M - Colorado or bust

On average, I travel once each month for work. I have streaks where I don't travel for a month or two but then make up for it over the next month or two. Thus, I have a fair amount of 'hotel time'. Traveling with the fam is cause for interesting mornings. I awake at my usual 0500-0530hrs and go get breakfast, either in the hotel lobby or at a local restaurant.

This morning it was a little 24hr mom-and-pop cafe near the hotel. This one was smoke-free from 5am to 9pm according to city ordinance. I will take a little hole-in-the-wall cafe like this over IHOP or Denny's any day. A breakfast connoisseur am I. There was a steady stream of locals and truckers into the old restaurant. Overheard conversations about car shows, cattle auctions, and how things used to be fill the air.

The tricky thing after breakfast is that I'm not allowed to re-enter the hotel room until the family awakes (or one member awakes and it's my job to retrieve said member, always a kid, so that the other members of the family can continue sleeping). Thus, I normally have some great alone time to catch up on work-related issues and, as was the case this morning, cruise the streets of Salina, KS for interesting sites. Alas, there were none save for the St. John's Military School. In effect, it appears to be a school in part for troubled youth in need of 'reformation'. The reviews on Google Maps are raving. If you are having trouble with your young 'un, I can now confidently recommend St. John's for the answer to your little rebel's travails.

Seeing our little ones asleep in the same bed, with a fortress of bed bars surrounding, is really nice. I hope they are always such good friends. As you might imagine, they have their not-so-great moments. But by and large, Noah is an amazing big brother and caretaker of the little blonde fireball named Katie. And Katie worships the ground on which Noah treads. Dana laughed herself into tears yesterday on our way to Salina as we listened to Noah's attempt to sing a Hard Hat Harry song with his headphones on. At last count, he managed only to get approximately every third word correct but that did nothing to diminish his efforts to sing right along with the song.

Our final destination today is Colorado Springs. If all goes well we will be there this afternoon ready for some sight-seeing.

Nothing like a gourmet Fairfield Inn breakfast!!