As we said our goodbyes to Trail West and our new friends we looked ahead at the news of the RV NOT getting fixed before a month or more.

If any of you are interested in being an RV mechanic then I am CERTAIN that Denver can use you.

CERTAIN.

So we spent some time doing a spread sheet over which would be the most reasonable option to get us home.

• Rent a vehicle that fits us all- including the two extra days of travel

Find a cheap flight home

Stay a month (just kidding)

So since we found a reasonable one way airfare….. FLYING it is. The crowd went wild that we were going to get to fly home.

After that decision was made, we had a beautiful drive ahead through the Rockies.

We stopped for lunch in Buena Vista.

Then we enjoyed seeing the Continental Divide.

We made it to Frisco, CO by late afternoon. This was the last place that Blake lived when he worked ski school at Keystone. And there is a coffee shop that we went to when I came skiing with some friends when he worked there.

It’s been 23 + years since that snowy January when we sat in the window with the snow falling behind us. Looking back it was like a Hallmark movie. A small Colorado town nestled in the mountains, the girl learning to ski with the ski school instructor. The movie would take a turn at the point when the girl was terrible at skiing, got knocked in the head by the gondola, and all her friends headed off to ski double black slopes while she stayed behind drinking hot cocoa and reading a book.

Somehow as he got to know the girl on that visit, he still liked the her.

SO back to the coffee shop our family went – I had high hopes when the trip began that we would make it here on our adventure west in the RV that was now taking place in the rented “Big T. ”

I began to cry as we entered the quant coffee shop and the barista was confused by my tears. I explained that I hadn’t had a latte in years.

Actually I told Mr. Barista that I hadn’t been back since that day that Blake and I talked on the couch by the window and here we were with all our kids writing another chapter in our story.

The barista was like “Right on!” and “So you’re still married?” and “Look at all these kids!”

Next we moved on towards a few ski resorts as we took Loveland Pass for it’s beauty.

Keystone was our first stop as we reminisced Blake eating pizza day after day when he taught ski school since it was offered to workers each day. He didn’t eat pizza for a year after that ski season.

We also stopped and hiked up to another place on The Continental Divide. It was SO COLD yet super fun to take in the views.

Denver here we come.