Travel log from June 29 to July 1, 2013 - our 2 night, 3 day trek to Colorado post-retirement
Saturday 6/29/13 –
450 miles Eugene (Deerwood) to Meridian-Boise KOA, Meridian Idaho – Start 5:30
– Arrival about 3:45 Mountain Time – ET 9 ¼ hours –
Had a relatively routine and lovely drive over the Santiam
Pass on a very warm and sunny Oregon day.
Things went a little awry by Burns, when Lanie opened the trailer and
found the area near the steps, vinyl floor and wall, covered with olive oil
from a bottle that had pushed through a cabinet door and banged into the wall
as the cap fell off. That was quite a
messy clean-up for her while I was stuck in the slowest McDonald’s on earth
waiting for fries and drinks (est wait time 20 minutes, yes 20 fricking
minutes!). We spent about 45-50 minutes
in Burns on both clean-up and the slow McDonalds before heading off again. Only other setback time-wise was a detour on
the edge of Vale due to a smoking wreck involving some kinds of big
vehicles. Somehow we still arrived in
Boise area about when we figured we would.
The KOA there was off the freeway far enough to be relatively quiet, but
our spot was short and generally the park was pretty cramped with RV’s and
vehicles. Did not put out the big
slides, ate leftover Thai food, and went to bed early. It was baking in Boise area, temp. 100+ when
we arrived and sticky through the night, though the A/C helped some.
Sunday 6/30 - about 480 miles Meridian Idaho to Rock
Springs/Green River KOA, Wyoming – Start 6:00 – Arrival around 2:15 – ET 8 ¼
hours
We made good time on the freeways in Idaho, Utah and
Wyoming, leaving the ”great olive oil spill” and “slowest McDonalds on earth”
on Saturday for the “ugliest KOA on Earth” on this day, a gravel parking lot
sitting behind, I think, an oil or gas refinery with big storage tanks. Somewhat ironically, from our trailer site
you can see a big freeway sign that reads “Fireworks Next Exit”. We’re hoping nobody gets the lame idea of
setting off fireworks next to the storage tanks. With nothing to do and little to see except
gray hills with no trees on them, this second day of our post-retirement trip
is filled with excitement (right!). But
tomorrow we have Colorado and the Kids to look forward to.
Monday 7/1 – about
350 miles Green River, WY to Louisville, CO – Start 5:50 AM – Arrival around
11:30 AM – ET 5 ¾ hours
We got to Colorado a whole lot faster than we initially expected,
thanks to wide open Wyoming freeways with 75 posted speeds, light traffic until
we reached the greater Denver area, and a general desire to be there before
grandson Jonah arrived. SW Wyoming was
forgettable, drab and dreary; but it got better in a high, long pass between
Laramie and Cheyenne in SE Wyoming. We
saw, in that stretch, beautiful sweeping vistas of high pastures among
picturesque rock formations, several animals grazing that we guessed were
antelopes, plus a small group of elk grazing in the pastures surrounding the
freeway.
Dropped in on Sara and Drew
a little after 11 AM, soon went to lunch in downtown Louisville, then
headed out mid-afternoon to Dakota Ridge RV Park in Golden, Colorado. Set up
there Monday afternoon thinking this really felt like our first “real day of
retirement”, as in we got up on a Monday morning and had nothing else to do but
travel on our own personal agenda.
Looking forward to spending a couple months here, welcoming grandson,
Jonah, to the world, hanging with the Colorado family, enjoying the Colorado
outdoors and amenities, and generally enjoying not having to go to work every
morning.
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