I-40 Homeward Bound

Left Ridgway Monday a.m. about 8:15 (yes!), got diesel and was on the road by 8:45.....long, long road.  We drove 10 hours....through 6 mountain passes and finally got to Corral RV in Dalhart (same one we stayed at going).  On the way home today.  Plans were to spend the night tonight around OK City, but I KNOW we won't.  He senses home and there's no stopping.  We'll see.



We took an alternate route out of Gunnison...Hwy 114 rather than Monarch Pass. So many people on the RV forums say it's such a good way to go to avoid Monarch.....Driver says he'll do Monarch next time.  It was a fairly good road and beautiful drive , but for the first 20 miles, it was constant curves, lots of 90 degree around mountains.  When the signs say 25 mph, they mean it!  No shoulders (driver likes shoulders) but thankfully, no sheer drop-offs ...We had one short, steep pass and then flat the rest of the way to Alamosa.  Raton Pass was the last of the passes.  It's pretty long and steep, but we actually had to pass trucks so we did pretty good.  Ronnie made the comment again....we could not have done the downhills w/o this exhaust brake.  We would have totally burned up our service brakes.  Thank you, Google.

Highway 114

Hwy 114

Several signs like this

You get the idea?

New Mexico

Ran into a bit of rain in New Mexico north of Raton,,,beautiful lightning and really dark clouds.  Rain was not hard, tho and didn't last but 20-30 minutes.  Got back to 90 degree temps south of there...


Slept in a bit today (sorta tired from riding) and on the road by 10 a.m. after getting diesel.  It'll be a long day but this is a comfortable riding vehicle, quiet to a point (rattles here and there but good roads help that. )

Thanks to son and favorite daughter-in-law, yard is mowed so that won't be facing us when we get home.  Just a bit of laundry and then geet ready for next trip at end of August to Alaska.  No blog on this trip...flying light.  We are doing a cruise from Vancouver to Whittier, then train to Denali.  We're checking off one item on our bucket list on this trip....float plane (or sea plane/whatever it's called) to bear country. Looking forward to that.

Til next time....

A

Ridgway: Saturday and Sunday

Saturday:  A day of nothing much.  We rode bikes, then locked them up and hiked a bit around the campground. 

View from the tent camping area

  Across the river and up the mountain is the tent campiing.  Oh my, you gotta want to tent camp bad to get all your stuff up there.  They do have little carts to use wheeling your tent, etc up the hill.  It was a climb….but a nice wide trail. 

We walked the River Trail and watched all the fishermen.  Nobody was doing much good with fishing.  I walked ahead and saw a spot with good access to the side of the river.  Right below me was a big stump and a school of trout.  Ronnie walked up and told me to tell the fisherman across the river (I hadn’t even seen him til then).  Got his attention and motioned for him, so he crossed the river and immediately caught one.  We walked on and when we returned, he said he’d caught three nice ones there.  We visited with him a bit.  He is from Ridgway and works at the Billings Artworks

in Ridgway where they make the Grammys.  We’d seen the place but had no idea it was talking about the actual Grammys, but it is.  Who knew??? 

After a bit, we came back and read for a good while outside.  Weather is so nice, until you get in the sun and it is HOT.  I guess we’re closer to it up here in the mountains.  LOL.   Most of the trails are good for bikes, but there are small  portions that are mountain biking, only....

How to mountain bike ride with a road bike

We’ve enjoyed the company of the little ground squirrels.  They come up when we are snacking and crawl on our feet trying to get a peanut or whatever.

Anyway, that was pretty much our day yesterday.  Could not get back into the jeep….just couldn not.  We leave tomorrow (Monday) so today will be pretty much spent getting things together (there’s not much to that).  I’ll wash another load.  Love this little washer/dryer combo.  Not much washing to do when we get home…have kept up with laundry.  Set it and go and the clothes are dry when we get back. 

Sunday:  Got up and rode bikes and hiked again today.  Watched the fishermen along the river.  Saw a snake and I was ready to come back.  It’s been lovely and we’ve had a good time but we are both ready to come home.  Ready for some flat land.  We plan a different route home.  50 to Gunnison, then 114 to 285 to Walsenburg.  "They" say it's a good road with the pass over 114 about 1200 feet less than Monarch Pass.  So we will try that.  Not sure where we'll spend the night..depends on how early we leave and how long we feel like ridiing.

Ridgway is a really nice place to visit.  I highly recommend the camping at the State Park, where we are.

Well, do I feel like an idiot!  Misread my reservations and we were supposed to leave by noon today!  Someone else had reserved our site starting today.  Geez.  Camp host came aknocking.  Really nice.  He found another site that we could use for tonight so we got moved....less than 15 minutes.

Clouds are moving in and rain is predicted.  We may just find a movie to watch.

Later...A

PS.  FYI:  Be sure and "click" on the blue words....they carry you to a link with lots of info.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

All day in the jeep...oh, we are tired.  Drove into the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park via 347 to view the Canyon.  So awesome.  Then we drove down 50 to the West Elk Loop (Hwy 92) which goes on the east side of the Canyon.  Hwy 50 was crammed with traffic (everybody in such a HURRY) and road work...finally got to 92 and realized how far it was around the loop back to Montrose.  Debated (?)  whether to turn around and face the traffic, road work or just continue on.  We continued on.  It was a beautiful drive....no traffic to speak of but a long way.   Here are some scenes from today.

crazy man

Dragon Point (find the Dragon)

Bear or BIG dog???

Not sure about tomorrow.  He'll have to do some serious persuading to get me back in the  jeep again.  He mentioned doing Last Dollar Road again.  After the other trails we've done/started, it's a piece of cake.  

Campground has the FULL sign out again tonight, but by tomorrow morning they'll move out again.  It's been interesting watching people come and go throughout the week.  It's a really nice campground...quietest one we've ever been in.  Except for the mosquitoes....and their nightly attack.  They won't get me tonight.  Don't plan to get off the couch.

Thanks to you all for your comments and emails on the blog.  Love doing it, but internet service is so poor here, it's frustrating to get it done.