The Traveling Ducheks

Still have COVID, but since we had reservations, we moved along.  I’m still in quarantine and it still sucks.

I got COVID, Ed got COVID.  I got the worse of it.  Back on breathing treatments and fully quarantined.  This sucks.

 

We moved to Cripple Creek KOA and it is a great campground!  We really love the view and it is a super peaceful place. 

 

We rode the Cog Railway up to Pike’s Peak.  I was not thrilled with the face that my knees were almost touching the strangers across from us, but being the chatty one that I am, by the time we arrived, we were no longer strangers. LOL! The Cog Railway was an experience!  I really enjoyed the ride, just not the seating arrangements.  The view, of course, is stunning and it was COLD at the top.  Ed bought the high altitude donuts, apparently they deflate if you take them back down to the base of the mountain.  We didn’t personally find out, as Ed gobbled them up! LOL

 

We also visited the Manitou Cliff Dwellings while we were in the area. I’ve been here many times, but have never visited the cliff dwellings.  We really enjoyed them.  It is so interesting to touch areas where native people lived so many years ago.  

We drove past this tunnel several times on the way to and from the campground and we decided to stop and take a look.  We are not too sure what it is, I think possibly it was the old road that went through the mountain, but it seems strange.  Kinda spooky even. 

We drove around and explored Victor and Cripple Creek.  I was here years ago with Mom and we loved the ‘Donkeys at Large’ signs, so I had to find one!

                    FOUND IT!!!

 

I was a bit disappointed to see that they are building a HUGE casino in Cripple Creek.  I understand that it is a huge economic benefit here as that is what brings most people to Cripple Creek, but it just makes me sad that the old ‘gold town’ feel will be gone with this huge development. 

We visited the Peterson Space Force Base and the museum there. 

When we were in Cripple Creek one day letterboxing, we came across this little family of field mice hiding out in a tire….they were so cute.

 

We went to the Cascade Farmers Market…it was great!  I ended up buying some tamales from a wonderful vegan vendor!  The roasted hatch chili aroma was devine!

We moved from the Curecanti National Recreation Area, which had no water or sewer to Blue Mesa Thousand Trails campground.  We got a great spot and really think we will like this campgound.  The views are still amazing.

 

We visited the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  Ed had never been here, so it was fun to show him some more of the beauty of Colorado!

 

Gunnison has a really cool Pioneer Museum that we visited.  It is pretty expansive and the volunteers were very sweet.

 

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On September 19, we drove over the Million Dollar Highway to Durango.  Ed booked the Durango-Silverton railroad, so we decided to stay in Durango for 2 nights at a hotel.  It was, as always, a stunning drive. Ed had Dunkin Donuts for breakfast during the drive and Scooby got a treat!

 

 

The train ride was wonderful, with expansive views and great service.  Scooby enjoyed it, also! 

 

 We walked around Silverton and had lunch before returning to Durango.  I bet I could take this train 20 times and still enjoy it just as much! 

 

 

 

We tried a place in Durango called “Serious Texas BBQ” and we did not like it at all.  The sauce was awful and the food really bad.  Scooby liked it… lol

 

While driving to a Free Little Art Gallery, we saw these fun artwork glasses!

 

 

On the way back to Gunnison, we went around so that I could drive Monarch Pass. It was beautiful.

 

ALSO, I cut 14 inches off my hair!  I donated it to a charity (Wigs for Kids) that makes wigs for children.  It feels so wonderful to have all that hair gone!

We moved to Gunnison, CO to the Curecanti National Recreation Area.  On the way, the road to the area was under construction…it was fun navigating the rig through this road that was stripped most of the asphalt and down to very skinny lanes, some of which were SUPER close to the mountain-side.   

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Curecanti is a nice campground with nice, large sites.  The view was stunning!  The big drawback is that the campground does not have water at all at the sites…a BIG no for me!  Ed didn’t mind staying there, as I flew out the next morning and did not return until time to move to the next campground! LOL!

I was shocked when Ed said he booked my flight home out of Montrose, Colorado.  I had no idea that Montrose had an airport large enough for commercial flights!  It is the smallest airport I have ever been to and boy do they need to work on their system…their baggage pick up is literally outside in the parking lot! 

My flight into Dallas was re-routed to San Antonio due to a big storm and winds that shut down DFW and the surrounding areas.  The flight left Montrose at 2:30pm and didn’t get to Dallas until 8:30 pm.  We were unable to disembark from the plane, so we were on the plane all that time.  The second photo below is me trying to get a photo of the hundreds of monarch butterflies that were migrating!  It was awesome.  Luckily, I was flying first class, which made it a bit more comfortable to stay on board so long…but there was no food on board and I hadn’t eaten at all that day, as I always try to not eat around a flight.  Poor James was picking me up in Dallas and he had to wait around for hours until we finally got there!

While in Dallas, I took James to get his very first tattoo.  I wanted to go with him as I wanted to be sure he went to a good, clean and professional place.  The artist who did our tattoos is a great guy and really listened to what we wanted.  James got a tattered US flag, to represent the trails and challenges he has overcome.  I must say, for a first tattoo, James got a large one!  He sat like a champ! While there, I got a tattoo of a phoenix that I had been planning for a while.  My brother, Steven, had a phoenix on one hand and a dragon on the other.  My phoenix is in the watercolor theme that I am using for this arm…so it isn’t the traditional red/orange/yellow version, but I love it!  I also got my ‘Michael’ tattoo touched up and the Mickey semicolon pops so better much now!

My favorite part of being in Texas is visiting with Mama.  Her dog, Fancy, was super excited to see me…in fact, it wore her out to welcome me home! LOL!

While I was in Dallas, Vickie and her mama were also in Dallas!  It was great to see them and be able to visit.  James looks like a giant next to Vickie these days…even if you don’t take into account that wild hair of his!

While in Dallas, I was able to visit with my dearest friend, Christy, whom I call ‘Sister’.  This is James and her grandson, Stetson.  Stetson really loved James and I had to lecture James about how much work babies/children are…as he started to worry me that he was getting baby fever…lol…While I would love to be a grandma, NOT YET!!! 

My time in Texas was wonderful, as always.  It is so funny to me still to ‘visit’ Texas. 

 

My flight home was uneventful, thankfully and as soon as I got back to Colorado, we moved to the new campground (WITH water!)

We stayed one night in Grand Junction, CO.  This is my mama’s hometown.  I have been here several times over the years.  Since we were only here for the night, after we parked the camper, I took Ed to Colorado National Monument Park.  He has never been there and I love it there!  Ed did enjoy it.  Again, we will come to Grand Junction again another time so that we can spend a bit more time.

We moved to Provo, UT for one night.  The KOA there was a mess!  There is NO way I would stay there for any more time.  

 

We did come across this cool bird refuge called The Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.  It was a nice place to get out and stretch our legs along the drive.  

I got this cool photo of Johnny & June in the parking lot.  I love our rig!

We are in Twin Falls, Idaho for a few days at a KOA.  

We went to the namesake, Twin Falls.  They are beautiful and the landscape is really stunning.  It is a really cool area, where you are driving along in a urban area and then suddenly, you are surrounded by this beauty!!

This cool horse sculpture was in an intersection…we were letterboxing when we came across it.

This cool cattle drive scene was off the highway. 

We picked up several letterboxes in the area…we plan to return someday and stay a bit longer as it is a really cool area.

We have left the state of Washington!  We are staying in Pendleton, Oregon for a couple days and then moving on.  I saw this AWESOME truck at our KOA…I am trying to convince Ed that we may need to upgrade at some point and this is my dream truck!  I love my Ram, Johnny, but this red number is just my style!!!