ADDED MORE FLICKR SETS

Currently in Kearney NE (Low 57 Breezy with Sunshine and Patchy Clouds High 91) 

We are continuing to add albums to Flickr.com 

We added only 3 2016 albums this time since the Albuquerque album at over 200 photos may be our largest album. This covers the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta which explains the number of photos. The other albums are for Santa Rosa NM and Oklahoma City OK. Here are some photos from these albums.

We also are adding restaurants to our restaurant list so be sure and check that before heading to an area.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

ON THE ROAD AGAIN - TO KEARNEY NEBRASKA

Currently in Kearney NE (Low 52 Partly Sunny High 81) 

After a short stop in Julesburg Colorado we departed yesterday and headed to Kearney Nebraska, a new state camped for us in a long time when we crossed the border and stayed the night.

So here is our updated 'States Visited Map', first new state since July 2014.

It was approximately 180 miles to Kearney, this is the route we took along Interstate 80.



Another new thing for us in a while is that we changed timezones, we are now in Central Daylight Time. We are staying at the Kearney RV Park Campground.

We will be here a week to do some shopping, haircuts, maybe see a movie or two, and hopefully some sightseeing.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

REVIEW OF PONY EXPRESS & RV PARK IN JULESBURG COLORADO

Currently in Julesburg CO (Low 47 Cloudy Currently 54)
Heading to Kearney NE (Currently 55 Times of Clouds and Sun High 77) 

We weren't expecting much out of the Pony Express and RV Park in Julesburg Colorado, we were just looking for a park less than 200 miles from Aurora Colorado on the way to Lincoln Nebraska for a short stop. Like we said we weren't expecting much and the park delivered what we expected.

Our GPS devices brought us right to the park although we had trouble finding it on one of them. Since it was right across the street from the Colorado Welcome Center we input that location. When we got there there was no discernible office so we called and was told to pick a site, the 50a sites at one end of the row. The owner of the park runs the Welcome Center so we got settled and went there and paid for 2 nights.

Everything is gravel except for the grass that you have to drive on to get into the pull-thrus. The hookups were convenient and we had a great line of sight for our roof mounted satellite dish. We think that since we were so close to the Colorado Welcome Center and to I-76 we had real good Verizon 4g and cellphone reception. This a no frills park with no wifi so we were glad for the good Verizon coverage. Here is the Lifestyle from the front.

To the right.

To the left.

From the rear.

We have done all we want to do in the Julesburg Colorado area so today we depart to Kearney Nebraska. The park and the area is probably best for a short stay.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

ON THE ROAD AGAIN - TO JULESBURG COLORADO

Currently in Julesburg CO (Low 45 Partly Sunny High 77) 

We departed Aurora Colorado yesterday and headed to Julesburg, also in Colorado. It was approximately 190 miles, this is the route we took.



We are staying at the Pony Express Trading Post and RV Park.

We will only be here a couple of nights due to the scheduling issues with getting a site in the Denver area.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

REVIEW OF CHERRY CREEK STATE PARK CAMPGROUND IN AURORA COLORADO

Currently in Aurora CO (Low 39 Cloudy and Drizzly Currently 47)
Heading to Julesberg CO (Currently 57 Slight Chance of Showers then Sunny High 75) 

We really like this park and we like the Goldrush Loop where most of the sites are roadside pull-thrus and the spacing between sites is amazing. We almost didn't need our GPS devices but when we are towing we keep them on in case we get detoured. As we mentioned before we were in a long line and we arrived early since we were only 26 miles away so we had to sit awhile. Jo had made sandwiches in case this happened so we had food, drink and a good view. 

The interior roads and our parking spot were asphalt and our site was concrete. We were in a backin since we made our reservation late and could only get 5 nights. The hookups were convenient. The park wifi was free but mostly unusable. We had good Verizon cellphone and 4g coverage. There was a good line of sight for our roof mounted satellite dish. Here is the Lifestyle from the front.

To the right.

To the left.

From the rear.

We had a couple great sunsets while here.

We will definitely stay here again and hopefully will have at least 6 months to make reservations. If you try to make last minute reservations you will be surprised how fast it fills up, especially the weekends.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

ON THE ROAD AGAIN - TO AURORA COLORADO

Currently in Aurora CO (Low 54 Sunny High 86) 

We departed Golden Colorado and headed yesterday to Aurora, also in Colorado. It was one of our shortest trips ever. We did this because our plans changed earlier this year and unless you make reservations in advance for the Denver area you are going to moving around if you are lucky to get a spot. It also wasn't one of our more scenic drives compared to Utah and western Colorado but it is neat to see snow capped mountains in the distance.

It was approximately 25 miles, this is the route we took.



We drove this same route last week when we went to get Jo's hair cut, believe us when we say that traveling on Sunday was better traffic wise than during the week. We are staying at the Cherry Creek State Park and will be here 5 nights.

Since it was Fathers Day weekend the line was long and then we had to wait until 1p for our site to be available.

We are awaiting our good friends Bob and Wilma who arrive today at Cherry Creek. Looking forward to spending the next few days with them.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

REVIEW OF DAKOTA RIDGE RV PARK IN GOLDEN COLORADO

Currently in Golden CO (Low 53 Mostly Sunny Currently 64)
Heading to Aurora CO (Currently 66 Mostly Sunny High 81) 

Both of our GPS devices brought us right to the Dakota Ridge RV Park in Golden Colorado. We were a little disappointed when we got to our site and it was barely long enough for our RV and truck. Plus it was on the end of a row right next to a noisy street. We had made our reservation well in advance and we know that they don't guarantee a specific site we seemed to get no benefit from reserving early except for having a site. At least the site had a good line of sight for our roof mounted satellite dish.

Here is the Lifestyle from the front.

To the right showing the busy street through the trees.

To the left.

From the rear.

As you can see the sites are close together. Adding to our discomfort the park is kind of hilly so we had to elevate our entrance more than with any other park in almost 8 years of fulltiming.

The location of this park is pretty good and although we were a little miffed about the site initially we ended up having an interesting week. Tiger, one of our cats, was fine last Sunday and then overnight got real sick and didn't eat or drink at all Monday. So just before a nearby vet closed Monday we called and got an appointment Tuesday afternoon. Turns out she had an infection that needed fluids, IV antibiotics and a hospital stay of 3 nights. Although she didn't eat much while there the fluids and antibiotics kicked in and she started feeling better. Here is Bob visiting her. Let me tell you taking a selfie with a cat is fun.

We brought her home Friday afternoon and although it is not much she is eating a little and is happy to be home again. While this was going on Jo wasn't feeling well for a few days and Bob was trying to fix a toilet problem which required many visits to RV parts and hardware stores and we will blog about that later.

We depart today for a short trip to the other side of Denver, to Aurora and the Cherry Creek State Park.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

CATCHING UP - REVIEW OF RIFLE GAP STATE PARK LAKEVIEW CAMPGROUND (AND BOOSTER UPDATE)

Currently in Golden CO (Low 54 Sunny High 86) 

Catching up on our stay in Rifle Colorado at the Rifle Gap State Park in the Lakeview Campground. Our GPS devices brought us right to the visitors center although slowly since our truck was in 'limp mode' due to a bad high pressure fuel pump that we blogged about earlier. 

We limped to our site and backed in and setup. The interior roads were asphalt as was our parking site. The pad for the Lifestyle was concrete. The rest of the site was gravel including the covered picnic table. The hookups were convenient and we had a great line of sight for our roof mounted satellite dish. Here is the Lifestyle from the front showing the reservoir.

To the right also showing the reservoir.

To the left.

From the rear showing the covered picnic table.

The only downside to this great park is it is in a deadzone for cellular phone and data. We had purchased a cellular booster for just such an occasion. It was a ZBoost for Verizon.

It came with an omni-directional antenna but sometimes a directional antenna is needed so we bought a CANT-0045 and this was the first time using it. We had come up with a two piece assembly using PVC pipe. We mounted a short piece to the ladder.

Then we could add a longer piece to the shorter piece when needed. Here is the longer piece with the directional antenna.

Unfortunately there was too much wind and the directional antenna is a lot heavier than the omni directional antenna so we pulled the longer piece down and mounted the antenna to the piece attached to the ladder. We went from no cellphone and data to fairly reliable cellphone service and intermittent 3g/4g. We are glad that we got the booster that allows us to camp in more remote places, especially at Rifle Gap State Park. We will be looking into a better pole arrangement for the next time we are in a deadzone.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

CATCHING UP ON THE SCENERY NEAR RIFLE COLORADO

Currently in Golden CO (Low 52 Sunny High 82) 

The scenery around Rifle Colorado is amazing. Here is Rifle Gap as you approach the State Park.

The view sitting outside and reading.

We had great sunsets.

Nearby is Harvey Gap State Park which is a day use park with a swimming beach and good fishing.

Also nearby is Rifle Falls State Park.

You can walk on the top of Rifle Falls.

The scenery in this area is incredible.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

CATCHING UP - THOUGHTS FROM BEING WITHOUT A TRUCK FOR A FEW DAYS

Currently in Golden CO (Low 51 Sunny then Mostly Sunny and Breezy High 76)

Catching up on our stay in Rifle Colorado. While our Ford F-350 was getting a new high pressure fuel pump we were without a vehicle for 2 and 1/2 days. A couple of observations:

Eating at home isn’t what it is cracked up to be – Luckily we had enough food in our refrigerator, freezer and pantry to survive the three days but we really began to want to eat out which we did as soon as we got the truck back. We also had to do some shopping to replenish our stores.

We kept thinking someone stolen our truck – We had planned to have steaks on the grill on Monday night so when it was time to set it up Bob went out to get the grill and realized it was in the truck at the dealership. Then later when we needed more cat litter Bob went to get some, and guess what, it was in the truck at the dealership. We have to admit a couple of times when we saw the empty space we thought somebody had stolen our truck.

We did get a lot of reading and enjoying the great scenery at Rifle Gap State Park.

Even though a couple of days the rain drove us inside.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

ON THE ROAD AGAIN TO GOLDEN COLORADO (AND A TRUCK UPDATE)

Currently in Golden CO (Low 57 Sunny High 87) 

As you can probably tell we got the truck fixed and it worked great on our trip to Golden Colorado. Fixed, but at a great cost. The high pressure fuel pump failed and it is an expensive fix because it is not a cheap part and takes about a 12 hours to complete the job. We are thankful that Columbine Ford in Rifle, although very busy, worked us in on the first day that we called and completed the work before we had to leave for Golden.

Another scenic drive with the roaring Colorado River right next to the road, snow capped mountains, high passes and a tunnel at over 11,000 feet.

It was approximately 170 miles to Golden Colorado, this was the route we took.



We are staying at Dakota Ridge RV Park in Golden and will be here a week.

We have a few blogs from our stay at Rifle Gap State Park so stay tuned.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo