Steve and Judy's Travels!

Sunday. We’re within a couple hundred miles of Canyonlands National Park, so we were
going to go there for the weekend, but then we decided to go to Capitol Reef
National Monument, because we haven’t been there in several years and we
always like it. Then we got to thinking that it was a four-hour drive to
Capitol Reef, and Moab is only an hour and a half away, so we’d just go to
Moab and hang out there. Got to be lots of four-wheel-drive roads to check
out from Moab. Then, since it was such a nice morning, I decided to go for
a run while we thought about it some more. Then I went to the Park office
to sign up for one more night here, while Judy made lunch. We took a nice
drive up north, in the Jeep, along some roads we’ve never traveled before,
to Rangely. From there it was only twenty miles more to the town of
Dinosaur. From there it was only twenty miles more to the Dinosaur quarry
at the National Monument. It was a good sightseeing trip. It was a very
steep winding road over Douglas Pass. It would be a very slow trip in the
motorhome. The rest of it was 65mph through brown dirt clay rolling hill
brushy desert canyon country. Desolate. Spectacular. We need to spend a
lot more time at Dinosaur National Monument. While we were at the visitor center in the town of Dinosaur, we had to get
the binoculars out to check out some birds in the surrounding trees.
Robins, starlings, house finches, goldfinches, brewers blackbirds, and
cassin’s finches. Cassin’s finches! A new bird for us. One more for our
list. We started this trip with 292 on the life list. No new ones since
the Texas trip in January. Now we’re at 293. The drive to 300 continues.
We’re counting on getting some black swifts in Ouray, when we get down to
Southwestern Colorado. Tomorrow. For tomorrow’s adventure, I think I hear a lawn chair calling.
We’re right next to the canyons of the Colorado National Monument. Maybe
we’ll wander up there and see if the white-throated swifts are in town.

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Our winter wonderland.

Saturday. Yeah. It was a cold one last night. Teens. Still snowing. It was an
interesting exercise closing the slides this morning. The slide rooms have
rollout fabric awnings that retract along with the slide. Everything goes
smoothly, even when there is rainwater on them. I think the only time you
could possibly have a problem is when there is ice and snow on them. We had ice and snow on them. It wasn’t a big problem. We’d roll them in and out a little farther each
time, until all the ice had crunched and popped off, and the slides would go
all the way in, covers rolling along just like they should. Time to leave. It’s off over Fremont Pass, dog on Judy’s lap, and the cat
asleep in the cat box. Down to Copper Mountain, up and over Vail Pass, down
through Glenwood Canyon, Glenwood Springs, a quick run around the lake at
the Eagle rest stop, and on to Grand Junction, to arrive way too early. Two
hundred miles. I didn’t want to stop yet. But we did stop, at Colorado
River State Park. Got set up, drove back into Grand Junction to locate the
Convention Center for the conference on Tuesday, passed a Krispy Kreme
Doughnut shop, well, almost passed the doughnut shop, and back to the
campground in time for dinner and a little fly fishing on the pond. Sixty-five degrees. Matt and Kari picked up their new Alumalite Holiday Rambler, fifth wheel
trailer on Thursday. A couple weeks earlier, they picked up their Ford F350
Turbo-diesel crew cab long-bed pickup to tow it with. We talked to them on
the phone today. They’ve been in it ever since they picked it up; in their
driveway; in Bear Creek State Park. They’re loving it. Now we need to
rendezvous somewhere and circle up. Ooh. Nice rainbow over the Colorado National Monument right now. Our weekend business in Grand Junction is done. Tomorrow morning, it’s off
to Utah for the weekend.

Road trip! Road trip! We’re on the road again. The adventure continues. This is not for fun, though. This is a business trip. Seven clients and a
conference in six weeks. No time for fun there. To start it all off, we left right at the beginning of a predicted big
spring storm. We drove through scattered rain showers all the way up to the
Eisenhower tunnel, and popped out the other side to dry roads. Rode the
engine brake down the other side to stop and have lunch at the Dillon Lake
overlook. Turned left at Copper Mountain and into the snow. Drove through
snow the rest of the way. Drove over Fremont Pass. No problem. Arrived
and parked nice and early at the Leadville RV Corral, elevation 10,000 feet.
A 100 mile day. Explored town in the Jeep while it was still light. We haven’t ever
explored around Leadville before. Found the road to Mosquito Pass, the
highest 4-wheel drive road in the country. We’ll probably drive over that
some other time. Found Turquoise Lake. It wasn’t turquoise at all. It was
white. Frozen white disappearing into the snowstorm. It was a little hard
to spot at first. White on white. Found some roads out by the lake that
hadn’t been plowed yet for the season. Played in the snowdrifts with the
Jeep. Found the train station. They have an old train station, an old
steam engine, some wobbly old track, and a train ride. Can’t ride the train
this trip. They won’t open it for another month. Oh yeah, we found the
client office for tomorrow too. This storm is supposed to drop thirty inches of snow on Leadville. It has
snowed the whole time since we got here, but not much has accumulated. No
way it could snow thirty inches overnight. Right? We visited with the Park Managers here. They live year-round in Leadville
and keep this RV park open. It’s open, but we didn’t’ have any trouble find
space here. They are preparing to leave, though. Guess Leadville isn’t
cold enough for them. They’re headed for Alaska. They want to live there
in their trailer for at least a year. He’s signed up to be a musher for dog
sled tours. They want 24 hours of daylight. They want 24 hours of
darkness. They want northern lights. They want it all. Rags made it about 10 minutes before we had to drug him. We moved into the
motorhome three days before we left on this trip to give everyone a chance
to acclimate. It worked for Judy and me. It didn’t work for Rags. He gets
motion sick. He has to get used to the motion before he’s okay. This is such a cool idea, to drive around and work with nonprofit
organizations all over the state. But as we drive deep into the mountains
in a snowstorm, I’m thinking it would be an even better idea in July. So,
Jamie, let’s plan on a May/June mailing of the flyer again, hoping we catch
the attention of some June year-end nonprofits that might want us to come
out in August or September. Tomorrow, it’s off to work.

Leadville. Cold night. No more than half a foot of new snow, though. We did a lot more driving around this morning. Turns out we didn’t actually
find the client location yesterday. We had the wrong building, and the
wrong address as well. Our cell phones don’t work up here, so it was a
little tricky working it out, but Judy took care of it, and we did find the
right place to go. I got in a good day’s work and got most of the job done.
I’ll have to finish up the remainder in the evening or on a weekend. A
couple more hours ought to do it. Judy went for coffee at the Cloud City Café and Oxygen Bar. She had coffee
and a newspaper. She skipped the oxygen. While we were driving around, everyone could tell we’re not from around
here. We were the ones who brushed the snow off our windows before we went
driving. They don’t drive very fast here, so I guess they don’t need to see
much. It is quite the winter wonderland. It snowed all day. Looks like we’ll be
able to get out tomorrow morning no problem, though. We’re ready for some
warmer weather. Tomorrow, it’s west and warmer.