Colorado Sparkler

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Dec 2, 2013
3,409
113
Texas
We rented a van one year and made the trip. We drove 4 years in a row and it was my favorite softball every year. 15 hours. A couple of times the wife fly in to met us there on Wednesday. The first year we drove and stayed in Dalhart, TX the first day. Then the next 3 years we left Houston at 3am and drove straight through. That for me is the best way to do it. If we can leave early in the morning we do one day trips. If we get knocked out in the morning we get on the road and make it two days. Just be flexible and have multiple plans.

Get your hotel room NOW! Whoever on your team is in charge of this better get on it now if they haven't already. Lots of teams have already reserved their rooms.
 
Aug 23, 2017
109
28
STL Metro area
We got DD's summer schedule and it includes Sparkler this year. Very new to this. Every tournament she's played in that's not in our state is just one state over.

Any tips for this - I know it's a long way off but I'm a planner.
I was thinking of driving as that would do away with 4 plane tickets (as DD#2 would also want to go), and renting a car. It's about 20 hrs for us to get there. We could make a stop along the way. I don't foresee us making it to Sunday so we could probably get away with leaving early Sunday morning.

Pros/cons to driving/flying?
We went out there 2 years ago and it was amazing! I love the outdoors and mountains so I was in love from the start! The fields are nice for the most part, plenty of stuff to do in the area too. On an off day I would suggest driving to Estes Park and experience Rocky Mountain National Park. You could go down to Colorado Springs, lots to do down there too. White Water rafting was fun (1896 Stanley Rd, Idaho Springs, CO 80452 | www.coloradorafting.com )....I could go on and on. Downtown Denver mall is something different to checkout and the Denver Biscuit Company is a must! ( 3237 E Colfax Ave. Denver, CO 80206 | www.denbisco.com )

We drove from the STL area and it was boring AF! We stopped in Hayes KS for the night to break it up. "If" you were from ATL are it looks like Columbia MO is half way. Not a bad town to stop at!

Hopefully I helped a little.....enjoy it's beautiful there! Me and the wife plan to move there after taking one trip there.
 
Jun 24, 2019
162
28
we would be going to that same tournament for nationals ! It’s about a 19hr drive for us as well
 
Dec 2, 2013
3,409
113
Texas
I mention this everytime this topic comes up. I am a huge Widespread Panic pan and they always play at Red Rocks the weekend before the Colorado Trip. So I always left on Friday and spend the whole week there. I was lucky to be able to sleep in my friend's basement in Longmont. No softball this past summer, but Panic played their first shows back!!! Went to Thurs, Fri, and Sat shows and was so worn out by the cold and rain that we sold our Sunday tix.

This is the Encore Friday night: Chilly Water (in the cold rear rain!) Epic
 
Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
that part of the world, at that time of year, is prone to hail storms. We saw hail the size of a nickel. Apparently, this is pretty common. Cars got pretty dinged up pretty bad, including my rental.
This is no joke!

I thought we got bad storms in the Midwest!

Its a 12ish hour drive for us. We always drove. On the way out we broke it into two days, usually because we were leaving after I got home from work. We usually made it to Saturday, crashed that night in the hotel and when I woke up at 3a (thinking about the elimination game) we would hit the road and be home by that afternoon.
 
Oct 1, 2014
2,218
113
USA
To the OP, I'm a big fan of road trips with the kids and I really loved that time with my girls on the road. Call me a glutton for punishment or a sap but we made the most out of them and I'll always treasure those times, now that they are in College (12 hrs away) and driving themselves everywhere I can only wish they were little again to relive those times. I don't have many fond memories of waiting in the airport or being herded onto a crowded plane, hoping for a bag of peanuts or waiting at the car rental counter or...well you get the picture. Sure driving can be a PITA too but it's my preference when possible.
Regarding CO's hail storms, yes they happen and yes they can be brutal but I've lived here for almost 40 years now and have only had hail damage on my vehicles twice and my home roof once (at least bad enough for insurance claims. BTW, Orange Socks if you're reading this the first time I had hail damage was while I was at a Grateful Dead concert at Red Rocks in '84...we were watching this wicked lightening storm over the city while only getting lightly rained on in our seats. Where I had parked my car and met up with some friends to go to the show was, unbeknownst to me at the time, right where that storm was!
There really is a lot to do in CO along the Front Range and if you have time, go a bit further up into the mountains. Take the time to make those memories with your kids while you are here. If you stay down in the flatlands, play in suburbia, get a hotel in the burbs, eat all your meals at Denny's or a Chili's and only look west at the Mountains...you haven't really experienced CO.
The tourney itself seems to have improved itself by concentrating geographically somewhat. I could be wrong as it's been a couple years now and I'm not sure what fields will be included this coming year but it was getting way to spread out and the actual drive times from North to South were ridiculous and prohibitive for most College coaches that were here. If you got a Coach to come watch your game at some of those fields you were gold!
Good luck, have fun and much success!
 

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