Our Western Adventure

Hello Everyone!
We are on vacation, traveling from MN to AZ.  We will be visiting friends and National Parks along the way.  We do not have the ability to post pictures along the way, so the best we can do is tell you what we are doing.  We will be on the road for about 3 weeks.  We are looking forward to this trip.  Please enjoy reading about our adventures.  Pictures will follow after we return home.  So please return:-)
Karol and Liz

Yesterday, September 6th, we started off on our adventure to travel through the National Parks in Colorado and Utah.  Final destination is Apache Junction, Arizona. Jeep is packed, tent and sleeping bags included, first overnight was spent with Karol's folks and their friends from Iowa and Wisconsin.  They were camping in Iowa at Smith Lake Algona Iowa.  Evening was spent sitting around the camp fire. Perfect evening.  Here's to hoping for warm mornings, today it was 55 degrees. Sleeping in the tent might be a very cool experience to say the least:-}.

We are off and running, destination today is Eaton, Colorado to spend time with Christy and Mike.  Karol put the peddle to the metal to pass  a few farm vehicles and she has decided that the jeep likes to go fast as the miles per gallon went up while passing :-), makes sense to me..LOL.  Today we will spend the day mainly driving since there not too much to see in Iowa and Nebraska.  So far only  corn and bean fields, wind farms and the lovely smell of ____ we will let your imagination fill in the blank.  And the smell is more often than you think:-).

Cheap gas experience in Denison, Iowa
Pay by cash...pumps do not take hundred dollar bills, into store for change.  Fill twenty dollars worth, insert an additional ten dollars.  Gas tank does not take the whole amount.  Back into store for refund, back to pump for a second look for a receipt still no receipt, back into store, store manager takes keys out to pump to get receipt.  Finally she comes back in and we get our change.  On the road again after a half hour stop just to fill up with gas.  Not sure which one of us was more upset:-) yes we know we are on vacation and we have all of the time in the world, just trying to get to some scenery like the mountains.

Arrived at Christy and Mike's place.  Sure was great to catch up with each other. Spent the evening talking and deciding what we were going to do on Thursday. They sure live in a cute town. Very relaxing and peaceful.

Thursday was spent driving around, drove through Fort Collins.  Saw what would be called "Old Town".  Lots of fun little shops and what looked like great places to eat at.  On our way to the brewery we went along Horsetooth Reservior which lead us to see the football stadium for the University of Colorado.  What a sight from above.   Went through the Anheuser-Busch Brewery.  Very interesting, tasted beer after the tour that we would normally not buy.  As far as the Bud products, guess we will stick with Bud Light and Bud Light Lime.  

Friday, September 9th, we departed and headed for Este's Park.  Found a campground set up the tent and headed into Rocky Mountain National Park.  What beautiful sights.  Not sure we would enjoy driving the motorhome on some of the roads.  We entered into the park and traveled along the Old Fall River Road which is a one way dirt road.  We saw a marmot on top of a rock right before the visitors center.  He is the largest and stockiest of the local squirrels.  They like to bask in the sun and they also talk a lot.   Alpine Visitor Center is at an elevation of 11,796 feet.  Temperature was 42 degrees, not exactly shorts weather but we braved the cold temperatures.  Headed down the Trail Ridge Road.  Lots of areas to stop and take pictures.  Found out that between 5pm and 7pm is great viewing time for elk.  So we continued through the park, working on getting our stamps from all 5 visitor centers.   We returned to the campground to go have dinner, as we were walking to the restaurant we saw a herd of elk.  Really amazing how close you can get to them. They are not interested in humans.  Would rate this day and A+.  Time to go to sleep.  

We woke up early on Saturday morning, temperature was about 35 degrees.  Now we understand why people camp in small tents, helps keep you warm on cold nights :-).  All tent campsites do not have electricity, we were hoping since we brought along a small heater.  We finished Rocky Mountain National Park today.  We started at Bear Lake, no bears to be seen.  Lots of trails to hike, we hike around Bear Lake and headed up to Alberta Falls.  We sure plan on returning to this location again.  Lots of hiking trails.  We also stopped and hiked around Sprague Lake.  While walking around the lake you could see rainbow trout in the water and there were a few ducks swimming around.  When we departed the park we saw a moose and her three little ones.  Now we have seen elk and moose, no bears yet:-(.  We have completed Rocky Mountain National Park.  Ended our day of travels at a campground on Lake Granby in Granby Colorado.   Will be interesting to see what the temperature is in the morning.  Hoping the wind dies down, it is really windy.  As the sun sets, the wind continues to blow and the temperature fells like it is getting colder out.  Here's to staying warm:-).

Sunday September 11th, woke up to frost on the tent and temperature about 30 degrees.  Okay so we can say that it was COLD.  Loaded up and started our track to Colorado Springs.  Okay so we are not as tough as we thought.  The hot coffee was very much needed to warm up. Today's travels took us to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.  From there we went to a town called Cripple Creek.  Just so happens when we got into town there was a back to the 50's car show.  If a person is looking to gamble this is the place to go.  The town is lined with casinos.  Found "old town" where a person could take a train ride.  We continued on down the road to Colorado Springs.  

Monday, we went on a tour of the Olympic training facility.  The facility was terrific, learned a lot and Liz was in her glory since she is such a sports nut.  Walked around Old Colorado Springs for a while.  Connected with Jennifer, Karol's cousins wife and their son Drew.  What a great evening, great dinner, we laughed and told stories and heard stories.  What a great way to wrap up our time in Colorado Springs.

Tuesday, September 12th off and heading west.  Wanted to travel up to Pike's Peak but it was raining and cloudy so we would not be able to see anything.  We stopped at a pull off and looked behind us, still could not see the top of Pike's Peak.  We are finally out of the rain and the sun is coming out.  Now we need the temperature to rise, right now it is only 47 degrees out.  Still wearing shorts refuse to put on long pants:-).  Pictures really do not do the scenery justice.  Lots of snow on the mountain caps.  Final destination for today is unknown.  Up the mountains, down the mountains we go.  Finally we are in territory that is new to Karol.  Roads are great we can see traveling along Hwy 50 with the motorhome.  Hwy 50 goes from Poncha Springs, CO to Montrose, CO.  A person gets to drive in second and first to save on the brakes.  We spent time driving in the Curecanti National Recreation Area.  Up and down, Liz is not real good with the heights, stomach gets a bit unsettled but she tries.  Karol is right there taking really great pictures.  Headed to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  Sure wish pictures would do this area justice but it doesn't but we still continue to take pictures.  Looks like fall is in the air here, leaves are starting to change color.  Bedded down for the night in the campground at the bottom of the Black Canyon along the Gunnison River.  Very relaxing and quite.  Built a fire had a few adult beverages and brats cooked over the fire.  Temperature got down to 50, not bad we stayed warm.  Sweet dreams, off to Utah in the morning.