FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA January 20, 2004 July 1, 1951. Starting out again we ate breakfast in Marysville, Kansas, and when we were outside of Oberlin, Kansas, we stopped along the road so that I could take of picture. What a magnificent scene! Looking toward the horizon, no matter in which direction we turned, all we could see were fields of golden wheat and nothing else but the road we were driving on. It was an inspiring sight. We crossed into Colorado outside of St. Francis, Kansas, and turned back our watches again because we were then in Mountain Standard Time. We continued traveling when we stopped for something to eat in Last Chance, Colorado, which consisted of nothing but a very few houses and buildings at the intersection of Route 36 and Route 71. We dined at the Last Chance Store. This time we were amazed that as far as you could see in the distance there was nothing but flat grazing lands. As I mentioned in my trip journal, "Phew!! It's been a long journey!" We had never seen such flat roads that kept stretching on and on forever across the entire eastern half of Colorado. Not even a hill or a dale and barely even a curve in the road. We continued to drive miles and miles across the same flat road toward Colorado Springs. It was a bright sunny summer day with totally cloudless azure blue skies. That is until far ahead of us we could see what appeared to be a huge towering dark thundercloud. But as we got closer and closer to Colorado Springs we suddenly figured out what the huge thundercloud actually was. It was Pike's Peak!! Oh my goodness it went straight up for miles into the sky! We had a feeling that day's journey would be the last of any flat lands we would see for a long, long time! We checked in the Travotel Motel in Colorado Springs and after we settled in, we then left to pick Paul, Ric's brother, at the large Camp Carson Army camp. Paul had been drafted into the Korean War and was stationed there before he left for Korea. He was glad to see us and we were glad to see him too! After we all had dinner together Ric drove Paul back to the camp. July 2, 1951. When we left Colorado it was a blistering hot early afternoon in with a temperature of 90 degrees! As we drove further west (and UP!) into the Rocky Mountains there was magnificent mountain scenery all around us. It was like nothing we had ever seen in our lives! We stayed at the Diamond Jay Bar Ranch Motel outside the small town of Eagle, Colorado. We stayed in very nice cabins plus a dining room and a bar. After a very nice dinner, Ric and I went into the bar for a drink and while there we had a VERY interesting conversation with a dude rancher. The rancher and I talked nothing but horses, horses and more horses!