The Mac Kinnon Family

We left Colorado Spring on our journey toward the Grand Teton's.  About an hour into our trip...in the new truck the check engine light comes on and the truck goes into limp mode.  We pull over, check the code (thanks to the handy code reader John already had) and researched. It looked like it was ok to clear the code and keep going.  So we did and traveled another 2 hours, same code pops up again.  Then about an hour later another code pops up....we are feeling very deflated at this point.  We stop in Rawlins Wyoming and luckily get the last space in the RV park. On top of the engine codes the trailer lights aren't working.   We gather our thoughts, find a Chevy dealer and John will plan to take the truck in tomorrow morning.  This isn't what we had planned but are trying to deal with this hiccups as graciously as we can.  No pics today....we were too frustrated and forgot!

Since we bought a truck we had to find a way to re coop some of the expense of the payment.  We decided leaving the van behind was our best option, it was costing us around $400 a month to drive it.  While it's been very convenient to have now that John's truck can easily fit us all comfortably it really is the best decision.  So we asked Gran if she could store it for us, we are only about 5 hours from her.  She and Robert were gracious enough to meet us today at Fort Garland and take the minivan home with them.  There was a great museum to explore so we spent a little time exploring, hanging out and getting some lunch.  Then we were back to Colorado Springs and will take off toward the Teton's tomorrow!  I miss my van already!!  Thank you Gran and Grandpa Robert.

 As we were driving through Denver Mac really wanted to stop by the Denver Bronco's stadium! We had to stop for him, the kids have been excellent with all the stress John and I have been going through with the truck! s

 The truck was still having issues so while we were in Denver we thought we would look around and see if we could find another used truck at a dealer.  It was hard to find what we were looking for and stumbled upon a truck we really liked.  We were so tired of putting money into the original truck we bought, it was draining our savings fast.  So we decided to see what we could get in as a trade and see if we could make a deal.  After they evaluated the truck we were very surprised when they told us the truck had been in 3 accidents, 2 of them major and there was damage to the frame. When we bought the truck we thought we'd done all the right things, we ran a car fax and it had reported one accident but was only minor.  We have since found out that carfax isn't good.....great to find out now.  Anyway because of the damage they would only give us a fraction of what we paid for it.  We felt like we've been kicked in the stomach.  We debate...

We've had a crazy couple couple of days in Denver (more in next post) and haven't had a chance to do all the things we wanted to here.  We did get up early and drive up to Pikes Peak.  The views did not disappoint.  It was about a 7000 mile climb 19 miles up a curvy road with plenty of great pics along the way.  The kids wanted to touch snow, we saw some goats and cute chipmunk looking things!  We even stopped to say hi to Bigfoot!!!

We were all excited to go see the Olympic Training Center, it's such an inspiring place. While you don't get to see everything we learned a ton, like athlete spend 3-5 years here which is a long time!  You have to be in the top 10% of your field and hand picked from that in order to be "invited" to train here.  Emily loved doing some flips and mack loved seeing the pool.  We learned that the girls gymnastics do not train here since the minimum age was either 16 or 18 (can't remember) and most training for female gymnasts started much younger.  It's such a cool place!