We Had To Say Goodbye To The Mountains😭

As we enjoy our travels, we both know there finally comes a time when we have to turn and head east, and that time came yesterday.  I left you in Durango where we really enjoyed Karen and Tom's company, then did a few more things before we left for Colorado Springs.

Sunset skies from our site

Cold, wet rainy weather moving in

As I have said, this year's travel was affected by the Covid, we made more changes and cancellations than ever before.  Initially we had planned about 4 weeks or so on the front range of the Rockies, from Fort Collins down to Colorado Springs, but instead we ended up cancelling all of it even after changing it a few times first.  We have heard many incredible reviews on Cheyenne Mountain State Park near Colorado Springs and decided when we cancelled our Thanksgiving plans in Taos, we might as well stop in there and check it out.  We wanted 4 nights but could only get 2, yes even in late October the place stays full, and it is open year round.  So with that locked down we headed east from Durango.  I should mention just before we left a major storm and cold front was forecast, the highs went overnight from the 70's to the 30's, and the lows got into the low 20's, and even though snow was forecast we never got anything more than flurries, well not so to our south and east.  Karen and Tom got over 24 inches of snow in Taos!  That got us worried about Wolf Creek Pass and La Veta Pass and hoped they were open.  We checked and sure enough they were clear.

Our route took us through Pagosa Springs, one of our favorites with many memories of Harvey and Jan.  More evidence of snow on the mountains, but still none on the ground.

Coming into Pagosa Springs, awesome mountains!

Looking east, still not too much snow

Getting closer to Wolf Creek Pass

Wolf Creek Pass is a 10,857' pass with huge drop offs that eats several vehicles, usually trucks, each year, it is to taken seriously, especially in the snow.  Thankfully the road was clear all the way up and over, but the snow was getting deeper.  We decided to stop and have lunch at the top of the pass.  There were lots of people, cars, RV's, and trailers with snowmobiles that were running around on the deep snow, probably more than 2-3 feet.

Just starting down, you can see how deep the snow was

There were signs of more and more snow as we continued east.  It made for a very beautiful drive, and the icing on the cake was the fact the roads were clear.

We still had La Veta Pass to go over, only 9,413', but it was clear as well.  We started to wonder if the state park would be full of snow as well.

Starting up La Veta

Jan got this stellar shot on the way down the pass!

We got some fuel in Walsenburg, CO just before we joined I-25 north, and now the roads were getting slushy and wet and dirty, our clean motorhome and truck were now disgusting.  Still lots of snow on the ground as we headed north towards the Springs.  But, it seemed all of a sudden, the snow wasn't there anymore, up through Pueblo and the snow was gone!  We didn't need to worry about snow in the campground, and also we got another gift the temps were up to 70!  We made our way to the entrance of Cheyenne Mountain and after negotiating the tightest of rotaries, we entered the state park and climbed, climbed, climbed up to our campsite.  Absolutely fantastic!  The entire campground is paved, the sites are paved, full hook ups, lots of privacy and dark, excellent.  When we made our reservation there was literally one single campsite left that would fit us and man, did we luck out.  Huge site, incredible view to the east.

So just a bit of Murphy's Law struck us, our entry steps quit working, thankfully retracted.  The fuse kept blowing, I worked and worked on them while here, cleaning, lubricating, and actually got them to work, so I thought that was behind us.  We spent a quiet day here, walking around looking at the views, thinking this truly was one of the nicest campgrounds we have stayed in.

The sky glowing with the sunset behind us

The lights of the city and the moon

Followed by a beautiful sunrise 

This guy visited us in the morning

And this guy along with about 10 does, obviously they know where to go
during hunting season:-)

A quick 2 nights, and we were off further east to Dodge City, just an arbitrary spot to stop since we couldn't get two more nights in Cheyenne Mountain.  It was an incredibly clear day, in fact we finally pulled off the road long enough for Jan to snap a fast picture of Pike's Peak, and what is amazing is it is 65 miles away in this picture, talk about clear!

So after 330 miles we pulled into Dodge City, and the first thing I did was get the truck to a car wash, it was hard to tell what color it was, the motorhome will have to wait, but it is truly disgusting, you can't wash here at the KOA in Dodge City.  One of the challenges of full timing is trying to find campgrounds that allow washing, and there aren't that many.  And just to top it off, the steps are dead again and this time it blows the fuse the second I insert it.  We are going to have live with it and a small ladder to get in and out until we get to Atlanta where I can take the time to really tear into it and find out what's wrong. So here we are, having said goodbye to our wonderful mountains and now plan to visit our daughter Kelly and her husband in Fort Worth in a couple days, then off east again, eventually to Atlanta, then Florida for the winter.😭😭😭