Road Trip - Colorado to Tennessee

Our time in Colorado was restful, which is just what we needed.  We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and were able to attend church with my sister and niece on Sunday.  

Then Monday morning (Day 4) we hit the road again.  Driving East, we waved good-bye to the Rockies in the distance.  We wouldn't been seeing mountains like them for awhile.
  

We were headed across the Great Plains.  This field of corn though, is in Colorado.  

We saw a helicopter crop dusting, as we left town. 
  

We entered Kansas and spent the day driving through it.  It probably took about 9 hours. 

Somewhere along there we hit 90,000 miles on our car.  

After stopping for gasoline, we got back on the road to a very vibrant rainbow, right in front of us. 

It was a double rainbow and it went from one side of the road to the other!  We'd never seen anything like it before in our lives.  It lasted quite a long time too.  It must be a good omen.  


We then reached the Missouri border.   I missed the state line, I guess.  A few of my "Welcome to..." state sign pictures turned out too blurry and/or too dark or something.  So Missouri's state sign is missing from my collection.  Sad.  

It's also sad that we drove clear through Missouri at night, so I have no idea what Missouri looks like.  I keep bringing that up to my husband because it was his idea to keep driving.  My idea was to get a hotel.  

We spent a loooong  night in the car.  James & I took turns driving.  The kids slept... mostly... sort of... until 4am, anyway.  We were on a mission though, to get to Manchester, Tennessee.  

This whole trip was mostly about going to see my parents, in Tennessee, but there were a few other things we wanted to do and see as well.  

First, we wanted to see family/cousins!  We also wanted to go to Nauvoo, Illinois.  

For Taylor, she really wanted to see the Mississippi River.  She'd read books about it when she was about 5 or so and kind of became obsessed with it.  She'd written her own little book about the Mississippi River.  She had even learned how to spell it, super fast, MISSISSIPPI!  

We first crossed the Mississippi River in the middle of the night, on a very narrow bridge.  We crossed it just barely above where the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers join.  

So we went from Missouri, over the Mississippi River, into Illinois and then almost immediately crossed the Ohio River and into Kentucky.  We were in 3 different states and crossed 2 major rivers in a matter of a couple of minutes.  Now that's how you do it!  It made us feel like we were covering lots of ground.    

And Taylor slept through it all.  We had to break it to her gently the next day, when she asked how we got to Tennessee without going over the Mississippi. 

Sunrise from the car again.  This was in Kentucky.  What I saw of Kentucky was beautiful.  Green and lots of trees.

And then, there. it. was!   Tennessee!!!   We finally made it!  We hollered for that one!  

We went through Nashville at about 6 - 6:30am, on a Tuesday morning.  We were trying really hard to avoid rush hour.  The road that had been mostly quiet all night was suddenly very busy, but I think we avoided the worst of it. 

This is as close to Nashville as we came.  

After driving for about 24 hours straight, we finally arrived at my parent's place in Manchester, Tennessee!  It was so exciting to see them.  It had been a whole year since we'd seen them face to face.  Thank goodness for FaceTime because it didn't feel nearly that long. 

 

We were so thrilled to be there, that James & I went and took a nap while the kids hung out with Nana & Papa.  That's what grandparents are for, right?

Stretched out.  Legs up.  Lounging on the couch.  No seat belt. 
Life is good at Nana & Papa's!