Apr 21, 2013 - Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs We arrived at Cheyenne Mountain State Park in the afternoon to find that coming a day early had not been a good idea. Given that it is April and cold here, we did not expect the park to be full but it was leaving only three sites to choose from. We already had reservations for April 21-23 in site 13 but that site wasn’t available so we chose site 16 for one night only because it was booked for someone else after that. So, a little bit of a hassle moving but the park itself was lovely and very new. We took several nice walks...

Apr 20, 2013 - Kansas to Colorado Springs

We seem to be re-entering winter rather than following the spring. Here, the fields stretch on and on, the horizon unrelieved by anything other than the grain silos that dominate each small town, With winter’s cloak of brown, fringed by collars of white snow, and the unrelenting bite of the cold wind, Kansas’ fields show little promise of the bounty to come with autumn’s harvest. The roads that criss-cross the landscape are so straight and often unpaved, that their perspective reaches to a point on the horizon. Needless to say, we are not...

Oct 20, 2012 - Alamosa, CO to Colorado Springs, CO

Day fifty: Destination- Colorado Springs Soundtrack- Supertramp, Patty Smyth, and Mumford & Sons We drove a lot again today. The scenery is extremely pretty. After arriving in Colorado Springs, we walked around the downtown area for a bit, and found a bar/restaurant that had happy hour until 7:30, Ritz Grill. The bartender was super friendly and a Packer fan. He told us where the best Packer bar was. We watched some collage football, had a few drinks (the last one being ordered at 7:28 of course), and hung out somewhere other than the...

Oct 14, 2012 - Where the Plains meet the Mountains: Colorado Springs, CO

We must come back to this area! We don’t know if it was all the interesting attractions we did not have time to take in, the gorgeous weather, or the phenomenal location and views from or campground, but we were not ready to move. This is another destination we will add to our “bucket list” of places we must revisit. There are 51 mountains in Colorado over 14,000 ft. tall. Pike’s Peak comes in at number 36 but is the most well-known because of the cog railway and annual road race both of which take you to the very top. Since the road has...

Sep 18, 2012 - Will the Taylor's spend their 30th anniversary in a Cummins parking lot?

September 18, 2012 Woke up on my 30th wedding anniversary in the Cummins Diesel parking lot in Denver. It is a Cummins Comfort Coach location which means that they treat RVers like royalty. Well, sort of like lower class royalty, but still really nice. For starters they fed us lunch yesterday. It wasn’t just a make your own with white bread and baloney. No, sir!!! They were box lunches made by a Panera like outfit. I had chicken salad. There were fixings for the sandwich in a separate bag—tomatoes, salad and pickles. Also include were...

Sep 8, 2012 - The Springs – Colorado & Manitou

What a great day in Colorado. It was cool and sunny all day, a real relief from the heat the central part of the country has been experiencing. We took advantage of it by visiting the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs and we rode to the summit of Pikes Peak on the Cog Railway from Manitou Springs. This trip brings back some childhood memories. When I was in 3rd grade, my family (Mom, Dad, and Brother John) moved to Aurora, CO for 6 months while my Dad attended an Air Force school at Lowery Air Force Base. While here we did a lot of...

Sep 7, 2012 - Colorado Rocky Mountain High (in the 70’s)

When we got up this morning and went outside we were shocked that a cold front had come through during the night. Expected high today was to be in the upper 70’s. What a change. We hope it stays this way for a while. Coming out of La Junta there are a ton of farm markets (the old guy at the welcome center told me about them) so we decided to stop since there was room for Winnie to park. Two nice ladies were running Hanagan’s Farm Market. All of the produce was grown locally. I was surprised to see there were still peaches available and they...

Sep 6, 2012 - Summary of Summer 2012

Arrived back in Colorado Springs in April. Spent most of the time at the local Elks Lodge. Took on the responsibility of updating their moving sign at the bar and maintaining the website at www.elks.org/309/. Enjoyed our friends and neighbors. Spent August cleaning and repairing rental house on 36th street and rented it out effective September 1. Also got around to filling 2011 taxes with IRS and state. Have already received the refunds. Cleaned inside of RV and departed C/S yesterday for Cummins in Commerce City, CO to get oil change and...

Aug 31, 2012 - at Colorado Springs CO;16/227

120831-Fri-638265-Today we ended at 68305, started at 68265 miles, for total miles today of 40. We went up the Pikes Peak Cog Railway and had a great time. Last night we went to the ice cream social, then to the hot tub, then watched the rest of Dolphin Tail – had a great time. Now we are back at camp about to have dinner.

Aug 31, 2012 - Pikes Peak, CO Springs, CO

“Pikes Peak or Bust.” I had heard that saying all my life, now we are able to say WE MADE IT!!! We didn’t find any gold, but what an amazing 19 mile ride to the top; at 14,115 feet you had a bird’s eye view. You may be able to see but forget breathing very well. It didn’t bother Bob to much but I couldn’t hardly breath, I was dizzy and couldn‘t think. I found out later if you get over 8000, feet you can experience altitude sickness. But it was worth the drive. You will see the dark clouds in the pictures. We thought it was going to rain...

Aug 30, 2012 - Colorado Springs, Colorado

We woke to another sunny day with no clouds in sight, a little cool (+10C) but it was welcomed after all the heat we have had. Ater we had breakfast and packed up it had warmed up to a balmy +15 so we hit the road heading towards Durango. We headed west towards Durango and turned off onto highway #149 that ran along side the Rio Grande river and across the continental Divide as it climbed higher and higher thru mountain canyons and peaks. We were up a number of mountain peaks, Spring Creek Pass 10,900 ft., Sheep Mountain 13,168 ft and...

Aug 30, 2012 - to Colorado Springs CO; 16/226

120830-Thu-68196-Today we ended at 68265, started at 68196 miles, for total miles today of 69. Today we went to Royal Gorge. We thought it was going to be like an amusement park, but we had a great time. We went down the incline to the bottom of the gorge. Then we took the trolley across the bridge, saw a magic show and watched a video about the gorge. Then we ate lunch and then came back across the bridge and took the tram to the other side & back. We saw the train while taking the incline and again when we took the tram. We are now at a...