We arrived at the KOA at 1:15 PM MDT. This is a nice quiet campground with an elevation of 6,193′. It’s still a bit warm (low 90’s), but the predicted overnight lows will be in the 40’s. We are going to relax here for four nights before heading North to the Black Hills.
We arrived at River Camp RV Park at 1:40PM. This is a nice quiet campground with trees, green grass, and an elevation of 6,130′. It’s a little warm (upper 80’s), but not as warm as Moab and Grand Junction and the predicted overnight low is 50 degrees. The campground play area with a swing and slide is right outside our door, so obviously, Beth is excited. There’s also a campground horse and mule in a corral about 50 yards away and, yes, Beth has already paid them a visit. Campground management let us know that there are also three cats roaming around the facility on mouse patrol.
White RiverCampground HorseCampground HorseCampground MuleSite #20Theo the Mule with a Horse with no Name
We departed from Sunsets of Moab RV Park at 10:00AM MDT and headed Northeast to Canyon View RV Resort in Grand Junction, CO (117 miles). We ran several errands along the way. The first stop was at a Maverik station in Moab for fuel. Then on to the local NAPA store for motor oil. The Sprinter’s little 2.0L diesel engine burns a little oil when new. According to Mercedes this is normal and will cease as the engine breaks in. We added half a quart of Mobil One ESP 5W-30 Full Synthetic (formulated for European diesel engines and approved by Mercedes). It was recommended not to add more than half a quart at a time to avoid the risk of overfilling it. We probably need to add another half a quart. There is no dipstick on the Sprinter, so you have to add some oil and then drive a bit until the sensor updates the display on the dash to see how much oil you have in the crankcase.
We left NAPA and headed to the nearest Walmart which was 120 miles away in Grand Junction, CO. Beth said it’s the biggest Walmart she’s ever seen in her life. On the way there we noticed a Taco Bell in the parking lot of a Mall, providing us with plenty of parking options. We interpreted this as another sign from above and picked up a couple of Stackers (Yummy).
We originally had reservations to stay at the Saddlehorn Campground inside Colorado National Monument, but with temperatures predicted in the upper 90’s we lost our enthusiasm for dry camping (no power, water, or dump station) at a National Park Service campground. Instead we checked into Canyon View RV Resort just after 2:00PM MDT. This is the complete opposite of dry camping. The sites are gravel, but the outdoor sitting area is cement with manicured grass between sites. Beth says there are about 30 washers and dryers (yes she already has two loads going) and they use her new favorite laundry payment app PayRange. The app handles payment via PayPal and shows the status of the washers and dryers while she waits patiently in the camper. It does not, however, fold the laundry. The campground is very close to I-70, but we chose a spot in the back and can’t hear any traffic from inside the camper with the air conditioner running.
Site #Y51iSite #Y51
On our second day in Grand Junction we drove through the Colorado National Monument (23 mile drive). We entered on the Western end of the park near Fuita, CO with the intention of keeping Beth’s side of the vehicle on the inside of the switchbacks. This worked most of the time, but she had enough experiences looking out her window and seeing a 1,000′ cliff that she has officially declared she’s had enough of these experiences in her life. I’ll have to experience any in the future alone (or hire a passenger). Either way, the scenery was incredible.
Colorado National MonumentColorado National MonumentColorado National MonumentColorado National MonumentColorado National Monument
While doing many loads of laundry, Beth found out from the office staff that we could wash our camper if we paid a $20 fee for the water. Having traveled over 3,000 miles without a bath, we jumped on that opportunity and washed Lucy when we returned from Colorado National Monument. It was a bit cloudy and actually spit some rain while we washed her, so the heat wasn’t too intense. We are pleased with the results.
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 Wakeeney, KS bright and early Sunday morning (8/2) and arrived at Chatfield State Park in Littleton, CO at 1:00 PM MDT. It is 33 miles from the kids’ apartment in Westminster, CO which is about 7 miles farther than Cherry Creek State Park (where we have stayed the last two visits), but the the traffic congestion is much less because we don’t have to traverse through the city of Denver.
Chatfield State Park – Site #21
Upon arrival, we immediately unloaded all of our “stuff” from the truck so that we could use all three rows of seats to haul the grandchildren and headed for the kid’s apartment. Aaron was already at work by then, but Alysa had completed her shift and was home with the grandchildren. We had a short visit with Alysa and then packed up the grandchildren and headed back to the campground.
When we got back to the camper we had some dinner and then headed off to the beach on the other side of the lake. The beach area is more gravel than sand, but the kids had never been to a beach before and didn’t know what they were missing. They had a great time playing in the water and attempting to build sand castles.
Chatfield State Park – Beach
Chatfield State Park – Beach
Chatfield State Park – Swimming
Playground & Pony Rides – Monday 8/3/2020
Today we had 11:30 AM reservations for pony rides at the state park stables. I took the girls over to the campground playground to keep them occupied until our appointment. Alysa had to work, but Aaron came by to see the pony rides. We thought that since they had to ride assisted (by parents/guardians) that they would just walk them around a small corral, but we actually did 3 large laps around their property. The girls were in heaven. After the pony rides and lunch the girls and I went to a local business and bought firewood. When we got back they spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the dirt, running around the campsite, and riding their bikes.
Chatfield State Park – Playground
Chatfield State Park – Playground
Pony Ride
Pony Ride on “Chester” & “Doobie”
Playing in the Dirt
Family Time – Tuesday 8/4/2020
Today Aaron & Alysa came to the campground and we hung out, barbecued, and got caught up. It was a little warm, but we all had a good time. The girls continued participating in their favorite activities (running, biking, and playing in the dirt) and little Chuckie hung out with the adults in his Pack ‘n Play. We built a fire with the firewood we purchased the day before and cooked steaks, potatoes, vegetables, and corn on the cob over the fire. After dinner Aaron & Alysa took their family home to rest up for tomorrow’s trip to the zoo.
Hanging Out at the Campsite
Tuckered Grandchildren
Hanging Out at the Campsite
The Denver Zoo – Wednesday 8/5/2020
Today we went to the Denver Zoo. It was a bit hot, but we still had a great time. After our trip to the zoo we at a late lunch/early dinner (or as Alysa says “Linner”) at Cheddar’s.
Baboon, Penny, Alysa, & Everleight
Penny Showing off Her Wingspan
Everleigh
Aaron, Chuckie, Alysa, Penny, & Everleigh
Penny on Break
Everleigh Munching on Cotton Candy
The Girls
Grandpa & Chuckie
“Linner” at Cheddar’s
Jim’s Burger Haven – Thursday 8/6/2020
Alysa had to work today, so we went to their apartment around lunchtime and caught up with laundry while hanging out with Aaron. When Alysa got off work we watched the kids while she and Aaron ran a couple of errands. When they returned we went to dinner at Jim’s Burger Haven and tried out their famous 6″ burgers. The burgers, buns, fries, onion rings, and shakes were all great.
Jim’s Burger Haven
Penny’s Birthday – Monday 8/10/2020
Today we went to the kids’ apartment to celebrate Penny’s birthday. Penny loves to play Super Mario and her favorite character in the game is Princess Peach, so the party was Super Mario themed and Penny received a Princess Peach dress. Everleigh also received a dress for the character Princess Daisy. Penny loves steak and requested grilled steak for her birthday which everyone was happy to accommodate. Aaron grilled steak, chicken, and vegetable kabobs and they were all delicious (I’d rate the steak in my Top 5 all time). The cake and ice cream were also great and Penny was in the height of her glory.
Today we had our first experience with camping in the snow along with an overnight low of 15 degrees. We returned from visiting the kids yesterday around 5PM and the temperature was 82 degrees. As the front went through we received a huge blast of heavy winds for about 30 minutes and by 10PM the temperature was down to 32 degrees. When we got up the next morning it was snowing and the temperature was 22 degrees. That’s a huge change in temperature. To avoid any issues with the freezing temperatures we unhooked our water and sewer connections and thoroughly drained all the hoses before the front arrived. I placed a remote temperature sensor in the water bay (which is heated as long as we run the gas furnace) and the temperature in the compartment never dropped below 34 even when the outside temperature got down to 15 degrees the following night.
We didn’t want to go out and contribute to the madness on the roads so we hunkered down in the camper all day although Beth did leave to go to the campground laundry facility. The next day the temperature climbed back up to 50 degrees and most of the snow was melted by the end of the day.
Because both of our granddaughters were born at well over 8lbs, the doctors elected to induce labor early Wednesday morning (10/2). After checking into our campground on Tuesday we took the family out for a nice meal at Cheddar’s before taking our granddaughters back to the campground with us.
On Wednesday night (10/2) at 8:07PM MDT baby Charles was born weighing in at 7lbs 5oz and 19.5″ long. By then the girls were sound asleep so we waited until the next morning to visit our beautiful new grandchild. Mom was released 24 hours later and we took the girls home the following afternoon (Friday).
