welcome everyone, Traveling Josh here, inviting you to join us on this little recap of adventure through the last couple weeks. Thanks for stopping by
So, hoo-freaking-ray, we got married! My beautiful wife and I finally tied the knot after ten years together and holy moly, I couldn’t be happier. I thought to myself what a great opportunity to finally start my travel blog and what better way to start it off with a bang. So Bang were married now!
Here’s a quick outline of how the last two weeks sort of panned out for us and we’ll dive into some of the more specific details on our VLOG which you can find here.
April 1, road trip from San Antonio, Tx to Colorado Springs, Co. (Wedding location) We actually had initially planned to stay overnight somewhere in NM, but we oddly made very good time. By the time we were approaching that town, it was still very early in the day, it was around 3pm and we were due there in about an hour. With only about 4 hours remaining in the trip, we opted to muscle through and knock it all out arriving a day early.
April 2, We started the day with an appointment at the El Paso County Clerk’s office to pick up our marriage license. It was a special moment to me because we had woken up in town, a day early, we took our son with us and it was just really good vibes.
April 2 cont…We planned for Cheyenne mountain zoo, it was such a blast. Lots of walking obviously, but even more so do to it being on the mountain. Lots of inclines. Some of our favorite exhibits were the pack of wolves, the hippopotamus which was very up close and personal, and the gorillas. The giraffes were also a sight to see because there were so many. And the elephant exhibit was really cool too as there was a sort of sky bridge that took us over their heads. After heading back to greet some more of our family and friends as they arrived in town, we were able to sort of get around the resort property, and let me tell you, it is amazing. We had stayed here on our previous trip and were impressed then, but with all the back and forth greeting the family and friends, it’s no doubt that this property is A+
For dinner we took some of our guests to Phantom Brewing Co in downtown Colorado Springs. We did have to pay for parking but it’s a really cool little strip of downtown and the beer was phenomenal. I would recommend highly if your like beer.
April 3, Trip to the Royal Gorge, with an amazing scenic drive and the train ride through the royal gorge region. We absolutely loved the breathtaking views all along the way. The train cars were limited in seating due to the pandemic, and they offered food, alcohol, and beverages pre order or restaurant style. The train has multiple ticket options starting with coach, which is traditional type seating, which were actually refurbished airplane seats. There’s also a dining cart and a dome cart which gives views from up above. You can find ticketing info and all other general info here.
April 3, Manitou Springs Ave. elevation ~6k ft great shopping lunch at Townhouse Sports Grille. A top attraction in the area and rightfully so. Manitou Ave. Is home to tons of gift shops, local memorabilia, restaurants, desserts, it’s own arcade with vintage penny and quarter games. Really a must do when you’re nearby. It’s sort of nestled away in the mountains and a great way to spend an afternoon or an entire day.
April 3, We took our group to dinner at North side social, and I highly recommend it for groups or gatherings. They have arcade games throughout the place, an entire separate facility for pickle ball, which I’ve never played before but really enjoyed. They were kind enough to put out group in their party room separated from the general area and it had some games in there too. Large connect four, foosball, ping pong to name a few.
April 4, wedding day a whole story in itself. But to summarize generically it absolutely was one of the most fun, and positively emotional days of my life. And I will forever cherish those feelings and will recount that day over and over again for the rest of my life.
April 5, Most of our guests began to leave town so we took the immides to lunch at red gravy downtown Colorado Springs. The pasta was very good and Italian options and wine seemed endless. The water served in old cleaned out wine bottles and it was really cool to serve it that way.
April 5, back to Manitou Springs for some more shopping, got this sick hat, great coffee at loft espresso and just fun to walk around with much smaller crowds through the stores, and the arcade and finding snacks like shaved ice the girls loved. ice cream which teddy now really likes
April 5, little tired now take out at the Red Robin. It was about time to wind down, packing up the hotel room, loading stuff into the truck, fueling up, all that sort of thing. We decided to go takeout for dinner, and luckily there was a Red Robin nearby that offered curbside pickup.
April 6, wake up slow, check out, Third time to Manitou only to pick up coffee again, and grab Bela’s hat b/c she loved mine so much I couldn’t get it off her head. We probably started the drive home around noon. After having to double back to our hotel because w left my sons phone behind, and one last quick pit stop we were on our way.
Long road trips are always more fun on the way than coming home. the towns seemed further ill show you our route and how much of nothing is in north Texas and its dreadfully beautiful as the sun goes down and you’re not sure where you are or when the next sign of civilization will appear. Its different driving west to me because the day is getting later in a sense. The days always seem longer to me when im out west, so as we were driving into Co Springs, the day is almost being extended while the sun hangs out a little longer. Factor in the change on time zone and like our pal Lightning McQueen would say “Ka Chow” we’ve got an easier drive going west compared to east.
We stopped at a comfort inn in Plainview, Tx, finally some remembrance of a city. room was decently priced 129 think it came to $140 after taxes. I liked that it was indoors and we had a good view of the parking lot to keep tabs on the truck and stuff in the bed. Nothing really if any true value, but even so. We tried to get Chilis to go but the location stopped take out orders at 730, because the restaurant closed at 8. Odd. So we went to ihop and got take out, came back to the room to settle in. The hotel had complimentary grab and go breakfast, I think they even had waffles, along with fruit, coffee, juice, muffins, cereal, very accommodating of them. Link to that location in Plainview, here.
April 7 we wake up and head the rest of the way home and ultimately arrive fairly early in the afternoon maybe around 3pm or so.
April 8 we settle back in for a day at home but were not done yet.
April 9 wifey and I are flying out to Nashville for a little weekend honeymoon escape. Start with a marg and mini tacos at La Gloria at the airpots, which really hit the spot before a quick 2.5 hour flight.
April 9 we land In Nashville, grab our rental car from Hertz (not sponsored) check into the hotel. Grab dinner and some beers, and sample taste of live music. The pizza and beer at Tailgate Brewery was top notch. We had half pepperoni half Mac and cheese pizza it was phenomenal. And the oven baked Wings are a must add on, although hint in the name they’re oven baked hot fried. Highly recommend if you’re in the area.
April 10 we hit the local coffee shop Just Love Coffee (Music Row location), quick breakfast, large coffees and were off to the Nashville Farmers market. picked up some art for our kiddos’ rooms, from Ben . Handmade soap from lynchburg soap co and got to see all of what the famous farmers market had to offer.
April 10 we were off to the country music hall of fame, got to see the Kacey Musgraves exhibit, Brooks and Dunn feature hall, and tons of vintage country music history.
April 10 for lunch we hit Bolton’s spicy hot chicken. great outdoor seating and wasn’t very busy at all. Its more of a local spot compared to Hattie B’s or the other one. Recommended from our pal @Thrillist.
April 10 we went down to Lower Broadway and holy moly was it alive. Very crowded and got some great photos at the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian bridge down by the river across from Nissan stadium. One of my top moments from the weekend. Just me and my bride.
April 11 Sunday, we hit the coffee shop again, less satisfied than the day before, and then trekked back down to the Broadway area, to get our goo goo clusters which we were very excited about. Ashley made her own, see photos attached and we took them across the pedestrian bridge to eat them and snap a few photos. Another simple but favorite moment of mine. photos attached.
April 11 For dinner we grabbed a few beers and headed over to “the row” where we had some drinks and ate dinner to live music. a very nice way to wind down the weekend. Shout out to @ Tory Grace for the music that night. And it was a nice walk back to our hotel and we grabbed dessert on the way back at the Baked Bear, custom made ice cream sandwiches and related items.
Monday morning April 12 we woke up and flew home. Nashville airport and Ft Lauderdale airport really let us down in coffee and in food options. FLL had a Starbucks but we typically don’t get coffee there, plus as you can imagine the line was very long as it was the only place there. There was a grab and go line in the center of the terminal that did have some sandwiches and hot coffee but they were out at the time being and wasn’t replenished in the 20 minutes or so I had left until my next flight boarded.
I hope you guys enjoyed this blog post, please follow my blog for more stories, and have we got a list lined up, it’s going to be a busy summer! But foe now I’m signing off, thanks for stopping by and we’ll see you soon.
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