Day 55

We got packed again, snacked at the hotel breakfast, and played with the dogs in the yard.  Then to Uncle Randy and Aunt Barb’s about 8:45am!  Ryan and Jenny were there was well and it was so good to see them.  They had all taken off work, at least for the morning, so they could spend time with us.  I really enjoyed hearing what everyone was up to and in to.  Ryan says the little black mite-like bugs that attacked us at Moose Creek were likely Springtails and explained how the packets nailed to all the pine trees deterred the beetles by using confusing pheromones.  That’s how it is when your cousin marries an entomologist!  :)

We left before noon and stopped at the co-op for lunch and to find a gift for Aunt Barb.  Mom bought fried nann pizzas, but the microwave wasn’t working.  So they staff at the deli offered to bake them for us!  Super tasty!

We got into Springfield, MO around 6pm and tracked down Katie and Dan who were nice enough to interrupt their dinner to come out and say hi.  We transferred the tumbleweeds and I hoped Dan liked me enough (even if just for Katie’s sake) to forgive me for putting those messy things in his pretty clean car!  :)  We stopped in at Mamma Jeans for milk and fruit for home.

We got home around 8pm.  We only unloaded bit of the van.  Jeremiah started the fire in the furnace.  I spent a long time looking for Kitty and had given up when she finally came walking out of the woods.  She was happy to see all of us, especially the dogs.  The dogs were pretty wound up about being back at the house.

Emily slept on my bed for the first time in forever and Kitty curled up in the crook of my knees.  I wasn’t exactly happy about this arrangement, but too tired to object enough to make it happen otherwise.  I was hoping Emily would be out of the habit of expecting that.  She hadn’t even asked to be up on the cot or hotel bed all trip.  Goes to show how much environment has to do with animals’ training, habits, and expectations.

Well guys, it’s been fun!  I really appreciate all of you who have left comments!  That, my friends, is the official end of the adventure.  Though it is true that cleaning out that minivan will be a whole ‘nother adventure as well!  :)

Day 54

I worked on trip notes first thing in the morning.  When Mom wanted to go to breakfast, I took our laundry and started 2 loads.  The laundry soap was frozen and it took some doing to convince it to leave the bottle.  Breakfast was quite nice.

The laundry took a while to dry.  Mom’s insulated pants never did dry.  There were still droplets in the nylon cuffs.  We tried to refill water bottles, but everything was frozen, except the mylar bladder Jeremiah and stashed in the cold bag.  We had some frozen eggs, apples, and oranges.  Some of the water in the rice bags in the cooler had refrozen as well.

We got on the road about 11am.  About half an hour later, I reached into my bag and realized my purse wasn’t there.  I hadn’t checked the room.  I took Emily out the the bathroom and when I returned Mom and Jeremiah and check the room and were ready to check out.  I didn’t want to be untrusting and hold things up by doing it again.  I called the hotel and sure enough they found it under one of the blankets.   I remembered carefully laying it out on the bed with my other bags, and I’m not sure how it got covered up.  I felt pretty irresponsible and also uncomfortable with arriving in Lawrence an hour later as we were already not exactly early.  The moral of the story is you should always check the room if you feel like it and always look in the places where you didn’t put anything.  However, I was very grateful I had realized my purse was gone before we were too far away to practically go back.  I had reached in my bag for something completely different.

And windmills.

We retrieved my purse and got back on the road to cover the same ground again.  The trip to Lawrence was fairly uneventful.  We finished listening to The Hobbit.  We stopped for a bathroom break and to dig out PBJ fix in’s.  Building four PBJ’s on the road takes some skill if you only have one spoon and peanut butter in the jelly jar really annoys you.  :)  We also stopped to chase down some tumbleweeds.  Katie wanted one and I thought it would be fun, but didn’t see how me could possibly fit anything else on or in the van.  The boys insisted we could make it work.  :)

And it did!  Crazy.  The wind pushed it up into the canoe and it only took up half of the windshield.

We went to Qudoba in Junction City, KS for dinner.  It was 9:45 when we pulled into the Comfort Inn Uncle Randy had picked out for us.  He met us there and we made plans to join them for breakfast. 

It was a nice large room and we were all feeling kinda cold and crazy from being cooped up in the car for the last two days.  Especially the dogs.  We had a bit of trouble keeping them quiet.  Emily had her first ride in an elevator which was a little comical.  She was only slightly concerned, but kept look at me, waiting for instructions on what she was supposed to do about it. 

Gypsy life.

Day 54

The temperatures dropped and the wind picked up early in the morning.  I burrowed deeper cinching my bag over the top of my head … thinking about the fact that it would take me at least 3 minutes to extract myself from my cocoon if the need arose.  I hopped it wouldn’t arise.  My alarm wen toff at 6:45am.  

Very pretty Airstream.

I got up and prepared for the day.  We got the car packed and poured granola for the road.

We drove down to Ridgway again ...

and then headed up over the pass (I thinks we saw Mt. Sneffels according to the direction Back Country Navigator said it was.  Or we were looking at a very pretty mountain in front of it), 

Mt. Sneffles?  Maybe?

past Box Canyon, down to Ouray.  

There appears to have been quite a bit of mining in this area.  Iron, I think.

More mining.

That's what makes me think iron.  The river though this mountains as red as well.

We drove toward Durango, checking the road conditions as we went.  The roads were snowed all around Colorado Springs.  We had a plan to avoid La Veta Pass by going out of our way up 285 to 50.  We would stop in Durango to run our plan by a local who knew the roads.

He's sleeping, sitting up!  Really!

No kidding!

The ladies at the visitor center weren’t aware that there was snow anywhere.  After they pulled up the CDOT map, they disagreed on whether to stay on the highway believing the snow would melt off the passes and the main roads would be better tended to, or take the smaller roads around the pass.  We filled water bottles and checked the sale rack at the gear store on the corner and hit the road. 

Chimney rock and Courthouse Mountain.  I only know that because Jake told me.  :)

Wolf Creek Pass was our first hurdle.  Jake and the visitor center lady had warned me about it.  CDOT said it was “icy”.  There were only a few spots we had to find dry pavement.  We stuck to the highway and all went smoothly until Pueblo.  There the snow began and thickened as well has the traffic.  It was slow going into Colorado Springs.

We finally arrived at the Residence Inn.  It was 3 degrees with an inch or two of snow.  I could feel the inside of my nose freezing with each breath.  It had been an hard day emotionally, and I had little strength remaining in my heart and when the receptionist informed me that the pet fee was $75, which was about what we were paying for the room, I was crushed.  I asked about canceling our reservation, but it was too late.  I checked several boarding kennels, but most closed at 6pm and it was 6:30pm.  We talked of cost and how many times we would have to come out to turn on the van to keep it reasonably warm for the dogs. 

Mom got her dander up and asked to speak to the manager.  We waited for a long while before he appeared.  Mom explained we were expecting a pet fee at least in the range of the Residence Inn we had almost stayed at in Grand Junction.  She communicated our plight of not wanting to leave the dogs out on a 3 degree night.  I was afraid she was going to fight with him about the fee.  Instead she only asked that he make the exception of allowing us to cancel our reservation so we have explore other options.  He readily agreed and offered to try to find another Marriott in the area that had a cheaper pet fee, assuring us that $75 was the going rate.   However, the Fiarfield had a $25 fee which they assured us had no weight limit (many hotels have a 30lb limit) even though their website said otherwise.  We thanked him for his efforts and went to the car.

Mom wanted to explore other options especially wished to be closer to Lawrence, KS to help our drive tomorrow.  We check many forecasts and hotel rates.  I found a promising one on hotels.com and called to check the pet regulations.  They wouldn’t accept pets, but the hotels.com guy offered to try to find something else that fit our criteria.  The chemical sensitivities issue was confusing and bothersome.  A Days Inn seems to fit all the requirements and had great reviews  We chose to ask to see a room prior to reserving though hotels.com.  After hanging up, I found many bad review, downright scary, on Yelp.  Jeremiah was tired and encouraged a decision, now and close.  He was willing to pay any difference.

We drove to the Fairfield, doubled checked all fees, asked to see a room (the Andes chocolates on the pillows had me sold), reserved online, and paid.  The guy at the desk was quite compassionate and slightly amused by our situation.  The manager at the Residence had talked to him twice on our behalf and I had called to check the weight limit, so he was acquainted with the whole store and was quite good natured about it.  He admired the dogs, I think mostly for our benefit.  Murphy’s Law manifested in Emily putting her paws up on the lower desk when eh greater her.  I had assured him that they were pretty well behaved.  :P

I was feeling much better without another all night drive looming as a possibility, or camping, or messing with boarding the dogs, or staying in a crummy hotel that everyone would be on edge about with complaints and ultimatums.  The evening was a well needed rest. 

Mom called Aunt Barb to confirm we would be on our way through tomorrow as a follow up to a text alerting them to the possibility this afternoon.

I felt like there was much less to scrub off for this shower compared to the last one, but I had been almost as long without on this time.  Maybe the post shower lotion last time helped.

Day 52

I stayed in bed until 9am.  No one else was up and I was keenly feeling the need for some extra beauty sleep.  

The morning wasn’t much better than last night.  I had several texts and messages from people who I didn’t have good answers for or was too late to do what needed to be done.  I was feeling behind the 8 ball with the Colorado itinerary.  I assumed that role last minute because I was the only one really interested in seeing Colorado and the boys were just want through it.  If we were to see much, I knew I needed to have a plan.  I had been counting on a night in a hotel with internet to do my research.  I had used the hot spot some, but was still feeling scattered.  Jake saved my bacon.  Having an enthusiastic friend who is a native Coloradian and avid adventurer sure comes in handy!  I was very grateful for his suggestions and input over these several days!  Thank you!

The hotel plan was always tomorrow night, tomorrow night.  So I hadn’t changed clothes since my last shower and been too cold, careless, and in a hurry to use deodorant.  I had some good exertion sweats and some nervous ones.  I was sour.  Even though everyone else was almost ready to go, I decided it was in everyone’s best interests for me to change.  Mainly because I’d be in a much better mood if I had a baby wipe bath and a clean shirt.  My “dirty” clothes standard has changed some … it’s gotta be a least 3 or 4 days old.  It’s too cold to change more than that and you don’t sweat much winter camping. 

Mom helped me get some cream cheese bagels and cottage cheese ready for the road.  We left around 1:30pm.

In Montrose, we took a side trip to Black Canyon in Guinness National Park.  We went to the south rim and the visitor center which was open, surprisingly.  It’s a popular climbing and trout fishing spot.  Some of the history is neat with the tunnel and all. 

We continued to Ridgway, stopping to check out a few state park campgrounds along the way.  Ridgway is a very pretty little town with a beautiful mountainous back drop and cool houses and shops.  After some discussion and research we decided to camp at the Ridgway Dutch Charlie State Park rather than the Priest Lake Campground a ways off our track and at 10,000 feet.  Meaning cold. 

We paid for our campsite and then drove back to Ridgway to get cell phone reception to reserve a room for tomorrow night in Colorado Springs.  Then back to the state park.

It was around 7pm when we pulled in.  There were deer all over the pace.  We saw an 8 point buck with a very tall rack.  

We got very excited to find there were real bathrooms!  With flush toilets and a heater!  We haven’t had that since Apgar in Glacier!

We picked a site and Joshua started campaigning to not set up the tipi.  No dance of precipitation and it was about 45 degrees, low 32 degrees.  Jeremiah was leaning that way.  We started bargaining.  I was interested in being on the road early so we would have more time to sight see on our way to Colorado Springs.  We agreed no tipi if everyone would either be up by 7am or packed and ready by 7:30am. 

A few kettles of water were heated for dishes and I made peanut butter mayonnaise lettuce sandwiches with carrots for dinner.  I prepared lunch for tomorrow.

We were burrowed in sleeping bags fairly early with the dogs tied to cots and everyone under the picnic shelter.  The night wasn’t very peaceful as the dogs barked at rabbits, deer, and other bumps in the night.