Breakfast with a Kow…..

  No, not that kind of cow !

Wednesday, before we headed out to the dunes and the falls, Jim fixed us breakfast on his new Kow. Their friend, Teddy made it for him and it’s called a Kow because it’s the opposite of a wok. A flat iron surface, with horseshoe handles. When properly seasoned, it has a great non-stick surface for any type of grill cooking. Jim bought one of those chicken deep fat fryers and used the burner base as the heat source. He started his sausage patties, onions and cubed potatoes first.

 

Then he added some mild green chilies and last the scrambled egg mixture. As the eggs were cooking, he put the fajita shells around the edge of the kow to warm them through. When everything was ready, he put the mixture in the shells and rolled them up..breakfast burrito style.

The finished product was delicious ! Hot and yummy on a chilly morning at camp. A great start to our day of adventure. Our thanks to Chef Jim for a mighty fine breakfast !

 

 

Sand Dunes National Park

On Wednesday we went to the Sand Dunes National Park. It is so odd to see huge sand dunes, not only in Colorado, but also at the base of a mountain. They have been there for hundreds (and perhaps thousands) of years. We’re not talking just a little sandy strip but 30 square miles of the actual dunes and much more than that of sandy area.

We arrived around nine and drove straight to the dunes. I would not recommend arriving any later than that if you are going in the summer time, as the sand temps can get to 140 degrees rather quickly. We were able to walk in the sand in our bare feet but by the time we left at 10:30, it was getting too hot to do so. In the visitor center there is a 15 or 20 minute movie about the dunes and most years, there is still a trickle of the stream running through, at the base of the dunes. Since the snow pack was so low this year, the stream stopped flowing much earlier than normal (usually it continues till early July). The video showed kids playing in the sandy stream and having a grand ole time. We saw some kids digging in the sand and able to reach moist sand, below the surface, that they were using to build their sand castles and such with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linda and I climbed up to the top of one of the lower dunes, which is very tough going…well because it’s sand, a steep incline and the wind is blowing very strongly.

As you kick up the sand from walking, it is stinging your calves from the wind beating it against your skin.  In this picture we are on top of the dune and the parking lot, where we parked the car, is just beyond those trees.

To the summit of the highest dune, it’s somewhere around 735’ tall and takes close to two hours to climb. Lots of kids had the saucer style sleds and were sliding down the sides of the dunes like they were snow banks. They were having a ball.

The video, at the visitor center, showed what the dunes look like covered with snow….a very pretty sight. There are a couple species of insects that only exist in the area of the dunes…..no where else on the planet except for there. Pretty neat !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The outside of the visitor center is constructed with a Trombe wall, which is a passive solar design that I studied in high school (so it was neat to see one in action).

Overall, our trip to the dunes and Zapata falls made for a great day. I would love to go back, earlier in the spring when the Medano river is flowing so we could see what that is like. It would also make for a pretty dramatic falls area too !

One of the Neatest Places….

When we talk to people we meet in our travels, one of the questions they ask us is “what are your favorite places ? For me there aren’t a lot of places that stand out in my mind. The big thing, I tell people, are the people you meet and become friends with. It’s so different when you’re a full-time RVer. People have a different perspective on life and the things that are important. I have places I like to visit like Jackson, Wyoming because of the Tetons and the wildlife; Summerdale, Alabama for the Escapee park and close proximity to the Gulf Shores, great shrimp and nearby Pensacola. Today Linda and I went to the Sand Dunes National Park and Zapata Falls, about 90 minutes from here. For a fun day trip, these are two neat things to see. The falls would be really high on my list of “A-ha” moments, where you feel like the choirs are singing and life is pretty special for a few minutes. No worrying about any upcoming election, the wild fires in Colorado or what we’re doing an hour from now.

When you get to the turn off to Zapata Falls, you begin a drive up a really rough (as in washboard) dirt road for what seems like two miles or so. At the top, you have a wonderful view of the plain below for as far as the eye can see. Off to the right, you see the dunes and the mountains.

We parked the car near a picnic table and had a picnic lunch before beginning the hike to the falls. Bobbie had told me about the Oasis Restaurant, just down the road from the dunes and how awesome their pies are so I decided that would make a wonderful dessert for our picnic lunch. Bought a piece of white chocolate coconut cream pie and a piece of cherry pie. Went very well with our chicken salad and pickles.

 

 

 

After lunch, we started the half mile hike up the trail to the falls. It’s very rocky and at a steep enough elevation that you have to stop every couple minutes  to catch your breath. Up and up we went….till we started to hear water running. Looks like Linda is waiting for the bus in this one picture….sorry no bus comes through here.

We came across this little knoll and there’s the cutest stream running out of the rugged canyon walls. We walked on the rocky shoreline as far back as we could and then we ran out of dry land. We thought this was the end of the line, so to speak and was taking in the little kids playing in the water and people enjoying how cool the temp was, compared to the 80 or so degrees it had been hiking up to it.

A young couple was sitting on the concrete spillway and told us that we needed to walk back into the canyon walls to see the actual falls. We had been worried, with the lack of snowfall and rain in the area, that there wasn’t really a falls but just a babbling brook coming down from the mountain. The best way to get back there was to either get barefoot and walk through the stream or leave our shoes on. Since I have pretty wimpy feet and I felt I’d be a little more surefooted with shoes on, we plodded back through the water and back through the cut in the wall.

 

When I passed through the light, cascading in from the opening above and saw the waterfall, with the spray coming off of it, it was euphoric. Such a beautiful thing and I think we were lucky that the water wasn’t high, otherwise it might be too treacherous to wade back to it. The planets were aligned in our favor today so we could see and experience it. I can’t begin to tell you how freezing cold that water was. Thank goodness I had socks on because I don’t think I could have tolerated the cold without them.

    It was a magical place…several different colors and types of butterflies flying around. One of those great wonders that you are in awe to discover. It reminded me of when I went behind the ice cave, in Thayne Wyoming last July at the fresh water geyser. So Zapata Falls moves into one of my top ten places to experience and see. If you go, be prepared to get your feet wet or you won’t see the falls. Jump in and go explorin’

The sand dunes were cool too. Will write more about them next time.                                                                             

Blogger Labels: Zapata Falls,Colorado,

South Fork, CO

We left Breckenridge Sunday morning about 8:45 with our first stop in Fairplay for breakfast with our friend Larry, at the Brown Burro Cafe. We had made one trip over the mountain, in the car, but I didn’t remember quite so many switchbacks when I made the journey this time in the motorhome. We’re talking….foot off the gas going into the corner at a slow rate of speed and put the gas pedal to the floor as you pull out of the corner cause you’re going straight up. The good news…. it’s only four miles to the summit. The bad news…..it’s pretty much all switchbacks for those four miles. Going down the other side wasn’t bad at all and before you know it….we got to the Brown Burro and had an awesome breakfast with Larry.

Left Fairplay around 11:30, headed to Bobbie and Jim’s campground outside of South Fork. Got here about 2:30 as they were having a get together with their camp hosts. A bunch of nice folks and so happy that they have adequate staffing so they can enjoy the summer a little bit. We have a great site, right along the stream. We awoke this morning in the crisp mountain air to the sound of banjo playing. Not the annoying “dueling banjos” type of sound but the nice strumming and play a sound type of playing. I cooked bacon and eggs for Linda outside on the grill and Linda met the family in the next site over, who was responsible for the banjo playing.

Mike, his wife and three year old daughter and five year old son live in California and flew out for a wedding in Colorado Springs. Mike teaches ecology and he gave Linda a lesson in aquatic bugs and showed her how you could tell if a stream was healthy (this stream was very healthy, he said). They were an awesome couple and the kids were adorable. They said that camping is so expensive in the state parks in California ($30/night) and not many young families are getting out with their kids to camp and he thought that was a real shame. His kids were having a ball playing in the water and walking along the paths. He said they really loved this park. Sadly, they left today so chances are we won’t wake up to banjo playing tomorrow.

We’re having  a great time relaxing with Bobbie and Jim. We went to Creede today to stock up on balsamic vinegar and infused oil. I bought two flavors of oil and vinegar. Cranberry and pistachio balsamic and garlic/parmesan/sundried tomato oil and black truffle flavor. Oh my, it is so good to sample all the types they have and there were more choices than last year. The two bottles of balsamic we bought last year just ran out so the timing is perfect to get more.

Jim drove us up to the far end of town where Johnny Depp has been filming a new Lone Ranger and Tonto movie. He plays Tonto…There were people dismantling equipment in the area but no sign of Johnny. We’ll have to watch for the movie and see the backdrop of Creede in the film. We came home and had a snack-fest of yummy stuff that we had brought with us and also sampled our new balsamics.

We had fresh mozzarella and sliced tomatoes, a special cheese a friend of ours got us hooked on that is infused with balsamic, deviled eggs, hummus, crackers and chips, sweet Bing cherries and our favorite adult beverages. After we let all of that settle, we were ready for dessert. Baklava that Linda and I bought at the Dillon Farmer’s Market at a booth that had all sorts of Greek yummies. The pieces were huge and we were all stuffed. We had hoped to eat the fresh, sweet basil pasta that we had bought at the farmers market too but we’ll have to save that for another night.

After we fed our faces, it was time for Jim to feed “Buddy”. How cute to watch this little chipmunk get up on his lap and stuff his cheeks as full of peanuts as he can. When you think he can’t possibly get any more in his mouth, he grabs one for the road and off he runs. When Jim got up to do something, he started getting on my lap to see where the peanuts had gone. Sorry….buffet is closed.

Tomorrow Jim is fixing us breakfast before we head out for the Sand Dunes National Park, outside of Alamosa. Want to get there before it gets very hot. Should be a fun day..

Leadville,CO

Our friends, Dave and Susie Smeal, suggested that we check out Leadville while in the area. We got the bike back yesterday and the forecast was for great weather today so why not. Hit the road around 10:30, had a couple errands in Frisco, and then we started the drive to Leadville. GPS said Leadville is about an hour from Tiger Run so we arrived in Leadville at noon.

We had lunch at the Golden Burro Cafe (thanks..Dave and Susie), which has been there since 1938. Lots of wood and leaded glass and an old time feel to the place. The menu is part history lesson and part food selection and with so many choices, it was really hard to decide. Home-made pies and cakes (carrot cake and red velvet cake) were tough to say no to but necessary to maintain our weight.

Lots of neat history in Leadville….they have the most per capital museums of any town in the US. They are the “highest” incorporated town of any in the country at 10,200’. Linda and I walked from one end of town to the other….lots of cute shops and wonderful old architecture. In the one shop, I found a bracelet that I fell in love with. It was made by a Colorado artist and has something that looks like the Tree of Life that we have on our rings. Bought it and I love it !

 

 

 

 

We went inside the old hotel in town and they had all kinds of stuff on display in the lobby that is for sale. On the way out, my eye caught this  wall sconce that looks like a hot air balloon….it is gorgeous !

After lunch and our tour of town, we drove out to Turquoise Lake and took the route all the way around it. Very pretty although we could see that the water level is down quite a bit. As we drove down the one side of the lake, we could see the fish jumping and hanging really near the surface of the water.

 

 

 

Had such a great day exploring Leadville and the area around it. Got back around 4…Temps are really heating up. We rode in t-shirts and jeans today and were comfortable. This weekend, the temps in Denver are going to be around 100. Tomorrow we have to go back to Denver for our last follow-up appointment on our eyes. Will use the time in Denver to get some stuff at Sam’s Club, run some errands and have supper at the Noodle place across the street from Dr. Cutarelli…yum. Gonna be a busy day !

Bike’s Back…

The Yamaha shop in Silverthorne was awesome at keeping us apprised on our bike and its’ repair. They called yesterday and said that the parts, for the broken shifter, had arrived and they were starting work on it. Within the hour, they called again and said it was all done. We went and picked it up today and brought it back to the rig. Cost a little over $200 to get the shifter fixed and the oil changed. We are set ! The mechanic did say that the front tire was horribly low on air and we told him that it had recently been replaced with a cracked valve stem. Linda noticed that it seemed to be low the other night, while we were sitting outside, but I thought it was just the way it was sitting on the patio. Turns out she was right (but don’t tell her). Not sure what is up with it but we’ll have to keep an eye on it. He said maybe it was due to the elevation and the “potato chip bag theory” (he had to explain that one to us). I came home and checked the rig and car and they were fine so ain’t no potato chip bag problem ‘round here.

Took some pictures of the flowers that are erupting around our campsite. In spite of the lack of rain, they are flourishing and we’re really enjoying the color around us. The plants, that we put in the crock and plastic tub, are doing pretty well.

Sales are going very well….today was the deadline although we have two advertisers who I need to follow-up with for one reason or another by the end of the week. Our time here is coming to an end….enjoying every last minute.

New Things…

We bought a couple of items over the last month that add to the RV lifestyle. Linda has been missing our flower beds from back home (I’ll bet  visiting the Botanic Garden in Denver fueled that) so we bought a couple plants. We had a plant stand that we had at our apartment in Winston Salem and Linda had a crock with us that a plant was in from her dad’s funeral so we made good use of both. In the crock we put a snapdragon, mint plant and purple Osteopermum (looks like a purple daisy). In the plastic box we put two basil plants. I love the smell of the mint plant as we had them growing wild along the creek back home, on the farm, and my grandmother would pick it to make tea with. I love pesto hence the basil…The touch of color at the back door makes for a cheery entrance.

About a month ago we purchased a GPS off of E-bay. Our old Garmin died quite a while ago and we’ve been using our tablet to make sales calls. We had Co-Pilot software on our old laptop but between the screen going bad and the power cord shorting out, we laid that laptop to rest and if you recall, bought a used laptop for Linda when we were in Denver. My goal has been to get a big rig specific GPS but have not wanted to pay big bucks for one (yep, call me frugal !). I’ve been researching several different models but organizing our daily sales calls narrowed the options drastically. I think, when I went on Garmin’s site, there were a total of 4 or 5 models that are able to do that. Another feature that was important was lifetime maps as our old one got so it did not recognize many of the new roads and when making sales calls, you have to find the streets where the businesses are located. With our wish list in mind, it came down to a Garmin dezl 560 LMT which is a commercial truck GPS with tons of features. If you’re interested in what it can do, go here. There is an excellent review of all the features on this model. I used this review site to help figure out which unit might be best and which units aren’t worth the powder to blow them up. This GPS has a 5” screen which is awesome (both the passenger and driver can see the screen clearly – at least in the car)and it comes with the friction mount pad that sits on the dash. Easy to put under the seat..out of site, when going in a store and not making it tempting for someone to break in and steal. You can pay full price for them ($339 and up) but I’ve been watching and waiting and found one come up on e-bay and got it for much less. It has the lane assist, which when traveling down a four or five lane highway, tells you which lane to get in so you don’t miss your exit. It organizes our sales calls and tells you how long it will take to get to each location and total time to complete the route. For the RV profile, you program in height, weight, length, width, # axles, and any restrictions and it keeps all of that in mind as it chooses your route. When we first got it, the volume seemed really low and I had read that with some trucker GPS units, the volume isn’t loud enough for all the road noise. When we’d program in an address, the beeping from punching in the info was loud but the voice of the lady calling out the navigation wasn’t. I played around with some of the settings and the next time the lady called out a command, it made both Linda and I just about jump out of our seats….it was so loud ! Talk about hilarious….we both burst out laughing so hard cause we’d only heard it soft for the two days we’d been messing around with it. It is certainly is loud enough now. Anxious to put it to the test with the rig when we head out next Sunday. We love it in the car so we’ll see how the big rig features work.

The other recent purchase is a humidifier. We spend May through August in states that have low humidity and while that sounds good overall, it takes a toll on our skin and sinuses. Take today, the humidity here is 8%. Indoor humidity levels below 30% create dry skin and sinus passages and increase the risk of respiratory illnesses. We bought a small humidifier to put some moisture back in the air in the rig. My sinuses and skin are already saying thank you after just 48 hours of it running in the living room. Will help make the summer more enjoyable until we get to areas of the country where the humidity levels are higher and won’t need it. Until then, it’s gonna get a work out.

Not big expenditures, by most standards, but things that will make our travels less worrisome and more enjoyable. Also makes us more productive so we can work smarter and not harder…that’s worth a lot !