Loma to Bonny Lake

We found the ElderTang. It had found it's way into the adventure bag along with the blue plastic cereal bowl. Much rejoicing.

Another Oh-Dark-Hundred start -- someday we're going to learn how to sleep late. The first job before heading off was to sort the clean laundry. It wasn't quite as dark as this photo makes it seem.

This had been a great "refit" stop. We were cleaned, laundered, exercised, reorganized, and rejuvenated.

This world's shortest video clip demonstrates something else about this campground: it was mourning dove central. Listen and you'll hear them calling. It went on nonstop, day and night.

Video

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Here's roll call for the bags:

Top row: Al laptop, Lena big big heavy Imelda Marcos bag, Al cold weather clothes, sleeping bags and pillows, biking bag, Al warm weather, towels and sheet, tent, tent polls, cozy tent bag. Bottom row: dirty clothes, kitchen, Lena laptop, camping bag 2. Not pictured: Adventure bag (jackets and binoculars), electronics bag, chairs, toolbox, cooler, food box, frying pan bag, paper plate bag.

BTW, here's how the bikes are locked to the car. The cable links through a towing point, and goes to a U-lock around the bikes.

Today we followed the Colorado river through the rockies.


I have no idea who this guy is, or what he's doing.

We'd planned to drive through Rocky Mountain National Park, but we called ahead and learned that the summit road was closed. We still planned to visit it (after all, it would be free because we had our annual pass), but as we got up in elevation, the weather turned snowy and windy, so we changed our minds.

This shot was taken between snow squalls, but it shows the lack of lane markers on the road (all worn away) making driving difficult (Colorado Dept of Transportation hint hint).


We've done a lot of climate changing on this trip, and sometimes we end up with the wrong clothes on. Here's a driver change near the summit. You can't see it, but I'm wearing sandals and standing in a foot-deep puddle of ice-water.


The weather was pretty bad here, so we decided to take a break and look for some wifi and coffee. We stopped in Frisco, and found a great place (Rocky Mountain Coffee Roasters).

I dove into cyberspace, got a few day's info posted to the blog, and when I came to the surface, it was sunny out!

We got our leftover chicken and coleslaw, and I got a beer, and dined al Frisco at 9,042 feet.


These next shots are best viewed at full size, so click on them.



Vail and Breckenridge were huge, with lots of new building going on. In most places more than half of the trees were dead. We passed through Denver and on to our next campground: Bonny Lake. This place was almost deserted, and a little desolate due to the cloudy windy weather. On the menu: Baked beans and hot dogs.

The coyotes sung us to sleep.

BTW, Our mileage has improved substantially since that first 28 MPG tank. We had a 35 MPG day, and two 39 MPG days. I keep our tires at the max pressure of 44 psi, but when I checked at Zion, they were at 50 psi due to the elevation change, so I've kept closer watch since then.

Thanks to those of you who have told us that you enjoy reading the blog. It's fun to torture you by delaying new posts -- ha ha. I'm still about four days behind.

Coming up: duct tape car repairs, followed by Larry the Cable Guy and killer tornadoes in Missouri! Don't miss it.