1117 August 26, 2024 Beauty Abounds

We woke early this morning.  Tim fixed coffee and I began to pack.  We had two options for returning to Estes Park.  We had thought we might go south toward Denver and 70 and then take another scenic ride back to the RV park.  Or, we were up and ready early enough that we could reenter RMNP and travel without a timed entry pass.  We elected to go back through the park.

Leaving Sunset Point, the sky was cloudy.

We went back through the Grand Lake entrance. We saw yet another herd of elk.  We have seen more elk here than we have ever seen before.

Big elk hoof prints and itty bitty hoof prints as well.

We stopped at the Holzwarth Historic Site.  There was a nice path here across the meadow and we decided to take a walk.  The cabins are used by rangers and park employees…but this would have been a really cool place to stay!

More Colorado River.

We traveled on and stopped at Rainbow Curve.

Another stop at Hidden Valley for breakfast.  This chipmunk was quite daring.  He actually climbed on Tim’s shoe and tapped him on the leg.  I am quite sure he was looking for handouts.

We took a walk here as well.

We got back to Manor RV Park before noon.  We unpacked and cleaned up and rested.

This evening, we had a timed entry permit for Bear Lake Road at 4pm. We ordered food from Smokin’ Dave’s BBQ and we took that with us into RMNP.

We began with a very pleasant walk around Sprague Lake.

There were more elk alongside the road.

We took a short walk at Bear Lake.

Glacier Creek.

We found a sweet picnic spot along a gurgling stream. We ate our delicious bison ribs with Caesar salad. The ribs were huge and reminded us of the Fred Flintstone version. They were also very lean and meaty. A doe and her twin fawns walked across the stream as we were eating.

We took the road to Fern Lake.

We stopped to sit at a roadside picnic table and Tim caught sight of two mule deer bucks.

We were quietly watching when Tim heard a noise behind us. A herd of about twenty elk walked down the hill and across the road very close to us. It was magical. We watched them drink from a puddle. There were young bucks, mommas and babies.

As we left the park. We saw another momma deer with two babies.

We went into town to get gas for the Jeep.

There were elk in town!

The sunset this evening. Another fabulous ending to a very fun day!

This was our last day in this awesome national park. The grandeur, the wildlife, the lakes and rivers and streams, the alpine tundra, the Rocky Mountains, all conspired to make this another favorite trip! We are a little sad to leave. Tomorrow we will move to Wyoming.

1116 August 25, 2024 Rocky Mountain High

We spent the morning exercising, doing chores and packing and preparing for an overnight Jeep camping adventure.

We had a timed entry pass for RMNP at 12 noon.  We took the Old Fall River Road.  This is a one-way gravel road that steadily climbs in elevation.  There are no guardrails and there are lots of switchbacks.  The road traverses 9 miles of stunning scenery.  We stopped to walk at Chasm Falls.

We stopped at almost every scenic overlook.  We did not do much hiking.  We are very aware that we are at high altitudes and we are not acclimated.  Strolling/walking is fine but climbing leaves us slightly short of breath.

There was this one crazy guy riding his bicycle up the 9 mile dirt road. I think that he was very brave and that he is the definition of grit!

We rose into the clouds and above the tree line into the alpine tundra.  We arrived at the Alpine Visitor Center at 11,796 feet.  It was windy and 42 degrees at the peak.

We doubled back on Trail Ridge Road to see the portion that we missed while driving offroad.  We saw a herd of about 100 elk.

Lots more spectacular scenery.

At Many Parks Curve, we turned around and headed to the Grand Lake or West Entrance.  We stopped to see the Colorado River.  The mighty river begins here as a collection of snow melt and then continues south for 1,400 miles all the way to the Mexican border.  By the time it gets there, it is merely a trickle.  It was raining big fat drops as we tried to get a picture.

Near the end of the 42 mile park road, there was a large section of trees burned out by wildfires in 2020. The area is just beginning to recover and small spruce trees are growing.

We drove out of the park and to Granby Lake.  We found a pretty campsite at Sunset Point in the Arapaho National Forest.  It was raining and chilly and we debated whether or not we should stay.  There was a fire ban so no campfire for us.  We checked the weather and decided that it was going to clear.  The sun did come out along with a marvelous rainbow vivid, large, and complete.

As we were eating our simple dinner of lettuce wraps and blackberries we saw more dark clouds.  Apparently, the weather forecast and radar is not very reliable here.  The weather seems to be very fickle.  We hurriedly packed up our supper and we got into the tent just as it began to really rain.  It stopped and started again and it rained for a long time.  We had some significant wind but it was short lived.  I read and we went to sleep super early.  We were warm and cozy enough in our nest.

1115 August 24, 2024 Estes Park

I took an early morning walk on the frontage road.  Highway 76 was on one side and farmland and a pond on the other.  It was a gorgeous morning. 

Today we had just a two hour drive.  We began to see the shadowy outline of the Rocky Mountains from about 50 miles away. 

Loveland.

As we continued our drive, we entered Thompson River Canyon.

We arrived in Estes Park.  We will use this as home base as we explore Rocky Mountain National Park over the next several days. We settled into our site before noon.

This magpie greeted us and was looking for lunch!

The National Park works on a timed entry system.  We did not have a permit but we knew we could enter after 2pm.  We packed a picnic and set out.  The line to get in was long and it took about 30 minutes to get through the gate.  We saw several mule deer.

We drove to the Upper Beaver Meadows and took the gravel road all the way to the end.  There were about 90 elk in the field. It was amazing!  We stayed and watched them for about an hour.

This old guy had the biggest rack.  He had a hard time getting up and walking to follow the rest of the herd.

Tim found us the perfect spot for dinner.  We enjoyed our tuna poke bowls with quinoa and cucumber and mango. 

Our dinnertime view!

After eating, Tim asked if I wanted to see more of the park…of course!

We stopped at a scenic overlook at Many Parks Curve.  WOW!!!  The scenery was breathtaking.

We tuned around there and went back to the RV.  We have an adventure planned for tomorrow!

Even as we were enjoying our time here, our hearts were sad and heavy.  We knew that Dre’s father was very ill.  He passed away this evening surrounded by his family.  Rest now Jorge.

1114 August 23, 2024 Mucky Mess

Last night when we arrived at the Sheridan Lake State Fishing Area, everything was dry and hardpacked.  In the campsite next to us, we could see some ruts where someone had a hard time when it was wet.  Tim had me check the weather forecast.  There was a 55, 45, 35% chance of thunderstorms at 1am, 2am, and 3am.  The lightning and rain began long before that.  It rained most of the night.  It was still dark and raining when Tim got up.  I lingered in bed waiting for the sky to brighten and for the rain to stop.  I set out for a walk.  The dirt and gravel road surface was slick and greasy.  There were also several soft spots where my shoes sunk into the mud. 

Tim met me outside.  He was worried about our ability to get out.  He suggested that we unhook the Jeep.  This proved to be a wise decision.  Tim drove out first in the RV.  For about 4 miles, he used every ounce of his driving skills and abilities to make it up the road.  He was slipping and sliding and at times, he was sideways.  I followed behind in the Jeep.  I got stuck twice.  The second time, one front wheel was in the ditch.  I used 4-wheel drive and was able to extricate myself.  We left the road rutted and messy…but there was no other way for us to get out!  What a huge relief it was to arrive at the pavement.  It was an intense morning.

We found a truck wash and Tim drove several miles out of the way to get there.  For $58.00, six men with power washers and brushes, scrubbed the RV.  They removed all of the dust and mud from our offroad adventures.

We arrived in Colorado.  The landscape was changing again; more hills and rocks. 

There were lots of farms, cattle ranches, stockyards, grain elevators, and farm equipment dealers.  We passed through some small towns.

Last night our campground was at 2,600 feet of elevation.  Tonight, we are at 4,400 feet.  We have been climbing without really noticing.  Everything appears so open and the change is very gradual.   

We are in Fort Morgan at a small campground near the highway.  We have full hookups so it is laundry day.  As I cooked dinner, we had a tremendous storm with high winds and pouring rain.  One side of the Jeep is much cleaner now!

1113 August 22, 2024 Looks Like Kansas

When I woke up this morning, the sky was just starting to pinken.  I dressed quickly and made myself a cup of coffee.  I went outside to watch the sunrise.  It has been a long time since I had witnessed the beginning of a new day.  I was filled with a deep sense of peace.

I walked the roads of the pristine park.  I was almost chilly enough to want a sweatshirt but I chose to embrace the fresh air and then it wasn’t long before I was warm enough.  I saw deer running amongst the trees.  There were vultures perched and watchful and waiting.

I heard thunder and decided to head back to the RV.  The first drops of rain fell as we prepared to leave.  The rain passed and the sky turned blue.  There is a persistent haze that is from the Canadian wildfires.

Once we were on our way and headed west on 70, we decided that today, it looked like Kansas.  There were rolling and grassy hills.  There were corn and sorghum and soybean and hayfields.  There were cattle ranches and then suddenly, lots of windmills, hundreds or maybe thousands.

There isn’t much in this western portion of Kansas!

After Salina, 70W is a scenic route.  We planned to slow it down today.  We are grateful for the freedom to choose another path.  We elected to take the scenic route to the north of the interstate and through the Great Plains.  Our new RV has GPS and we have plugged in all of the coach features like height and weight and this GPS is customized to show us the best roads for our rig.  We chose to trust it!  We took the exit from 70 and came upon an unexpected road closure.  We had two options.  We could have disconnected the Jeep and turned around and gone back to the highway.  The second option was a gravel road that would serve as a detour.  Tim drove 16 miles on that gravel road. 

It was slow going but the condition of the road was fairly good.  This was the best part of my day!  The scenery was lovely!

There was a farmer plowing in his field and I am quite sure he looked at us and thought “What the hell?”  The cows even looked at us funny.

Finally, we arrived at the pavement in Waldo.

We found another free campsite at Sheridan Lake State Fishing Campground.  The lake is really dry but our site is under a big old cottonwood tree.  Sitting under that tree, was Tim’s favorite part of this day. 

We spent a lot of time sitting outside enjoying the warm breeze, dinner, and than the sunset.

I am very sure that we will remember this trip! Today was definitely a change of pace.  What is the most adventuresome thing that you did today?  There are lots of nooks and crannies in this great country of ours…get out and explore!

1112 August 19-August 21, 2024 Making Our Way West

The last night in Atlanta, Austin had me put him to bed…just one more time.  That evening, he read to me from Green Eggs and Ham.  He was filled with pride and I was too!

On Monday morning, there were a few tears.  Oliver was very sad that we were leaving.  This made my heart feel heavy and I thought about him all day.  Even as the distance between us was growing. I am still excited for this trip but it is always so hard to leave…

We drove first to Snellville.  I was relieved, as I always am, to find our RV waiting for us in the storage lot.  We unpacked the Jeep and organized our belongings.  We began our journey at 10am.  Tim drove through awful, midmorning Atlanta traffic.  It wasn’t until nearly Tennessee that we were able to travel the speed limit. 

Lunch at the Teneessee Welcome Center.

We took 24W outside of Chattanooga.  We crossed the Tennessee River.  This was the prettiest part of our drive. 

We continued west over the Ohio River and into Kentucky.

We stopped at around 5pm at the Paducah Walmart.  This was convenient.  We spent an hour gathering groceries and supplies.  There were posted NO OVERNIGHT PARKING signs.  We stopped at the service desk to inquire and we learned that we were welcome to stay.

We had a surprisingly quiet night.  It was nice to sleep in our own bed and we were able to keep the windows open.  The cool air felt amazing after weeks of sweltering heat.

Laps at Walmart in the morning. I am always looking for something beautiful…the early morning full moon.

Patriotic overpass somewhere in Illinois.

 Through Saint Louis, over the great Mississippi and past the Arch…The Gateway to the West.  We have been here before and had no time to stop.  We want to get to Colorado and Wyoming before the weather turns cold.  We do remember that the area around the arch was amazing.  The surrounding areas were industrial steel plants, abandoned buildings, and appeared to be very impoverished.

We took 70W to the middle of Missouri to the town of Columbia.  We had stopped for fuel in the midafternoon.  I had scoped out several camping options an hour or more out.  We saw the Cracker Barrel across the street from the gas station and we decided to stop there for the night.  We had a decent dinner and afterward, we sat on the front porch watching the traffic on 70. 

Wednesday morning, we set out again after our morning workouts.  There wasn’t really a safe space to walk so I resorted to laps in the Cracker Barrel lot. 

We traveled through Kansas City and Topeka.  Until now, the ride was fairly unremarkable…lots of highway flanked by trees.  After Topeka, the landscape changed.  It was open and rolling.  Iniitially there were farms but then we entered the Flint Hills Region.  This area is too rocky for crops.  This is the largest intact area of prairie grass in North America. 

We settled for the night at Milford Lake at the West Rolling Hills Campground in Junction City, Kansas.  It is a beautiful Army Corps of Engineers park.  With our National Parks Senior Pass, our water/electric site was $12.00.  It is warm but breezy.  There is very little humidity. 

I spent some time walking.  Tim rode his bike.  We needed to be in a pretty place, we needed hookups, and we needed a break.  Tim has driven about 1,000 miles this week and we have lots more miles to go.

We had grilled salmon Caesar salad with papaya for our dinner. Afterward, we went out to enjoy the sunset. We watched a bald eagle snag a fish from the lake and take it to a dead tree to eat. Too far away for good pictures, but very cool to see. Tomorrow…onward!

1111 July 26, 2024 – August 18, 2024 Time In Atlanta

Our time in Atlanta is always special to us. The boys are getting so big. We have lots of fun making memories, and cookies, and meatballs and ziti and projects…the list goes on and on. We love to have sleepovers and read comics and build Legos.

Cool mushroom sighting while on a walk.

While we were in Atlanta, Baby Wade continued to grow and thrive. He loves peekaboo, he is a happy little man, and he was six months old.

We were all very excited. Kyle and Allison decided to spend their August vacation in Atlanta. They are also bringing Gigi!!! We had a lot to do to get ready!

Kyle and Allison drove all night and arrived early Saturday morning. They had lots of babysitters and were able to get good naps. The big boys were so happy to meet Baby Wade. They were very sweet and gentle with him and I think that it is fair to say that they were completely smitten with the sunny little guy. It was all about the baby giggles!

Auntie Dre was the baby whisperer and walked Wade to sleep many times. I know she loved those baby snuggles.

Uncle David had not lost his touch!!

We took Wade to the Georgia Aquarium. Unfortunately, Dre had to work and Oliver and Austin were in school. The baby was entranced by the fish!

The week passed too quickly. We had lots of good food and some adult beverages and David and Dre and Allison and Kyle had a night out as well.

On August 15th, we celebrated Oliver’s 8th birthday with a family party. As requested, Austin and I had made delicious sugar cookie gingerbread men dressed up as Transformers…quite the feat!

On Saturday morning, it was time for Allison and Kyle and Wade to return to Baltimore. We were all sad to see them go. We had so much fun together.

On Saturday afternoon, we had a big birthday party with neighbors and friends.

This time in Atlanta was extra special. It is not often that we are all able to be in one place. The kids really enjoyed their time. My heart is full!!!

Tomorrow, we will leave Atlanta and begin our adventure to Wyoming! We are torn…it is hard to go and leave family behind…but we have truly had the best year, bebopping back and forth to be with our children and grandchildren…creating beautiful memories and already looking forward to our next visits.

1110 July 25, 2024 McKinney Campground

It rained this morning and so I missed walking for a second day. We seem to have eradicated the ants. We only saw 2 this morning before we left.

We had a short drive into Georgia and down to Cartersville. We stopped in town to gather supplies and arrived at the park at around 1. They sent us to the overflow parking lot until check-in time and Tim got a nice nap.

We settled in and then went into Acworth to the laundromat.

We spent the afternoon organizing and packing.

We ate eggs for dinner and took a walk.

Tomorrow we will store the RV in Snellville and then we will go to David’s where we will spend the next few weeks. We plan to begin our big Wyoming adventure on August 19th. We will pause the blog until then.

1109 July 24, 2024 We Shall Prevail!

I was sound asleep.  I heard Tim shouting “Anita, get up.  Come here now!  We have a problem!”  I ran from my bed to see what the problem might be…ants…thousands of ants.  The tiny, fast kind.  The kind that don’t bite…thankfully!  They were running in a long, thick, and steady stream from one end of the RV to the other.  A whole battalion, an army. OMG!!!!  So many ants!!! These ants had gathered themselves, deployed, and were overtaking our space; all in less than 24 hours!

We got out rags and white vinegar and started to clean. Tim shook out rugs and got out ant bait. He headed to the store for ant spray while I cleaned the entire floor with vinegar a second time. Then, I began to sweep. I knew that I couldn’t leave any corpses behind because they release pheromones when they die causing other ants to return for their bodies. Yikes! I swept the entire coach 5 times and then I got out the vacuum.

We were on ant patrol; looking for any stragglers.

I actually felt bad killing the poor little guys but this is our kingdom! Tim sprayed our leveling jacks and the tires and our water supply hose and our electric cord. We felt like we had made enough progress that we could go into Chattanooga for the day as planned.

Tim made one last check outside and he saw a steady flow of ants coming from a tree branch and walking right onto the roof. He climbed the ladder and did some population control. He trimmed the branch so that the ants no longer had a bridge to the RV. I found more ants traipsing up the side of that tree from the ground. We sprayed the trunk of the tree to knee height and then annihilated the troops.

We were half scared to leave.

We drove into the city with the Jeep; our bikes on the back. We parked at the River Gallery Sculpture Garden.

We biked along Riverfront Drive and across the bridge to the other side of the Tennessee River. We shared some mango Hawaiian ice from Happy’s House, “the fun place where smiles are real.”

We biked in the waterfront park and then crossed the river again.

We rested on a pier.

These flags fly in the memory of some hometown marine heroes. They all perished in the same incident on July 16, 2015.

We biked on to Scotties on the River. We had cold water and sweet tea and a delicious lunch. We were refreshed and ready to ride again.

The city is hilly and I had to get off and push my bike on the steepest sections.

We got back to the campground at around 4. We were afraid of what we might find…but only a couple of ants remained. So far so good!

We took some celery and peanut butter and some melon to the picnic area by the water. We certainly did not want a big dinner this evening.

We have been to Chattanooga several times. We like it here and could have spent more time…but we are headed south and we will move again tomorrow.

1108 July 23, 2024 Harrison Bay State Park

I took the Jeep and drove to the marina and began my morning walk from there.  It was so pretty walking along the water.  I did the Duck Island Loop two times and then went back to the RV. 

Tim had everything ready to go.  We had about 200 miles to get to Harrison Bay State Park just north of Chattanooga.  It was cloudy and then rainy and then pouring.  It stopped as we arrived at the park.  It was nice not to contend with the rain as we got settled.

Our site is right on Lake Chickamauga.

It rained most of the afternoon. 

I made butter chicken with fruit and salad for our dinner.  We packed our picnic and drove to a pavilion.  

There are lots of deer in the park.