Skrdla Family

Summer Vacation (Take 2)

Instead of taking one long vacation this summer, we opted to schedule two separate events, partly because of the newest addition to our household, partly for convenience sake. The earlier trip was documented earlier, but at the end of July, we again loaded up the suburban and headed for the great outdoors.

We began our trip with a Thursday night trip from our house to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We left after Papa got off work and (due to a couple of construction detours) arrived at about 11:00 PM. Early the next morning (vacation early, not regular early - like 9 AM) we headed out for the first fun stops of our trip. We were accompanied by Aunt Kylie and her two little ones for this leg of the trip. We stopped at Smith Falls and then Merritt Reservoir before parting ways with our cousins (and aunt) and heading to Chadron.

We stayed in a cabin there for the next two nights, enjoying a day trip to Carhenge and Box Butte on Saturday before hitting Mass in Chadron that evening.

Early Sunday, we rose, packed up the last of our stuff, stopped by Kimball for a rubbing, and headed home (with a slight detour through Denver). We know, we know, Denver isn't exactly on the way, but the girls had never seen the mountains, and they wanted to go to a new state this summer, and... well, read about it in that post.

All told our trip covered nearly 1500 miles. We had an awesome time, listened to the Frozen soundtrack at least 10 times, and still made it home only having used one of Papa's vacation days. We feel very blessed to be able to take vacations like this. We don't have a lot of blow money, so two vacations in a summer would be a pinch. However, finding ways to save money, like packing a cooler full of food for easy meals, camping, or enjoying a cabin stay which we won by doing the Great Park Pursuit last summer, we can squeeze all the fun out of every dollar. We were proud that our only real expenses were gas, coffees (to keep the driver and navigator awake, and one fast food stop because of unplanned delays. At the risk of sounding cliché,

Gas.........$375
Coffees...$25
Fast Food...$10
A 1500 mile vacation in 80 hours....Priceless.

So without further ado, here are the details:
Smith Falls
Merrit Reservoir
Chadron State Park
Carhenge
Box Butte
Scenic Drives
Kimball
Denver
..and arriving home at nearly 2 AM. Totally worth it.

Denver Detour

After departing Kimball, we noticed that we were almost in Colorado. We were running ahead of schedule, too, so we thought we would go visit another state.

Bernadette took this shot of Papa and Mama at the border.

After a stop at the border, we realized the girls have never seen mountains before. "How close to Denver do you have to get to see mountains?", we wondered. Answer: Pretty close.

We headed toward Denver to see. After 2 hours of driving, we finally arrived and found that due to the cloudy day, it was actually rather difficult even from within the city to see mountains.

So what could we see instead? Bernadette raised the question, "Don't the Broncos play football in Denver?" and with Papa behind the wheel, our destination was set.

We arrived just in time to find out that it was an open practice that day. Unfortunately, the practice ended about 20 minutes before we go there. But that didn't mean there wasn't plenty of Orange walking around. It was fun to see the stadium and became one of the highlights of our trip.

We left Denver at about 3:00 PM knowing we had a long drive ahead. What we didn't know was that we would be stopped on the interstate for nearly two and a half hours after a car accident and that, though the rest of our trip went well, we wouldn't get home until nearly 2:00 AM. Fortunately, we had nothing to do the next day... all except Papa who had to get back to work.

Kimball

Before heading home, we had one last NEGPP stop. This was in Kimball, NE at their golf course. Unfortunately for us, Mama and Papa don't golf, so we stopped for a rubbing and a quick picture before heading home... or maybe somewhere else?

Courthouse and Jailhouse Rocks

On our trip, we drove by Courthouse and Jailhouse rocks near Bridgeport, NE. We attempted an artsy shot here.

Box Butte

Another NEGPP stop on this vacation was at Box Butte SRA. This lake is behind a man made dam built off the beaten path in the panhandle of the state. We went with the intention to have a picnic and enjoy some quiet time, so we had a pretty good time, though the camera was nearly out of battery, so there weren't many pictures to share.

Carhenge

No summer vacation can be complete without visiting at least one tourist destination. Ours came in the form of Carhenge. For those not from the fair state of Nebraska, Carhenge is a model of the world famous Stonehenge found in the UK. As the story goes, a man near Alliance, NE decided to build this in honor of his late father who had loved England.