Adventurous trip north into Colorado
June 29, 2019
Leaving New Mexico we followed Hwy 285 north into colorful Colorado right into freezing rain & snow. As weather deteriorated we stopped at Alamosa KOA for a couple days. It is not our normal preferred camping. However, it was time for an oil change. With Mother’s Day offering a long weekend for camping enthusiasts our spot wasn’t available for more than two nights as the place was fully booked.
While in Alamosa we sampled a few local craft brews. Three breweries were close by. San Luis Brewing and Square Peg were next door to each other in the old downtown section of the college town. SLB in an old, old bank building offered up nice selection of appetizers & full pub menu. A local sausage sampler served on a platter was an excellent choice to sample with a great double IPA. Next door at Square Peg it was a meeting place for locals to just enjoy a variety of IPA’s and Ambers. We loved the Peanut Butter Stout which tasted & smelled much like Reese’s peanut butter cup! Delicious.
Onward to next brewery was a ten mile drive out to Colorado Farm brewery. Once there we discover they are hosts members of Harvest Hosts and could have spent the night. After a few samples we were limited to enjoyed Batch #1 & a Cody’s Dairy Milk Stout.
Friday we proceeded on to Breckenridge & Frisco. One wrong turn put us in Buena Vista. Turning around at Eddyline Brewery & wood-fired pizza. Ahhh, lunch was a white cheese, Canadian bacon green chili pizza and a beer. The day was turning out really nice. Mild heat wave of 60° & sunny. Bright sunshine is always wonderful source of energy. Recharging us and our batteries. Our 100w solar panel puts them to 14.2v.
The drive up and over Hoosier mountain pass on hwy 9 was into clouds, blowing snow at nearly 12,000 ft. viewing several large herds of Elk and Pronghorns. We stopped in Frisco at a craft brewery and dined next door at a local resturant and spent the night parked behind the brewery after enjoying many of their brews.
Enroute to Boulder we stopped at our first Boondockers Welcome site near Longmont. Our gracious hosts recommended an interesting art walk at Centerra mall. It was such a fantastic series of stones shaped to display of spiritual & daily life forms of an early African culture of Shona society in Zimbabwe (https://chapunguatcenterra.com/about/)
On south of Denver, while camping at Cherry Creek SP we decided to move our Montana 5th wheel (the Villa) stored in FL west before hurricane season. Storing our truck camper (dog house) just east of town. Prescott flew to visit family in Salt Lake City as I scurried south to the excessive heat & humidity of So. FL with goal to beat all the tornados ravishing central and southern portions of the United States. It was nice to briefly visit all the kids & grandkids and see the grand opening of my old fire station.
Later as I was installing a new heavy 5th wheel hitch and placing kayaks on the roof I pulled a few muscles. It required a good massage and some pain meds. Worried about on-going pain Prescott arranged to fly south to Tampa to assist driving our Villa back west.
