Colorful Colorado

On our way leaving Yellowstone, we traveled through a small town in Wyoming called, Cody. The town looked like it could have been used as a set of old western movies. It had small-town charm and definitely a place we would like to go back and visit. As we made our way towards Colorado Springs, we located a vehicle pull off to stop and have lunch. The canyons, water, and skies were gorgeous and worthy of the extra time we spent taking in the scenery.

After about 6 hours on the road, we arrived at the Cheyenne State Park in Colorado Springs. This was by far the best state park we have visited. It had large, private lots, spacious areas to explore the wildlife and trails, as well as, the convenience of being just a few miles from major attractions. During our one week stay in the Springs we:

•Visited the Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak
•Went to see the Broadmoor hotel
•Toured the area with my Uncle, had dinner with my cousin and her family
•Enjoyed our monthly mani/pedi
• Climbed 250 of the 2,944 steps on the Manitou Incline

After a week spent in nature, we forged on to our next destination point of Olathe, Colorado. We were pleasantly surprised by the seclusion and limited vacancy of this RV park. The owners of the Uncompahgre River RV Park were friendly, helpful and created a relaxing atmosphere with oversized trees, a waterfall and small pond. While the weather turned rainy and cold for most of our stay, we managed to visit some of the nearby towns, took a dip in the hot springs at Ouray, hiked at the Black Canyon National forest, strolled the downtown of Grand Junction, met some terrific friends, Ken/Karen, enjoyed a few wine and dinner nights out and witnessed some amazing fall colors along various back road scenic drives. It was also where we decided to add to our family with a beautiful Pomsky, named Hannah. The feat to get her was long, exhaustive and a bit unusual. Darryl, Reese and I drove from Olathe to Denver (about 300 miles), where I boarded a plane and flew to Ohio, picked up Hannah at the airport, and made a return flight an hour later. After arriving back in Denver, we stayed overnight in a hotel and drove back the 300 miles back to Olathe. What is clear to me now is how little I remember about having a puppy and the enormous sacrifices a family must make. Scarred hands from being chewed and nibbled on, an endless amount of pee pads needed to potty train a puppy, the 3-4 nightly trips outside to use the bathroom and the constant monitoring to ensure the RV remained intact. Sleepless nights aside, we believe we made a great decision.

It was hard to believe how fast our 30 days in Colorado passed yet we were very excited about getting to warmer weather. Or so we thought!

As we left Colorado, we experienced the wonderful views of autumn and winter coming together. It was a spectacular sight and certainly one we haven't seen in our travels thus far. We decided to take advantage of our route and the nearby Mesa Verde National Park which boasted a large Indian cultural ancestral Puebloan cliff dwelling. While we didn't have any reservations to stay at the campground, we were able to secure a two-night stay where we visited many of the exhibits and archaeological sites. On our way heading towards New Mexico, we took a two-hour detour to be able to visit the "Four Corners." There was obviously no deterring tourists here since the park closed at 5:00 pm and by 4:45 pm, there were still about 40 people standing in line to capture a photo and commemorate their experience. Feeling a deep sense of accomplishment, we headed out and made our way towards New Mexico with an overnight boon docking stop at our favorite place, Cracker Barrell.