Leaving Colorado

 …and arriving in Wyoming all in the same day.

So we spend an extra day parked in the city part at Fort Morgan. Below is pictured the arrival day dinner Birdie fixed for Carol back in Fort Morgan.  The next day we ate leftovers donated from who ever had them in Birdie’s rig because of the weather. Herschel was glad to see his friend Maggie arrive.

And if you have ever wondered how many WomenRV’ers can fit into the back of “Herbie” the wonder toad, you now know. We invited Mitch to come and told her she could sit on Liz’s lap but she declined the offer. This was another of those combined trips for Liz to find a geocache and stop at Wal-Mart to get the items forgotten from the earlier trip and some hair cuts.

Just to give a little insight to those not traveling as part of a caravan of six crazy ladies in RV’s, so of the mechanics of the operation work like this… We plan on driving around 200 miles per day. Some days a little more and some days a little less depending upon where the parks and the prospective campground might be and other points of interests, of course. Whoever has done the research on the next proposed spots (usually Liz or Birdie) looks up the coordinates and we all enter them in our GPS systems.

We all have walkie-talkies on our set channel to communicate back and forth while driving. This is important for messages like, “____ your right blinkers is still on!”  Some individuals have been known not to “lock” the set channel in and lose contact with the rest of us…Nan. This error is rectified by some short lady jumping out of her minivan at a red light, running up and knocking on said person’s window to get their attention! I would identify the short lady who bravely jumped out of her minivan but she is sensitive to short jokes and we have been asked to be nice to her.

With the radios we can travel in a long line and warn the guy ahead about the line of 5 cars that are about to try to pass all at once. We can also report when individuals want to stop for gas. With the “day’s end” coordinates we don’t all have to stay together or stop at one time. Individual potty breaks can be taken when ever and then the driver can catch up or not.  Some days we have coordinated lunch stops but today was a shorter drive day and besides almost losing Carol in her search for diesel fuel we all managed to make it to Wheatland, Wyoming, by early afternoon.  And if someone falls out of radio range there is that cell phone connection as back up.

So after the days coordinates are loaded, the Tire Pressure monitor has been checked, the electric cord packed away, all inside items packed and stored and the “must not leave behind AGAIN” steps are safely on board, we are ready to head out.

With the Garmin programmed Herschel does not have to read as many maps and he is able to relax more. He is trying his best to teach these important skills to Remi.

Driving north through Colorado, I am reminded of Ava's  comment (our friend from the forum) Colorado is not all about John Denver’s Rocky Mountains. 

 

In the hazy distance thought there really were the snow caped Rocky Mountains. Hard to see through the dirty windshield but we all saw them and John was singing us along the highway. But we are headed north on this leg so it is the plains and the grassland that we saw most of the day. 

There are the feedlots with the cattle that just wish they were those “Happy Cows” from California. Does America know where their meat comes from?

I drove across country one time in a car about ten years ago. It was a whirlwind drive all in about 12 days to San Francisco and back to Ohio.  I got to see my son and I got out of Ohio and away from work and I saw parts of the west on the drive that I had only read about. The one part I remember the most on those 600-700 mile days was looking at the green road signs and seeing the different cities and sights that I was driving past. I still won't be able to follow every sign I see but I can follow a lot more this time. And now we are heading north.

There are the rolling vistas were I try to imagine the millions of buffalo spread out as far as the eye can see….

Along the way my imagination goes back to the early settlers and their oxen. We figured that the oxen voted to dump the piano and great Aunt Polly’s sideboard back when they hit those long rolling hills of Missouri.  If not, now would be a good time. I think the oxen are getting tired...those still alive...

The look out on the high ground gave away our travel plans and along one stretch the bluffs later on I knew there had to be Indians peering over the edges watching our wagons roll past.

The small black dot on top of the high ground is a statue of a cowboy watching Mitch zoom by.

After rolling in to Wheatland and finding our spots in the line up, some of us headed out for walks.

Herschel has begun to figure that it is okay to leave his pack and walk with Liz…he gets to sniff things without leashes being tangled with those other dogs....and, well, Liz is a good dog walker…she knows important dog stuff.

 Tonight we gathered again to eat or at least sit there so that we knew what they were saying about us. Liz offered some strawberry 321 cake and you can see the results.

After dinner we all came back with our technology and Liz and Mitch helped some of us load the good traveling apps so that we can find all the neat campgrounds and city parks, too. Notice how nice Birdie's iPad on the left is sitting. Anyone want to take bets on how many RV women it took to figure out her iPad cover?  Well, to start off she was dealing with multiple opinions and directions......

Mitch offered to drive Nan to the nearest Wal-Mart if she was feeling left out of the iPad party but Nan remained silent about the offer and continued to read her Kindle and doing her best to ignore us… 

Tomorrow we head towards Fort Laramie and some sight seeing prospects....Oregon trail ruts and the like. Oh, yes, there is also a plan to stop and let me purchase my magic Senior Access Pass!  Love those discounts for surviving this long......