Fort Collins

We were up again at 7 and out hooking up the truck. The neighbor, Tom from Texas, was out helping back me up. I usually forget something when I have someone helping, so I slowed way down and did things very deliberately, so as not to miss anything.

Tom and his wife Leigh (Lee) have been super neighbors and have offered to help us in any way. From not letting us go to the bad mexican restaurant, to guiding which pass to go over next, they have been in Buena Vista as work campers since May.

We were on the road by 10:30, and traveled thru Leadville and over Freemont Pass at 11,300 feet. The highway joins I-70 at Copper Mountain. From there we went to Dillion and up again to Loveland Pass. This is again at 11,200. The truck spent a bunch of time in 1st gear on this climb at about 4,000 rpm and 35 mph. If we were any heavier, it would be too much for the F150.

We zoomed right thru Denver and drove North to Fort Collins. We are at the Lakeside, KOA North of Ft Collins. This is a local destination park that is out in the country on a small lake. They have Grass and concrete pads to park on.


Try to move the picnic table and grill to another more suitable spot. LOL.

This is a really nice place, and is within 40 or 50 miles of Estes Park, without all the agrivation of the tourist trap parks. Also this is the home of Colorado State. We drove down and around the campus this afternoon scoping out the lay of the town.

With the GPS and a bookmark on the KOA, it is impossible to become lost. We are at 5,000 feet here and we feel like we are back to sea level. Plastic bottles in the fridg are caved in from the higher air pressure. I couldn't get the sewer cap off of the trailer, until I opened the gray water valve to equalize the pressure. It sounded like I had opened a can of coffee.

I took the picture of the trailer with the little pocket camera, and as I was up loading from the SD card, I found the picture of the restaurant we went too when we came down off of Pikes Peak. It was called the Stage Coach, so the front has an appropriate prop.


The back of the restaurant is a deck that overlooks a fast running mountain stream. We had a great time at dinner that night, and took this picture to remember the place by.

Tonight we went to a neighborhood diner, in the small town to our North. The diner was called Vern's. This was quite the experience as I had the special, all you can eat spaghetti. Meat balls extra, salad extra. Loyce had the broiled chicken and double vegis so as not to eat the mashed potato side that came with. An experience to be sure.

The place was full of taxidermy projects, deer, bear, buffalo, mountain lion, and all manner of birds. A country experience to be sure. As I sit here I am stuffed like that Xmas goose. And I only had one plate of spaghetti. Honest!

Tomorrow, we will go to Loveland and up the Thompson river canyon to Estes Park. Depending on how early of start we get, we will see how far we go into the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Should be fun!