Off to the Rockies

Trip Start Aug 13, 2007
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Trip End Nov 12, 2007


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Where I stayed
Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park of Estes
(Estes Park hotels)

Flag of United States  , Colorado,
Monday, September 24, 2007

Played a game of Mini-golf with the kids today before heading off. One thing we noticed about Kansas & then Colorado was that it's very windy here! There was quite a pleasant breeze in Goodland yesterday (nice when we were navigating around in the maze) and again this morning. By the time we crossed the border into Colorado, the wind had really picked up and there were clouds of dust blowing across the interstate & quite a few tumbleweed looking things too. Fred's fuel economy computer was saying that during the windy spots we were only getting 7.8 miles per the gallon of diesel. We stopped at the Colorado Welcome Centre to get a few brochures, and my hat nearly blew off - and we think Wellington is windy! So far in Colorado we have seen lots of wide open plains with dry tan-coloured grass being rippled by the non-stop wind. Pretty much like Kansas at this point, where a herd of cows is cause for excitement. We saw a sign at a gas station saying "No hand grenades allowed in the shop"...we don't know if it was a joke sign or not!

Turning on to a tollroad into Denver, we had to pay $6 for our truck/5th Wheel, which we didn't think was too bad, until we'd only gone a little further and then we were at another toll plaza paying another $6! In the end we paid $18 for 18 miles of toll road - we were not impressed! The foothills of the Rockies that we could see while we were driving up towards Estes Park, were, well, rocky...and covered with pine trees & seemed quite brown Should have bought shares in BP!
Should have bought shares in BP!
 . The rock structures were very impressive though. One area we drove through had boulders as big as a small house on either side of the road. The temperature has been dropping steadily from Kansas. We started off at about 32 degrees, now that we are at our Yogi Bear Jellystone Campground in Estes Park www.jellystoneofestes.com , the temperature has dropped to a very nippy 12 degrees and it's raining steadily .
Josh ended up having a nice chat with some people from Texas while he was exploring the campground. The lady he was speaking to is an ex-school teacher, who was very impressed with our trip and the education that kids will be getting from it. We stopped by their RV and had a good yarn with them. But as we have noticed at many campgrounds so far, they never invited us to sit down with them and have a beer/cuppa. Guess it's just not the American way?
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