We made it to Colorado today! Yea for us!
The first town we came across in Colorado was Burlington. That is where the welcome center is. Just next door is this museum, Old Town Museum. We had an hour to kill because the check-in time at Painted Rock RV Park in Stratton is at 2:00, so we went through it. It is an old town similar to Gladys City in Beaumont but on a much larger scale. It was a blast! So many authentic artifacts and these were original buildings. Heavily made stuff. I took way too many pictures for this blog. But here are a few that I thought you might enjoy.
Talk about an old relic! Look what we found! Even had an old phone book attached.
These bricks were all over because tuberculosis was rampant and transmitted through saliva!
Here is the law office. Looks just like OBT! LOL! I fell in love with the desk.
Beauty Parlor. Look at the curling irons hanging there like a wind chime.
This is a ‘Sod House’ We weren’t able to go in there.
There was a large home there and the oven had a temperature gauge.
Don’t think I have ever seen that before.
These were crocheted and super thick. I wanted one.
These curtains are over 100 years old. Everything here is so well maintained.
I got a little excited about the sewing machines. These were in the leather workers shop.
As some of you may know, this man’s first job was as a soda jerk!
I had to get him behind this counter.
Dryper Pads - the first disposable diaper. This was at the general store.
It was a lot of fun going through here. They also had a large warehouse with so many tractors and cars and trucks and even a hearse. Highly recommend this place to anyone going that way.
We got all set up at Painted Rock RV Park and their club house is amazing! There is darts, ping pong, pool and even karaoke. The slips are nothing to write home about, but the club house is the balm! Check this out.
So we met some neighbors and enjoyed visiting with them. Some full timers among us on this leg. Everyone in this park waves as they go by and are very friendly!
So we are literally in the middle of nowhere Colorado right now. This park is surrounded by farm land.
Here is a shot of us coming down the road to this park and a satellite shot of our park.
This corn is so tall.
I tell you this because I woke up about 3:00AM this morning, July 29, 2020. Normally I would just lay there until I fall back to sleep, but a memory of my youth overcame me and I woke Dennis up and said, “Let’s go outside and look at the stars.” We did! It has been absolutely forever since I have seen the Milky Way! It was beautiful. We even spotted a satellite cruising by. We opened our sky apps and picked out Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and Mars! It was such a great experience. And then, we got cold and had to go in. That was quite a treat too after all the heat we have suffered through.
So today they have the Kit Carson County Fair going on and we thought we would take a drive over and check out that. The fair was lame. Too many things in the schedule not done due to covid we didn't even go back for the rodeo. We did laundry instead in preparation for the first ever dry camping / boondocking for the Gillenwaters.
We left 4 Mile Creek in Stratton for a one day stop over in the worst no star RV park. It is called Blanca RV Park in Blanca, Colorado. We are totally on top of our neighbor. But wait till you hear this . . . On the way from Stratton the roads were terrible. We stopped several times to check on our accessories attached to the back of the RV and they were hanging in real good. So I guess we started getting lax and felt confident they were in for the long haul. Today's travel was more than 4 hours and we don't usually drive that long. There was construction and some serious bumps in the road. These were purposely put there by the work crews. They had signs saying 'bump', but with a 40 mile per hour speed limit in the construction zone this should never be the case. Especially on a state highway and regardless if you are working on the road or not. These bumps were pretty large - Like speed bumps.
We made it all the way to the no star RV Park and turned in. We knew our slip number so we just were heading that way when Dennis said, 'OH No! The Kayaks.' I look in the mirror and see my kayak hanging off the back and sideways. I wish I had thought to get a picture. This guy comes out of his RV and says, 'Oh, its okay you're good.' I am thinking, no!! Apparently my kayak hit his RV as we passed (very close quarters), but I think what happened, thank God, is that they fell as we were passing him and hit his spare tire. So our mount split. Broke in two somewhere down the road and the straps that had been holding everything in place finally broke as we passed him.
We profusely apologized to and thanked our neighbor whom we hit and he is also the one who helped us move everything off the RV so we could park it. Super nice guy. Then Dennis began setting up camp while I got on the phone to see if we could get a welder in to repair the rack before we leave tomorrow. I left messages for two and Norm called me back and said he could be here by 9:00 AM and we should be on our way shortly after that. He showed up a little late but did an excellent job and we were off by 12:30 Saturday.
Norm the Welder
As we were leaving Blanca I walked around the other side of the park as saw this. There were two motor homes with this sign on them. As some of you may know, there was a time when it seemed like every single vacation we took we ran into crews filming movies or soap operas. A movie in Cabo San Lucas, and a soap opera in Ixtapa and another one in Cozumel. Probably some I am forgetting. Since we didn't actually see these guys filming I guess it is a little different.
It was a breathtaking drive. We went through beautiful Monte Vista. There was a working drive-in theater just outside of town. Another cute town on US 160, Del Norte, had an metal elk cutout on a mountain top. The scenery was just beautiful.
Everything was pretty uneventful until we left the paved road outside of Pagosa Springs for the 20 or so mile drive up the dirt road mountain trail to the Cimarrona Campground where Greg Lynd is camp hosting. This is dry camping campground, so no electric, water or sewer. We filled our water tank when we left Blanca, Co. so we were not really worried about that aspect. We were concerned about filling up our waste tanks and running down our RV battery. Did I mention that our battery light came on in the truck during our drive to Blanca. Well it did. Dennis did a little testing and had pretty much determined that it was the alternator. So we worried that the truck wouldn't help us keep the RV battery charged. So back to this dirt road. Ruth assured us that the dirt road was a good road. She lied!!!! It was okay in some places but terrible in some as well. Although it was another breathtaking drive. We arrived and Greg was out doing his camp host duties throughout the park but it was so good seeing Ruth meet us as we drove in. The park was completely full! Greg and Ruth had put a chair and a table cloth in the spot across from them with a tag showing it was rented. They said a couple of people asked them where those folks were. LOL! No one was upset they just told them they were expecting company and we would be there Saturday. Most of the people in this park are tent campers. They have a large Little House on the Prairie type water pump for drinking water and it is supposed to taste amazing. We never even checked it out. There are vault toilets on the premises, but not showers and no lights in the toilets. Very rustic indeed.
So we enjoyed catching up with the Lynds on Saturday night, but I was exhausted after the events of the day and hit the hay pretty early leaving the rest of them to visit.
We got up on Sunday and hit the trail. They have trails that will lead all the way to the continental divide. Although we did not go all that way. They also have some that you can bring your horses. Actually, they have a campground dedicated to horses where each camp site has their own paddock. So we really had to watch out for the dung on the paths.
I saw this little bitty Blue Spruce and almost dug it up for my mother. It is the state tree and you aren't supposed to take them, but my mother did when we were young and she planted it in our yard in Houston. It died almost instantly, so I almost gave her another chance. LOL.
Hiking on the trails with those beautiful mountain views.
We were surprised at how little wild life we saw. There were two very large deer type animals along the path that we saw. Their hoofs hitting the ground were as loud as large horses stampeding. We assumed these were probably elk, but since we scared them they were moving so fast we didn't get a real good look at them.
The campground has a huge chipmunk population. Those were everywhere and Ruth had even named a few of their regulars.
Later Sunday afternoon Ruth and Greg took us up to the Piedra Falls. It is an 8 mile drive and a 1/2 mile hike after that. On the drive we found the most spectacular spring! Yours truly had to use the ladies room and of course up there nature is your only option. I went back to the car and made them all come out to see this amazing spring. God is quite the artist! The falls and the spring below the falls was nothing to sneeze at either.
The beautiful spring.
Turkeys crossing the road to the falls.
Cows crossing the road to the falls.
The trail to the falls, the falls and Greg the great fisherman!
The chipmunks at the falls.
We had Greg fire up his generator when we got back to try to charge up our batteries because the water pump was really struggling under low voltage and the truck running just wasn't helping.
Monday we took off to Pagosa Springs to see about having the truck fixed. We stopped by an O'Reilley's Auto Parts to have them run their tests and they agreed it was the alternator. So we called the Ford dealership in Durango and they agreed to squeeze us in on Tuesday. Everyone was so agreeable, eh? They even ordered the alternator and said it would be in on Tuesday.
So we stopped in Pagosa Springs to catch some lunch and a
frosty beverage at the Mountain Pizza and Tap Room
We got back to camp and took a hike off to the river or spring running along the campground. Greg had seen a beaver dam and we were off to look for that. We never found it. Oh, and of course for Greg to throw his little fishing pole out a few times. He actually got a couple of bites.
We got up early and struck out on the 2 hour drive to Durango. We decided the earlier we got it there the more likely they would be able to get the job done. We came across a great view of the Chimney Rock National Monument on the road from Pagosa Springs to Durango.
The dealership shuttled us over to downtown Durango and we had breakfast at the Lone Spur. It was awesome. Then we wondered around the downtown looking at the shops until Greg and Ruth came and met us. We had anticipated having to leave the truck over night, so they wanted to make sure we got home if that happened. After some time we saw the Lynds off and assured them that if they did not complete the truck we could rent a car and get back to the campground so they headed back to Pagaso Springs in order to provision for their sons who were coming in on Thursday.
Dennis and I wondered down to the river walk area and watched some of the kayakers and river rafters and found a beer garden and the Double Tree Hotel. We enjoyed a great plate of customized nachos while watching the beautiful river and the people playing in it.
The Durango Motor Company came through for us and we got the truck back and headed up the mountain. This has been pretty enlightening with the dry camping. We will have to rearrange some storage to add additional batteries and maybe some solar panels to the RV before we try this again. So glad we did it when we had Greg and Ruth next door with a generator. This part of Colorado is so fun. Never a dull moment unless you want one! So much to see and do.
We headed out back to Blanca about 9:30 on Wednesday morning. Sorry to say goodbye to our wonderful friends, but gotta keep trucking towards South Dakota. We will not be staying at the no star RV park in Blanca this time. We have decided to stay down the street at the Base Camp RV Park near the sand dunes. We will try to check those out tomorrow.
Base Camp RV Park
August 5, 2020
The adventure continues. We are back in civilization so the next post won't be quite so long.
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