We're Back in Kansas, Toto

2019-10-09 (Wednesday)

As exquisite a day for scenery as yesterday was, that's how bland today was. It's a bit of a difficult transition to drive from Colorado to Kansas, and that's just the truth.

We had a good night at the Walmart lot in La Junta, Colorado, and woke up expecting to get a pretty early start. We WOULD have gotten out before 9:30 (that's early for us!), but I noticed after I walked the dog that I couldn't find my phone. Joe was helping a neighbor--an older woman on her own in a large RV who couldn't get her generator to start, and I was cleaning up our RV, and then I realized I didn't see my phone.

I had actually thought I'd taken it out with me when I took Cassie out, maybe 30 minutes earlier, and I realized before the walk was finished that I didn't have it. I assumed I hadn't really taken it-- I mean, it would have been in my shirt pocket, which is hard to lose something. But I got Joe to come help me, and we spent an hour searching for the phone both in the RV and combing the area where I'd walked. The Life 360 app on the phone said it was still where we were, but we were stymied. After an hour, I went into the Walmart to ask if by chance, someone had found a phone. It seemed like a long shot, but.... YES! They had my phone! So I guess miracles CAN happen.

After that, we got going pretty quickly, but it was already something like 11:00ish. The roads in the eastern park of Colorado are not very fascinating, although the southeast corner where we were today sure beat the I-70 corridor we took last year, which we thought was pretty much unsurpassed for drabness. At least we passed through some small towns.

Just at the state border, there was a rest area, and we stopped there for lunch. We were also happy that they had a dump, because we'd felt perhaps we needed that particular facility. So it was a reasonable stop, except I was somewhat in despair that we were still not even out of Colorado, and it was about 2pm when we left the rest area.

Luckily, the rest of today's drive was less dilatory. The only issue was the significant wind we encountered in Kansas a bit before Dodge City, through tonight when we stopped at Pratt, Kansas's Walmart. (Joe says one thing he likes about this campground is "No quiet hours," ha ha!!) Anyway, I drove the last 80 miles, I think, and the wind was something not fun to deal with. The road was a 65mph road, but that was too fast to drive; I stuck to about 60 instead.

We got to Walmart just at sundown, having made 299 miles (our goal for the day is 250-300 miles.) We had dinner, and I thought we had a long evening ahead, but we just figured out, we are now in the Central Time Zone. So we are only one hour behind home now! Oh, we did have to leave US-50, our road since Reno; US-50 wants to join up with an interstate highway soon, and we'd like to avoid that as long as possible. So we plan one more day on the "blue highways."

No photos today--I was driving a lot, and there was really nothing exciting to photograph. We did note the fields of sorghum, which were impressive, but otherwise nothing really exciting. We were beside the Arkansas River all day, but it seems to peter out in Kansas, and the bed was pretty dry a lot of the time. So... no scenery. It's just Kansas. As we passed through a small town somewhere, there was a sign at the far end of town: "I'd turn back if I were you!" We laughed, but besides that fact that that's an OZ warning, and we were still in Kansas, it's no joke. If we could turn back to Colorado, we just might do that! Except, I have to admit, I miss my babies! So Eastward Ho tomorrow!

Colorado US-50

Along the Gunnison River

2019-10-08 (Tuesday)

We woke up to an exquisite morning at 8,000 feet-- a blue dome of a sky uninterrupted by a single cloud, crisp mountain air, and the colors of fall all around us, reds, yellows, and rusts (plus evergreen, of course.) I guess that was invigorating enough that it got us moving a little ahead of our usual departure time.

The Jeep, of course, was not attached to the RV, so we drove down the mountainside with me leading Joe in Samantha. What we got to see was what we'd missed driving up-- the valley below us spread out in an endless vista. Wow, it was spectacular-- but of course, no one could take a photo, because we were both driving. We got to the bottom quickly (a lot easier than laboring up the mountain yesterday), and I soon found a pullout so we could hook the Jeep back up to the RV. And then we were back on the road again.

We are still following US Route 50, which started out in Reno, became the "Loneliest Highway", and now is not lonely, merely beautiful, through most of central Colorado. We had driven on this road before, back in 2015, and I think I must have taken a lot of the same photos back then! We drove through canyons, and past ranch land, but the most beautiful areas were Blue Mesa Reservoir, and the Arkansas River canyon after the reservoir, to the town of Canyon City. Really, it was a lot of "wows" again. The only problem was, it was pretty slow driving, and we were trying to make our "average" of about 275 miles/day so we get home on time.

Along US 50 in Colorado

 One thing that slowed us down was the Monarch Pass. Some time last night, I remembered that we had gone over it in 2015, and it was HIGH! 11,300+ feet. So we made plans to unhook the Jeep yet again before we headed up the mountain. I have a book for truckers, which describes all the high passes in the western states, so I looked up our route, and Monarch was the only high pass on our trip today. So, using the info from this book, we figured out we needed to stop in the little nothing town of Sargents to unhook, and we could re-attach ourselves someplace around 10 miles down the mountain after we went over the pass. And that is what we did! It all worked very smoothly, but I figure at about 15 minutes per hookup or un-hook, it added almost an hour to our day.

Blue Mesa Reservoir

 In any case, we traveled safely over the mountain, and I took a selfie at the summit to commemorate the event. And from there, we headed through along the Arkansas River, with more oohing and aahing, until suddenly we seemed to be back into traffic! From Canyon City we drove to Pueblo, which is a REAL city, and then, one final hour (I was driving by this time) to La Junta. And we are spending the night in the Walmart parking lot here. It's not a typical Yom Kippur, that is for sure, but we are being truly appreciative of what we are lucky to have, and pondering the coming year with both hope and gratitude. We'll continue to be introspective tomorrow as we head on into Kansas, still following US-50.

Arkansas River Canyon

Walls of Arkansas River Canyon

Me and the Jeep on the Continental Divide, Monarch Pass

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

2019-10-07 Monday

Joey and I both slept really soundly last night--so much so that we were quite unprepared when the alarm went off this morning. I personally could have easily slept another hour. But needs must, so we got ourselves together, walked the dog, tweaked something on the tire (I forget what), and left Green River at about 10:00, as usual. Less than an hour later, we were in “Wild, Wonderful Colorado.”

We followed US 50 (which was still twinned with I-70) to Grand Junction, then peeled off toward Delta and Montrose. We had decided to go to the visitor center at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, look around, and then decide if we were staying or not. We’d gone past the turnoff to the park a couple of times, most recently in 2015. I decided maybe it was time for us to go there, before we really hit the road hard to get home.

We arrived at the turnoff at about 2:30pm, which was what I’d anticipated. What no one had told me about this park was that it is HIGH UP! I knew it was 6 miles after the turnoff from US 50. But almost immediately we began to climb. And climb. And climb. I was driving and we were getting nowhere fast!

View of Canyon Walls from an overlook

At about mile 3, when I’d been driving in first gear for a while, we finally found a large enough turnout that we could get off the road and consult the map. Lo and behold, this darn park is 8,000 feet elevation!!  Had we any clue, we’d have unhooked the Jeep at the turnoff. So that’s what we did at mile 3-- detached the Jeep, and I drove that and Joe followed in the RV, just as we had previously on our way west. The RV had no problem at all once the 3,000 extra pounds weighing down the tail end was removed.

We arrived at the visitor center a little short of breath, both from the ascent and the 8,000 feet once we arrived. I talked to someone about some ideas, and decided our plans had now changed-- after all the trouble it had been to get up the mountain into the park, we were NOT about to just look around quickly and leave. So we went to the campground and found a nice pull-through site and got ourselves set up there. Then, around 4:30 or so, we took the Jeep on the 7-mile Rim Road which leads to overlooks of the park.

Very Narrow Canyon

The Black Canyon is pretty amazing, with its steep dark walls and being so narrow. It is very vertiginous to look down at the various view points, and since the paths tend to slant down to those views, I was constantly feeling a bit off balance. Joe was feeling exhausted, and I was pretty huffy and puffy from the thin air. So we didn’t stop at all of the viewpoints, particularly because most of them required a short hike (300 yards or so) to get to them. We finished up at Sunset Point, and waited until the sun went down. The view of the mountains was very pretty.

All in all, I did not fall in love with this park the way I did at Lassen or Olympic NP. The Black Canyon is really impressive, but to me lacked the same spirituality as Lassen or the beauty of the Olympic Peninsula. So to each his own, I guess... we are glad we came up here, but it’s not a park I think I would return to.

Tomorrow we will head east again on US 50, and I am concerned because I remembered that in 2015, we took this route and crossed the 11,000 foot Monarch Pass. I told Joe, we are going to have to unhook the Jeep yet again after we leave here (we’ll plan to hook up tomorrow morning once we get down the mountain.) Sam made it over the Monarch Pass back then, and we have the photos to prove it, but not pulling a Jeep! At least I remembered ahead of time this time! And after that, we’ll probably be angling up to intercept I-70 again and drive hard through the midwest states. Once we leave Colorado, we’ll officially be in the midwest (Kansas, that is). And we’ll have left the beautiful western states behind us for this year.

Another View of an overlook with canyon walls beyond it

Gunnison River looking west toward mountains and sunset, from Sunset Point

Heading East

Cassie rolls in Nebraska grass

Sunday, Aug. 26, 2018

We turned out backs on the Rocky Mountains this morning and headed east--it’s finally that time. East is never as much fun as going West--especially on Interstate 76 in Colorado. This is truly one of the most boring and unattractive stretches of road we have ever had to drive on-- but it happens to be the best connection between the Denver area and I-80, the direct route home. Meanwhile, it was hot as heck again--into the 90‘s. That’s what coming down out of the mountains will do, I guess!

So we drove.... for about 3 hours without stopping, until we finally crossed the state line into Nebraska. It is amazing how Nebraska is immediately more attractive than that stretch of Colorado! We stopped soon after crossing the border at a Flying J, where we ate lunch, and then filled the propane tank. Cassie rolled in the grass. The entire stop lasted about an hour altogether--for some reason our lunch stops always do! We got back on the road again at about 2:00, and about 15 minutes later, it was 3:15! We’d crossed over into the Central Time zone.

The loss of an hour wouldn’t matter too much, except I wanted to stop at the Golden Spike Tower, and I thought it closed at 5:00. It looked like we’d be passing by at about 4:20, and I knew that wasn’t long enough. But Joe said, “lets stop anyway and maybe it IS long enough.” And then Google told me that it closed at 7pm, not 5:00! And Google was right (the website I’d looked at earlier was wrong?) Anyway, we got there at 4:30, with plenty of time to visit.

The Golden Spike Tower is an observation tower overlooking the Bailey Yard, the world’s largest rail yard, in North Platte, Nebraska. There is an introductory film which gives a brief overview of the activities at the rail yard-- how the cars get sorted by going over two “hump yards”, the enormous engine shop for repairs and overhauls, etc. Over 10,000 railroad cars go through the yard per day over 315 tracks. The tower has two observation decks-- the 7th floor, which is open (and you can hear the sounds of the yard), and the 8th, which is completely enclosed (yes, there is an elevator!)

View of green Nebraska fields.

We went inside, and were greeted by several lovely women, and a sign that said that “well behaved dogs were welcome.” They even had dog biscuits waiting! So we went back to the RV and brought Cassie in with us. She showed off her tricks for dog biscuits, and won them all over. Meanwhile I was looking around the gift shop, which was full of train-related toys, clothing, and other items. We watched the film, then went up to the 8th floor.

View of the rail yard

The view was beautiful from up there, over the green Nebraska fields to the south, and the multiple train tracks to the north and west. The engine repair building was longer than 3 football fields (the entire rail yard is 8 miles long!) The coolest thing was watching the cars going over the humps to get sorted. The train gets pushed up a hump, and then each car individually rolls down whichever track is designated for it, and it automatically couples with the car in front of it when it rolls into place. They are precisely placed, so I am sure it is entirely computerized, but watching the cars just rolling onto each track all alone is fascinating. And so the entire train is put together depending on where it is headed.

There were two retired railroad men up on the 8th floor, chatting with visitors and answering questions. They mentioned that the volume of rail traffic had increased in the several years since the video was made. The rail yard runs 24/7, so trains are constantly moving in and out.

Besides the views and the information from the railroad guys, there were several displays, and a corner where a video from PBS called “Orphan Trains” was running. The latter was about the years when children (ages 6 to 18) were shipped from New York out to the midwest and were basically “given” to families who wanted to adopt them. The idea was that they had no family in New York, and the people out west needed extra hands to work on their farms. Sometimes the children were not orphans; their parents would relinquish their parental rights so that the child would presumably have a better future, if the parents could not afford to raise them, or didn’t want them. But this was, of course, traumatic for the children. I watched the video for a while--it wasn’t really about trains per se, but the trains were the means of transport, and midwestern families would go down to the train depot and pick out a child from those on the train. This actually went on for 75 years, even though it sounds utterly barbaric now!

Time line of the Baily Yard

We spent over an hour at the Golden Spike Tower, and then decided that rather than stay in North Platte, we would put some more miles behind us. So we drove about 45 more minutes before stopping in Cozad, a small town which is located along US 30. US 30 is the original Lincoln Highway route through Nebraska, and we picked up some traveler’s guides in the Tower telling us all the historical places along US 30, which runs very close to I-80. Anyway, Cozad is on the route, and their town park has about a dozen RV parking places. For $10, we have electricity, water, and there’s even a dump. It’s a nice little park-- a lot of green right behind us, with a walking/exercise path, and of course playground and volleyball courts. The railroad is nearby, and the trains will be going by all night--we feel quite friendly toward them (it sounds like being home in HP.) Really a good deal for the night, especially since if the weather doesn’t cool down enough, we may want the air conditioning.

So that was today. We are eating a little bit late, because of the time change, I guess. Tomorrow we will continue along the Lincoln Highway and/or I-80 toward Lincoln, Nebraska, where we are planning to stop at a museum on the campus of the University of Nebraska.

Two Low-Key Days

Colorado River near Kremmling

Friday/Saturday, Aug. 24-25, 2018

When we woke up yesterday morning and looked at the lake, and Joe said, "OMG, just LOOK at how beautiful this is!", I decided that there was really no rush to go anyplace, and our lakeside view was too good to give up. Unfortunately, we did have to move, because our site was reserved for Friday night. But the next site on the road, about 25 feet along, was a "first come" site. So we rolled forward and claimed it before anyone else could come along.

We spent the rest of the day just relaxing! I put our chairs up, and I fell asleep for about an hour or so in the sun (I put my sweatshirt over my face to protect me from sunburn.) Joe napped inside. Cassie spent most of the day outside, tethered to our picnic table, which provided ample shade. The temperature reached perhaps the high 60s, although the sun made it feel warmer. I chatted with one of the camp hosts for a while, and she told me that it hadn't gotten above 80 degrees there all summer! The altitude was about 8,000 feet, which made it quite nippy at night, down into the 40s. So we just loved it.

Selfie of me, sunbathing

This morning we packed up, though, because we had plans to meet up with our friend Noah sometime around dinner. He texted us that he had to go in to work, however, so it was unclear when he might be free. Nevertheless, we needed to head east. And although the least mileage was to drive through Rocky Mountain National Park, we just weren't up for it. Joe has been feeling the altitude, and I did not want to be freaked out by the 12,000 foot road through the park. The closer alternative was US 40, but that went over a 12,000 foot pass also! So we retraced our steps past Sulphur Hot Springs and Kemmling, down to I-70, and took the Interstate through the Eisenhower Tunnel, which went through the mountain instead of over it (at 11,000 feet, still!) We did a lot of gasping for breath.

Soon we stopped at a Walmart, where we picked up some groceries and some other household necessities. Then we tried to figure out where we could possibly meet Noah, although we hadn't heard from him yet. But it was after 4pm. So we decided to drive to the Cabela's which was not terribly far (we thought) from where he lived, and hang out there. We were getting worried about camping, because due to city ordinances, the Walmarts and the Cabela's did not allow overnight parking. Our only choice seemed to be the Cracker Barrel, not too far from Cabela's.

Anyway we got to Cabela's, and I went in to browse while Joe rested. I actually found a vest just like I'd been wanting, at the price I had wanted to spend ($15!), and I splurged on a pair of earrings. By 6pm, we still hadn't heard from Noah, and he didn't answer his phone. So we assumed he got tied up at work, let him a message that we'd see him sometime soon, and tried to find a place for the night. I thought it was kind of early to stop at the Cracker Barrel, and was thinking we should just start heading east on the interstate (tomorrow's route) and see if anything turned up.

Joe, meanwhile, was also searching on his phone app for any possible campgrounds, and found Standley Lake. It was only 16 miles away, and he convinced me we should just try it, even though I was convinced that this late on a Saturday night, it would be full. I drove and he navigated, and when we got to the park, the ranger station was still open, and the girl inside told us that she thought there were still spaces in the "walk in" section. There were only 12 to start with! But we got the very last one!! Ironically, we are only about 6 miles from where Noah lives (much closer than we were before), but he sent a message that he got tied up at work with his team and had no idea when he might be free.

Standley Lake Campground in the evening

In any case, we feel lucky to have found this site, given the lack of other options. I feel that Denver is, overall, a very RV-unfriendly city. Besides the traffic (as with any large city), the western suburbs are very "steep" whenever you leave the highway, which makes it hard to get around. And with the no overnight parking laws, it means there's really no place to stop and rest! So I will add Denver to the list of places I will drive around rather than through, from now on. It's too bad we have friends here!

Tomorrow we will head for Nebraska. I have some stops planned out, and it should not be too arduous to get to East Lansing in time for the football game next Friday night!

View of Standley Lake on Sunday morning

More Hot Springs

What's out there??

Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018

We got a slow start this morning--it’s kind of nice not having a heavy itinerary to keep up with! It was raining during the night and into the morning, but it stopped around 9a.m., which was when we rolled out of bed. I updated my blogs with photos, walked Cassie, called home, and did whatever while Joe got himself going. Our one “must do” for the morning was to dump our waste tanks--we’d filled with fresh water when we arrived at the campsite last night, but there was no dump.

When we finally rolled out, it was about 11 a.m., and we stopped to ask the campground host where we could dump. He directed us to the Waste Treatment plant for the city of Frisco. I thought I understood his directions, but when I put “waste treatment plant” into the GPS, it told us something else. We got turned around in the city where the GPS led us (after going over Independence Pass, I should know better than to believe it for ANYTHING!) but finally were back on the road the camp host had indicated. However, we left what seemed to be most of Frisco, and still hadn’t seen the high school, which was supposed to be our landmark for the dump.

So we turned around and went back toward Frisco again. As we stopped for a red light, I looked to my right and there was a fresh fruit and veggie stand there, and-- it was flying a Spartan flag! I said to Joe, turn here, park in the big lot behind the veggie stand, let’s buy something (we HAVE to support a fellow Spartan, right?) and maybe they know where the treatment plant is.

So we pulled in and bought some fresh corn, heirloom tomatoes, and a few other things Joe wanted. The woman in the stand, however, didn’t know where the treatment plant was, but she did tell us that there was a visitor’s information place only a few blocks away. So we drove down Main Street of Frisco, which was all kinds of tempting touristy shops, food places, and cute buildings of all sorts. Clearly, Frisco is basically a tourist town! And I am lucky it’s so hard to find parking for an RV, because it saves me a lot of money when we go through towns like this!

Selection of Flags: Colorado, US, Planet Earth, and SPARTANS

We did find a spot a block off the main road, however, and Joey waited while I went and talked to the lady in the visitor center. She gave me a map and some info about the dump-- turns out we were on the right road, but just didn’t go far enough. So we went back down Main Street again, and drove farther out of town until we found it. By the time we’d finished dumping, it was well after noon.

Main Street, Frisco, CO

From there we drove back through town AGAIN (we’d gone up and down the same main drag 4 times by the end) and headed north. Our goal was Hot Sulphur Springs, a very small town whose main claim to fame was a hot springs “spa and resort.” It got mixed reviews online, but the attraction was 20 hot springs pools, of varying heat from 98 to 112 degrees. So we drove up there, following the Blue River, and stopping at a pull out on the way for a fairly late lunch. We finally got to the hot springs at about 3:30 pm.

The place was interesting-- I understand the mixed reviews. It was not flashy in any way-- it had a very low-key vibe. The cabins were not fancy, but looked relatively comfortable (I peeked through the window and saw they were fairly basic). The reception area for the pools was reasonably attractive without being flashy. They also do massages and other spa treatments there, so they were promoting quiet, peace, and relaxation. There were some kids, but not a lot-- there are only 4 pools which the under-12 set are allowed to use.

Four hot pools (one is inside the tan building)

Anyway, we changed into our suits in the RV after we paid to get in, and came back with our towels and shampoo. Joe put his stuff in a locker, but I took mine with me so I would have my camera this time, a water bottle, sunscreen, and a few other items. The pools began at ground level (98-101 degrees) and went up the side of the mountain. So we climbed the stairs until we found a small pool labeled 106-108 degrees. I thought it might be too hot, but it was probably a little less hot than advertised-- it felt perfect, and that’s where Joe stayed the whole time. I wandered around after a bit to see the other pools, but “ours” was best. It was just the right size for 2 people.

2 more hot pools

So we spent an hour soaking and resting there. There were areas with sun shades over them, and lounge chairs, and there were not a lot of people, so it seemed very comfortable and quiet. There were “quite zone” signs everywhere, which helped too. I liked it. It wasn’t fancy, but it was comfortable. At about 5pm, we were sufficiently “cooked”, so we went into the bath house and took showers-- hooray for clean hair!! And then we walked slowly back to the RV.

Joe in a hot pool

Now the issue was, where to spend the night. The town we were in had a small park with some free camping, but all the sites were taken (I’m guessing that some of those folks just live wherever they can find free camping!) So I looked at our map, and realized that there wasn’t that much too nearby. The closest seemed to be some National Forest sites about 30 minutes away, so that’s where we went.

Campsite view--Lake Granby

At about 7pm, we ended up on a lovely lake in the Arapahoe National Recreation Area. It seems that all the sites are reserved for the weekend, but we almost had our pick for tonight, given that’s all we wanted. We are at a site overlooking the lake, which is beautiful, and again we get 50% off the fees (and a free pass to be here-- a day pass costs about $5/day). So we are quite satisfied with our day, all in all! We are now discussing where to go tomorrow--I want to head to Loveland (we were there in 2011) but it requires driving through Rocky Mountain National Park on yet another twisted road with high elevation. I will do some research on that subject right now.

Laundry Day

View from tonight's campsite

Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018 [more photos to follow]

We woke up this morning after a pleasantly rainy and cool night, knowing it was time to leave. Two main reasons: we were out of water (both drinking and in the RV tank), and we were out of underwear. Time to do the laundry!

We drove out of Cascade Campground, immediately encountering a lovely cascading stream. This was Chalk Creek, which we bathed in briefly on Monday. As we continued driving, it was amazing how much more there was to see than there had been in the pitch black on Sunday night!

We headed for Buena Vista, as planned, to the Lost Sock Laundry. It was rather crowded (one lady asked me if I had ever SEEN it this crowded, and I told her I'd never been there before!) I ran 4 washes, but had to wait about 30 minutes before a dryer came free. All in all, it took until about 2pm for me to get everything washed and folded and back into the RV. Meanwhile, Joe walked Cassie and hung out, and dug up a couple of small desert plants for me to bring home.

At this point we were a bit stymied-- we had NO PLANS going forward! With the whole map of Colorado in front of me, I simply couldn't figure out where to go or what to do next. I honestly think the altitude is getting to me-- my brain doesn't have enough oxygen to think straight.One thing we knew, we needed water!

We finally decided to head to Hot Sulphur Springs, a town a couple of hours north, which has a hot springs resort with about 20 pools, or so the ads all say! It was basically just a "why not?" kind of decision, but we certainly DO like these hot springs all over the state! We stopped in Leadville at the grocery store to buy bottled water and a few grocery items, then continued toward Hot Sulphur Springs. Then I noticed on my more detailed maps that we were going very close to a reservoir with several National Forest campgrounds. So we decided to see if they had any room before we continued-- it was already after 6pm. I had to find one with water, however!

Tiny House camped here too

We were lucky-- the first campground we came to had some spaces open, and we were able to fill up the RV's fresh water tank before we docked into our site for the night. It is not as beautiful a campground as Cascade, but it is very nice and certainly okay for one night. The big plus is, it is quite near a town (Frisco) and the phone has 4 bars, so we can get wifi and get caught up on our mail and blogs. Of course, the photos are painfully slow in uploading as usual, so that part will have to wait. I do have a few from today, though, of a couple of very interesting vehicles parked in the campground with us tonight!

"Lil Bandit"

Tomorrow we hope to continue to Hot Sulphur Springs and soak in the hot springs there, and then... I have absolutely NO idea!!

Friends, Hot Springs, and Naps

Monday-Tuesday, Aug. 20-21, 2018 [Photos to follow]

Sam the RV in our campsite

Sunday-Monday, Aug. 20-21, 2018

We have had a couple of lovely, relaxing days in Cascade Campground. In fact, it’s been so nice, Joe and I are staying here an extra night until Wednesday, before leaving.

Monday we woke up with me still saying, “That was SO SCARY!” as I thought about the drive the day before. Joe said, “It was an ADVENTURE!” Which indeed it was. We got up and had breakfast, with an eye in the direction of Ben and Miriam’s campsite. Ben had gotten up early and driven into town to handle a business phone call, and there was no evident activity around their teardrop trailer, so we set up our chairs and sat outside in the sunshine, just relaxing. The air was cool-- it went down into the 50s during the night and was still jeans and sweatshirt weather. Just perfect!

Finally I saw that Ben’s car was back and there were small people in pajamas outside, so I walked over to say good morning. Naama (6) and Yael (4) were both awake and excited to say hello. They were eager to come “see our campsite”, so their mom got them dressed and then they came over to visit. Ben and Miriam said they had two ideas for the day-- a visit to a nearby whiskey distillery, and hot springs at the Mount Princeton resort we’d passed the night before.

Naama and Yael drawing on the kitchen table

I suggested I keep the girls to give B&M a little more time at the distillery, so they left for about 90 minutes, and Joe and I spent the rest of the morning with Naama and Yael. Joe did a few “hacks” in the kitchen, fixing the cabinet under the sink so it was far more useful and things would not fall out of it. The girls and I played “Camping Bingo” (which we’d picked up at Dinosaur for them), walked Cassie, they showed me the rock formation near their campsite which was remarkably like a playhouse (we played restaurant (I was the customer, Naama was the waitress and Yael was the cook) and shopping (I was the customer, Yael worked in the store and helped me find what I wanted to buy, and Naama checked me out), and then came back to the RV, where they decided to draw some pictures. No one had markers or crayons, but we had enough pens and some stuff for them to draw on. We had snacks. And before I could suggest we walk around the campground loop and see how many different kinds of RVs we could see, their parents returned and it was lunchtime.

Camping Bingo

Joe and I napped and read our books while they all had lunch and did whatever else they were doing, and at about 3:30 we were finally ready to go to the hot springs. Then ensued changing into bathing suits, sunscreening, etc. We fit all 7 of us in their minivan, and went back down the road about 10 minutes to an obviously upscale resort. There are two areas of hot springs and pools. We started at the upper pools, because they have a 400 foot water slide up there! There are two large pools connected by a small lazy-river type thing, and the slide ends in one of the pools. There are also two small pools, one of which was about 104 degrees, and that is where Joe and I sat most of the time. At some point I went into the 102 degree pool with Naama, and the others bobbed around in the big pools (about 98 degrees) and went down the slide a few times.

The upper pools closed at 6pm (we’d arrived at around 4:30) so we got back in the car and went to the lower parking lot. Down there, we went into the historic bath house (dark wood and an old feel to it), and then going past the two pools, we climbed over rocks lining Chalk Creek, which was flowing vigorously past the bath house. Hot springs flow directly into the creek, and people were lying in stone “pools” along the edge, soaking. We quickly realized that the pools were not as hot as we preferred (except when we found one spot where the water was entering the pool from between some rocks, and it was way too hot to keep a hand or foot under it!) The dilution of the hot springs from the stream tumbling over the rocks cooled the little side pools off a lot. So Joe and I climbed back up the rocks again, and sat on some chaise lounges, while the “kids” waded carefully past a few pools until they found one they could all sit in for a bit. Ben told us that it was neat having the natural sand under them, because if you dug down into it, it got hotter! But for me and Joe, we liked our 104 degrees in the pool earlier just fine!

Chalk Creek, with hot "pools" along the side

About 7pm or so, we finally dried ourselves off enough to come back to the campground. And at that point, Joe and I ate something, and then lay down and realized we were not getting up again. He did take the dog out once more and say goodnight, but otherwise, that was it for our day! And, I forgot to take my phone to the hot springs, so no photos of the very lovely facilities! Maybe I can get some on our way out of the area, although I didn’t notice any place where an RV could fit in the parking areas too well.

Tuesday (today) morning the kids were up ahead of us, getting ready to go back to Denver. Joe and I decided to stay in Cascade for one more night. It is so mellow here-- the campsites are far apart, and the weather all day has been sprinkling rain and clearing up and then sprinkling again. So we are going to hang out here and just enjoy the quiet. We did enjoy the morning, though-- the girls walked with me and Cassie, and then we had a game of Camping Bingo, and then they drew some more pictures while their parents packed up the car and trailer. They are just the cutest! And Judah loved Cassie, who was VERY patient with a little person petting her and poking at her. So cute!

They finally pulled out at about noon or shortly thereafter. Joe and I had lunch, and now he is napping and I am catching up on the blog. Our plan is to spend tonight here, like I said, and then tomorrow we will go to Buena Vista (which we learned is pronounced BEW-na Vista) and do some laundry and, I sure hope, upload the blogs and photos-- we’ve been without connectivity for several days. And by then, I will have to come up with our next destination-- there is so much to do for people who like hiking, bike riding, rafting, zip-lining, and other outdoor sports. But for people like us with limited physical strength, it’s hard to figure out what to do. Joe thinks he might like to go rafting but it depends on how he is feeling. And it’s not so hot anymore-- in the lower 70s and going down to the high 40s at night! So just enjoying the weather is nice. But I’m sure we’ll find some other adventures too-- I have a pile of tourist guides to give me ideas.

Now, it’s nap time! And hopefully Miriam will send me photos of Judah with Cassie to decorate this blog with. [Addition: we napped for hours! It has been raining most of the afternoon, so this turned out to be the perfect day to “stay home” and rest. There is nothing cozier than napping in the afternoon with the rain pattering on the roof. We both feel very indulged. Now Joe is making us some black beans, rice, and corn for dinner--which I started craving when I ran across a can of corn in the back of our pantry. It’s probably time to completely empty out the entire RV, take inventory, and recalibrate. But meanwhile, we don’t need to do much in the way of grocery shopping. We are feeling very wealthy in general living like this.]

Very Long Ago, and Very High Up

Sunday, Aug. 19, 2018

This was another one of our amazing days, I think! We woke up as planned, a bit early, because we knew we had a long day ahead of us. We just didn’t realize HOW long it would be!

Our first stop was, of course, the visitor’s center at Dinosaur National Monument. We first watched a 12-minute video about the dinosaurs and natural impact of the Green River Valley in that area. The reason there are so many dinosaur bones here is because the “ancestral Green River” washed a lot of bones into one spot. But as we learned, the site is misleading, because all the bones here are of huge dinosaurs-- the smaller bones were washed away or otherwise decayed before they ended up in the “dinosaur bone jam” in this particular location.

Wall entirely embedded with fossilized dinosaur bones

Then we hopped onto the tram which took us up through layers of earth to the viewing center. The building is fantastic-- it is built right against the original wall of fossils which were excavated in the first decades of the 20th century. You can’t help but go WOW when you first walk in and see the wall of bones still embedded into the rock.

There are excellent displays to help get oriented to what we saw. The large wall in front of us was originally about 3 times larger-- the areas above it and to the right and left were excavated earlier, as I said. The fossilized bones which were removed are now in museums all over the country, with three complete skeletons in the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh-- now on Joe’s and my list for a long weekend visit so we can see them. (Other bone are also closer-- in NYC and even one in a museum in Newark, DE, if I recall correctly!)

Allosaurus in rock

For $1.00 we purchased a brochure which helped us identify individual sections of the wall and better “see” the bones and how they belonged together (if, in fact, they actually did-- a number are just stray individual bones.) So we looked at them carefully, and Joe pointed out some specific bones which he could identify from his knowledge of anatomy. There were also a lot of panels with photos explaining how the bones were originally excavated, wrapped in burlap and then plaster, then put into boxes and pulled on skids down the mountain to wagons, and hence to the nearest railroad depot where they were shipped back east. The entire area was absolutely fascinating, and we spent at least an hour there.

Placement of bones in wall and reconstructed skeleton in NYC

We left the monument just about noon, and had to stop at an RV park in Jensen to dump our tanks, fill up with fresh water, and buy a bag of ice. Then we finally headed toward central Colorado, where we were meeting Ben and Miriam. I had already gotten a number of texts from Ben, and he was going to send us more info after they found a nice campground for us to meet up at.

Camarasaurus skull

Joe points to corresponding place on his hip

We headed east, crossed into Colorado, and stopped at the Welcome Center in Dinosaur, Colorado, to pick up some info. I chatted briefly with the two people working there, and pointed out the route I was planning to take-- it seemed like the most direct route--through Aspen and down toward Salida, which was the general area Ben was heading for. All they said was, “Well, that sure will be a pretty drive!” And then we continued on.

We stopped in Rangely for a lunch break, and then kept going. My plan included picking up I-70 at a town called Rifle, heading east to Glenwood Falls, and stopping there for a Walmart stop before continuing on. That looked to me like the exit to go south on my planned route, but my GPS kept telling me to go farther along I-70 before heading south, and I decided maybe that was a better idea, although it looked like more miles to me. But the GPS was calculating the fastest route, so I figured I’d trust it.

As we got on the interstate at Rifle, there I saw a Walmart! But it was too late, so we continued with the original plan to stop at the Glenwood Falls Walmart. This was only about 30 miles or so down the interstate, and we got off there. I quickly discovered that Glenwood Falls was actually a resort city, with a large hot springs hotel and pool there, and that the exit from the interstate put us right in the center of a charming but very busy downtown, full of cute looking businesses and restaurants and historical buildings. There was no sight of a Walmart anywhere, which we have come to expect when we use Next Exit to tell us what exits have Walmart. So we had to hastily look for a GPS guide to Walmart.

The GPS worked, although it first took us to a tiny road which was closed. We could at least see the Walmart from there, however, and used our own eyes to get us there. It turned out to be an older store, not a Super Center, and as such it 1) had a very small parking lot; 2) was relatively difficult to get to; and 3) did not have fresh veggies and fruits. However, we were able to get almost everything we wanted, with the exception of sufficient bottled water. The plus side was, it was a smallish store, so it didn’t take us a full hour to get through it.

My first inkling that this was a mistake

And then, we plugged our destination back in-- by now, we knew Ben was at Cascade Campground a little south of a town called Buena Vista. I found it on my map. And now the GPS told me to go MY original route-- keep heading south through Aspen, in almost a direct line to Buena Vista. So I figured, ok-- we’ll switch back to that route again.

Well! It was only about 10 minutes before I was having serious misgivings. Even though the road was a divided highway with 2 lanes each way, we were steadily rising, and I was having a very anxious feeling that we should have gone back to the interstate and use the GPS’s original suggestion. Soon enough, we got to Aspen-- and negotiated carefully through the center of town. And then the road was 2 lanes, and fairly narrow. But okay, this is Colorado, and we were going through the mountains, going up still. But it did seem narrower than I would have preferred, for sure.

Uh oh. The road didn’t have much in the way of a shoulder or a railing. There were a lot of hiking trails around, though. It seemed like a very SMALL road, although it was the only road there was! Unless we turned around and went all the way back to Glenwood Springs, that is.

Double uh oh!! We passed a sign that said, “Lights will flash automatically if vehicle oversized.” But they weren’t flashing, so.... we kept going. And a little further: “Turn around for over-sized vehicles,” with a pull-out. At least there was now a sign-- vehicles over 35' forbidden to proceed. We are under 30 feet. But man, that was NOT reassuring! What WERE we heading for, anyway?

Hairpin turn

We passed several forest service campground areas and a LOT of trail heads. Not much else. The road was not very wide. Whenever we passed ANYONE I had a small anxiety attack. And then a sign: “road narrows.” I said, “narrower than THIS??” And now suddenly the double yellow line disappeared-- the road was so narrow that if they’d put in a line, the space on either side would not have been wide enough! And, did I mention, we were on the OUTSIDE of the road, i.e. looking DOWN as we went around the side of the mountains? We came to at least three of these “narrow” sections. They were just terrifying, because they BARELY wide enough for two cars, but a car and an RV? They were NOT WIDE ENOUGH. And every single one went around the mountain, so we couldn’t see if anything was coming, although it usually was. At one point, we stopped JUST as the road narrowed, because I yelled STOP! to Joe. I could see that if we did not, we’d be face to face with a car and no room for either of us to pass. We waited until 4 cars went past us, then prayed as we went through ourselves.

By this time, I had my eyes closed at least half the time. The speed limit was 20 mph most of the time, sometimes only 15 and on some particularly sharp turns, 10mph. I was having a real panic attack, and practically ready to cry. Joe, meanwhile was doing GREAT. He drove the whole way in 1st gear most of the time, I think, and he was calm as could be. (I was also worrying because it was getting so late-- almost 7pm--and I thought he needed to eat soon! And also, my GPS kept telling me

Drop off on the right. No guardrail.

that the time between us and our destination was getting LONGER each time I checked!)

Finally, FINALLY, we came to the top-- beyond the tree line, to find a big pullout area and a sign that said, Continental Divide, 12,095 feet. Well, no WONDER I was panicking-- I was oxygen deprived! (Joe pointed out that airplane cabins are pressurized for 10,000 feet-- and that our oxygen masks would have dropped 2,000 feet earlier!) There were a number of people parked up there, with some information panels and even pit “restrooms.” Clearly, this was a “destination,” which is why we had so many cars passing us. I found out from the panels that this was Independence Pass, and it is the highest paved road in North American!!! Another panel mentioned that “the Narrows,” as they are called, have been panic-inducing since the pass was first used. No-Duh!!

"Road narrows". TOO NARROW!!

There was a short path to an even higher observation point. I was just unable to walk up it-- I was so shaky and weak and wobbly when I got out with Cassie, I almost fell over! There was a nice young man who offered to take my photo in front of the Continental Divide sign, and he asked which side we’d come from. I said, Aspen, and he reassured me that the other side was “much much easier,” that we’d come from the “hard side.” Honestly, I was VERY glad to hear it-- I didn’t think I could take much more! (Then he added that there were “only” about 3 more hairpin turns! And then I heard him tell his friend, “They came up in that RV!” and I could tell he thought THAT was a bit gutsy! But we had NO IDEA what we were getting into!!) Meanwhile, while I was outside, Joe checked his sugar, which was great, and he ate a little bit anyway so it wouldn’t drop at an inconvenient moment on our way down. Even Cassie got into the act, placing a “deposit” on the highest paved highway in North America!

Above the tree line

So I took some deep breaths (as deep as possible, that is) and we started rolling DOWN the mountain. Although it had its scary moments (we were still on the “outside”, and I could look straight down over the edge of the road to the valley below), it was nothing as bad as coming up had been--the road was wide enough for double yellow lines all the way, and the speed limit went all the way up to 35mph! By this time, though, I was worried about the time. I knew that the campground we were going to was NOT going to be well lit, and I was anxious about actually finding it. I’d originally thought we might get there at 7:30, and now it looked like being 8:30 or even later. We’d had no phone “bars” pretty much since we’d left Aspen, but when we finally came down from Independence Pass, they finally came back. I was able to call Ben, who reassured us that we were almost there and gave us a few more landmarks to watch for, and then we kept on.

We found our turnoff (after disregarding GPS’s suggestion of a side road--I’d had enough of THAT!) but by this time, it was dark. We drove slowly along a county road, and there was more traffic than I expected. It was entirely unclear from the map how far along we’d have to go, and we had trouble seeing some of the road signs. When we saw a sign that said “National Forest Campgrounds ahead,” we were SO reassured! But still there was mostly black road and not much else until I realized there were actually homes on this road, and then the Mount Princeton Hot Springs Resort, accounting for the oddly mystifying traffic. After we passed that, I got out our super-high-power flashlight, and I opened the window, and every time we saw any kind of sign, I held my arm out the window to illuminate it with the flashlight. And so we proceeded until, Eureka! The sign for Cascade Campground, and the turnoff. Then it was a relatively simple matter to make our way through the campground loop until we came to site 8, which Ben had reserved for us, and there he was, waving. So Joe got out and guided me while I backed in. And miraculously, it was flat!

It was 9:00 and pitch black in the campground, but Ben had the coals of a good fire going, so we sat and talked to him and Miriam (and Judah-bear, who is 14 months old and was wide awake). Joe soon went to lie down, and I sat with them just a little longer before realizing that this long day and all the adrenaline rushing during the couple of hours we drove over Independence Pass had really exhausted me as well. So we said goodnight, and I stumbled across to our campsite. Joe made us some scrambled eggs (we still hadn’t eaten) and then we passed out in bed.

Joe was FANTASTIC driving over that pass. He didn’t seem at all nervous, and he was in total control of the RV the entire time. I, on the other hand, apparently do not respond well to 1) heights; 2) lack of oxygen; 3) lack of knowledge of where I am going. I was a genuine wreck. According to Ben and Miriam, we have now negotiated the two “worst” (i.e. highest and scariest) roads in Colorado-- Independence Pass, and Route 550 from Durango to Ouray, which we did in 2015. But with the latter, we KNEW what we were getting into, and it was broad daylight. Today’s adventure was a total surprise, and turns out, I don’t do very well with those! But Joe was completely unfazed. So now we know whose nerves are better!