Hello Colorado!

I have been to Colorado before but I flew in. Driving in was such a different experience. After being in Kansas which is basically flat and then getting to Colorado and seeing those snow capped mountains.......wow!

Got to the camground which is truly a rustic site.  I am backed in right on the Big Thompson River. Beautiful to listen to. After driving 340 miles of which 2 hours was really mountain driving and getting all set up and the time change I was soooo tired. Walked over to the pub by the office to see if they served food. There was a woman behind the bar, one man watching TV and another man eating at a table. I asked for a menu...we don't have menus. Okay so what do you have? Mostly burritos and tacos but then she said hamburger. That sounded good to me. She went outside to a grill and cooked it. Gotta say it was a fantastic burger with chips for a whopping $8.00. While I was sitting there the lady's son and daughter in law and grandchildren and dogs and puppies kept wandering thru the pub. It was not at all like NC. I was really in the mountains. 

The crappy part is there is no wifi, unless I sit in the office, and very little cell service. Obviously no boob tube either. I was told I am in Big Thompson Canyon so any service is kinda nil!

    

Today, Tuesday the 27th, I am going to see my friends Sue and Gerry in Longmont. It is about 30 miles down the mountain. Well, what another beautiful, breathtaking ride. It was so wonderful to see them both after 7 years. Hard to believe it has been that long. I met Sue when Cookie and I had a house in the Poconos. Sue owned a grooming shop which I went to on the advice of another friend. What can I say, 22 years later and now I come to Colorado to see her. Sue lives with her mom Gerry who has also become a good friend. Gerry is an absolutely fantastic lady! We spent the day figuring out some stuff on Sue's phone and computer and reminiscing. Gerry made a delicious salad with a little of everything in it. Yummy I must say. Left around 8:30 so I could get back before dark. Just made it. A bit later and I wouldn't have found the campground.

   

Going back to Sue's tomorrow . Going to be a day of errands and laundry. See ya.............

Goodbye Kansas

Well, got to Oakley, Kansas yesterday. Pretty boring flat ride. Fairly nice campground, at least it is level! Asher has decided when we are at a campground he is King of the dashboard. He keeps an eye on everything! Just took it easy most of the afternoon. Woke up this morning Sunday June 25th to numerous alerts on my phone for severe weather. OMG....that is the only thing that bothers me. A tornado in Kansas, oh my! Turned out to be unpredicted rain and wind.  

So I took off to see Monument Rocks. I followed the gps on my phone and it took me on a road up and down hills that was nothing but dirt and a few rocks.  Due to the storm it was like riding on ice, slipping and sliding all over the place. It was 15 miles long and took almost an hour. Since it was all private property the fields were labeled by groves.....grove 16, grove 12, etc. so I knew AAA could find me if necessary . Whew! Was too late to turn around so I forged forward and hoped it was going to be worth the terrifying trip. Boy, was it worth it! This area and most areas millions of years ago was sea! When the sea receded or disappeared it left these amazing geological monuments. I hope by the pictures you can see that these Monuments are in the middle of fields of farms and flatness! After speaking to a few other people that were there they told they came in from another direction. Few miles longer but oh so much more pleasant. 

    

      On the way down the road I noticed this one, single, all alone bit of color. Got out to take a picture. As soon as I got back in the car a deer ran across the road into the fields. That is the second animal I have seen. The first was a skunk crossing the road right in front of me. Thank heavens I missed it!

After I left I stopped at a car wash. Thought it was pretty clean but when I stopped across the street to go to Buffalo Bills Museum, I couldn't believe what was caked under the car and in the wheel wells.  The museum was closed but got some great shots of the monument. It took me over an hour to get the caked up mud and gravel out from under my car. It was like cement. Should've taken a picture of that, lol!

    

Thoroughly pooped, I drove right next door to Cap'n Jack's Pub. It looks like a real hole in the wall. Again in the middle of nowhere. Supposedly it is the 5 star restaurant of NW Kansas. People come to the campground just to eat here. Well, it was a hole in the wall, the place was small but packed and the food was delicious! Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Off to Drake, Colorado tomorrow, 311 miles. I will be there for 6 days to visit my friend Sue and her mom Gerry. Been looking forward to this for a long time!

           

Last day in Halstead, Kansas

So, I will have been here three nights. I can't say Kansas was one of the most beautiful states I have been in as yet.  Although, yesterday I went to the Strataca Salt Mines. That was extremely interesting. I did the whole tour which is a very large museum and then 3 tram rides through the mines. This mine, which is still an active mine, is mostly used for rock salt for the roads all over.  Tons and tons and tons of it. The way they blast through the walls is unreal. Even to get their equipment down, which is 450 feet below the surface, they take everything apart , dispose of unnecessary parts and re-weld after the parts are brought down the shaft. Absolutely amazing! When they are done  with the machinery and any garbage it stays down there forever. "What goes into the mine, stays in the mine" the empty cardboard boxes of dynamite, 1000's of them, are still ther. They used them to block open spaces so moist air couldn't come in. In the garbage piles there were lots of empty Camel and Lucky Strike boxes, Hershey wrappers and double mint gum wrappers.  One of the rides was called the dark side, and boy was it dark. The driver had a hard hat with a light and we each had a small flashlight. I thought it was dark in Moncure, no comparison!

        

I stayed an extra night here so I could go to the space museum, Cosmosphere! It was good but lots of walking and reading through the museum. It went all through the space program here and the Soviet Union. One would have to be there for at least 4 hours to have read and comprehend it all! It the end there was a really cool movie in a dome.  You felt almost dizzy as if you were moving, weird!

    

 

    

Leaving in the morning for Grinnell, Kansas. I'll let you know if there is anything interesting there. On my way to Colorado!

Sorry got lax with blogging...

Well, I did the tram ride on Saturday morning. You sat in a pod with 5 other people....felt like I was one of the Jetson's! It was an amazing ride to the top and when you get out at the top you can see the whole city of St. Louis and the Mississippi River. There was sooooo much walking I took the metro liner back to the campground and did nothing. The area was kinda gross and gave me the willies.  So I decided to just leave in the morning and head for Branson, Missouri.

      

After a long ride I arrived in Branson, MO at a nice campground, The Ozark Country Campground. It was down a very long windie road. Branson is overwhelming with what to do and how long to stay. I went to two shows, The Dixie Stampede and Moses. The Dixie Stampede was a very touristy dinner theater but was quite entertaining. Moses was absolutely fabulous. It should be on Broadway! 

 

I also went one day to Table Rock Park. The scenery was beautiful. For your admission you get a golf cart to view the cave and mountains of the park and then to a museum of American Heritage that you could have spent an entire day there.  An interesting story was of the sinkhole. This property and huge golf course is owned by Mr. Morris the founder of Bass Pro Shops. I am told that when he does something, he does it right. Back to the sink hole.....one morning in June of 2016 part of the stunning golf course became a huge sink hole. You can look straight down into it, amazing. Mr. Morris is convinced there is another cave to be found under there somewhere and is excavating with no expense spared to find it.

     

          

 

Left Branson this morning, Wednesday. Drove 340 miles in a windstorm of about 30 mph. Made for a bit strenuous trip. Got to the Spring Lake Campground in Halstead, Kansas about 4:30. The campground was rated a 9. Shouldn't you be able to level your RV in a 9 rated campground? NOT! Anyway, real nice neighbors from Texas and it is fairly close to the things I want to see. Will be here for 2-3 nights.  

Until then...nighty nite!