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2019 Road Trip – Junction City, KS

We began our journey home today. Since we were anxious to get home we elected to break our retirement rule of 250 miles maximum per day and knocked out 475 miles. We decided to spend the night at a Cracker Barrel and didn’t want to get there too early and take up valuable parking so we didn’t leave the Denver area until 10AM MDT.

Two hours into the trip we stopped and ate lunch at the Arriba, CO Rest Area (Mile Marker 383). We forgot to buy lunch meat at the grocery store before we left, so we had to thaw out one of the packages of Eckrich Bologna we had cut (extra, extra, extra thick) at my hometown grocery store deli and froze. This was an unexpected pleasure and I’m glad I still have one more pound in the freezer to enjoy sometime this winter. For those keeping track at home, Beth was the mature adult in the family (as always) and made herself a nice salad.

Once we got out of the blue state, diesel fuel prices dropped $0.30/gal so we stopped two hours after lunch in Colby, KS and fueled up at the 24/7 Travel Store. There was supposed to be a McDonald’s at the travel store, but it was closed due to construction so we ended up stopping on the road in front of a local Sonic Drive-in while Beth ran in to grab a couple fountain sodas (with the great Sonic chewy ice). We had no idea how difficult it would be to purchase a soda at a Sonic if you aren’t in a car. They ought to have those two clowns that do their commercials do one about that. It would be an instant classic.

At just after 6PM, we stopped at the Ogallah, KS Rest Area and ate leftover hamburgers we had grilled Sunday afternoon. We drove non-stop to the Junction City, KS Cracker Barrel from there. There was a Shell Station at the same exit with good diesel fuel prices, so we topped off and cleaned the massive bug carcasses off the windshield before pulling into the Cracker Barrel. We arrived just after 9PM CDT and fired up the DISH Satellite in time to see the last three innings of the National League Pennant race where Washington knocked off St. Louis to make it to the World Series.

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2019 Road Trip – It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

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.

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2019 Road Trip – We Have a Grandson

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).

  • Charles
  • Charles
  • Dad and the Kids
  • Mom and the Kids
  • S’more Construction
  • S’more Consumption
  • Bugle Consumption Training
  • Tuckered Campers
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2019 Road Trip – Garden of the Gods

Today we visited the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. This is a park full of very beautiful sandstone rock formations. We wanted to burn some calories so we parked at the North end in the main parking lot and hiked through the park to the Palmer Trail on the West side and took it on down to the Siamese Twins. We took the Scotsman Trail on the return trip. In total we hiked 4 miles at 6,400′ in elevation and enjoyed some incredible scenery.

  • Garden of the Gods
  • Beth at Garden of the Gods
  • Garden of the Gods
  • Me at the Siamese Twins
  • Pikes Peak Shot Through the Siamese Twins
  • Garden of the Gods
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2019 Road Trip – Pikes Peak

Today we visited Pikes Peak. We had attempted to visit the summit in 2017 with the kids, but learned at the entrance that you shouldn’t take an infant past 10,000′ so we stopped at the Halfway Picnic Grounds at 9,930′ on that trip. The only issue today was the construction of the new Pikes Peak Summit Complex . They are building a brand new Visitor Center at the summit along with replacing the Cog Railway leading to the summit. I assume they will also tear down the current Visitor Center when the new one opens. Due to this construction, there is no place to park at the summit so you have to board a shuttle at either the 13 mile or 16 mile marks. We drove up to the 16 mile mark at which point my navigator determined that she’d reached her yearly limit of driving extremely narrow high elevation roads with no shoulders. I boarded the shuttle and continued to the top. I will have to admit that when I exited the shuttle I had to stop and and suck in some oxygen because I got a little dizzy at first. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to visit the summit for the first time since 1976 (I think that was the year). While I was up there, two military fighters flew by. This was the first time I’ve ever experienced seeing an airplane in flight that was basically at the same elevation I was at. It was pretty cool. I fired off a number of shots with my camera, but unfortunately I didn’t have a long lens on it at the time, so the planes are pretty small. On the way back down the mountain we relived our 2017 memories by picnicking again at the Halfway Picnic Grounds.

  • Pikes Peak Summit
  • Pikes Peak Summit
  • Cripple Creek Gold Mine
  • Military Fighter (Zoom In)
  • Beth at 16 Mile Lot (12,780′)
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2019 Road Trip – Colorado Springs, CO

Today we moved to Cheyenne Mountain State Park in Colorado Springs for a week. This is another excellent state park in Colorado with full hookups at each site and beautiful scenery including Cheyenne Mountain to the West. We are planning to tour Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods while we are here. There are also 23 miles of hiking trails within the park and we are hoping to walk off some of the calories we’ve absorbed on this trip.

  • Site 20
  • Site 20
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2019 Road Trip – Longmont, CO – Lunch with the Kids

Today we went to Aaron and Alysa’s place and visited the kids for the first time this year. The girls were a bit shy at first but being the grandparents that we are, we broke the ice the old fashion way with gifts.

When we visit the grandkids we try to take a lot of pictures and last year Penelope showed a lot of interest in our camera, so today Grandma came up with the brilliant idea of bringing along our old point and shoot camera for the girls to play with. They loved it, were good about sharing it, and we now have hundreds of pictures of their fingers (particularly Everleigh’s).

Beth and I miss the Cheddar’s Restaurant that closed in Brandon, FL so we used some of our American Express credit card points on Cheddar’s gift certificates to use here in Denver and took the family to lunch. Lunch was great and the girls were very well behaved.

Penelope the Photographer
Everleigh’s Unique Camera Holding Technique
Me and My Crew
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2019 Road Trip – Rocky Mountain NP – Trail Ridge Road

Today we entered Rocky Mountain National Park at the Beaver Meadows entrance just West of Estes Park, CO and traveled the Trail Ridge Road through the park and out the Grand Lake entrance. This drive is an absolute must for anyone who ever comes to Colorado to visit the Rocky Mountains. The road travels 11 miles above the treeline (11,500′) and tops out at 12,183′.

  • Trail Ridge Road
  • Trail Ridge Road at Over 12,000′

After exiting the park at the Grand Lake entrance we drove past Grand Lake to the US Forest Service Shadow Mountain Picnic Site on the South end of Shadow Mountain Lake and ate the delicious lunch that Beth had packed. Originally we had planned to turn around and take Trail Ridge Road back through the park in the opposite direction, but my lovely navigator (who once again provided plenty of feedback regarding my driving in the riskier portions of the drive) felt she’d met her yearly quota of high elevation, narrow roads with zero shoulder and no guard rails. So we elected to complete the loop by taking US-34 on West to US-40 East and eventually I-70 East back into Denver. Unfortunately for Beth, we got the bonus plan as it turns out that US-40 makes a very major (and very scenic) climb up and over Berthoud Pass which tops out at 11,317′. Fortunately for Beth, there were guard rails throughout the pass although I still received plenty of driving instruction.

  • Shadow Mountain Picnic Site
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2019 Road Trip – Longmont, CO

Today we left Cody, WY and drove to St. Vrain State Park just East of Longmont, CO. We headed South out of Cody on WY-120 and then hopped on good old US-20 in Thermopolis, WY (famous for its hot springs). Just South of Thermopolis US-20 follows the Wind River through the Wind River Canyon. This was an incredibly scenic drive. Probably one of the best on the trip outside of a major attraction. US-20 through my hometown of LaGrange, IN is obviously very scenic with my childhood home on display, but I’d have to admit that Wind River Canyon tops it.

  • US-20 – Wind River Canyon
  • US-20 – Wind River Canyon
  • US-20 – Wind River Canyon

The St. Vrain State Park is another nice state park in Colorado with full hookups. The roads are dirt, but our site had a HUGE cement slab (perhaps because it’s handicap accessible). The picnic table was backed by a wind shelter. All the sites were pull through and very long. There were no trees to block satellite access and the Verizon LTE was very fast. The only negative was our proximity to I-25, but the road noise didn’t bother us.

  • Site 57