Found a Place to Stay

We just got back from Golden Colorado (30 min from Rick and Val, to northwest side of Denver, against the foothills) where we paid for one month's RV space in a little small city-owned RV park. (Tentatively we plan to stay through end of February before moving on.) We will back up to a creek, with playground and community center very close by, library a short walk along a walking path, historic downtown area about 3/4 mile walk along same path, grocery 1 mile away, and Arvada Vineyard only 20 minute drive. A number of families are evidently staying in the RV park based on kids toys and/or kid bicycles on RV platforms. We have already met next door neighbor---older married fellow walking two small dogs, one of which LOVES to be petted and brushed (so will likely keep Anna quite happy).

I'm finishing up laundry, putting stuff away in RV, getting Christmas stuff and clean clothes taken out to RV and put away, etc. We will move the RV tomorrow to the site.

Leadville

We took a day trip up to Leadville this afternoon---to see the historic area of town and to go through the mining museum. Kids have now been "in" a prospector's cave, and in a more modern coal mine (with all the drilling and blasting and low ceiling tunnels, etc). Everything was SO short ceiling-ed! My brother-in-law commented that when they were looking at mountain cabins for sale many of them had originally been miner's cabins and the ceilings were claustrophobic-ly low. (They didn't buy one of those...) Anna has now decided she wants to be a miner...I didn't bother to tell her they never let women in real mines because of superstition that it is an ill-omen.

Even better than the destination, was the absolutely stunning mountain views :-) Row after row of peaks, pine covered in front, all snow covered behind, many times surrounding us on all sides. The town was at 10,000+ feet in a valley area. I ended up dizzy and lightheaded plus nauseous---somewhat helped when we finally ate dinner at a "miners' cafe" but not totally feeling better til we got down to "lower elevations" of Denver (only 5,000 ft, after all...)

Street Parking...and More Sorting

Being here at Randy's brother & family's home in Denver is indeed a good place to be for Christmas season. They are spending time with Jakob and especially Anna so the kids are enjoying extra attention. We are sleeping in the house since our RV is parked in the street--it is plugged in to a neighbor's house so there is electric and heat, but no space to put the slide-outs out more than a short ways. Unbelievable that the neighborhood doesn't want the street entirely blocked by a fully extended RV...doncha think??!!!

Celia happily helped me sort out a few of the baskets of stuff-to-take that got shoved in the RV at the last minute. She actually ENJOYS such activity! (She asked a number of times if we could pay her airfare home and back to school so she could help sort and organize during crunch-time in the fall--looking back on it, I think we should have taken her up on her offer!) We made progress, put the rest in the kids' bedroom, and quit til after Christmas. We aren't yet living in the RV full-time, after all!

5 Miles of ADVENTURE!

Once we left Oakley, KS we faced a 5 hour drive to get to Denver. It was still somewhat gusty so we kept the speed down a little (RV seems to be less affected by cross-winds if we are driving 55 or so...) A little while after crossing into CO we realized we were going to get to Denver right around rush hour. Now some of you might be braver than us (or more foolish??) but we had NO interest in dealing with city rush-hour traffic under any conditions...and especially not when we were pulling a huge "ship" behind us! So we took advantage of our "travel brains" (aka the GPS nav system in our truck) and asked for the "shortest" route to our destination (rather than the quickest).

Right as it came up and told us which way to turn, we were driving PAST the needed exit! The "travel brains" quickly re-calculated and told us to take the next exit, turn under the freeway and take county roads to get back onto the suggested route. So...we followed the "brains" demands.

After we crossed under the freeway, we had to cross a cattle guard in the road and THIS is what we saw:

Hmmm...guess the "travel brains" didn't remember that we pull an "ocean liner" behind us! We decided to risk it, hoping that there wouldn't be any sharp turns or low bridges that would be a problem to passage for our RV, and hoping we wouldn't find any other vehicles traveling toward us!

We crossed a number of cattle guards in the road, as we travelled from "pasture" to "pasture," occasionally seeing cattle in the distance. (Do you still call them "pastures" when they are larger areas than many FARMS in central Ohio???) We passed a few ranch houses with barns and outbuildings, but these rolling hills were pretty desolate. Here's a photo of a falling-down shack we passed:

I will admit the desolate landscape had a beauty of its own...but I will also admit to being relieved when we finally got back on PAVED roads with two (count 'em, TWO) full lanes for passing vehicles!! It might have been only 5 miles, but it sure seemed longer!

We did, however, totally miss any traffic jams, congestion, or stop-n-start driving near Denver. And, after all, on a journey to wonder I guess we should expect an adventure or two!