Denver, Colorado - getting home and budget report

Well, we didn't go home from Colorado, we went straight to Disney but we did get on our first choice flight with no problem.

As for the budget report..... well, here is the problem with technology.  I use an app to keep track of all me expenses and prior to downloading the spreadsheet to a PC, I had a phone issue and had to do a factory reset.  I lost my expense report.

I do have the receipts and could re-create the report but since this report is already more than three months behind, I figure I will just have to sum it up.

We used price line for the hotel and paid a ridiculously low price.  I think it was something like $55 per night.

The car was also cheap.

We ate food that we brought and only bought a few very cheap souvenirs.  We did pay entrance fees at a couple of places.  Although I can't cite the exact dollar amount, I do recall that we stayed within budget.

Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado

We didn't spend much time IN Colorado Springs because by this time, the kids pretty much just wanted to find somewhere to climb rocks like we did in the Garden of the Gods.  We stopped by a Walmart for provisions on our way back to Denver and then pulled into a sport for a quick hike.  I truly couldn't tell you where it was but it was a nice little hike down to a series of waterfalls .  The kids did not appreciate the beauty of it and thought the climbing opportunities were too tame.  But I liked it.

At the kids insistence, we stopped back bu the Garden of the Gods for another round of rock climbing.

We headed back to the hotel, tired, but not too tired for dinner and quick swim.

Remember the part about the trip to Disney being a secret?  I discovered along the way that earl on, Big Boy had spilled the beans to Lil' Bit and she knew about the Disney trip.  I have to say that she did an excellent job of keeping the secret from me that she knew about the trip.  I thought I was surprising her and she played right along until the end.

Colorado Springs, Colorado - The North Pole

We had pricked up numerous brochures about the area and there was mention of the Colorado Springs North Pole but not much information about what it really was.  What we found was a tourist trap / amusement park.  There was an enormous gift shop and behind that was an amusement park.  The rides seemed to be geared toward much smaller children and I knew that the money would be wasted if we decided to go in.  We settled for the gift shop where the kids bought themselves slingshots and I picked up a Christmas ornament.

 

The one good thing about this stops was that it was only a few minutes out of our way.

Denver Colorado - Cliff dwelling

As I mentioned before (but no pictures), we paid to see some cliff dwellings.  Or, rather, we paid to see a replica of cliff dwellings. 

I had the memories of my long ago trip to the Gila Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico.  These were authentic dwellings up on the side of a mountain, only accessible by foot.  They were amazing and authentic and mostly untouched.

What we found in Denver was a seemingly plastic, imitation.

There was nothing to see and I couldn't even coax the kids out of the car.  I left, angry at the money wasted.

Denver Colorado - Ghost Town Museum

I mentioned the Ghost Town Museum but at the time, had not yet uploaded the pictures.  Here they are.

 

 

As you can see, there wasn't much there.  You could only go into one of the "buildings"... the saloon.  The insides of the buildings were set up to replicate whatever type of business or home it was supposed to depict but each vignette was cluttered and the labels, while useful, detracted from the experience.  Big waste of time and money.

Heading out again

I went to the library the other day to upload my pictures but forgot to bring one of my disks.  Now, we are headed out again and I am not sure if I will have internet or not.  We are going to New Orleans for the weekend so don't expect much from me for the next few days.

We must interrupt this trip report with an announcement

Even though we went to Colorado months ago, apparently, I didn't finish downloading the pictures.  Since we are in an Internet black hole out here in the countryside, I have to wait until Monday to visit the local library and use the Internet there.

In the mean time, I will ramble on about the thought process behind our next trip.

If you look at our travel map, you will see that there is a tiny little hole right in the middle of a whole lot of orange.  We have not yet made it to West Virginia.  I have but the kids have not.  The reason for this is our airline does not fly to West Virginia.  It makes sense to drive there since we can make it to the closest corned in about 4 hours driving.  A couple of the places we would like to see are about 7 hours from our house.  We were considering going this weekend but my husband is....well.... how do I put this.... my husband is a big old scardey cat.  He doesn't want the kids and I traveling so far in our beat up old van.  He also cited the expense of driving so far (for what he considers a silly reason, I am sure)  So, West Virgina will have to wait for now.  I think we would enjoy it more in the spring or summer anyway when everything is all greened up.

The kids have a three day weekend and I am always off on Mondays  I spent the day looking at flights to see where we might go this weekend.  After crossing off all the cities where the flights were full or almost full.  And then crossing off the ones where the flights would be too long for a three day weeks.  I then proceeded to eliminate anywhere where it would be cold.  I ran the cities through the weather channel website and saved the ones where the temperatures would be mild.

The four finalists are:

Little Rock, AK
Phoenix, AZ
New Orleans, LA
Oklahoma City, OK

My next step is going to be investigating what there is to do in each of these cities and which one(s) are most affordable.  In the past week or so, I lost three days pay due to illness, a snow day, and a sick child.  Since I get paid only when I work, I am expecting only half my usual paycheck.  Budget will be very critical this trip.

I am determined to go somewhere this weekend though.  Not only do I not want to miss taking advantage of the three day weekend but also, Big Boy is starting an acting workshop soon which will keep us tied up for the next five weekends.

Well, back to my Internet research.  I will blog again when I either have pictures uploaded or have figured out where we will be going.

Also, say tuned for trips reports for another Disney trip and trips to Kentucky and Indiana.