growing railroad, to establish a home in the Garden of the Gods. Perkins, never actually made it to Colorado Springs, but he did buy the land, unfortunately he died before he could build anything on it.  His children conveyed the 480 acres to the City of Colorado Springs and asked that it would be known forever as: "where it shall remain free to the public, where no intoxicating liquors shall be manufactured, sold, or dispensed, where no building or structure shall be erected except those necessary to properly care for, protect, and maintain the area as a public park." So you Georgia people know what our dirt is like there: red clay. Well, these huge boulders look like they are made from 'Georgia Red Clay' as my family calls it! Here are some of the pictures we took!

Ben, Josh and Anna on the rocks

Josh, Me and Ben on more rocks

Daniel and Anna under a rock

Skyline Drive, Canon City Colorado

Hey there all ye friendly people! It’s me Ben Torre the awesome. Well you might be wondering what we’ve been doing these last few days well that’s what I BT will tell you. We were out crusin’ in Canon City Colorado one fine evening when we decided to take the scenic Colorado Skyline Drive. Well well that’s all fine and dandy but it’s a lot more than just a drive. Where there are dinosaur tracks from the bottom up and rocks to climb on. The tracks were pretty cool but I didn’t think that they were all they were stuck up to be.  But that’s not all we did no, no, no that’s not all; we also saw the lights of 3 different cities 3 can you imagine that? The light was fading quickly as I took this silhouette photo of Dad, Mom, Daniel, and Josh. Well as we were starting our return trip down from the nosebleed section I was stunned to find out that we had been driving on a ridge the entire time! There were some really switch-backs on the way down. And we all agreed that our 34 foot recreational vehicle couldn’t make those turns. All in all it was a pretty cool drive.   

Anna and I didn't go on  the drive, we were just too tired after our rafting trip earlier that day, Monday. Here are the pictures Ben took. 

The cities at night

Sunset over the mountains.....

Silhouettes of Mom, Josh, Daniel and Dad 

Posting a Comment

We've received lots of emails, texts and phone calls saying that people can't post a comment because they don't have a Google account.  Here's how to do it.  Click on the 'comments' link below the post you wish to comment on.  Below the comments (if any) there is the box to post a comment in, type it up. Below the comment box is the option  'comment as' second from the bottom is Name/URL, choose this option. Type in your name, press preview below the comment box, type the security code, if it comes up, and hit publish post. This should work.  Just let us know if you have any problems! PS: Don't forget to vote, only 2 days left!

Colorado White Water Rafting

Hello Everyone,

White water rafting was so much fun, Dad and Josh had been before, but for Ben and me this was our first time.  Tom, Josh, Ben and Gabrielle were in a raft doing the rougher rapids while Christine, Daniel and Anna had a little calmer ride. The ride took 3 hours to go through the 9-mile stretch of gorge. Here are some pictures from white water rafting.

Ben all geared up and ready to go!

Josh jumping off a rock about halfway through the trip

Josh, Ben and Gabrielle after the tour

Inside the Royal Gorge halfway through our raft trip

Starlite Campground, Canon City, Colorado

Hello All,

We stayed at Starlite Monday and Tuesday nights. Starlite campground was a retro theme campground with trailers you could rent from the 40's and 50's. There were also cars from that time period. The owners had collected the trailers and cars, realized that they couldn't camp in that many and decided to rent them out.  The campground was very close to Royal Gorge, had a beautiful mountain view and very quiet. Here are some of the pictures of the trailers and also the landscape we woke up to Tuesday morning!

I"m standing right out side of our steps of the RV!

The "Pink Flamingo" camper

More of the "Pink Flamingo"

The Grill Masters at work.....

Comanche National Grasslands, Colorado

Wow, what an experience! After leaving our campground around 3:00 Mountain Time, we drove that huge RV for about 10 miles of unpaved, un-settled, and just plain dusty road.  We were in the grasslands, and it was so dusty! The reason we were headed to theses grasslands was to see some dinosaur tracks in Picketwire Canyon, inside of Comanche Natinoal Grasslands. Well, we left the RV at the top of a smaller dustier (is that a word?!?!) road and proceeded 3 miles. Christine, Gabrielle and Anna riding in the van; and finally picking up Daniel and Ben plus their bikes. Josh and Tom rode the whole 3 miles on that hot, dusty road! We got to the top of the trail that would take us down to the canyon and proceeded down a very steep hill.  Yes, it was steep, even for us, who live on a hill to begin with.  To give you an idea, the trail sloped down 250 feet in the first quarter mile.  Even before we got off that really steep part Ben popped one of his tires and everyone was walking their bikes down around boulders.  We decided we weren't really "Mountain Bikers" and proceeded to hike about a mile down into the canyon befroe we realizwed we better head back before it got dark on us.  We got back to the RV, packed up and headed out for Canon City Colorado.  We got to Starlite Classic Campground around 11 o'clock MT.

Where we turned around after about a mile of walking

Picketwire Canyon

Comanche National Grasslands, so picturesque!

La Junta, Colorado

Hello Everyone,
We made it into "Colorful Colorado" on Sunday and stayed at a KOA campground near Walmart in La Junta, Colorado.  Monday Morning everyone but Tom went to see the famous Bent's Fort, a National Historic Site.  This was not a military fort, it was a trading fort where trappers, hunters and Indians came to trade their skins for necessary items. The fort is totally restored to what it looked like in the 1840's and a living history museum. At the fort was a man filming for a Comcast documentary, so we will be on TV here in Colorado sometime in mid September, cool! Here are the pictures we took!

Ben and Daniel Pressing skins for bundles

Inside the trading post, lots of neat items!

The wall of the fort looking out at the entrance

St. Cornelius' Episcopal Church, Dodge City

Hello Everyone,

We are loving the comments, keep them up! So many people have been asking what it's like living all together in a small space, we will post about that, don't worry! Anyway, yesterday, the 21st of August we went to church at St. Cornelius' Episcopal Church in Dodge City. We had read that the church was a historic site, the only church that still has services.  We also went to Garden City, Kansas and saw the largest swimming pool in the world. The only problem with the pool was it hadn't been filled all summer on account of the drought that this part of the country is experiencing.

St. Cornelius' Episcopal Church

Boot Hill Museum, Dodge City, Kansas

Hello Everyone,

We are getting a few more comments, but would still like to hear some more! Don't forget to take the Pie Poll, only 6 days left! Yesterday we got into Dodge City, Kansas, used to be called "The Wickedest Little City in America." There used to be 'killin's daily, and all the other stuff the Wild West is known for.  We went to historic Boot Hill, and if any of you homeschoolers know your history, it's where people were buried after the gunfights with their boots still on, hence the name. We walked through the old, restored buildings: saloons (surprise, surprise), the jail, a church, a blacksmith's shop, and a barber shop which also operated as a dentist (yuck!). We also saw exhibits such as Native Americans of the Plains, Victorian Fashion and even got to see parts of Gunsmoke episodes, if any of the parents remember that! Wow, what an evening! We also got to witness a gunfight, yep, a real live gunfight. Here are some of the pictures we took, enjoy!

Inside the old bank, sorry, it's a bit dark!

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Yoder, Kansas

Hello All,

Yesterday we stayed in the small Amish community of, you guessed it, Yoder Kansas.  Yoder is halfway between Wichita and Dodge City.  Last night Tom, Ben and Gabrielle walked across the street from the RV Park to Carriage Crossing, a small Amish restaurant.  After much debate between Blueberry Cream cheese and German Chocolate pies, we finally decided on the German Chocolate. we ate the cake while watching Andy Griffith.  This morning we went to the Underground Kansas Salt Museum and had a neat experience.  This museum  is unique because it is 650 feet below the ground and you get to go through the Salt Mines. We really want to hear your comments, so post them! We only have gotten a few, and we know there are more of you out there following, we gave this link to over 200 people and we haven't received many responses. Did you notice the poll at the top of the blog above the followers?? Let us know which pie you would have chosen if you had been in our shoes.  Aside from the blog stuff, here are the pictures we took from the museum! 

One of the original cars used to haul salt "topside"

When one of the ceilings fell in June, here's the result

Bombardier Lear Jet Factory

Good afternoon,

After waking up to planes zooming overhead and cars on the highway in front of us, we at breakfast, took the RV to get the tires changed and went on a tour of Bombardier Lear Jet factory. Dad’s friend flies the corporate planes for Maui Jim Sunglasses and they buy their plans form Bombardier.  He was able to hook us up for the tour. Here's what Josh thought of the tour....  

To all of my aerospace enthusiastic friends:

As mentioned above, we were able to attend the Lear Jet assembly plant here in Wichita.  Our tour began with the room where customers select their materials and layouts of their airplanes.  That’s right; all Lear Jets are custom built all the way down to the sink in the bathroom.  After this room we were able to go out to the assembly line.  Out on the assembly line there are different planes in various stages of construction.  On this particular line are Lear 40’s and Lear Jet 60’s.  The 40 and the 60 are two different models of jets the 60 is bigger than the 40.  The various stages of construction consist of the assembly of the fuselage to the wings all the way to the paint and interior.  We were able to enter 2 different planes that were not finished and two others that were finished.  Let me tell you, there is a big difference.  After our tour ended we said goodbye to our guide and left for the tire shop.  JTT  

Going on the tour

Inside one of the planes

The Bombardier Lear Jet factory

Our First Flat Tire

Hey!

Yesterday, Thursday the 18^th we left behind Oklahoma (and hopefully their heat!) for Kansas.  But alas, Kansas is no cooler than Oklahoma, bummer.  We had just gone through Wichita Kansas and were 4.5 miles from our campground when thud, thud, bang, bang……Oh, No, what was that? Well, we blew a tire, and the exhaust pipe and the LP tank.  After calling AAA (our RV roadside insurance) and getting the tire fixed and seeing the damage we headed back to Wichita to find a place to eat and stay.  We ate at Lee’s Chinese restaurant, a nice little family owned joint. We decided to sleep in the Wal-Mart parking lot and get up in the morning and get everything fixed.    Here are the pictures from the tire blow out!

The tire still on the RV before we changed it

Inside the wheel well

Getting the tire changed