Author: Jeeping and RVing in Colorado

Pics mentioned in the post will be added later. I NEED SOME WIFI!!

Jeff and I had such a wonderful morning. Our tour guides (Bill and Cheryl Mason) picked us up at 9 am and we had no idea what was in store for us. Bill is 81 and Cheryl is 80. They are in such great physical condition. As you can see in the pictures they are dressed for a hike and Jeff and I are dressed for a trip to Walmart. They have resided in Angie Fire for over 20 years and they gave us the VIP tour. The first stop was Monte Verde Lake and they stepped out and said we were going to hike around the lake. Jeff was like .. uh oh! I was praying we could keep up with them. Little did we know they are avid hikers and have been most of their lives. They hike places like the GRAND CANYON! They did 205 miles in 17 days in England in 2012. That was just 6 years ago! Jeff and I might have walked 205 miles from 2012 to 2018! We did however make it around the lake with no incidents.. like me falling out! Then we took off up to the top of a mountain (driving), then back down to the resort area where they gave us the grand tour. While driving up the mountain Jeff said he saw the largest turkey he has ever seen in his life. It was gigantic. He said it was the size of an ostrich and would have fed 50 people at Thanksgiving. While driving down we saw a herd of mule deer and we stopped and rolled down the windows and they didn’t shy away. I think I could have loaded one in the back and kept it for a pet. Bill and Cheryl took us by their home, which is solar powered and beautiful. Bill designed it and it’s 3 stories and has a solarium where he has a small garden in the winter and he moves it to the patio in the spring and summer. Jeff joined them for lunch at Zeb’s. One of the few restaurants that makes it here year-round. They said it’s been here for 50 years and can make it through all the seasons. We got an extensive history lesson on Angel Fire and enjoyed the entire experience with Bill and Cheryl. They are coming in November to see Kathy and we look forward to seeing them again.

As for the present moment, I’m outside enjoying my zero gravity chair and listening to the birds chirp while Jeff plans our departure route tomorrow. The goal is to make it to Great Sand Dunes National Park.

We hope all is well back home!! Signing off until we blog again!

This little jewel of a campground is amazing. So peaceful and we went walking last night and saw about 8-10 mule deer. As we walked, they would walk to another side of the campground. Then when we made it to that side, they would go back to the other side. I also looked outside at 3 am this morning and there was an elk outside my window. Well, I told Jeff it was huge and looked like a horse. He said it was an elk. We are having the trip of a lifetime and it’s just getting started. Once we get set up I’m Ouray we will do more posts about the big blue bus and how we organize and live day to day since some people wonder how we live in a smaller place.

We have also added our HOME sign that my friend Teresa gave us before we left so that we would be reminded where we come back too! 😃

The pic of the Jeep is what Jeff watches while he drives to make sure nobody rear ends us. Seriously I do not have the attention span to drive the blue bus. At times today it seemed like the road went for days.

Most importantly, we went to the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial museum and chapel today. I will post about that experience on a day when I have great coverage. I just feel like it deserves it’s own post. I have added a couple of pictures just so that you can see how beautiful it is.

We left Amarillo by Morning!! Haha. Get it? Around 7 am we pulled the big blue bus out and made great time getting to Angel Fire, NM which will be our home for 3 nights. On our journey over today we saw lots of wildlife… buffalo, pronghorn, geese, mule deer, pheasants, prairie dogs and one Gazelle! We also went through Cimerron, NM where the plains meet the Rockies. We were on a section of the Port to Plains Corridor today which was actually a really good section of the highway. Wiki says this about it “The Ports-To-Plains Corridor, also known as National Highway System High Priority Corridor 38, is a highway corridor between the United States Mexico border at Laredo, Texas and Denver, Colorado. It is the southern third of the Ports-to-Plains Alliance. The reason for proposed improvements to this corridor is to expedite the transportation of goods and services from Mexico in the United States and vice versa. The Ports-To-Plains Corridor starts in South Texas and traverses through Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and ends in Denver, Colorado.[1]”.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

We finally started seeing a few mountains and had a little winding road into our destination of Angel Fire. I am forever amazed at Jeff’s driving skills. He offered to let me drive but I’ll pass!

Our friend Kathy from our condo was kind enough to tell us about her friends that reside in Angel Fire and we have a quaint little RV spot close to the Country Club. Kathy and her husband Herb resided in Angel Fire for many years. Kathy’s friends are going to come pick us up in the morning and show us around town and the area. Super excited!

We had a great travel day today. The weather was clear and sunny until the last hour when we ran into some rain and hail, which we made it though without any issues. An Amarillo, TX Walmart is our concrete campground tonight. The travel time was 12 hours and we covered 665 miles. It took us 12 hours, but it was easy (for me anyway). We stopped for about 20 minutes for lunch. Jeff has done such an incredible job driving. He actually said it was easy driving for him. I think he may be missing his old truck driving days.

Today we enjoyed seeing the massive number of windmills and pump jacks that Texas has to offer. These are also called beam pumps and sometimes given names such as lonely birds and nodding donkeys. The workers average from $35,000 to $85,000 per year. Little bit of useless trivia there.

Settling down for the night! Will post again tomorrow.

Well…we can feel the Dallas traffic at this point. At least the ride is smoother traveling at 2 mph!! Texas Roadhouse would be a good option right now.

We just rolled in to the Great State of Texas. 167 miles to Dallas. The roads are better right now than Louisiana roads, but Jeff said they are teasing us with good roads at the state line and it won’t last. Yippee!! Sometimes I think we might not have an RV left since the roads are so bad.

I’m including a pic of what we see in the back of the RV as we are traveling. In the picture the slides are in, so when we get to Ouray we will let them out so we won’t be as cramped. But we can get to all of the necessities. Fridge, food and bathroom! Now that’s a vicious cycle! Jeff may want to drive this RV everywhere when we travel from now on. We make way better time since I don’t have to take pit stops. Ok enough bathroom talk. I’m gonna settle in for a while and read a book. Yes friends and family I said read a book! Anyone that knows me knows that my attention span prohibits me from reading books. That’s gonna change on this trip!! KS

Day 2 is starting about 7 am. We want to try to make it from Alexandria, LA to somewhere between Wichita Falls and Amarillo, TX. I’ve never been to Texas, but I’ve always heard everything is bigger there. We shall see!!! Saying goodbye to this lovely Walmart campground we stayed at. It seriously was a nice Walmart and most importantly we made it through the night !!