First of February Spur of the moment Trip.Colorado to Wisconsin

[TK]

I am taking a trip from CO to WI and wanting to take my tiem and take in some sites. I will be packing lite.... Any thoughts on places I should go or thinks I should experience? I would be interested to hear...

[laydownthelaw]

I highly recommend Badlands National Park in South Dakota, and the beautiful city of Minneapolis, MN along that route.


Good luck and safe driving.


ab

[Ted]

I think that we are goingto hit the bad lands. I may be able to tie some old friends into the trip if we come through the cities. Good ideas. Thanks for the thoughts. The only thing is do we camp or hotel it.. Oh the trouble with having fun...

tk

[laydownthelaw]

Camping should be just fine, even at this very cold time of year, but ONLY if you have the winter gear to do it.

I can tell you that you will find some pretty cheap rates at chain motels in South Dakota, Wyoming, and certain areas of Colorado.

You're going to have to judge it by the weather forecast and your gear, but either way, have a safe drive and the best of luck to you.


ab

[Ted]

We have a Chevy Blazer pulling a small Uhaul. My gear should suffice for the road. I have been building it up slowly over the past few years. I find the more I get into some thing the more I want to replace what I have already purchased. I am hunting for a pack right now tat will fit my bag, tent, cookware and stove, saw and the rest of my gear. The only thing is, is that I am having issues with how big I want this thing to be. I generally to weekend trips and in the summer hit the rivers as much as I can. I think I am just going to go with a day pack and dry bag the rest. Especially in this cold weather. I don't think we will be out for more than a day or two on a hike. Thanks for the reply.

So we are leaving Colorado Springs and their huge storm comes in with 55 mile an hour winds and about 3-5 inches of snow. We were set due north for Cheyenne then to the Bad lands and what have you.. Turns out the trailer we rented was not in the best shape and we rerouted for Kansas. We went through the snow but had better weather then going north. We stopped in Colby Kansas. Pretty much right not the border of CO and KS. Nice little town. Well not really. There was nothing out there. The accommodations were nice but we had to negotiate down the pricing by going hotel to hotel. I could not believe they wanted $70 for a night in small town USA. So we set forth for Hays Kansas. I little more going on so we stayed overnight and talked down a good rate. A good thing to do is check out a few hotels and let them know the other pricing and the rate miraculously drops down. Not much to see there except an elderly women had fell while cleaning the lobby bath room and her feet were sticking out the door. The EMT's came and I am not sure if she was alright or not. Off to Kansas City. Blowing snow and and attacking tumbleweeds were the only thing on the agenda for this protion of the trip. Let me tell you.. We could not find many nice things in KC. We stayed at a Hotel just off 70 downtown. There were fights going on inside the hotel and huge parties with people bringing in case after case of Naty Light. We then went into Westport for some night life and found a Brew Pub that had a good crowd for the Mizzou and Kansas Basketball game. This evening started to get fun. Two horrible, scary and intense cab rides later we found ourselves back at the hotel and wanting to get out of KC as quickly as possible. Our room when we got back was infested with ants and dirty sheets with inappropriates all over them. We stayed at a Super 8. We switched rooms that night. The manager was nice and called us on the road and offered us a discount on the room and a discount in St. Louis should we ever arrive. We stopped at a few state parks and then hit wine country just before Saint Louis. Augusta is a fun little town were everyone knows each other. We stopped at the Augusta Winery and began to taste. ^Six bottles of wine purchased later and we were on our what to the next one. The Mount Pleasant Winery had no business that day except for the two of us. A greens keeper was at the tasting bar testing or drinking. Not sure which. Pleasant man and he told us the history of the area and how Augusta is the first recognized wine district in the USA. We had a great discussion and more to drink. We asked about accommodations and food and they recommended a little bed and breakfast. My buddy and I thought that may be fun. We headed into downtown looking for this place and stopped at the local grocer he he stated that we could get a meal and accommodations just down Locust street. We proceeded and knocked on the door. They welcomed us in and said "oh you must be the two that John called in about" Wow.. how cool and small of a town was this when the grocer calls the local bed and breakfast and lets then know of our arrival. Any way it was run by a husband and wife team and we were the only two there. They gave us dinner a good rate and breakfast the next day for a very reasonable pricing. We had the place to ourselves after they left.. But before they left the owner walked us around the town and told us about the building and architecture in the town along with the crystal meth problem they had in the community a while back. It was splendid. That night the house was abandoned except for my friend and I. After a few calls to our girlfriends it was time to crash until we started hearing footsteps and weird things in the house. We searched the place a few times and could not find anything. So we think it was mildly haunted. How cool!! So we never made it to St. Louis but traveled up the Mississippi and visited Hannibal were Mark Twain grew up and it was a very -pleasant ride until a little way into Iowa. From Iowa it was Wisconsin or bust. It was a little shorter trip than anticipated but well worth the adventure. Many photos, many stories, and it was great catching up with an old friend.

[Mark Sedenquist]

Quite a run down on your recent adventure. Thanks!

Your experience with Super 8 is on par with why we always avoid that chain.

What was the name of the B&B that you found near Mt. Pleasant?

The name of the place is the Ashley Rose Cottage. Really nice accommodations. The folks were very pleasant and had some great stories. The rooms were great. Quite large and had a large bath area which I like. I have not had that good of eggs in a long time.