Our Journey to Colorado

I finally have some time to write an entry about our trek to Colorado Springs.

We were planning on starting our journey at some point early on Friday, December 22. While we were finishing up packing up our home, we noticed on the Weather Channel that a big winter storm hit Denver and the surrounding areas. We decided to postpone our departure until the next day so that we could avoid driving through snow. It was actually a good thing that we changed our plans, because we did not actually finish clearing out and cleaning our home until 1:00 PM on Saturday. We departed our home shortly thereafter. I drove the 24-foot diesel rental moving truck (maximum speed of about 30 MPH uphill) and Lisa drove our completely packed 1995 Honda Odyssey.

We got reinforcement that we made the correct decision to leave Los Angeles during the first four hours of our journey. The traffic was horrible (the worst that Lisa had ever seen). There was some kind of 'police activity' (a car chase and shootout) on the I-15 toward the I-40. What a fitting send-off the freeways of L.A. gave us. We were planning on making it to Flagstaff, Arizona, but we only made it to Kingman. Total drive time on day 1: 9 hours. We stayed at a Motel 6 there that just happened to have freight trains passing nearby seemingly every 15 minutes blaring their horns.

The next morning, Christmas Eve, we headed out at around 9:00 AM and planned on driving as far as possible. We obviously were not well rested. But we still had a small glimmer of hope that we could make it all the way to Colorado Springs before midnight. It was actually exciting for Alex to drive through Arizona. He had not been there since he was about 1 month old. He was born in Yuma (affectionately nicknamed the Hellhole). The scenery was great through Arizona and New Mexico. Lisa and I were fading fast, however. At every stop, we seemed to look at each other and realize that we were not going to make it. At about 5:00 PM while we were at a truck stop in New Mexico, we decided to find a place to stop for the night near Albuquerque. We checked into a Super 8 Motel at 7:00 PM. Total drive time on day 2: 10 hours.

Alex and Marisa wrote a couple of small messages to let Santa know where we were. They left the notes and a cereal bar on the chair in our room. Amazingly, Santa was able to find us. We celebrated Christmas a little while before we headed out for our final leg of our journey at 8:30 AM.

I thought that it was very symbolic that we first hit Colorado on Christmas Day. It is not only the birth of Jesus, but it is also the birth of our life as a family here. What great things can we accomplish here?

We made it to our hotel, La Quinta Inn, in Colorado Springs at 4:30 PM. Total drive time on day 3: 8 hours. According to Map Quest, the trip from Harbor City to Colorado Springs was supposed to take 19.5 hours. It took us 27 hours.

We met Lisa's parents at the hotel. They had come out from Topeka, Kansas to visit with us. We had a Christmas Day feast at that old time traditional holiday standby...Denny's. We made it! Merry Christmas.