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This is our Western US and Canadian Rockies trip blog. To read click on the dates to the right of the screen.

In case you opened this blog to read of our Eastern trip in 2009, we have started a new blog. It can be found at

http://www.harringtontravels2.blogspot.com/

The background is pink instead of blue. We hope you save the new blog to your favorites to follow this trip east.
Fred & Olivia

Letter 32: Home again

Letter 31: Home Again

Friday, September 26 we said goodbye to

Cottonwood Lake and the aspens and headed home. As we drove over Bigalow Summit we thought of the Melton family, because they enjoyed this area and Lake Isabel. We also thought of the Bell’s since they have a family cabin in this area. All of a sudden we passed a curiosity.Bishop’s Castle! and yes, that is Fred in the lower right, so you can see how huge this castle is.
It has been built by one man starting in 1969.
He was somehow crosswise with the Sheriff and had signs in various places talking about freedom of travel in the United States. We decided he might be a member of the Republic of Colorado if there is such a thing.
We didn’t climb any of the steps or walkways. At any rate it was interesting to see.
We drove on to Trinidad State Park for the night and after finding an available campsite and checking with the ranger as to availability, we drove into town to look for turquoise and Indian jewelry, as this was the last stop to find any on this trip. When we returned we were faced with a very upset camper showing where he had reserved this spot via the internet. Ultimately we had to move to a very undesirable spot. This was the first time on the trip we were indisposed like this because we were careful to make sure we could stay there. We DO NOT Like reservations by specific campsite! That is a whole nuther story! (we did put in in writing and since we have been home we received a refund! Surprise!)

Saturday, September 27 found us driving through the corner of New Mexico on HWY 87, Raton to Clayton and were pleasantly surprised to find a divided highway most of the way. The last time we traveled this road it was single lane and no shoulder. Guess it has been a while since we traveled here. All of a sudden we started seeing FLY’s. Hundreds! We had been blessed on the whole trip of not seeing any but they caught up with us in the panhandle of Texas! We found the nice city park in Dumas, made just for travelers like us and it is FREE!

They have provided a nice level spot with electricity in two rows. Water and dump were also available. Before we parked we found a large car wash and washed both the Suburban and trailer. Whew! That was a job. After parking we found a laundry mat and spent Saturday night washing with several families. How exciting! However when we arrived home we were sure glad we didn’t have to keep the washer and dryer going.

Sunday, September 28 we followed Hwy 287 to Wichita Falls and

their lovely traveler’s campground similar to Dumas’s but nicer and cost $10. They have a few trees with water & electricity at each site. We really wish more cities would provide places like this. We bought groceries and a grill, so we helped their economy.

Monday, September 29 we drove into Allen and our friends, Jerry and Kathryn Childress. We were glad to see him up and around since we had heard all kinds of stories of him having reactions to chemo. We had a nice visit with them. They have found a very nice home.Tuesday, September 30 The Childress’s son Jeff stopped by to see us. He has certainly grown up to be a very responsible, good looking man. He is helping Jerry and Kathryn in every way possible and we feel they are in good hands, God’s, Jeff and the doctors. Saying good bye, we drove through the dreaded Dallas and its freeways and arrived home. We parked in the overgrown back yard and Fred started trimming trees. We met Angie, Bobby and Rachel for a thank you supper at Capazano’s in Midlothian.

This trip has been wonderful, beautiful, delightful, fantastic…

Most of the time we didn’t have TV reception so a nice side effect was:
No political Advertisements
No worries of the world. We did have internet most of the time and kept up with the Yahoo headlines.
After all this traveling when we tried to leave the Childress’s we forgot about the chocks and destroyed both of them! You’d think we would have learned.

Our favorite places were:
1. The Oregon coast. Their state parks are THE BEST and the scenery is supurb.
2. Seafood! Seafood! Seafood!
3. Canadian Rockies, Ice Field Highway. This was the ultimate goal of the trip. If you are going to this area, PLEASE go all the way to Jasper. That road is worth the drive from Texas. If you don’t go on to Jasper you wasted your gas.
4. Going to the Sun Highway in Glacier National Park. Fred was especially thankful for the free shuttle the park service provides. Lot’s of scenery and drop offs.
5. Montana
6. Beartooth Pass northwest of Yellowstone. We had heard stories of this from the Clemmer’s when John threatened the kids with a flyswatter.
7. Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. Still just as pretty as the last time we were there and worth repeating. It was especially nice to see more snow on the mountains and hearing Paula’s remarks.
8. The ASPENs turning. Oh MY!

Favorite Campsites have to be the Forest Service sites even without electricity, water or sewer connections. Beautiful locations and nice, large spots.

We were pleasantly surprise at seeing Safeway in the northwest. We wish for them in Texas again.

Our dislikes:
1. Reservations by site!
2. Speed bumps, especially next to a stop sign. The forest camp out of Salt Lake City takes the cake on number of bumps. We crossed 8 every time we left the camp.
3. Cities!
4. Interstates! Our infrastructure of the interstate system needs to be totally redone. Bump, bump, bump.

We drove 18,974 miles in 202 days, averaging 92 miles a day. There were many days we only drove a few miles and our longest day was about 250 miles.

We bought 2097.24 gallons of gas spending
$8289.07 Gas averaging $3.95 a gallon

$3329.74 camping spots averaging $16.48 a night.
$1342.19 trailer supplies/repairs
$1223.72 Car needs
$1515.42 Restaurants
$1172.26 Miscellaneous
$240.70 Cappuccino
$196.78 Propane
$1108.95 Passes, admissions, ferry rides, etc
$164.60 Laundry
$1239.70 Souvenirs

If we take out food, miscellaneous, cappuccino, that would have been expenses at home we averaged $82 a day.
Including those the trip cost and average of $109.08 a day.

We would be interested in how that compares to others taking trips, flying, hotels, etc.
We included everything we spent.

On Saturday after arriving home we attended Brice Hartgraves Almost 70th Birthday party. We gathered friends together for a group picture, even though the camera wouldn't stay still we wanted to include it for those of you that know this group.

Letter 30: ASPENS

Letter 30 Aspens!

Sunday, September 21 we enjoyed the Jackson’s. They invited us in for a wonderful breakfast coffee cake like they made in the Student Union Building at North Texas State Univ when we were there many years ago. Charlie and Mary Alice had a Rotary event to help with so we did our Safeway/Wal-Mart/Gas shopping. We also drove to our family friend’s home to see what had happened to her. We didn’t get a Christmas card from her this past year. A neighbor told us Ruby’s son was forced to put her in a home a little over a year ago because she had Alzheimer’s and it wasn’t safe for her to stay alone. The house was empty and we were told it had just sold.

We visited with the Jackson’s, took a nap, then the men went after pizza and we settled in to watch the cowboys. Another win!

Monday, September 22 we said

good bye to the Jackson’s and granddaughter Zeta and headed for the mountains to see yellow and gold aspens. We took the freeway to avoid high elevation and possible snow on Loveland Pass. We drove through Eisenhower tunnel. Going up Freemont pass we noticed dams with no water in them, just filled in land. We stopped at an information pull out and found out the mine above us at Climax was filling in the valley with the talings of the mine creating a huge mountain meadow.

WARNING, WARNING WE HAVE SEEN ASPEN!

After we passed Climax we started seeing lots of aspens. Arriving in Leadville we stopped at the Forest Service Information center to find out about the 11 campgrounds around Turquoise Lake. The cute ranger (she reminded Olivia of Fernita) told us there was only one available because all were closed for the season, but this one didn’t have a gate so they don’t refuse campers. They also don’t charge because there are no hosts, water, potties, or trash pick up. That was ok with us – we are “self-contained”.

This campground is at the far west end of Turquoise Lake and we can see Leadville (about 8 air miles directly across the lake) at the other end.
We were above 10,000’ so we took the remainder of the day to take it easy and get acclimated.

The first night it was 29 degrees, the second and third, it was about 32 degrees. The daytime temperatures have been in the high sixties. This camp is mostly unused. There have been three sites occupied each night. One of the other campers has been here two of the three nights. He was very interesting. The fifty-nine year old retired New York State auditor is traveling alone - his wife still works, his kids are grown. He loves camping and through the years introduced his wife and children to the joys of spending time out-of-doors, but his real passion is hiking. Tuesday he climbed Mt Elbert. His goal is to visit each state and scale the highest point.

Tuesday, September 23, we drove back to Dillon to have the oil changed and on the way we saw

aspen and
aspen! Then we headed west to Vail, which in a few days will be gorgeous. We tried to drive through the town but it is solid hotels, condos and construction! We wonder if they have a hotel motel tax! Then how do they spend it? The mountains of the valley it is in is covered with green aspens. What a site it will be when they turn! We drove south back to Leadville through
Minturn,

An old mine

and the valley around it.

And Gilman

so picturesque built on a point overlooking a river gorge.

At Red cliff and thought of Kathy since her father Dub grew up in this town. It is quaint. The access was via a very narrow two lane mountain hugging road.

It has been discovered, but hasn’t yet grown into a tourist town.

Returning to Leadville we could see Mt Elbert, the highest mountain (second highest in the lower US) in Colorado at 14,446, but not near as pretty as Long’s Peak. In Leadville we found that Baby Doe Tabor and her husband were the famous mine owners, who later lost everything. Baby Doe never gave up the Matchless Mine and froze to death in her cabin at the mine 40 years after having had everything. This is also the area where “Unsinkable” Molly Brown was a seamstress in town and married JJ Brown. She is not as famous in this town as the Tabor’s.
We visited the Cemetery, which made us think of Rockport’s cemetery with Texas wildflowers.

And viewed the campground from the road and

Leadville from the campground.

Thank you God for making this all possible, not only for us but others that are fortunate to be here. Thanks you Fred for taking Olivia to see all this glorious beauty. It surpasses all we expected and then some.
Words can not describe the beauty we have seen today. It’s like driving through Texas bluebonnets except we have mountains behind the aspen. Naturally we aren’t the only one to see them. The roads are crowded with cars following the picturesque sites. It seems everyone has a camera. Driving rules are suspended – you stop in the roadway to look and take pictures!

Glorious,

vibrant,

vivid,

beautiful.

We wish all of you could see this.

Every wiggle in the road brings more beauty.

Fred says they make his eyes hurt they are so brilliant!Wednesday, September 24, we drove to Twin Lakes then up Independence Pass and over to Aspen. Olivia didn’t know the Maroon Bells were hidden so we missed them. The town of Aspen was crowded even in the off season. Very few empty parking spaces. The traffic was constantly on the move. We counted seven ski slopes, no wonder it was crowded. We only saw two filling stations!

The drive back over Independence Pass was a little more interesting.
Narrow, winding road,
Aspens,
Ghost town (gold mine) of Independence started July 4, 1879,
And a steep climb (see the road?)
Coming down the east side gave us great vistas
And more aspen.
We scouted out a lake for Fred to fish and saw these great views of the twin lakes.

and a Blaire picture of a dead aspen.

Thursday, September 25 we moved south to Buena Vista and Cottonwood Lake. The campground was closed so we found a better spot! We camped on a wide spot on the gravel county road 10 feet from the edge of Cottonwood Lake. We thought it was an isolated spot but Aspen watchers streamed in from 7 am to dark.
Probably the prettiest we have had on the whole trip. Jo Atkins eat your heart out!
After settling in and eating one of Paula’s delicious apples from her yard, we drove to the top of Cottonwood pass

And saw the back of Maroon Bells

The road was interesting

Including the white flower on the road

And a great old barn,

windmill,

and tractor.

Again we enjoyed seeing and taking photos of aspen, our pictures can’t do justice to the

Vibrance,

Rich,

And intensity of the colors

With clouds

Beaver Dams

Fences

Wagons.

This is like taking a drive to see bluebonnets. Everyone is out driving around, stopping on the roadside with lots of cameras. Colors are constantly changing, the leaves are fleeting, they shimmer in the wind, then gold dollars fall with the wind. Each new view just takes your breath away.
We have probably taken over 300 pictures and it is a drop in the bucket to what we could have taken.

We went into Buena Vista, browsed around and ate at Jan’s a restaurant where we ate with Muddie and Cecil 40 years ago. Different owners, but food was good.

Back at the lake Olivia walked down to the spillway.

After dark, we think we were the only humans at this location. Privacy Plus!

Olivia is a very happy camper now that she has finally seen the aspen turn gold. And now

YOU HAVE BEEN ASPENED!

As Paula said, "she has decided Fast or Hurry is not in our vocabulary." We have enjoyed every day of our trip, taking one day at a time and the aspens were certainly on the top of our list to recommend to everyone.

For comments please contact:
Olivia@bobheck.com or fredharrington@yahoo.com