Day 5 - Drive to Estes Park, CO

On Tuesday we were off for Colorado. We packed up early and left the campsite by 6:15am. Looking back on them, these early morning departures are like a magic trick. In about 30 minutes we go from the motorhome being fully opened up with people sleeping all over the place, to having everyone seated or sleeping and us out on the road. It’s not always easy, especially when we have broken sleep, which is the norm with all the kids. The reward is that Allyson and I get 2-3 hours of time to ourselves to talk or take in the scenery without interruption. The drive out of the Black Hills and down through Wyoming was the perfect time to have them asleep.

The scenery is amazing. You drive through mile after mile of mountains, rolling hillsides, massive farms, and grasslands. It was really nice to be able to experience it all with Allyson, and not have her dealing with all the requests from the kids. We took a bunch of pictures but I didn’t include any because they really don’t represent what it was like.

We drove all the way to Cheyenne, Wyoming without stopping which was a good chunk of time. We pulled into a Walmart to get some supplies. Whenever we stop at a store like this we can park in the rear of the lot and open up the slides to let Nolan crawl around. While we were doing that we heard some jets flying by. They must have been extremely close because at times they created some gusts of wind that jostled the motorhome. I went outside and could make out what I thought was an F-16. It is weird to type that because prior to working for an aerospace company I knew next to nothing about planes. But now I know a bit and could tell it was a single engine fighter jet, and it surely was not an F35. I did some googling and learned that the Thunderbirds were performing the next day, so they must have been doing some practice runs. And the Thunderbirds fly F-16s.

Once we finished at Walmart we headed to downtown Cheyenne and went to the Cowgirls of the West Museum. It is a small, but fun little shop/museum. When I was researching Cheyenne I came across it and figured we had to stop, plus it was free.

After the museum we went next door to their shop. We ended up buying an inexpensive guitar for the girls to share. We’ve had guitars before and they typically will eventually become a weapon or vessel for liquids or dirt at some point. So we’ll see how long this one lasts. Natalie is pretty smitten with it. Here’s a picture with her and the guitar in the foreground. In the background you’ll notice an amazing downtown parallel parking job, which got virtually no fanfare.

We packed up downtown, drove past the capitol, and then headed to Longmont, Colorado. We had to stop there to get our rental van and then head to the campground. The drive up to the campground was really something. It was 20 miles of winding roads heading up the Rockies, all with kids screaming and crying in the back. Nolan was just burnt out of his car seat, and Sam was getting stir crazy. Allyson was driving the van so I had to rely on the older girls to try and calm Nolan. To my surprise it was Julia who was able to calm Nolan down for a decent chunk of time. We eventually made it to the campground around 4pm.

Our campground is the Jellystone Park in Estes Park, Colorado, elevation 7,500 feet. We’ve had a lot of great experiences at Jellystones with the kids. They are generally clean and the themed activities are good for keeping the younger ones occupied. As soon as I pulled into this one I got the sense there was going to be an issue. Not because of cleanliness or staff or anything like that. The issue that immediately stands out is that the campground is all going up an insanely steep mountainside. Now I know we are in the Rocky Mountains, but this is ridiculous. It’s so steep that on the walk from our campsite to the Ranger Station I had to carry Samantha because she was sliding down the gravel road. Not only was our campsite up a steep slope, but it is also a pitched sideways. Backing into this spot was no picnic, but yours truly managed to slide in on the first try even with Nolan wailing away from his seat (again….minimal recognition from my significant other).

An interesting feature of the campsite is the bear-proof dumpster. Obviously this is because there are bears around. It’s a pain for campers because they only have one, so you have to bring your trash all the way up front to get rid of it. The dumpster has sliding doors on top and those doors have a latch-pin, and the latch pin is secured with a carabiner. There are signs saying that you must latch the dumpster “for the bears’ safety”. Despite the inconvenience, I’m totally on board with using it, since A) I don’t want a bear in our campsite and B) I don’t want to see a bear choke on garbage. I do have to chuckle at the notion that a bear is intelligent enough to climb the steps, remove the pin, and slide open the dumpster lid if the pin is not clipped shut, yet a bear is not intelligent enough to avoid non-food items it could choke on.

Once we got pulled in and settled with the motorhome on the site, we unpacked, made dinner, checked out the campground a bit, and then hung out and sang karaoke with the girls new guitar. After a long day of driving it was a good ending. On Wednesday we check out Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park, so it should be a good day.

I think I covered all my random thoughts and notes above, so you are spared those this time.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading!