July 3, 2021 – Independence Day Pot Luck Dinner at the Campground
This morning we drove into town (2 miles) to stock up on supplies at the local Family Dollar store. It was quite hot out so when we got back to the camper we hung out inside. Later in the afternoon Beth cooked up two large batches of Troyer Potatoes to take to the Pot Luck Dinner. We found out at the last minute that the pot luck was a Taco Bar and weren’t sure how well our potatoes would go over, but we quickly found out they were a hit. Thank goodness Beth had the foresight to set some aside before we left so we could enjoy some for a future breakfast. The Taco Bar was delicious and we had a good time meeting other campers.
July 2, 2021 – Natural Bridge Falls
We had noticed Natural Bridge Falls on the map just a bit south of the campground and after researching it we decided we should check it out. It was well worth the 23 mile drive. Natural Bridge Falls is located in Boulder Canyon. Up until 1988 there was a natural limestone bridge that the Boulder River passed under. In 1988 the natural bridge collapsed due to erosion. When the river is below a certain level (like it was today), the water moves underground for several hundred yards and pops out downstream. They say eventually (millions of years) the underground passage will open up to form another natural bridge. In the spring when the water level is higher, some of the water will pass above ground and rejoin the river via a 100′ waterfall.
Natural Bridge Falls
Natural Bridge Falls – River Drops Underground
Natural Bridge Falls – Falls Area Where River Emerges
Natural Bridge Falls
July 1, 2021 – Lunch in Big Timber, MT
We went into town and ate lunch at the Timber Bar & Grill. We tried several items with plans to take lots of leftovers back to the camper. We started out with an appetizer of Cajun Bites which are Andouille Sausage deep fried in beer batter (yummy). I had two or three and saved the rest for another day. We also tried their chicken wings which are made with a homemade wing sauce. They were delicious, but we took most of them home as well. I tried their Steak Hoagie which was a deep fried marinated piece of sirloin. It was pretty good, but not exactly what I was expecting. Beth won today’s competition by choosing their Mushroom Burger made with locally raised beef. She considers it one of the best burgers she has ever had. After lunch we went around the corner to the local IGA to stock up on groceries.
Timber Bar & Grill – Cajun Bites
Timber Bar & Grill – Steak Hoagie
Timber Bar & Grill – Mushroom Burger & Wings
June 30, 2021 – Spring Creek Campground and Trout Ranch
Today we left the Jackson Hole area and headed north to Big Timber, MT to camp at Spring Creek Campground and Trout Ranch (who wouldn’t want to camp at a trout ranch, where’s my saddle?). Google Maps wanted to route us over Teton Pass and west of Yellowstone National Park. Teton Pass has long 10% grades and is definitely NOT recommended for big motorhomes so after doing some research we decided to head north through Yellowstone National Park. We departed by 8AM MDT in order to avoid traffic jams entering Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. This worked out well and we managed to get north of the busiest areas of Yellowstone (like the geyser basin where Old Faithful is located) by noon. We had some decent climbs up to 8,500′ in the southern portion of Yellowstone and we crossed the Continental Divide three times, but none were long and our engine temperature never climbed above normal. We stopped for lunch at a scenic overlook along the Madison River once we cleared the Madison Campground area and were headed north on US-89 toward the Norris Geyser Basin. We expected the remaining drive out of Yellowstone National Park to be uneventful, but we forgot about the section of road in the Golden Gate Canyon area (it probably wasn’t as intimidating in the Tahoe). We also hit heavy traffic near the Mammoth Hot Springs area and were slowed to a complete stop numerous times. My co-pilot assured me that she never wanted to make that drive in a motorhome again. Next time we’ll go west at the Madison Campground area, head into West Yellowstone and take US-191 north from there into Bozeman, MT.
Yellowstone – Lunch – Madison River
US-89 at Golden Gate Canyon
Spring Creek Campground and Trout Ranch is a beautiful campground and sits along the Boulder River (which we can see from our camper). It is very remote and we are not receiving very good download/upload speeds (1.5 Mbps/.3 Mbps) on our AT&T hotspot. My Tracfone is much better at 20 Mbps/2 Mbps, but Beth’s Visible iPhone 12 is receiving speeds similar to the AT&T hotspot. The campground Wi-Fi upload/download speeds aren’t much to write home about, but surfing from it seems to be going fairly well.
June 29, 2021 – Touring the Grand Teton National Park
On Monday and Tuesday (6/28 – 6/29) we toured Grand Teton National Park. On Monday we drove to numerous scenic overlooks and took in the incredible sites. The first place I wanted to go was Mormon Row to get pictures of the old barns with the mountains in the background. We slowly headed north on US-191, stopping at the scenic overlooks along the way, until we reached the Jackson Lake Lodge. The lodge is not quite as impressive as the lodges in places like Yellowstone and Glacier, but it doesn’t need to be because the view from the lobby overlooking Jackson Lake and the mountains is incredible. We sat down in the lobby and enjoyed the view for a while. On our way out the back, we saw a hiking trail. I felt like my foot was ready to try a short hike, but they had posted a “Bear Frequenting the Area” notice at the trailhead and although my foot does feel a lot better, I’m afraid Beth still might be able to outrun me, so I voted to skip the hike. On the way back we took Teton Park Road which follows the lakes and stays closer to the base of the mountain range. We stopped for lunch at the Catholic Bay Picnic Area overlooking Jackson Lake. After lunch we saw a couple of moose in the creeks along Moose Wilson Road (imagine that) on our trip home.
When we passed the Jenny Lake area on Monday the parking lot was full and cars were parked along Teton Park Road for over half a mile in each direction (very crowded). We decided to get up earlier on Tuesday in hopes of seeing more wildlife along the way and getting a parking spot in the parking lot at Jenny Lake. We did see two moose in about the same spot along Moose Wilson Road (might have been the same two as yesterday), but didn’t get to see any Elk in the spot we were told they’d be early in the morning (apparently the Elk get up earlier than 8AM). We arrived at Jenny Lake in time to get a parking spot (there were probably 20 left). We waited in line about 15 minutes to get on the boat that takes you across Jenny Lake (we chose not to take the 2.5 mile hike around the south end of the lake). We then hiked up the trail to Hidden Falls (1/2 mile with a couple hundred foot gain in elevation). The scenery was beautiful, so we attempted to continue on to Inspiration Point. We reached a point where we felt the view was “inspiring”, but there was no sign saying “Inspiration Point”. We decided to continue on a bit from there, but at one of our stops to suck in oxygen, we could see people at much higher elevations. My foot felt fine going uphill, but we had one down hill section that made me realize the trip back down to the boat dock was not going to be easy so we elected to turn around. We were quite happy with what we had seen. When we returned to the parking lot, it was overflowing and people were stalking us in their vehicles. We told one family to pull over at the next black Tahoe with Florida plates and we’d be there soon. They were very happy to get our spot. We drove to the first picnic area on the way home (Cottonwood Creek Picnic Area) and ate the delicious sandwiches Beth had fixed. On the way back down Moose Wilson Road we saw another moose snacking along the creek.
Grand Tetons – Mormon Row
Grand Tetons – Snake River Overlook
Grand Tetons – Oxbow Bend Scenic Overlook
Grand Tetons – Jackson Lake Lodge
Grand Tetons – Jackson Lake Lodge
Grand Tetons – Bear Warning!
Grand Tetons – Lunch – Catholic Bay Picnic Area
Grand Tetons – Mount Moran Turnout
Grand Tetons – Jenny Lake
Grand Tetons – Jenny Lake
Grand Tetons – Jenny Lake – Huff’n & Puff’n
Grand Tetons – Jenny Lake
Grand Tetons – Jenny Lake – from Boat
Grand Tetons – Moose
Grand Tetons – Moose
June 27, 2021 – Fireside RV Resort in Jackson Hole
Today we left Highline Trail RV Park and moved to a campground, Fireside Resort, just outside Grand Teton National Park. This campground is slowly being converted to a “tiny house” resort. Due to that, the portion that still remains campground has not only been neglected, but the water and sewer hookups have been migrated and buried under the center of the campsite (i.e., not available to campers). They’ll dig up the plumbing when they place the “tiny houses” on the sites. Therefore, we have power only (navy shower time). It’s funny because we were chatting with several of our neighbors and the Dad’s were freaking out about being here four or five days and having teenagers and having to worry about their gray tanks overflowing. We suggested that the campground showers were a short walk away and they suggested that we didn’t know what it was like to have teenage daughters (they have a point). At $75/night, no pool, and no full hookups, the campground receives mostly negative reviews, but as the realtors say, “it’s all about location”. A number of the sites are very small/tight, but we were quite fortunate to be placed in one of the biggest sites (both length and width). The only tight spot is at the back of our camper (on the driver’s side) and after our neighbors arrived, we felt like the Tahoe was under their awning, so we unhooked it and squeezed it in front of our camper. They were very appreciative.
The drive was very scenic and uneventful (mostly down hill). We topped off our fuel tank at a Marathon station at the intersection of US-191 and US-89 and headed on to the campground. This should give us plenty of fuel to get into Montana where the prices are significantly lower. We are able to access the DISH Western Arc satellites from our roof mounted satellite antenna from this site. After setting up the site we finished watching the last few innings of the Rays unfortunate loss to the Angels and then moved outside for “kitty time”. The campground has decent Wi-Fi. When we arrived we were getting 25Mbps/7Mbps upload/download speeds. By 8:30PM, the speeds had dropped to 5Mbps/1Mbps, which is still acceptable for our needs.
Today we left the KOA in Craig, CO and started our migration toward the Grand Tetons. We couldn’t get reservations anywhere in the Grand Tetons over the weekend, not to mention that we didn’t want to be in the Grand Tetons on a weekend anyway, so we stopped for the weekend in Boulder, WY (Population 75, Elevation 7,016′) at the Highline Trail RV Park. We only had two choices for routes to get here (there are not a lot of roads in this part of the world) and the route with the least high grade climbs (CO-13) had construction that placed us on a one lane dirt road for 5 miles behind a pilot vehicle. We didn’t think we wanted to deal with that in the RV while towing the Tahoe, but the only other choice was to head into Utah on US-40 and then head north on US-191 (the road Highline Trail RV Park is on). The problem with the second option is that the climb north from US-40 on US-191 immediately goes into a serious climb with many switchbacks and 8 and 10% grades. After our experience getting to Craig, CO (with the RV temporarily overheating on an 8% grade) we elected that we would deal with the construction on CO-13. We definitely made the right choice. We only had to wait about 15 minutes for the pilot car to lead our small group of vehicles down the unpaved detour. The dirt was heavily packed and there was no dust due to the rain the day before. Other than that the 5 mile section of construction the road was great and only had one decent climb at a 5% grade. It dumped us off on I-80 and we headed west to the first exit where we bought fuel at a Loves Travel Stop for what I hope is our maximum fuel price ($3.47/gal after our fuel card discount) this year (I’m not holding my breath). We stopped for lunch at a Rest Area on I-80 and then continued west to US-191 at Rock Springs, WY. US-191 is extremely desolate. We really only passed through one town of any consequence (Eden, WY – 2010 census population 281) during the 90 mile drive from Rock Springs to the campground in Boulder. We encountered one decent grade (5 to 6%) which only raised our engine temperature a bit.
This campground is awesome and is located on the west side of the Wind River Mountain Range at 7,016′. Full hookups for $36/night and some of the largest sites (both length and width) we have ever seen. The few trees aren’t very tall, so the roof DISH network antenna worked fine. The new AT&T Wi-Fi is working so well (35Mbps download/10 Mbps upload) that I haven’t even tested the campground Wi-Fi. We would have liked to have spent more time outside this evening, but it has been a very rainy day (only the third time we have encountered rain on this trip). No complaints here as the rain is desperately needed and tomorrow’s forecast looks very good. We did try to take the cats out for a short bit, but the garbage crew came through and the cats were all scared of the beautiful horse pulling the garbage wagon.
On Saturday we had a delicious breakfast at the Boulder Store (right next to the campground) and then drove about 12 miles to Pinedale, WY for groceries and some dry lubricant from the attached (to the grocery) ACE Hardware store. It’s the first ACE Hardware I’ve ever visited that not only sells rifles and shotguns, but reloading supplies including dies, powder, and bullets (welcome to America!). After lunch we visited a local distillery. How could one not visit Cowboy Country Distillery? We were very fortunate to be hosted by the actual owner/distiller who has been distilling liquor for over 49 years and worked for Seagram’s many of those years. The beverages were delicious and we probably spent too much money on take home “samples”.
Highline Trail RV Park – Site #18
Highline Trail RV Park – Wind River Range in Background
Highline Trail RV Park – Totally Green Trash Service
Boulder Store – Biscuits & Gravy
Boulder Store – Big Breakfast
Highline Trail RV Park – Phoebe Chill’n
Beth Receiving Some Feedback from Yet Another Horse
June 23, 2021 – The Wild Horses of Sand Wash Basin
Today we visited the Wild Horses of Sand Wash Basin. Sand Wash Basin is a very large piece of land (250 square miles) controlled by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) which contains a large herd of wild horses. Entry is free, but they recommend a four wheel drive vehicle with decent ground clearance. Had we stayed on the main paths today, we probably could have gotten by in a car, but they say if it rains you’re in trouble even with four wheel drive. We ventured down a couple of side paths where we were glad we had the extra ground clearance and four wheel drive. Sand Wash Basin is extremely remote (47 miles west of Craig, CO with Craig being the last place with amenities).
We saw our first group of horses about 3 miles from the entrance. We only saw 3 other vehicles while we were there, but a couple in a Jeep had already stopped to view these horses. The horses were a couple hundred yards off the road, so that couple elected to walk in closer to them. We watched for a while to see if we would have an opportunity to film a When Nature Attacks video, but the horses didn’t seem too bothered. We got bored and moved along. Later we saw the couples’ jeep traveling down another road, so I guess they survived their own stupidity.
Stupid Human Tricks
I had read that part of the herd tends to hang out near a place called Two Bar Spring, so we turned down a side road to check that out. We saw quite a few along the way there. Overall we saw over 20 horses. We ventured down a remote side trail and discovered a group of 4 very close to the trail. We passed them very slowly and they never moved even though they were within about 20 feet of the trail (people have probably been feeding them). We got some great close-ups there and then headed back to another group of horses and had lunch with them. After lunch we felt like we’d seen plenty and headed back to the campground.
Sand Wash Basin
Sand Wash Basin
Sand Wash Basin
Sand Wash Basin – Wild Horses
Sand Wash Basin – Wild Horses
Sand Wash Basin – Wild Horses
Sand Wash Basin
Sand Wash Basin
Sand Wash Basin
Sand Wash Basin – Wild Horses
June 20, 2021 – Travel to the KOA in Craig, CO
Today (6/20) we left Mt Princeton RV Park in Buena Vista, CO after 16 nights and headed for the KOA in Craig, CO (about 40 miles west of Steamboat Springs on US-40). Although most of the information I could find regarding this drive in the RV forums indicated that it was a fairly easy drive with Tennessee Pass on US-24 north of Leadville, CO being the only moderate climb. Once again, we beg to differ. Tennessee Pass was a piece of cake (probably because heading north we were already at 10,154′ when we hit Leadville and only had to climb to 10,424′). The scenery between there and Minturn, CO was spectacular, but the driving was a bit of an effort with lots of switchbacks going up and down mountain grades (mostly down heading north). From Minturn we took I-70 West for about 16 miles and then jumped on CO-131 heading north. We immediately hit steep grades upward which really made the RV work. According to Google Earth, the first grade hit 7.7% near the top. We got over that OK and stopped for lunch at a pullout near Bond, CO. After lunch we started into the next uphill grade. It had a short section with an 8.6% grade and at an outdoor temperature of 91 degrees that was too much for the RV and we started to overheat. We pulled over immediately and let the engine cool down and then put our flashers on and crawled up the rest of the grade in 2nd gear at 25MPH. The remaining section had anywhere from 5% to 7.2% grades, but we avoided getting hot by taking our time.
Tennessee Pass on US-24
When we got to Steamboat Springs, CO we stopped at the Walmart for supplies and then continued west on US-40 to the KOA. This is a very nice KOA situated at approximately 6,200′ in elevation. Even at that elevation, it’s still getting up to 95 degrees a couple of days this week. The owners here are wonderful and were kind enough to let us ship some items here and hold them for us until we arrived. One of those items was a replacement ice maker for our Norcold refrigerator. After a bit of cussing and swearing on Monday, we were able to swap out the ice maker and are producing ice again. The Wi-Fi here may be the best we’ve ever experienced. I spent my Father’s Day evening Sunday watching music videos on YouTube without a hiccup. Unfortunately, Visible and Tracfone aren’t doing so well here. Beth couldn’t even send out a picture in a text (MMS) Monday evening. The new AT&T Prepaid Hotspot works great here too, but we don’t need it since the campground Wi-Fi is so good. There are enough trees beside us that we had to break out our portable satellite antenna (R2D2), configure it for the DISH Eastern satellites and place it behind the camper on the hood of the Tahoe. None of the Denver local channels are on the DISH Eastern satellite (no Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy), but so far that’s the only “roughing it” we’ve experienced.
Today we headed back into Denver for the last time to visit the kids. We took I-285 into Denver since we had taken I-70 and CO-91 on the way out. This was another very scenic drive with very wide high elevation valleys surrounded by snow capped mountains. We liked the drive so much we took the same route back to the campground.
Since we left (just a week ago) the kids became a two German Shepherd puppy family. The new puppy is a beautiful black German Shepherd (named Luna). We had told the kids to choose a restaurant for lunch. After we met the puppies our Granddaughters informed us that they had chosen The Old Spaghetti Factory for our dining pleasure. What an excellent choice. Everyone sat up and ate their vittles (because ice cream comes with your entree, but you don’t get any if you don’t eat everything). Beth and I both had spaghetti and it was delicious. Also, I ate well enough to get approved for ice cream which was also delicious.
After lunch we all went back to the apartment and I played the memory game with the girls while Beth and Alysa got Chuckie ready for his nap (which he was already quite late for). The girls kicked my buns in the memory game just (like their Dad did). I dug up the video of he and I playing the memory game at the timeshare in Tarpon Springs (circa 1991) and the girls enjoyed watching it with their Dad (including his, “I won because I have big muscles” pronouncement).
We left around 3PM to avoid rush hour. It was 99 degrees in Denver, but a lovely 75 when we got back to our campsite. Many drawings/colorings were generated for us from the time we left babysitting them. They were presented to us today and Beth hung as many as she could in the camper and sent a back photo. The girls were thrilled to see them mounted in the kitchen.
Luna & Veda
Penny’s Tooth Status
My Memory Game Opponents
Decorations from the Grandkids
Chuckie, Aaron, Evie, Penny, & Veda
June 16, 2021 – Visited Salida, CO
We haven’t had very good luck trying to live off of Verizon’s Visible cell phone data plan. It’s truly unlimited (they don’t lower your bandwidth to some useless speed based on usage), but they do reserve the right to “de-prioritize” you if the cell tower you are connected to is busy. Apparently all cell towers are now busy because most of the places we go (especially in towns and cities) we are not able to use the data on Beth’s iPhone (which is on the Visible plan). I’m experiencing similar issues on my Tracfone now that Verizon owns Tracfone. So, after doing some research I discovered that AT&T now has a PrePaid data plan for HotSpots and Tablets that provides 100GB per month for just $55. All I needed was a HotSpot and Walmart sells a low end AT&T LTE HotSpot for $49. We found one available at the Walmart in Salida, CO (about 30 miles away) and we had Salida on our must visit list, so off we went. So far, the HotSpot and AT&T Prepaid Data Plan have worked out well.
The drive from Buena Vista down the Arkansas River Valley to Salida on US-285 was very scenic and Salida was another nice town situated along the Arkansas River. There were lots of bars and restaurants situated near the river. We had a nice lunch at Wallbangers which is a local sports bar a bit further from the river. We had excellent pulled pork and brisket quesadillas along with their signature smoked wings tossed in buffalo sauce for several meals (Note: their “hot” buffalo sauce is truly HOT).
The Famous Smoked Wings at Wallbangers
Pulled Pork Quesadilla at Wallbangers
Wallbangers Sports Bar & Grill
June 10, 2021 – Toured Independence Pass
Today we decided to give Independence Pass a try. Based on my previous attempt to cross Cumberland Pass (an unpaved road), my passenger was a bit nervous and needed some convincing today to try another pass. The original plan was to cross the pass and head on down into Aspen, CO. I’m not sure why I felt the need to visit Aspen, but I had always heard of it and thought it would be a neat place to visit. So, worst case, I thought we could find a place to eat lunch and then head back to the campground. The more we researched online, the more we realized we weren’t interested in eating at any of their dining establishments. Most have words like “Bistro” in the title which is an instant indication that I’m not interested. They also appear to be very expensive. The more research we did, the more Aspen appeared to be a tourist trap (unless it’s February and you love skiing). So we decided to pack a lunch and ascend Independence pass (I promised to turn around the second my passenger got nervous). Even though there were numerous signs restricting vehicles to less than 35′ and attempting to scare one away by noting the $1,100 fine if you were longer than 35′, we proceeded forward (at 17′ in length). The drive turned out to be one of our favorites. The scenery was incredible (as usual) and on the return down, Beth let me pull off at a very small pull-out that was right in the heart of what is referred to as the narrows so that I could take some pictures. While I was taking pictures of the switchbacks ahead, I could hear the sound of high performance engines below. I asked Beth to get out her iPhone (the latest model which takes high quality video) and start videoing the road. Sure enough, within a minute we were entertained by a group of seriously high dollar super cars ascending the mountain. We saw a Lamborghini, McLaren’s, a Koenigsegg (which I had never heard of), an Astin Martin, and who knows what else (most worth well over $200K used). We stopped for lunch back down at the base altitude of 9,150′ along the Twin Lakes (just west of US-24). After lunch we headed back to the campground.
Independence Pass – Ascent from East
Independence Pass
Independence Pass – Descent West
Independence Pass – Descent East – Narrows
Independence Pass – Lake Creek
Lunch on Twin Lakes
June 9, 2021 – Toured Leadville, CO
Leadville, CO is a former silver mining town located at 10,152′ in elevation. The Arkansas River originates just west of town. We noticed an old saloon and some stores we wanted to checkout when we passed through the previous week, so today we headed back up there for a visit.
We ate lunch at The Legendary Silver Dollar Saloon. The saloon still looks like it would have back in the 1880’s and was frequented by notables such as Doc Holiday, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and Oscar Wilde. The booth we sat in was taken from the train that delivered the bars, saloon doors, and mirrors from St Louis. The lunch menu is fairly limited, but the food was very good. We ordered a pulled pork sandwich, a brisket sandwich, an order of onion rings, and split all three.
After lunch we moved further up the main street and checked out a couple of the local stores. We then drove by the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum (neither of us was interested enough in mining to pay the $12 entry fee) and cruised up and down a bunch of the hilly side streets before heading back to the campground.
Leadville – Welcome Signs
Leadville – Mining Car
Silver Dollar Saloon – Pool Table
Silver Dollar Saloon – Booth from Railroad Car
Silver Dollar Saloon – Pulled Pork & Brisket Sandwiches
Silver Dollar Saloon – Parking Lot View
June 7, 2021 – Toured Cottonwood Pass, Taylor Park Reservoir, Tincup, and Cumberland Pass
We started the day out heading west out of Buena Vista, CO on CO-306. This road is now paved on both sides of Cottonwood Pass and crosses the Continental Divide at 12, 126′. The ascent from the east side includes a section with a 10% grade for over a mile. We stopped at the top and took a number of pictures. Beth touched the snow to make sure it wasn’t fake. We continued west from the top and arrived at the Taylor Park Reservoir at the bottom. We stopped in at the Taylor Park Trading Post and picked up a couple of sodas and some chips to enjoy with the sandwiches that Beth packed for lunch.
Cottonwood Pass
Cottonwood Pass
Taylor Park Reservoir
Cottonwood Pass
We left the trading post and headed southeast for the former mining town of Tincup, CO on unpaved CO-765. Tincup is tiny and filled with summer cabins, one Cafe, and a guy selling smoked BBQ along the road. We passed on through Tincup and continued up the unpaved road towards 12,015′ Cumberland Pass. The state does not grade the road as regularly once you pass Tincup and it also becomes quite rocky (small rocks), so the going was a bit slow. Once we cleared the tree line, we started encountering snow. The road was very narrow with no guardrails or shoulder. We had to pass through a section with the driver side tires in the snow (inside of the mountain) and it was a bit unnerving. We reached another section where the snow was much deeper (probably 3′) and covered more than half the road. I stopped at that point and my passenger was so uncomfortable she bailed out of the Tahoe to recover. We were less than 1/2 mile from the pass, but neither of us wanted to venture any further. All I could think was, “what am I going to do if I encounter another vehicle coming from the other direction?” I also didn’t want to turn around on that narrow strip of road, but with her feet firmly on the ground, Beth guided me through a 27 point turnaround and we headed back down to Tincup.
When we got down near the bottom again, we encountered a group of three moose grazing in a meadow along a creek. We stopped to take pictures and decided it would be a good spot to eat our lunch and let Beth vent about how I had tried to kill us both climbing that mountain.
Road Returning from Cumberland Pass
Moose Grazing Between Tin Cup and Cumberland Pass
Moose Grazing Between Tin Cup and Cumberland Pass
June 4, 2021 – Travel to Mt Princeton RV Park in Buena Vista, CO
Today we departed from Dakota Ridge RV Park at 11AM MDT and backtracked a few miles in order to stop at the TA Truck Stop in Wheat Ridge, CO for fuel. Then we headed west on I-70 for our climb into the Rockies. The climb up I-70 to the Eisenhower Tunnel is pretty famous in the towing world for being the one exception the federal Department of Transportation made to the “no grades over 6%” rule (because they couldn’t find a way to pull it off even with digging the tunnel). It really made our Caterpillar engine snort. We spent a lot of time in 2nd gear at 25MPH with our flashers on watching our engine temperature climb. We got within a few degrees of overheating a couple of times, but made the climb to 11,000′ successfully (more than once).
As is often the case on these trips out West, the scenery was incredible and pictures don’t do it justice. About 10 miles after the Eisenhower Tunnel we pulled into a Scenic Pullout near the Dillon Reservoir and ate lunch. This was probably one of the most beautiful places we have ever stopped to eat along an interstate.
Entering Eisenhower Tunnel Westbound
Exiting Eisenhower Tunnel Westbound
Scenic Pullout – West of Eisenhower Tunnel
Scenic Pullout – West of Eisenhower Tunnel
Near Copper Mountain we exited onto CO-91 and took it down to Leadville, CO. The Colorado Department of Transportation says the steepest grade on CO-91 is 5.7%, I beg to differ. Either way, we made another slow ascent up and over Fremont Pass at 11,318′. The scenery all along this 22 mile long highway was breathtaking and well worth taking.
CO-91 – Copper Mountain Area
CO-91 – Fremont Pass Area
Leadville, CO is a neat looking little mountain town with a beautiful backdrop of snow covered mountains. There was a group of high school graduates dressed in cap and gown outside the county courthouse so we gave them a couple of toots with our extremely loud air horn and they went nuts. They were definitely ready to celebrate. It made us think of our young friend Makenna who officially graduated on Tuesday (6/1/2021).
Leadville – 2021 Graduates
Leadville – View of Mountains
We arrived at Mt Princeton RV Park in Buena Vista, CO at 3PM MDT. This is a very nice campground. There’s not a lot of grass. It’s difficult to grow at elevations over 8,000′, but they make a serious effort to have a nice patch of grass between sites. There aren’t a lot of trees either, so accessing the DISH Network with the roof mounted antenna was no problem. We are getting some of the best Visible data download speeds we’ve seen on this trip (22Mbps) and the campground Wi-Fi is very good as well during the day. Both methods of accessing the internet dropped to unusable from about 6PM to 11PM daily. The laundry room has 6 washers ($2.00/load), 8 dryers (6 machines at $0.25 for 7 mins and 2 machines at $1.50 for roughly 45 minutes). Also, they have a $1/$5 change machine.
To our West is a series of 14,000′ peaks. We have great views in all directions.
We rounded up the cats and moved into Aaron & Alysa’s apartment on Sunday. Penny had a loose tooth and I took a picture of her mouth so she could zoom in and analyze it (of course Evie had to join in on the photograph). All the attention to the tooth caused it to fall out on our watch. Aaron & Alysa were quite bummed to miss the “first tooth” event by only a few hours. Penny wrapped her tooth in a napkin and placed it under her pillow at bedtime. We were awakened Monday morning to the sounds of excitement that only a 6 year old could express after discovering that the Tooth Fairy had successfully visited and left a $1 bill in exchange for the tooth (I had offered to set a family precedent by leaving a $100 bill, but Aaron and Alysa were NOT interested in starting out at that level).
Unfortunately, both Sunday and Monday were complete washouts and we were stuck inside. The weather cleared up on Tuesday so we took the kids and the dog to a park with a very nice playground that Alysa had recommended. We took turns taking the dog on long walks while the other kept an eye on Chuckie. The kids had a great time and interacted well with the other children at the playground. On the way home we hit the Chick-fil-A drive through for some well earned nuggets.
Caged Animals
Loose Tooth Check
Penny Loses Her First Tooth
Chuckie Exercising Grandma
Penny on the “Best” Slide
Penny and Evie on the Run
The dog barks constantly every time it sees one of the cats, so we moved her kennel from the master bedroom to the living room and locked the cats in the master bedroom. Not knowing how the dog would react to her new sleeping environment, I slept in the living room with her. She started whimpering around 7AM on Wednesday morning because she could hear the kids talking in their bedroom. I decided this would be a good time for me to take her out to do her duties. We had a successful walk and when I came back in I went up and grabbed little Chuckie so I could take him downstairs and change his diaper and hopefully let Grandma sleep in. Due to my bad knees, I’m careful on the steps and take them one at a time even when I’m not carrying a 20 month old. I thought I was being especially careful, but somehow I reached for a step and it wasn’t there. Down I went from about the fourth step from the bottom. Once I knew I was going down, I cradled Chuckie like a football and fortunately, never fumbled. He made it through the event unscathed and never made a noise, not even when I screamed out in pain and called for Beth. I ended up squatting pretty hard on my knees (which hardly bend anyway) and thought sure I’d broken them or my legs, but once the pain subsided a bit I was able to get up and limp around. Therefore, I declared that we were still going to the park again today (much to my wife’s chagrin). When we got home from the park, I took a nap and when I woke up, my foot was still throbbing and “we” decided I ought to go get it checked out. I went to a local Urgent Care and they determined that the pain in my knees was just a major inflaming of my existing arthritis. Initially the attending physicians indicated that the pain in my foot was due to a broken Medial Cuneiform in my left foot. They put me in a boot and sent me home (two weeks later we found out from the Radiologist’s report that there was no break, and the foot felt pretty good after 3 weeks).
On Thursday, Aaron and Alysa arrived home from their wedding/honeymoon and we returned to the campground. We had originally intended to bring the girls back with us so they could spend one night in the camper, but we had to cancel that plan due to my foot. The girls were very disappointed. We had Aaron follow us back to the campground so that he could load my spare tire (and a couple of other heavy items) back into the Tahoe.
Aaron & Alysa’s Wedding
Aaron & Alysa’s Wedding
May 28, 2021
We left the Wakeeney, KS KOA promptly at 8AM CDT on Thursday (5/27) so that we could get setup at our campsite near Denver and then go visit the kids. We stopped at a car wash in Golden, CO that had a large vehicle wash-down area and did our best wash 1,900 miles of travel off of the RV. It was tight and we had to move the RV back and forth a couple of times in order to clean all of it, but it looks much better (from a distance).
We couldn’t get into one of our usual State Park campgrounds so this year we are staying at Dakota Ridge RV Park in Golden, CO. Mom and Dad have stayed here several times. The sites are smaller than at the State Parks, but this is a well maintained RV Park. The bad news is that the campground pool is closed due to a chlorine shortage. We were parked and had our camper setup by 1:30PM MDT.
Dakota Ridge RV Park – Site #M15 – Passenger
Dakota Ridge RV Park – Site #M15 – Driver
We headed over to visit Alysa and the Grandchildren at 3:30PM MDT. They were excited to see us and we were just as excited to see them. We got to meet our new Grand-puppy (Veda) as well (she’s an excitable puppy, but very well behaved). Aaron had to work so we didn’t expect to see him, but we got a surprise visit around 5:30PM MDT. We had originally planned to bring the Grandchildren and the Grand-puppy back to the campground on Sunday when Aaron and Alysa leave for their wedding/honeymoon, but we are starting to rethink that especially since the pool is closed. That would probably be too much to add to us and our three cats inside the camper and there’s not much area outside our camper to play.
Today (Friday) we are heading over to the apartment at 2PM MDT to watch the Grandchildren so that Alysa can go get her nails done for the wedding. When Aaron gets home from work we plan to all go out to dinner.
We left Deer Creek Valley RV Park shortly after 10AM CDT. Just before Noon we saw highway information signs stating that there was a wreck ahead and that I-70 Westbound was closed at Mile Marker 291. We got off at Mile Marker 295 and hopped on Old US-40 (and I mean old). I was worried to death that it was going to turn into a dirt road, but it didn’t. It wasn’t much road, but we got to Chapman, KS and took the main northern road out of town to get back on I-70 at Mile Marker 286 (thinking we were West of the wreck). A flag man met us at the on ramp and told us the wreck was further West, but that the left lane was now open. We eventually reached a wreck which appeared to involve a big Class A motorhome towing an SUV. We couldn’t see what damage it sustained, just that it was being hooked to a larger wrecker and there was tons of debris beside it. Just ahead of it was a trailer that had nothing left on it and debris everywhere. We think it was a flatbed, but couldn’t tell for sure. Then another few miles down the road we came across at Travel Trailer that was upside down (no tow vehicle in site). We’re not sure what all happened in those two incidents, but we were glad we weren’t part of it.
I-70 Wreck – Kansas – Motorhome
I-70 Wreck – Kansas – Trailer
We are staying at the KOA in Wakeeney, KS. We’ve stayed here twice in the past and consider it the last decent campground along I-70 between here and Denver. We reserved two days here in case we ran into issues along the way and needed some repair time. We will head to Denver on Thursday.
KOA – Wakeeney, KS – Site #41
Wakeeney – Full Moon – Leading Up to Lunar Eclipse
Today we slept in a little bit and left Lazy Day Campground at about 10AM CDT. In order to maintain her driving skills Beth elected to drive the first leg this morning. I didn’t want Beth to think I was watching over her so I took a good nap with my cat Kirby. We arrived at Deer Creek Valley RV Park in Topeka, KS just after 2PM CDT. We stayed here in 2017 on our way to Denver in Site #47 (beside our current Site #48). As I mentioned then, this is a really nice, well maintained RV Park. The WiFi download speeds are over 5Mbps and there aren’t any trees, so the roof antenna works fine for DISH satellite access. Beth reheated our leftover pork chops, baked potatoes, and cheese logs from Patti’s for supper and round two was still delicious.
We departed this morning at 9AM CDT and had completed setting up at Lazy Day Campground in Danville, MO by 3PM CDT. We had one major slowdown due to an accident (that we never saw) on I-24 in Illinois. This is a beautiful, well maintained campground on a Missouri hillside. The WiFi is good with 5-7 Mbps download speeds. The sites are level (once you get in them). The sites would be a little tight if the campground was full because they park RV’s side-by-side (in opposite directions) and place the utilities in between. However, on a Sunday night there is only one other camper in the section we are in. This allowed Beth to set up her cat fence and let the cats roam in the Midwestern grass. They loved it and stayed outside a long time. We took about a 1 mile walk (round trip) on a hiking trail down to a lake (and when I say down, I mean DOWN). I had to huff and puff coming back up the hill, but it was good exercise.
We started out early today (8AM EDT) in order to get to our campsite early and enjoy Lake Barkley. We had a successful ascent over Monteagle maintaining 55MPH in 4th gear with the temperature only climbing to 197 degrees. We should be ready for some Rocky Mountain climbs. We arrived at Noon CDT. Lake Barkley is one of the two HUGE man made lakes in Western Kentucky near Paducah where my good friend Todd grew up. The other lake being Kentucky Lake which is connected to Lake Barkley via a canal. Todd spent a lot of time boating here as a child and back in the last century (1992 and 1993), when he and I owned a 24′ boat (The Twister), he and I brought it up here on two occasions. We boated with all of his friends who were only familiar with two speeds, zero and full throttle.
Todd and His Friend Mike Running The Twister at Full Throttle through The Canal
We are staying at the Canal Campground in the land between the lakes (located right on the canal). We got the only campsite available tonight which happens to be a handicap site (which you are allowed to reserve if no others are available) located right on the water. The view is great and we’re having a good time watching all the boats pass by at (you guessed it) full throttle. We are able to access the Dish Western Arc satellites from our roof mounted antenna and we are getting good data download speeds (10 to 15 Mbps) on Visible.
Canal Campground – Site #106
Canal Campground – View from Inside
Todd and his parents introduced us to the local restaurant, Patti’s, which is famous for its pork chops. We are camped less than 2 miles away so I had to take Beth so that she could experience the best pork chop ever. We called for reservations two weeks in advance and the only slot available was 3:45PM CDT which seemed early until we remembered the time change. It felt like 4:45PM to us (which is almost late for supper in Sun City Center). I hadn’t eaten there since 1992, but the other thing I remember besides the incredible pork chops was the mozzarella sticks (we call them cheese logs). They are HUGE and Aaron ate 4 of them at age 4 to amaze us all. We ordered them as an appetizer and they were just as good as I remembered. The part I had forgotten about was the flower pot full of bread. Our kind waitress gave us another pot full to take home. Our waitress talked us down from the 2″ pork chop to the 1″ version. Her theory is that both versions are brined the same amount of time, so a larger percentage of the 1″ version gets the flavor. I don’t know if she’s right, but the 1″ version was delicious, I just felt like I cheated for not getting the 2″, although neither of us managed to finish our 1″ pork chop. We have lots of leftovers.
