I had no idea what to expect driving cross country. The longest drive I have taken prior to this experience, is to Florida. The Florida drive is mostly done on interstate highways, and very boring. This drive is not a boring interstate highway drive. It is amazing. Seeing parts of the country that I have never seen before is fascinating and the entire drive is a beautiful experience!
We drove from Shenandoah, Virginia to Dry Ridge Kentucky to visit “The Ark Encounter” (https://arkencounter.com) where a replica of the biblical ark has been built. This included a drive through West Virginia, a very green countryside with plenty of rolling hills .
We stayed at The Microtel Inn by Wyndham in Dry Ridge Kentucky, about 6 miles from The Ark Encounter, a ten minute drive. There are closer hotels listed on The Ark Encounter site, which would save you the $15.00 parking fee at the Ark site. I learned about this too late or I would have considered it. The Microtel is a very nice hotel. We had a nice stay.
The history of the ark is presented throughout the site, and they offer excellent food (including vegetarian and gluten free choices), an ice cream shop with hand dipped ice cream and generous servings, beautiful gardens to walk, and a children’s zoo. In addition they have a theater where they offer a variety of christian musical performances. We spend the day wandering the site and the early evening watching a musical performance by The Jordan Family Band. It is a fun day.
Leaving Kentucky, our next big stop is Alamosa, Colorado, with a mid point stop of Topeka Kansas. The drive from Kentucky to Kansas is beautiful; wild flowers and rolling hills, farmland with free range cattle, and lots of space. Much of our drive is on I-64 West, with some small back country roads sprinkled throughout, a beautiful drive, with little traffic and wonderful views. The drive time is 10 hours, but with rest/gas stops and meal stops, is closer to 11 hours.
Driving through Kansas and suddenly seeing the Colorado mountains emerge out of the fields is an amazing sight!
The next leg of our trip is from Topeka, Kansas to Alamosa, Colorado and is a 9 hour and 30 minute drive. Again, we did not drive on major interstates for much of the trip, but through back country roads. This drive was straight through Kansas and into Colorado. Our goal was Great Sand Dunes National Park in Alamosa, Colorado. Unfortunately, we arrived after the visitor center had closed. The website states 5Pm, and in fact they closed at 4:30pm.
We are happy to see Great sand dunes! It is beautiful, very unusual and unexpected! We did not play in the sand dunes, although many people do. Our hope was to use the telescopes available in the visitor center to better view the park. We are satisfied to view the park as best we can.
Our drive up to the dunes is about 15 miles. Approaching them is strange, you are driving through a desert like field and suddenly you see sand dunes in front of mountains!!
As I said, we did not venture into the dunes which are vast! People snow board down the dunes! It is not the adventure we are seeking, we are happy just to see the sand dunes.
This picture better captures the height of the sand dunes and their magnificence!
This trip has been totally amazing!! Next stop … The Grand Canyon!!
joansantacroce 