Turnaround Point

Hello All!! Yes, I’m still alive and we’re still on the road. Currently we are in Colorado visiting all the tourist traps must-sees in the Pike’s Peak area. We’ve had wonderful weather – if you don’t count the smoke from all the forest fires in BC, Washington and Montana. It was awful. Things didn’t clear up until Yellowstone! Even here in the middle of Colorado you can still see a little bit of a smoky haze in the far distance but at least you aren’t really breathing it.

I apologise for the lack of communication. This is only the third opportunity we’ve had to access half-decent wifi and all I managed to get earlier was my email. This one (a Safeway/Starbucks in Woodland Park, CO) is barely adequate. Hence the reason you aren’t getting any photos. I solemnly promise I will make up for it when I get back! If you’ve never been there you have no idea how much actual land there is in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. And that’s land with not a lot on it but rocks, sagebrush, a few trees and some cows. It’s lovely really. If you don’t mind the lack of facilities. Truthfully I was enjoying the freedom from distractions such as All Things Electronic. I’m sure I’ll get twitchy for all the blogs I’m missing and the latest issue of Knitty to be read. Just not quite yet.

We’ve seen elk, mule deer, bison, pronghorns, marmots, bighorn sheep, a pocket gopher, a golden eagle, salamanders and a whole lot more. We’ve walked a lot, some at elevations that that makes it quite difficult for us sea-level dwellers to breathe. We’ve watched geysers erupt and thunder storms flash. We rode the cog railway up Pike’s Peak to 14,115 feet, climbed around an Anasazi cliff house and took a guided cave tour. And we’re only halfway through our trip!

So we have one more day here in the high Rocky Mountains (our campsite at the delightful Mueller State Park is somewhere just under 10,000 feet!) and then we’ll be heading back west. No idea when I’ll be able to communicate again unfortunately. Just picture our gumbo-spattered VW Westfalia with 2 dusty bikes on the back tootling down some remote road in the middle of West Somewhere, USA, and you’ll have it.

Be back soonest. Take care, my dears!