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| John and April on the gondola |
We started our summer travels on June 7th and
headed north and east and had a wonderful time.
On July 5th we arrived back in OKC for a few days as John had
several medical appointments as well as a cancer injection. We were thankful that our friends Mark and
Donna had a spot for us in their RV park just outside OKC so we didn’t have to
travel so many miles each day from Sulphur for the appointments. All John’s appointments went very well and on
July 16th we headed west for another month of travel.
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| Turquois Lake |
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| Hospital John was born in. Condos now. |
We spent two nights on the road during our trek to Buena
Vista, CO for a week. One night was in
Dodge City, KS at the Gunsmoke RV park.
Dodge City was an interesting little town and the RV park was quite nice
for a stopover. Our second night was
just west of Pueblo out in what felt like a desert at Haggards RV park. We were at the base of the mountains and had
quite a show of color and beauty with the sun, clouds and storms. The following morning we made our way through
Canyon City and along the Arkansas River up to Buena Vista. This is a gorgeous drive that we never get
tired of even though it is very curvey.
We always see lots of rafters along that drive.
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| Off the regular roads |
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| John holding up a structure |
While traveling west we aren’t out to run and gun all the
time but to just enjoy the beauty of the area as well as the much cooler
temps. We always enjoy a trek to
Leadville (John’s birthplace), Cottonwood Lake which is buried back in the
mountains and very peaceful, as well as the old ghost town of St. Elmo. There’s an area in St. Elmo that is covered
in chipmunks that eat right of your hand, which is always fun. Many of the old buildings are still standing in
St. Elmo and they are always doing fund raising to restore them. We also drove up over Monarch Pass and rode
the gondola at the top of the pass to the top of the mountain with the
dogs! I think the view from there was
one of the prettiest I’ve ever seen. The
store at this pass is quite nice and also serves food. It was a fun stopping point.
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| Cottonwood Lake |
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| St. Elmo |
After a week in Buena Vista we headed south to Red River,
NM. Neither of us have ever been to this
area and it is gorgeous once you get back into the mountains. Other than a 7 mile climb at 4 and 5% grades out
of Salida, CO, the drive to Red River was flat, flat, flat with long straight
roads. A quick and easy drive. Coming into Red River from Questa, NM to the
west was a pretty drive and the climb was easy.
We did go over Bobcat Pass to the east of Red River in the jeep and both
agreed we would not consider driving the RV over that pass. It’s quite steep on both sides and very
long. I guess the diesel motorhomes might
do it easier than us in our gas rig.
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| Top of Monarch Pass |
We are parked in Roadrunner RV park which is the nicest we’ve
been in all summer. The park itself is
very nice with the Red River (which is really a creek) running right through
it, lots of trees and the setting between two tall mountains. The temps have been in the 70’s and low 80’s
during the day with lows in the 40’s at night.
Unfortunately, our heater is not working so we are quite thankful for
our fireplace as well as a space heater for the bedroom and bathroom. At least it’s not freezing so we don’t have
to worry about frozen pipes. Yep,
another repair when we return home! It’s
always something.
I’ll write more about our time here in Red River later.
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