Heading East

Even though I kinda didn’t want to, it was time to say goodbye to Colorado and head back east.  It’s almost August, I’ve been gone since the end of June, I’ve missed 4 weeks of my CSA, I do have some other stuff I want to do before school starts…so home I must go. 

On the way out here I was very focused on getting to the destination each evening and didn’t stop for much and then when I got to the campground in the evening I was busy trying to get in my steps and explore the park.  This time I’m going to try and take a different approach, there aren’t as many state parks on route so I’m staying commercial campgrounds or maybe a Wal-Mart or Cracker Barrel, so I’m going to try and stop during the day and visit a state park and walk or take longer breaks throughout the day and drive a bit later into the evening (not stopping at 3 or so)

It was chilly and raining this morning, making it very hard for me to want to get out of bed, let alone drive back to Virginia where August promises to be hot and muggy. 

It was after 9 before I left Glenwood Springs – I slept in a bit and then it was complicated getting all unplugged, topping off the water tank, getting off my leveling blocks and packing them all away and finally dumping my holding tanks!  I said goodbye to Mom and Dad, who were heading back to Dillon for about a week to see friends and pay the bills and stuff, and pulled out of the campground. 

Luckily I had about 150 miles of mountains to go through first!  I-70 did not disappoint! I got to drive back through Glenwood Canyon- got to see all the places where we biked yesterday.  Then we climbed to Vail Pass!  It was long uphill and sucked a lot of diesel. I’d been toying with the idea of going around the Eisenhower Tunnel and going over Loveland Pass, but when I saw how much fuel it took to get up Vail Pass and how cloudy it was I decided to just stay on I-70. 

I pulled off at a scenic overlook near Georgetown and considered having lunch, but it was raining and icky and I thought there’d be another rest area option, but there wasn’t.  I ended up having lunch at a mall outside Denver, which wasn’t quite as scenic. But I was able to walk around a bit and get in about 1,000 steps! It ended up, however, being the last good option! There weren’t even any rest areas after Denver!  I guess Colorado used up their allotment of Rest Areas in Glenwood Canyon! LOL!

After Denver Colorado looks a lot like Kansas.  Flat farmland.  In my head Kansas started after Denver! I stopped for fuel and a walk around the Flying J in Limon and other than that it was was just straight driving past big cornfields and farms!

I’m staying at High Plains Camping in Oakley, KS.  It’s a nice campground, right off the highway, large sites, plenty of room to walk and get in my steps – not quite big enough for a good walk so I had to do laps!