Tampa to Denver

Have you ever had to worry about tornadoes while you were driving? Chances are that it isn’t a top priority for most while they’re in the car. I hadn’t ever worried about it before, that is – until we drove through the plains. The big first storm we came upon was in Missouri. We were listening to the radio when the National Weather Service interrupted letting everyone know that a tornado had touched down. It was about 10 miles away from where we were driving. They were going on and on about how severe it was, but we didn't get to see it :(

Our second encounter was in Kansas. This time the storm was much more severe. We could see how dark the clouds were in the distance, but we both agreed to keep driving. Again the radio stations began interrupting. The storm gave everything around us a milky green color as lightening stretched all across the sky. There were reports that the storm was producing half-dollar sized hail. Fortunately, the only hail we saw was about the size of a pea.

Because Kansas is so flat, we were able to see for miles. We saw all the different lightening strikes from the storm very easily. At one point, I was able to see the sun setting to the right, while fork lightening lit up the sky to the left.

We could see a few tornadoes trying to form, but none of them reached the ground. We wish they had since we had never seen one before. We met a person in Kansas a few hours ago and we were telling him the story. We said that we would have loved to have seen one, and he said “Oh no, you wouldn’t!”

But before all of that, we stayed at my friends place in Tampa for a couple nights. It was good to see Steve again, and we would have liked to have stayed longer, but with so many stops planned for this trip, it just couldn't work out.

We spent Saturday at the beach. Steve first took us to Sunset Beach, which is a more secluded and lesser known beach to those who aren't from the area. We went out to eat, then went over to Clearwater Beach afterwards. It was the first time I had ever seen the sun set over a body of water. It was nice so I took some photos.

– Steve’s condo complex.

– Guy playing with fire on the beach

– Clearwater dock

Sunday morning came and we began our drive to Memphis, one of our two stop-over points before Denver. It was a very boring drive. Nothing but water towers and churches. There were more churches than houses it seems.

We stayed in Memphis, TN Sunday night. It's nothing like I thought it was. It was really run down and ghetto. Fortunately, they do have one thing that's somewhat worth seeing - Graceland. We pulled up along Elvis's old home and took a few photos. It's been an accepted tradition to sign your name along the outer wall that surrounds the front of the estate, so we decided to add something too.

-Famous blues street in Memphis

We also crossed the Mississippi:

There was a monument along the Mississippi…

…but it was very typical of the south:

We made the drive from Memphis to Junction City, Kansas yesterday for our second of two stop over points. That was a long boring drive, with the exception of the storms.


We're on day two of camping in the Colorado Rockies. Colorado is an amazing place so far. The views are incredible and photos or words just can't do it justice. Last night it got really cold, somewhere in the low 40's or maybe 30's. The view from our campsite is a snow capped mountain range.

Here are a couple photos for now, I'll add more as I take them:

-This is one of the views from our campsite in the Rockies. It's by far one of the nicest places I've ever seen, let alone camped at. Photos just can't do it justice though.

-This is part of the 360-degree view that's just a small hike up from where we set up our tent. The view continues in both directions.

We’ll be doing some sightseeing throughout Denver, as well as get the splash guard repaired on the car (getting it done now while we use their wifi). After Denver, we’ll be headed further into the Rockies where we'll be doing an overnight hike in the mountains. We’ll probably stay a night or two and then be on our way for the next leg of the trip. I’ll update again when we leave the woods and return to civilization.



Some other stuff:

Just about 4,000 miles driven already!!

…Missouri

… Kansas City

… Atlanta, GA taken on our way down to Florida