Up and Over The Rockies

The Rockies loom in the distance

July 9 – I woke up at 6:30 but didn’t get Bill up until 7.  Although we were not having breakfast in the RV, we needed to hook the car up and try to be on the road by 7:30.  NOT!!!  We managed to leave the park at 7:45 headed to Silverthorne where we were meeting our friends, Mike and Darlene (and her cousin George), for breakfast.  Well, we missed our turn to the interstate and had to circle back around as Golden is not the most RV friendly town.

Inside the Eisenhower tunnel

Once we got on the interstate things went well, until we had to go uphill at only 35 mph and through the Eisenhower Tunnel (elevation 11,300) which took 2.5 minutes (it’s long) and then a downhill grade of 7%.  I was good until the downhill part and I was getting nervous.  It was a LONG way down!  I think we were about 15 minutes late arriving.  We met Darlene and Mike at Target and they drove us to one of their favorite breakfast places in Silverthorne.  The time went really fast and before I knew it Bill was reminding me of the time.  It was so nice to see them, even for just a couple of hours.  After dropping us off back at the RV, I made a quick trip into Target for my bacon I can only find at our Target at home and was happy they carried it.

Then it was on the road for the long haul into Utah.  I will say it was no longer flat land, oh

Just Passing Thru

no!  We were up and down and went through 4 more tunnels.  The one at Vail Pass (elevation 10,600) was steep but not nearly as long to go down as Eisenhower.  Traffic wasn’t bad at all and once we made to the western foothills and into the high desert area there was more commercial traffic than anything.  We could see some dark rain in the distance to the south and quite a few lightning strikes.  We were hoping it wasn’t moving the same direction as we were.

We stopped briefly for a light lunch since we ate a big, late breakfast and to run the car.  We didn’t stop again until we reached Green River, Utah.  We fueled up at a Pilot stop and then headed to our campground, AOK RV Park.  Of course as soon as we started down the road to it, it started raining.  Bill decided to go ahead and hook up in the rain as our gray water was full.  He had problems with our water hook up leaking and while he was outside I was putting the slides out and ever since my alarm clock slid off the nightstand and was crushed in slide, I crawl on the bed and check it.  Well, I did and it was OK but when I put the slide out I heard a crunching noise.  Of course I stopped and when I checked it, the drawer of my night stand was open and hung on the slide.  I put the slide in enough to push the drawer in but it would not go in enough to let the slide pass.  So I got my screwdriver and contortioned myself to reach in and unscrew the drawer handle.  Then it cleared enough to finish putting the slide out.  Geez, will the fun ever end?  I took the drawer out and found that on of the slides on the side was bent by the slide so it won’t go back in all the way so I just left it on the dresser until I get to Idaho.

Bill finally got his problem solved and we sat for a bit and I had a much needed glass of wine.  Eventually I heated up our leftover calzones and made salads.  After Bill did up 2 days of dishes we headed out for a walk of the campground and to the dumpster with our trash.  This appears to have been a KOA in a previous life.  The same A frame building and a reversal of the letters to AOK.  The spaces are really level and full hook ups and long pull thrus.  It looks like it had been neglected for a while and we saw huge piles of tree limbs that had been trimmed and the sites are all edged.  They are all 30 amp but since it’s cool out that isn’t an issue.  After a little more TLC it will be a very nice campground. 

Bill read for a while and looked up some info in our huge folder about the RV, then he headed on to bed.  I caught up on photos and journaling and blogging and now it’s time for me to hit the hay also!