Mission Move Gabby to Colorado

Well it is day two of Mission move to Colorado and I’m happy to report Mother Nature has not put us in the ditch yet (knock on wood), though Tuesday night it did seem like she was trying her hardest. Coming down I-80 in-between Mason City, Iowa and Des Moine we hit some terribly slick roads. At one point I think we counted over 30 cars in the ditch! As conditions began to worsen and we began hitting patches of black-ice, causing us to begin to fishtail, we decided to call’er a night and found a hotel in Des Moine. Putting on only about 390 miles in the day. But being the good spirits we are, we made the best of the situation at hand and found ourselves at the nearby Mexican Restaurant, El Rodeo, enjoying a few frozen beverages. Before we walked back to our hotel room and turned in for the night.





My yummy frozen beverage



One of the many cars in the ditch



We got up and hit the road right after breakfast this morning and were a happy to find the roads in a little bit better conditions, we still have the hubs on the truck locked in, but for now 4-wheel drive is no longer needed. It is still windy and lightly snowing outside. But I’m hoping once we hit Omaha, NE the weather and more importantly the roads will begin looking better, making this road trip a little less nerve racking on all of us.

Well we got to Omaha and my hopes (or wishes) came true…the sun came out making it a “nice, warm” 3 degrees, and the roads cleared up! So we’re cruising along at a nice 85 mph today (granted the speed limit out here is 75 mph). This is the first time that I’ve ever been to Nebraska and let me tell you it’s not as exciting as it may sound…haha The Eastern part of Nebraska is extremely hilly their fields even have plateaus built in them to help prevent erosion.

The "Welcome to Omah" Sign

A train in Omah

The crazy fields in Eastern NE

But the further west we traveled the more the landscape of NE seemed to flatten out into huge bare fields. Something that is very boring to stare at when your on a roadtrip. The only thing that seemed to move in those flat fields were the big ol’ black beefers they had out on pasture!

Beefers out on paster in NE

We continued to see vehicles in the ditch, obviously still there from the storm that we encountered last night. Today, I lost count at 27 for the number of cars we saw in the ditch. We even saw a huge four semi truck wreck in the ditch!!

Part of a semi in the ditch

Another semi in the ditch

Another car in the ditch

And as we began to near the Colorado border we not only changed time zones, into Mountain Time, but it became more obvious that we’d began to reach the “West”. Rolling hills began to pop-up along either side of the interstate.

Next thing I knew WE CROSSED THE COLORADO BOARDER!!! As soon as I spotted that “Welcome to Colorado” sign I got super excited. For the next few month this was going to be where I called home.

Upon further driving down I-76 through Colorado I learned a few things about the West—

1.) a white bellied deer, is really a antelope

2.) out here it is not uncommon for people to hit a moose with the car

3.) there is a vast amount of empty land between “towns”

4.) “towns” here= a 2 pump gas station and a tiny café

**I’m sure this list will expand as the days and months wear on but for now this is what I learned my first few hours here in CO**

We suffered from some minor car issues tonight somewhere between Silver, CO and Fort Morgan. But luckily we stopped in a nice little town of Brush and found a mechanic here in town that will get our truck in first thing in the morning. So hopefully we can get to Denver, and through the Rockies and eventually to GRAND JUNCTION tomorrow. J

Stay tuned for the rest of the adventures of Mission Move Gabby to Colorado…

My 1st Colorado Sunset <3