A little adventure

    We've been enjoying time with family here and set out to explore the area.  I'll not bother attempting to articulate the experience. I couldn't hope to express it so well and, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.  Don't forget, just click on a picture to see it full screen. 

These first shots are from atop the ridge near where we are camped.

We took a scenic drive south along the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and stopped at a few of the overlooks.

Heading East of Gunnison, we had lunch in a little Canyon outside of Almont, CO

Drove through a forest of Aspen trees coming down from Kebler Pass...

And made our way west again passing the ragged mountains on the way back.

All in all, quite the little adventure on our stop here.  Time for a break, good food, friends, and  get ready for the next leg northwest into Utah.  Till then, sit back, relax with friends, and have a glass of wine.  Cheers!

Interstate 70 West

     Nothing compares to the drive on I-70 heading west.  We got started by 9 am and the windshield on Georgie Girl was more like an 8k 98 inch Wide Screen TV you couldn't stop admiring.  I wanted to pull off and admire the view almost every mile of the way.  It wasn't long before we came to Georgetown Colorado and since we're driving a Georgetown it was the perfect excuse to pull off and get a few pics.  None of which could really do it justice but this is the view of the rest area behind the Visitors Center. 

    It's an uphill climb to the Continental Divide at the Eisenhower Tunnel and then a long downhill run all the way to Grand Junction and beyond.  I so badly wished I had the dashcam in the RV for this part but, since I didn't, Here's a link to that drive on YouTube.  For best results you want to run it muted and playing at half speed. Well worth a few minutes streaming on a big screen if you can.  I expected to need the Oxygen boost when we were nearing the Continental Divide but I think the views were just so breathtaking we didn't notice. 

    The views are changing constantly on the way down the western side.  Our next stop was above the Dillon Reservoir between Silverthorne and Frisco, CO. 

By the time we got to Grand Junction, CO we were in need of a supply stop and stopped at Walmart before turning south to visit family near Crawford, CO.  

    For now, this will be my view from the RV for the next few days.  It does get warm here, 95 degrees during the day but it drops pretty quickly as soon as the sun sets and I woke up to 61 degrees this morning.  I'm surrounded by lots and lots of  Lavender growing here and its quite invigorating as a natural scent permeating the air rather than some spray scent for a can. Even though we've dropped back down in elevation (about 7800 ft.)  I've been a bit short on air and have used the Oxygen boost canister a few times here.  A few more days here should have me acclimated.

    We'll be here for a few days and have plans to do a little exploring so I should be highlighting some of that later.  Until next time, Cheers!

Chief Hosa

     Well, it was another beautiful day for traveling.  We planned to get out early but one of the boys had jumped up on the driver side console and turned on the lights.  Battery was at 7.8 Volts when we tried to start.  After a little head scratching I jumped it with the house batteries and we got off by 9 am.  The price of gas has been going up with the altitude, so we filled up in Colby at $3.59/gal before jumping on the Interstate.  For while I watched the altimeter rise at a foot per second and before very much longer we were moving into Mountain Time and crossing into Colorado.  

    We came across a gas station about half way to Denver where gas was $3.77.  Didn't see it till after we passed the exit and since everything else going forward was over $4, I doubled back at the next exit and filled it to the brim.  A short time later, the Rocky Mountains faded into view on the horizon about 40 miles outside of Denver and seemed to grow a lot faster than I was driving.

    A short stop at Sam's Club in Denver to stock back up on supplies and continue west.  The foothills start before you even get out of Denver.  Georgie Girl got one heck-of-a work-out today.  Usually she can keep up with the traffic pretty well but it was a steep climb out of Denver on I-70 and with towing the car behind she could barely hold onto 40 mph in a few spots.  The oddest sensation happened too.  There were a couple areas where the road "appeared" to level out and go back downhill.  A complete illusion!  Even on what appeared to be a downhill stretch we were still climbing at over a ft./sec. and nearly 10 ft/sec. on the steeper sections.  This was probably the most stressful part of todays drive.

    We arrived at Chief Hosa Campground around 2:30 and all that stress just melted away. 

 The Campground is Historic.  It opened over a hundred years ago as America's first motor-camping area.  Lynn booked a Pull-thru campsite and we got Georgie Girl Settled in for the night.  It's beautiful here, just off the Interstate about 20 miles west of Denver, shaded with tall pines, and a contented 78 degrees with a light breeze.  I got a text from my good friend Pete saying it was 104 degrees at home 🥵

    As beautiful and relaxing as it is, it's a shame we didn't book an extra night here.  I guess the only drawback is that we are from Bella Vista where the altitude is below 1200 ft.  The Altitude here in the campground is 7,900 ft and it will be another week before we can "breath easily."  The air is a bit on the thin side but we did come prepared with a supply of supplemental oxygen canisters.  

    Tomorrow will test our lungs to the limit as we cross the Continental Divide.  I'll be keeping the Oxygen canister close at hand for that trek.  It's time to get dinner started and kick back for the evening so I'll finish this up and just say, "Wish you were here!"  Until tomorrow, Cheers!

    

Oasis of the Plains?

     Colby Kansas, Oasis of the Plains, or that's what they call it.  Okay, I'll admit, there actually are some trees here.  Not a lot but, they do exist. 😏  I have vivid memories of trips out west as a kid hearing my father state his loathing for Kansas, "Too flat and empty."  I shall partially but respectfully disagree with my father on this matter.  We drove across Nebraska in June of 2023 on what seemed like an endless unwavering road to the horizon.  Compared to that, Kansas is great with its meandering highways traversing waves of hills and valleys and hundreds of massive wind power generators that go on for miles.

    We pulled out of the Cottonwood Point campground by 9:30 and, since there's almost nothing in Kansas,  (yes daddy) we arrived in Colby Kansas before 3:00.  Nothing to really slow us down along the way other than a few road repairs and 3 rest areas.  Flat it isn't.  Cottonwood Point campground was just under 1400 Ft above sea level.  Watching the elevation display on the Garmin as we drove today was my entertainment on this leg and I'd call out the readings to Lynn as we'd pass 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000.  Colby sits at 3,159 Ft.

    This is just another overnight stop on our way to Western Colorado. There aren't a lot of choices for campgrounds and our priorities are aimed more toward campsites that fall within the 250 to 300 miles per day travel we plan for.  Hill Street RV park is nothing more than 5 or 6 parking spots (with full hook-ups) on a grass & gravel lot beside a metal building in an industrial park on the edge of town.  The owner had contacted us a week ago just to confirm our scheduled arrival and requested we call him before we arrive.  He's a kind and helpful gentleman and guided me into our pull-thru site to make sure we got a level start.  He made sure we got the utilities hooked up, I thanked him and paid him for the spot.  

    Interstate 70 is just over a half mile away and there's a Walmart within a mile so it'll be easy getting out again tomorrow morning.  We plan these trips out months in advance, and up to a year in advance when our destinations are more of a tourist hot-spot.  I guess one of the advantages of being retired is going to some of the best places after the kids go back to school.  I hate crowded parks with campsites packed in like town houses and will go out of the way to find a quaint, quiet, mom & pop camp site rather than some Resort style place with activity directors and $$$$ listings.  

    Tomorrow morning we continue west into Colorado and we'll be stopping again just west of Denver.  Please feel free to leave comments, or just let us know you dropped in.  Until tomorrow, Cheers! 

Northwest across Kansas

     I spent considerable time making preparations for this trip.  We took a complete inventory of  the RV and were able to lose about 50 pounds of "stuff" but gained a lot of space and a much better sense of organization.  I brought the RV up to the front drive for loading yesterday but encountered another problem with the slide-out after getting it parked.  Fortunately, it enabled me to finally determine the root cause and make successful repairs.  We had planned to be on the road early but with our exit plan delayed, we got finished loading up by 10:00 and had the car and dolly secured by 10:30.  By the time we pumped 60 gallons of gasoline and 80 pounds of propane it was 11:15 but traffic was light and there was nothing left to  do but drive.

    The trip into Kansas was familiar.  It was the same route we had taken 4 years earlier when we welcomed Bilbo to our family.  We had stopped on our way home to take a picture with Toto as we were leaving Kansas.  That was a whirlwind trip in the car, This trip is a bit more of an excursion with just over 5 weeks planned.  Our first Destination is a visit with my Aunt in Western Colorado.  We were last there in Late May of 2023.  We're planning to visit for 4 days with her before proceeding to the NEXT Destination.

    The trip was smooth and uneventful, we made much better time than we had planned for and arrived at Cottonwood Point C.O.E. Campground near Marion, KS.  There was a sign at the gatehouse as we entered the park noting it was unoccupied so we made our way through the park trying to find our campsite.  It took us another 15 minutes but we finally located campsite 129.  It was only one of very few Pull-thru sites but was nicely outfitted with a covered picnic table and BBQ grill, Full Hookups and a decent view overlooking the Marion Reservoir.

    Today was a Good travel day,  and that's not something I'm prone to saying often.  For now, I'l just say Good Night.  Check back again tomorrow, I'm Planning on keeping the blog going throughout this trip.  Cheers!

Return to Petit Jean

 It has been a rainy drizzly month with a few dry days in between storm systems.  June started off dry and warmer and a few days ago we started preparing for this trip.  We still had a late start Tuesday but thankfully the trip is only a few hours.  We brought the car with us this trip so we could get out and about and explore the area.

When we were here last month, it was only an overnight stay in the "high-end" campground.  This trip we reserved the less expensive area.  This campground area is more wooded and natural with lesser quality paved spots for the RV.  The site itself is good sized with a table on a concrete pad, BBQ grill, Fire pit, a lantern pole, water, and 30 Amp electrical service.  

More specific to our campsite than most of the others, the water spigot was placed a considerable distance from the electrical utilities.  I would need at least, a 50 foot water line to get connected, maybe more.  Thankfully I had filled the fresh water tank before we set out.  

We arrived after 5 pm Tuesday so drove the car down to the Visitors station this morning to formally get checked-in.  After that we drove over to the Cedar falls trailhead.  The "trail" was a well constructed boardwalk with a gentle slope leading down a quarter mile to the Cedar falls overlook.  Lynn commented she had made the trek all the way down to the bottom of the falls many years ago.  The boys were happy to take the trail down but enjoyed a ride with Lynn on the way back up to the parking area.

Afterwards, we drove down off the mountain to Morrilton, AR and stopped at Walmart for a few supplies and headed back to camp.  We had a bite to eat and relaxed into a couple hour nap as a rain band made its way across the mountain passing East of us by 5:30.

We'll be here a few days and head back home Friday.  I'll probably follow up with another post before then but it will likely be brief.  Thanks for dropping in and please, feel free to leave a comment.  Cheers!

Petit Jean Mountain

 We pulled out of Winnsboro around 10am after stopping for gas.  The trip was nice and easy as we stayed on US-425 most of the way.  Not a lot of traffic and 65mph speed limits most of the way.  Not exactly the best of roads being a little bumpy but still so much less stressful and missing the bigger towns.  We were on the lookout for a nice spot to pull over and let the boys out when we came upon Portland, Arkansas and pulled over at their little community park.  A nice little respite for a short break to stretch your legs, and quite well kept considering the size of the town.

Back on the road and back onto Interstate once we reached Pine Bluff and grabbed some lunch.  From there traffic was still pretty nice being a Saturday and early afternoon.  We got off of I-40 at Morrilton, AR and made our way up Petit Jean Mountain.  Lynn and I had been to Petit Jean about twenty years ago but I think we came in from the west side back then.

Wow, What a Beautiful State Park we have here.  I can definitely say I am impressed.  Petit Jean State Park is very well maintained and appointed.  It's a shame this is just an overnight stay. 

There's lots of room, lots of trees and grass, full hook-ups for the RV and a great rate at that.  That was all we needed to see and so we've already booked a week for next month.  We had just finished dinner before I started getting this post entered in. It's getting dark now and we'll be heading home in the morning.  I was just getting to really enjoy this little outing.  Oh well, I'm sure looking forward to the next trip.  Until then, Cheers!