Grant Trip -March 27 - April 1, 2007 for His 18th Birthday

Our Wonderful Road Trip with Grant

Celebrating his coming of age  18th birthday 

March 27 - April 1, 2007

We picked Grant up at the school and told him that we had decided to head towards Taos, New  Mexico and then up to Denver.  And off we went.  We traded drivers every one hundred miles until we decided to stop for gas and check out the weather which had begun to look a lot grayer than we liked.  As we pulled into the gas station, the wind came up, rain and hail the size of quarters and fifty cent pieces started to come down.  At that point I asked John to drive us out of town. I got to looking at the sky and it looked like someone had taken a jar of marshmallow cream and dropped it into globs in the sky.  As we raced west (90mph), we passed through three different storm systems.  It was just a little scary.  We stopped in a town that everything closed at 9pm.  We made it to the Subway just in time for dinner.  We played cards and we all know who won, not me . not Grant.  Thursday morning we got up to a beautiful morning.  The person who spots the first wild animal gets $5.00.  I spotted a bunny but no one saw it, so I had to wait until I spotted a whole herd of antelope which everyone else wanted to claim.

We got  to Taos and the traffic was as bad as always.  We walked around the Pueblo looking at some of the art and even tried some of the fry bread that they make.

We left and headed for Denver by a back road in hopes of seeing some wild mustangs but we didn't.  As we got closer to Denver it began to snow, which was a real surprise as it was supposed to be in the middle to upper 40's and 50's.  Grant was driving and he did a good job driving in the snow.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency which was a very nice place.  I liked the gloss elevator which I only got to ride once and only to the ninth floor which is where we were staying.  We went to Casa Bonita for dinner.  The atmosphere is fun even if the food is not the greatest.  After dinner we headed to the Chez Artist movie to see a fun romantic art film.   We played cards again and I did not win a single hand.

Friday morning we headed out to the Rocky Mountain National Park where John got his life time pass.  A lot of the park was still closed because of snow but there were some large  elk herds, one which John and Grant went out into so they could take pictures.  After the park we headed to the Denver Auto show.  I think that this might have been one of the highlights of the trip for Grant..  Great cars!  I liked the Miata best of all.  We headed for dinner at Gunter Today, where they sang to Grant and made him do the twist as a way of saying Happy Birthday.  He had a great smile on his face as they embarrassed him in front of everybody.  We decided to go to a play at the Denver Center for the Arts. .It was called Pure Confidence and dealt with a slave jockey during the Civil War.  It was a hard play because it dealt with prejudice and it hit home from our youth.  We had some good discussions with Grant about how it does or does not affect him.  We came back and we played cards again. It didn't help that Grant dealt John a pat hand.  I didn't even have time to look at my cards before John laid his cards down and won.  Grant stayed up to watch Alien 3.  I fell asleep just after it had started.

Saturday we went to the flea market.  It was a sunny pretty day.  I found a paper cast which we bought.  It was done in 1989 and a 1 of 200.  Good buy for a piece of art.  Grant bought a box with speakers which didn't fit, but we got them in the car.  I bought some vegetables and some honey.  We left and went to an art movie that was sub-titled.  I thought that it was a fairly good movie.  It was a hard movie about injustice.  We ate at Applebee's and headed to see the Broadway play "Lights in the Piazza".  It was not the best musical that we have seen but it is nice to be able to go and take Grant.  We played cards and I seemed to do a lot of winning.  I took great delight in putting the cards that I knew Grant needed in the pile so they would be buried and he would have to change his hand or to set him or John when they went out

Grant got up early so that he could go swimming. I stayed in bed for a little longer.  We went to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and then drove through the Garden of the Gods.  It was a long ride home.  Grant didn't even realize that he had slept for over 3 hours.  It was even funnier when he didn't realize that we had stopped at a McDonald's to go to the bathroom, get a cheeseburger and an ice cream cone.  He slept through all of it.  We had some good discussions with Grant and it was nice to be able to spend some time with just him.   I have decided that after Grants comments like "a loss for Grandma is a win for me and Grandpa" that I will have to find a way to get him when he lest is expecting it.

John

What I remember is the first day was spent just being together until we got to Guymon, Oklahoma and Grant was driving.  We had him duck under a gas station shelter where we dodged giant hail stones and filled the gas tank.  I drove out of Guymon as we were afraid of the weather and rightfully so.  I drove as fast as I have ever driven for any sustained time and we did not stop to take pictures as we would usually do.

The next day we drove in the Taos Pueblo past the Vietnam Memorial where we stopped and took pictures.  Later Grant would say that was the prettiest valley of the trip.  I remember being worried as Grant drove into Denver in a snow storm.  He drove well, I'm  just not used to sitting in the back while my grandson drives in a snow storm.  Later that night we went to Casa Bonita for a for dinner but great ambiance.  We then went to a good art movie which I think we all enjoyed. 

The next day we drove to the Rocky Mountain National Park where I got my lifetime pass for ten dollars.  Grant and I walked out into a very large herd of Elk where we took pictures and then we drove back into Denver where we went to an auto show which may well have been the highlight of Grant's trip.  We then went to a burger place where Grant was singled out for his 18th birthday - that was fun and then back to downtown Denver where we saw a stimulating play, Pure Confidence.  It was very thought provoking.

The flea market where Grant made a huge purchase followed by another art movie, a quick dinner and the musical, Light in the Piaza, followed.  Always a full day.  12 inch speakers in a large box barely fit in our little yellow mustang convertible.

Our last day we drove to the Air Force Academy, through the Garden of the Gods, past antelope herds and on home while Grant slept a great deal of the drive. 

Each day we played cards and I won and Linda won on occasion.  Grant had no luck.  He is a good card player or at the very least better than he was.  We will always remember these days and probably never get to repeat them.  Age, money and time will all combine to keep us from being able to repeat a trip like this.  Like the trip with Zach. this too is a trip for us to remember always.