3,000 Miles (With a 3-year-old and a Baby)

By HMA Team on October 28, 2021

The Ross Family recently concluded a road trip to Colorado to visit family, friends, and the beautiful changing Aspen groves.  I talked Andrea into making it a driving trip as schlepping all the needed baby gear through airports seemed downright torturous.  Not to mention rental car prices would have taken a tidy sum out of our college savings plans.

Our brilliant idea to leave at 3 a.m. so that the kids could sleep didn’t exactly work out as planned.  Neither did, and boy, was it a challenging first few hours.  The “are we there yets” began before sunrise, and just barely after crossing the border into Illinois.  Thankfully we planned ahead.  Our first destination in Colorado was an interactive dinosaur museum and we used it as leverage with Charlie for good behavior in the car.

The first driving day was rather uneventful after we calmed the initial storm.  We arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska at lunchtime, checked into our hotel, grabbed some lunch, then headed to the Children’s Zoo.  If you have little ones this place is a true gem.  The layout is compact, and everything is geared towards kids.

I should note that suite-type hotels with kitchens and dish washers are a godsend for families with small children.  I had never used that filter in search listings but I’m glad I did.

Driving day two started at a more appropriate hour and I enjoyed the change of scenery from corn fields to great plains.  The kids were pretty well-behaved, and we pulled into the Dino museum with enough time to visit before their closing.

After a few hours at the museum, we made the final two-hour push to my cousin’s house in Florissant, Colorado.  I always knew he lived “out there”, but upon arrival I found out just how far away from civilization his homestead really is.  The pavement ended about a mile before their steep dirt driveway.  He has a beautiful little house on five acres within the Pike National Forest with incredible views of Pikes Peak.  I was very thankful that the guest accommodations were on the main level as lugging our gear up stairs at 9,200 feet seemed tiring.  The advice is to acclimate slowly, but we went up from 700 feet in one day—oh well, everything turned out okay, but they did offer oxygen canisters should we feel lightheaded.

We had a great weekend visit with them that included a hike, teaching Charlie how to fish, and an off-road vehicle ride through the National Forest.  Charlie was too impatient to follow through, but his line did catch a trout while he was making “sand angels” with his body ten feet behind.  He saw the preparation and cooking of the fish, but we couldn’t get him to try a bite.  Choose your battles my mother says.

After a few days down in Denver visiting friends and clients, we headed back up the hill to Crested Butte with friends that have children the same age as ours.  A little snow had fallen on the peaks the night before making the four-hour drive incredibly scenic.  The weather on day one was cool and rainy, but it didn’t stop us from enjoying a hike from the trailhead beginning right outside the back door of our rented house.

The weather cleared beginning day two and we were able to enjoy everything that the area had to offer.  More known as a ski town owing to the mountain and resort amenities in the village, Crested Butte is also a mecca of mountain biking in warmer months.  I don’t have a photo to prove it, but I did enjoy (read: survive) two days of biking with traveling companion Nathan.  He’s an experienced rider and was gracious enough to stop (frequently) whenever my lungs were on fire during the climbs.  He also made sure my bones remained unshattered on the resulting downhills.  But the scenic vistas provided were incredible and now I have an itch to get into the sport.

The time not spent hiking and biking was filled by managing the babies’ intake and output, while supervising the “big kids” as their imaginations ran wild.  We also headed into town for lunch one day to check it out.  The vibe is very natural, and very unlike what you’d find in Vail, Breckenridge, or Aspen which we were glad for.

The twenty-hour drive home loomed in my mind the last few days as I wondered how the kids would do without the excitement and anticipation of adventure ahead.  It didn’t start out well.  In our rush to pack the car and get on the road the “big kids” helped themselves to a nutritious breakfast of blue popsicicles and chocolate milk.  To get back to our side of the Continental Divide we needed to scale the Cottonwood Pass.  The hairpin turns and elevation change turned Charlie’s stomach (remember the breakfast?) and we got to see for ourselves what he had consumed.  Thankfully the pass has a scenic viewpoint parking lot that afforded us the ability for a clean-up and wardrobe change.  I snapped this photo to memorialize the event.

The plan was to push ahead for as far as conditions allowed, and the boys were good enough for 14 hours to Des Moines.  After a quick overnight we were on the road again and were able to pick up the dog from boarding right before they closed.  Our happy little family had a wonderful adventure and were all back at home safe and sound.  When Charlie asked Mommy when we could again drive to see the Dinos in the mountains she replied with: Teddy and Mommy will meet you and Daddy at the airport.