Month: September 2019
Yellow Jackets, Ghost Towns, and Wildflowers.

Yellow Jackets, Ghost Towns, and Wildflowers.

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Our first visit to Colorado Springs left us wanting more time in the area so when I set out to plan this loop I made sure to schedule two weeks at the Cheyenne Mountain State Park.

We like state parks for several reasons. The views are better, there’s almost always a fire ring so we can have evening campfires, we see more wildlife, and the price per night is usually cheaper. Usually. We actually ended up paying more per night at this Colorado State Park than if we’d stayed at the KOA down the road. I can’t deny the views and the wildlife sightings were way better at the state park. The deer in the pics above were right outside our home-on-wheels. Our cats were loving all of the stalking opportunities.

Speaking of wildlife and stalking…we were stalked and bullied the entire two weeks by the resident yellow jackets. It was so bad that the park rangers let us put up some traps. Did you know that yellow jackets are carnivores? Yup. They’re attracted to meat and sugar…and purple shirts. They also sting just because you looked at them. They’re total jerks. The rangers tried to figure out where the nest was. Several of them worked on it and looked in on us to see how it was going. At one point they offered to move us to a different spot…but our spot had such an amazing view so we just put up with the little flying jerks. It was kind of amazing watching the traps fill up. We ended up with three traps at our site.

We took a day trip and explored up in the surrounding mountains. I had several goals planned for that day. The first one was the ghost town of St. Elmo. While it is considered a ghost town, there are still a few residents. The town was originally settled in 1878 as a gold mining camp and grew to a town with a population of around 2,000 before it died out as the surrounding mines were depleted. It might have started as a gold mining camp, but the area was also rich in copper, silver and ore. In 1881 a railroad through St. Elmo was established and a station was built in town making the town of St. Elmo a main source of supplies for the entire area. The train would bring in supplies and people on it’s way to the mines and then it would bring iron ore back through town on it’s way out. In 1890, at it’s peak, there was a fire that destroyed most of the business section of St. Elmo. Most of the businesses were never rebuilt and the town started its slow decline. By 1922, when the last train went through St. Elmo, it’s said that all of the residents who were left in the dying town rode out on the train never to return. A few families stayed. They tried to bring the town back, but it never recovered. Today you can drive up one of the old mining roads and check out what’s left of the gold mining camp. We enjoyed walking around the buildings and reading the stories. The general store is still open during the summer. We bought some souvenirs and chatted with the owners. The best way to get to know a place is to talk to the residents.

After we left St. Elmo we headed to Cottonwood Pass. We’d heard that the views were spectacular and Guys, they did not disappoint! At a height of 12,127 feet Cottonwood Pass is the second highest mountain pass in the state of Colorado. Surrounded by San Isabel National Forest and Gunnison National Forest the views are of wild and open spaces mostly untouched by human hands. Cottonwood Pass is the highest paved crossing of the Continental Divide in the United States. The day we went it was around 40° and super windy! It was also the first day the pass was reopened after some major road work. We didn’t know that until we got there and talked to some locals who were camping not far from there.

I don’t remember where I first came across the cool Thomas Dambo Trolls, but when I heard there was one in the Breckenridge area…it immediately went on my list of things to see. Meet Isak Heartstone a mountain troll that sits at fifteen feet tall and greets visitors with a shy smile. After doing some digging I found out that the Denmark artist, Thomas Dambo, has made not one but sixteen different trolls in the US! I think I might have a new list of things to see and places to go. If you’re interested in learning more about Thomas Dambo and his many art installments check out his webpage.

Lets talk foodies! Colorado Springs is a huge foodie town and has some of the coolest joints we’ve found. Some of our favorites from this visit are The Omelet Parlor (where I had the best green chili omelet ever), Edelweiss (some amazing German food), and Fat Sully’s for some super tasty amazingly big pizza! Our friends, the Lowe Family, introduced us to Fat Sully’s and Guys…it was awesome! One of the best things about the Colorado Springs area is visiting with the Lowe Family.

Y’all know I love the pretties so I thought I’d end the post telling you about the Ranger Walk we did where we learned about the wildflowers in the area. It was kind of a gross morning with cool weather and on and off drizzle, but we had a great time! We learned a lot and we got to hike around a very cool archery range.

And just like that our two weeks in the Colorado Springs area is over. I didn’t get much video of our time…I’m out of practice…but here is a short little video of some Colorado Springs moments mainly of our spot in Cheyenne Mountain State Park.

See y’all down the road!

#NationalParkTour
Sand For Days

Sand For Days

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Guys!! We’re officially back on the road and it feels good to get some miles under our tires! Now that we’re done with our State Tour where we visited all of the states we could drive to, we have officially started our National Park Tour.

It took us two long days to get to Alamosa, CO and when we did…there wasn’t too much there. It was sandy and hot…but the views of the mountains from our “yard” were welcome.

I’ve always been curious about Great Sand Dunes National Park. It sounds odd to say that the highest sand dunes in North America are in Colorado…but, they are. Driving to the park, all you see is the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. You’d never know you were driving toward sand dunes until you turn a corner and then there they are stretching out under the mountains. Looking deceptively small.

The highest dune is close to 750 feet tall and called Star Dune. To get to the dunes you have to cross the Medano Creek first. The creek wasn’t very deep when we went, but it can have waves up to a foot deep depending on the time of year. We rented some sand sleds from a nearby store and the boys had a good time sledding down the dunes a few times. The sand at Sand Dunes is very different than the sand at White Sand National Monument. The sand at Dunes sticks to everything…including the boards whereas the sand at White Sands seems to slide right off of everything.

It’s hard walking in sand. You take a step forward and slide back almost as far as you stepped. It makes walking up sand dunes more taxing than you’d think. Add that to the fact that we’d just spent nine months at near sea level…and well, we definitely got a workout. I made it up to this point and decided my view was pretty darn good. Jerl, Charles, and Alex decided to try and go farther up.

Nicholas and I walked at a more leisurely pace until we got to a very steep section. We decided we’d just sit in the sand and have a snack…and people watch. The view from our snack spot was pretty amazing. It wasn’t the worst place to have a snack.

I sent my camera with Jerl up to the top. He got some great shots! When you visit the dunes, you’re really only seeing a small portion of the thirty square miles of sand dunes. In fact, the park itself encompasses woodlands, grasslands, 13,000 foot mountains, and alpine tundras.

It’s hard to convey the size of the dunes. Here’s a picture that will help give you and idea of the scale. Those little dots are people on the dunes. We’d been warned to get there early in the morning not only because the dunes get busy but because the sand gets hot fast. Sand temps can reach 150° when the air temp is only 80° to 90°.

On the way to Great Sand Dunes NP we kept passing this little gravel road that went up the side of a mountain…so…we had to see where it went. It was one of the bumpiest roads we’ve been on in our car! We never made it to the lake that was said to be at the end of the road, but we made it a good distance up the mountain before we turned around. The view was hazy, but decent.

It wouldn’t be a proper post without some foodies. Guys, this burger…yes, there’s a burger under there somewhere…is firmly on our list of top five burgers. When I got this burger, I didn’t know it was an open-faced burger. Ha! I thought they’d given me the wrong thing, but it looked so good I was going to ask if I could just have it instead of what I’d ordered. It’s a smothered green chili burger with pepper jack cheese. We liked it so much we ate there twice in one week instead of trying someplace new.

Our first week back to being nomads went by quickly. We fell back into the usual rhythm of our traveling lives pretty easily.

See y’all down the road!

#NationalParkTour
A Slow Year So Far…

A Slow Year So Far…

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Hey Guys!! It’s been awhile!! The last time we chatted, we had just moved from the Houston area to the Kyle area. That was way back in April. In June, we moved up to Missouri for two months. I thought I could squish the four months we were in Texas and Missouri into one post…so here we go!

Let’s start with the BBQ…because y’all know we had some. We ended up eating at nineteen different BBQ places in the two months we were in Kyle. Yup, you read that right. Nineteen. And some of those places we ate at several times. Ha! It was hard to leave all of that amazing BBQ!! Jerl is still grumbling about having to leave all of those BBQ joints behind.

When we got to Kyle, the entire area was covered in carpets of bluebonnets. It was gorgeous! When I planned this part of our year, I’d hoped we would be able to see some bluebonnets. It’d been four years since we had been in Texas during the bloom and I was desperately wanting to get pics of the boys with the bluebonnets once again. During our two months in the area we saw the bluebonnets in all of their glory fade away to be replaced with the bright yellows and oranges and reds of the other wildflowers known in the area. It was beautiful.

We were fortunate enough to celebrate two Birthdays and a High School Graduation while we were in Kyle!

When we weren’t stuffing ourselves with BBQ or celebrating something, our days looked pretty…normal. Normal for us anyway. Work, school, and chores. The boys were all working on learning to drive. I left those lessons up to Jerl. I’m a reluctant and a bit nervous driver at the best of times. The last thing the boys need is a Nervous Nellie trying to teach them to drive.

We’d had grand plans of hiking every weekend, but the weather seemed to have other plans for us. It stormed so much that the hiking trails were either under water or a muddy mess. We weren’t able to hike at all, but we did take a day trip to Waco and visit Waco Mammoth National Monument to learn about when Colombian mammoths once roamed Texas.

Right next to one of our favorite BBQ places to frequent was a pie shop. Pie and BBQ…a match made in heaven. We actually found out about the Texas Pie Company while we were eating at a different BBQ place. These pies were sooo good! And there were tons of flavors! I think I ate my weight in BBQ and pie and then washed it all down with sweet tea. Gotta love the South!!

We headed for Missouri in June to spend some time with family and work on some projects on our home-on-wheels. Besides the many projects we had in mind…we also had some medical stuff to deal with. Eye surgeries were done (Jerl), wisdom teeth were extracted (Charles), and the many projects were…almost all done.

In between medical stuff and projects, we had some fun. The boys learned some new skills by helping their grandpa build a deck, we celebrated a birthday, and we took advantage of all of the space. Living in an RV gives us limited space and while we have a new “yard” every couple weeks or so…it’s different than having a real backyard where you can let loose and be free. The boys really enjoyed their summer.

We’ve been to forty-nine states and have favorite foodie spots in quite a few, but there are some foodie spots in the Joplin area that we always look forward to visiting!

Right at the end of our visit in Missouri we were able to squeeze in a trip to Branson. Some of my favorite childhood memories are of family vacations to Branson. When I was a kid, we would go every summer. We love sharing new places with the boys, but we also love to give our boys a chance to experience some of our favorite childhood places too. It was so fun watching the boys make some great memories with my parents this summer.

We were basically stationary for four months this year. It was both the longest and shortest four months ever! Ha! After four years of frequent moves, I start getting the itch to move along about three weeks into a stay. The first week of August we headed out on our next loop of adventures. We love our time with family and leaving Missouri is always hard, but (as the quote goes) “the mountains are calling…”

See y’all down the road!!

#nationalparktour