Letter 13 Colorado

Thursday, August 30 we pushed on to Colorado stopping in Grand Junction. We were told they had a

farmers market on Thursday evening where they block off Main street for six blocks. Paradise CO is a short distance from Grand Junction and all their fruit and vegetable farms come to offer their wares.

After stopping in the RV park we stayed in last year, we drove downtown to Farmer’s Market finding all the parking full up.

Finally we found a spot, then bought tomatoes, peaches, and a chili pepper wrap made by the

Mennonite women.

Children we enjoying the sprinklers in a sidewalk

spray park. This is something that would be enjoyable in Waxahachie.

 The wind was picking up so we took our items and headed back to the trailer to eat.

 

We were in Colorado for a month and hope to find a nice place or two to roost before going home.

 

Friday, August 31 we pushed on to a national recreation area east of Montrose on Blue Mesa lake to find all the electric spots reserved for the weekend. As we picked up our envelops to pay for the night Olivia met a lady who was the owner of a body shop in Montrose. She was paying for seven sites for her employees. She invited us to join their party.

We parked in her loop and found they were roasting

a pig. It would roast all night and

most of Saturday.

We were exhausted and went to bed just as a

rainbow found our trailer.

Saturday, September 1 we woke up COLD! What a nice feeling. After checking on the

pig where Fred helped to wrap the it with chicken wire, we made a run into Gunnison to pick up supplies for guacamole and pink salad to take to the feast.

During this day we kept changing clothes as the temperature rose, then a big rain storm cooled us off again.

Sunday, September 2 this week we just piddled around. Each day we drove into Gunnison for cappucino and other errands. We found a fruit stand where we bought

fresh tomatoes and peaches each trip. They also had great fresh roasted green chilies. We enjoyed making the wraps like we had in Grand Junction.

We started making inquires in RV parks for next year. Most of these RV parks have weekly and monthly rates. We have traveled all over the USA and think it is probably time to find some monthly places to stay where it is cool. Especially after the HOT summer we have experienced. We found three prospects between Elk Creek CG and Gunnison.

One day we took a long drive starting with the

Pitkin Campground. Olivia decided this was the spot where she stayed with her parents, Wes & Lois Goldman and Bab & Tookie Goldman, with their girls Glenda, Ann Wynell and Gayle. This was when Olivia was in high school.

We retraced their day trip over

Cumberland Pass which was a whole lot worse then any road we experienced in Alaska. It was very slow going with lots of rocks and holes in the road.

  We saw lots of beaver dams along the way including

a little shack in the middle of one of the ponds.

The tiny town of Tincup ended the very uncomfortable road. The little

church/town hall caught our eye as one of the best buildings in town.

Taylor lake was

on the north end of our trek and was beautiful in front of the collegiate peaks. We have camped on the other side of those peaks in years passed.

We celebrated when we hit pavement just passed Taylor lake, but in a few miles we were in the

middle of construction. Not just a little bit, but BIG earthmoving vehicles, pipes, etc. At least the road bed was smooth. We were stopped and lead through this mess for about 10 miles. All together this was not a good day trip for us.

 

Friday, September 7 after our run into Gunnison we drove passed Elk Creek to the west end of Blue Mesa lake, seeing the sun light on some of the

HooDoos across the lake.

Our destination was to scout out the Morrow Point Boat tours sponsored by the National Park Service. We found out about the rides just a few days after they closed for the season. We wanted to see this end of the Black Canyon. Last year we were on the north rim of this canyon and didn’t know about this ride. We thought of our friends from Manhattan Island we met last year and wish they had also known of this boat ride.

 We arrived at the parking lot where we took the

232 steps down into the canyon. A narrow gauge rail road had left a path along the bottom of this stretch of the canyon. The boat dock was 3/4 mile down a lovely shaded walk.

Olivia walked a good ways down this

path before returning. As she met Fred at the bottom of the steps they started up all those steps. Olivia has never been successful with going UP anything and sure enough these steps got to her.

Just above these steps was the

Blue Mesa Dam appropriately built to hold a lot of water.

Back to the trip with the Goldman's, Ruth, Cecil, Olivia and Anne Wynell followed the railroad trail, made into a road bed when they made the trip to Taylor Lake. Obviously this was before the dam was built. They knew the dam was going in when they made that trip.

 

Back at the trailer on the

east end of the lake, Olivia was all out of soap. She rested, sat up then went back to bed. After a couple of hours she decided she had altitude sickness and we went to the hospital in Gunnison. They gave her oxygen, xrayed her lungs, did a ekg and blood tests. All looked good so they dismissed her. The next day she was ok, but cautious of any exertion in the altitude.

Saturday Sept 8, we moved to South Fork to scout out those RV parks. Disappointment set in as this town was not pretty. Most of the parks were flat and treeless. RV’s were jammed together. Not Olivia’s cup of tea at all.

We had been told of “The Malt Shop,” a little drive in that served bison burgers, so our neighbors Sharon & Al joined us for this experience. The owner was a hoot and the food was good. This can be a repeat.

Sunday, Sept 9 we visited the

Community United Methodist Church and met a friendly bunch with a pot luck lunch after services. One couple told us of another RV park they were pleased with so we drove to check it out. It seemed even more crowded since there were over 400 sites.

Monday, Sept 10 we moved on toward Antonito planning to stay in the area. Last time we came through a favorite forest camp was closed for the season. There are a couple of RV parks close. Sure enough when we arrived at Aspen Glade it was

open and just as pretty as we remembered.

The Conejos River was

low as  others in Colorado have been due to light snow last winter.

We were able to park across the

road from the river.

 

We found instant friends and invited them to a

campfire.

Tuesday, Sept 11 during our trip for Cappucino we visited a new RV park between Aspen Glade and town. This might be a good place to spend some time.

Arriving back at the camp Olivia tried to do her

computer work by the river. It was too pretty and a little windy to get much work done.

She could stay two weeks here without batting an eye.

Wednesday, September 12 sadly for Olivia we packed up in the rain and headed to Pagosa Springs. We drove over LaManga and Cumbres Passes into New Mexico. Passing through Chama we headed north on Hwy 84 into Pagosa Springs. On the west side we found our Passport America campsite at Happy Camper RV park. It was right on the highway with lots of traffic, but when we went to sleep we didn’t hear a thing. The owner told us several places to eat and we chose “Kips Grill & Cantina” not for the Big Boy, but a

buffalo burger.

 

Thursday, September 13 we spent the day scouting out Pagosa Springs. The name is descriptive, from the Ute language meaning

“stinking water.” The Utes called it pah-water, gosa-boiling. Modern usage has changed it to “healing waters.”

Now days there are

fancy spas all over the springs area. A visit to the visitor’s center sent us away with a handful of brochures on RV parks in the area. Again we were scouting to find a place or two for next summer. It is very discouraging to find anything with all our requirements. We even went to one at the base of

Wolf Creek pass, near the lake in the picture. Beautiful location, but too many strikes against it.

Friday, September 14 found us looking at about 5 more RV places with more discouraging finds. Back in town we visited the Fred Harman Museum.

Fred grew up near Pagosa Springs on his father’s homestead that was part of the Apache and Ute hunting grounds. After a career in cartoons, he devoted his time to capturing the authentic true West on canvas

The wall paper in the restroom depicted his famous cartoon strip and another of a

horse and privy.

His studio showed one of his paintings and a great way to

 

keep his paints.

He spent most of his life in the region ranching. In the mid 20’s he got a job with the Film Ad Co in Kansas City where he met a fellow employee named Walt Disney. They launched a commercial film venture which soon collapsed. In 1938 he created a cartoon strip, the two-fisted, redheaded cowboy known as

Red Ryder with his “Injun” sidekick, Little Beaver. On the wall was an enlarged copy of the original cartoon.

We resisted the opportunity to purchase a

Red Ryder Daisy Air Rifle, made extra famous in the Christmas movie, “A Christmas Story.”

 

Saturday, September 16 we packed up again and moved west passing the

Chimney Rock. It was a famous land mark and possible Indian trading area.

Westward we moved to Bayfield where we met up with our Waxahachie friends Ron & June Garrett.

Sunday, September 17  the four of us drove into Durango to go the church at the

Durango United Methodist Church for a surprise sermon about the Baptists. The pastor was continuing a series of the history of Christian Churches and this fell into the series. We all decided we were glad to be Methodists.

Back at the trailer we were disappointed the Cowboys game wasn’t broadcast in this area.

This is our last traveling post for this year. Maybe there will be one more about our travel home. We do not expect to be home until after October 1. We will be meeting our daughters and son-in-laws in Oklahoma to show them where our oil interests are and educate them to be future owners of our rights.

As usual we love hearing from our friends across the country so start writing please.

Our emails are olivia@bobheck.com and fredharrington@yahoo.com