At last it’s time to say farewell to the YMCA.  As a parting gift, we were able to sign all three girls up for a 9-10 am activity so Bob and I could pack up the car in peace.  (We’re quite impressed that everything still manages to fit after so many stops, when we know from past experience that stuff somehow seems to enlarge every time you take it out of the car and put it back in.)

Today’s end point is somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Kansas, but we broke up the trip by spending a lovely afternoon in Denver.  My cousin Dan moved there last month after getting a job dancing for the Colorado Ballet, and was kind enough (even though he’s a young, hip single with probably many better offers) to hang out with us – even through a trip to the Children’s Museum!  That’s family loyalty for you.

We had lunch at a place called “City, O City”, with very cool and unusual vegetarian food.  A fascinating array of different kinds of waffles predominated at our table.  Bob got some kind of cheesy waffle with roasted vegetables on top, and it was delicious.  The girls somehow got away with ordering the “waffle of the week”, which totally belonged on the dessert menu.

It became clear during this lunch that our children are starved for conversation with someone who isn’t us.  Poor Dan practically got whiplash trying to keep up with three different voices shouting at him non-stop. (See photos at left.  I think this particular conversation involved a very detailed account of Nadia’s horseback ride.)  Hopefully social skills will return once we’re back at home.

The Denver Children’s Museum is a very fun place.  We had only a couple of hours to play there before it closed, but I think the kids would have stayed all day if they could.  (This may indicate that in addition to conversation, they are also starved for toys.)  The main disappointment was that Dan decided to fake some mysterious injury so that he didn’t have to perform for us on the museum’s very realistic dance floor.

At museum closing time we got back in the car again, for a 5.5-hour trip to a campground cabin close to the highway in WaKeeney, KS.  It was just the right distance to drive, I think — late enough so that the kids fell asleep for part of the way, but not so late that Bob and I fell asleep at the wheel.  We’ve crossed back into Central time, so we’ve lost an hour – I have to say that gaining an hour was much more fun.

***

Three cheers for Dan. This guy had fulfilled any family obligations he may have had to us when he was ring bearer at our wedding (We don’t have access to them now, but the next time you’re at our house, check out our wedding picture.  He’s there.).  Certainly he could have been done with us after showing us to the coolest waffle house imaginable in Denver or anywhere else.  He’s got a bum leg, for heaven’s sake.  He’s got to rest up and mend so he can return to his ballet troupe and its performance of “Sleeping Beauty”.

                But no, he soldiered on, listening the whole time to whichever of us wished to ramble on about something in Wyoming or something else  about Utah.  Five people who have had no one but each other to talk to for three and a half weeks can prattle if they get a sympathetic target within earshot.  Ask Dan.

                The Children’s Museum held little interest for him, for sure, but it was a really nice stop for us.  We are connoisseurs of such places, having been to Children’s Museums in Boston, Providence, North Conway, Myrtle Beach, and, of course, Dover.  Denver’s stands up well to all of them.  It was not too crowded, nor too messy.  It accepted our Association of Children’s Museums reciprocal membership that comes with our Children’s Museum of New Hampshire super-membership (thanks to Grammy and Grampy).  There’s not much more we could ask for.

                Add the museum pass to the list of things that are helpful to have on a trip like ours.  Other things on the list are an iPod that can play through your car, a decent (but not too complicated) camera, an EZ Pass, a package of baby wipes, and a friend/relative every couple of states.  All these things are nice to have.

                Another travel tip (if you can stand one more): Driving through Kansas at night is preferable to driving through Kansas during the day.  This place is not ugly at all, but its reputation for geographic monotony is well earned.  Colorado had flattened out pretty much once we got to Denver, so by the time we hit Kansas we were missing the mountains for scenery.  Once it got dark, though, I could imagine mountains around us, or great lakes on either side of the road, and the single lights that were really someone’s silo could be ships moored for the night.

                It worked for me, anyway.