Colorado Springs

Well we made it on schedule to Colorado Springs on the second day of travel. We fought an incredible head wind from Kansas City all the way to Colorado Springs, about 550 miles. The wind blew from west to east for two travel days. Wind gusts were up to 40 mph, with sustained 20 mph. Basically, the truck could maintain 65 mph with the 20 mph head wind (with the air conditioner going and DVD player on), which means we were pushing 80 mph into the wind. As a result, I had to keep overdrive turned off for the last 600+ miles over two days. Did I mention that it was also HOT!! ?? About 95 to 100 degrees in Kansas! And that's with the wind chill! We were also climbing in altitude the whole way, from about 1000 feet to 6000 feet. Don't ask me about the gas bill, but we have been paying an average of 2.75 for gas so far. Needless to say, the truck did pretty good with the wind and climbing, considering we had almost 5000 pounds of trailer plus the bikes and fire wood and the inside of the truck was fully loaded. Hopefully, the wind will die down tomorrow as we head for Mesa Verde (2000 year old dwellings built into the side of cliffs).

Our first night we spent in Clinton State Park in Lawrence Kansas (near Kansas City MS). It was a nice park with plenty of grasslands, and a huge blue lake. We were lucky to get a site as there were many folks celebrating Memorial Day. We got there around 7:30 our time 6:30pm their time and the kids enjoyed a round of passing the football and soccer. Other than the wind howling, it was a quiet, not eventful nite.

Today we made it into Colorado, fighting the head winds and steeep uphills. We are camped now at "Garden of the Gods" camppground. They had a small band playing at the office as we pulled in. The campground is based at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. The girls swam in the pool and hot tub, and later played pool and met some friends. I enjoyed the rest of the band while Ginny called home. The WIFI connection was okay at the camper for a while, while Ginny was on line, but when I tried it was weak. So I was sitting outside in front of the office, and another wind gust blew a bunch of sand and I thought I better get the laptop indoors. So, I am sitting inside the laundry mat for a few minutes doing this update, so don't heckle me about typos (HaHa!).

Oh, by the way, you can simply mouse click on the pictures to get a larger view of somme of them.