Saturday, August 9, 2025

Thursday, August 7, 2025 Nightmare on I70

 

Thursday, August 7, 2025  Onward East

In my youth, my humans called me Thunder Paws.  I was fast.  I could run, I could fly, I could go from one end to the big house that moves to the other in no time at all.  Then I realized I could also walk.  I can still jump, but that flying thing, not so much.

 There is the cutest little bird on our tire.  It’s just sitting there enjoying the scene! 



We start our walk down by the river.  There are a couple of holes from the golf course that incorporate the river into their design.  Don’t go right…  And don’t go left either as there is a manmade lake there.  And be sure to watch for the streamlets that weave their way through the course.  You are sure to lose a few balls on this course!  We scouted the campground and headed into the neighborhood, where the cutest kitty greeted us.  As Spouse headed back, I continued through the hood going along the railroad tracks and checking out the houses.  I love touring through neighborhoods.  Sometimes, you find some interesting things.  We are staying at Green River State Park.  Oftentimes, state parks are difficult to get into, but it isn’t even half full.  The spaces are large and grassy, with lots of trees.  State parks rate high in my book.




After a quick shower, we readied Artie for the road.  I start out driving, east on I70.  The dominant color is straw… yellow… brown… ocher.  Way on the horizon are some ocher buttes.  But overall, it is a large expanse of nothing!  There is a sign warning not to hit eagles, that I assume are enjoying roadkill.  The traffic is non existent.

We know there are not a lot of RV options on the I70 corridor.  We have the Denver Elks in our GPS.  Or we might duck into the national forest if it isn’t too warm.  We will figure it out.  We are self-contained, so we are not worried.

As we cross into Colorado, like a light switch, the topography starts to change.  The buttes get closer in and there are ponderosa pines adding a nice green to the scape.  I stop at a rest stop to change drivers, and I have to navigate one of those horrible traffic circles.  Instead of going into the visitor center, I parked, we switched, then Spouse decided to take the frontage road.  Only the frontage road does not take you back to the interstate.  This is the beginning of our total distaste for Colorado roads.  Not only do they have lots of traffic circles (when you are towing, they are such hemorrhoids!), but the often criss cross lanes under freeway overpasses.  You can’t just turn left like a normal driver, you have to figure out which lane is going to take you where you want.  I suppose locals get used to it.  I hate it!

Ultimately, we get back to I70 and continue east.  We are following the Colorado River.  The buttes get closer forming a narrow valley.  The river, some vineyards, some train tracks.  Then the vineyards disappear, and the road narrows, and closely follows the contour of the rivers, necessitating slowing down.  It opens up, it narrows.  And so it goes until we get to Glenwood Springs.  Then it REALLY narrows!  Rugged rocky walls tower hundreds, if not thousands, of feet above us.  The road is really quite a feat of engineering.  The westbound lanes are on an elevated bridge, while the eastbound lanes are below on normal ground.  The eastbound lanes were probably both directions at one time.  There are tunnels.  Not just quicky tunnels, but going through rocky mountain tunnels.  The going is slow.  Out of the tunnels, the Rocky Mountains strut their stuff.  I love the grassy meadow grasses covering their peaks.  It is beautiful… but slow.  It is narrow.  And slow.  Then there is road construction… more slow.  Then it opens up for all of a minute, then stops.  More road construction.  Towing through road construction sites is never fun.  I always feel I should hold my breath to make us skinnier, as if that would work!  It is slow, slow, slow.  It is crowded.  As we pass Vail, I see the ski area from the front.  You can’t see the beautiful back bowls from here, but they are etched in my mind.  Slow… crowded…

We are finally able to pick up a little speed.  Spouse decides to stop in Frisco to pick up a few things at the store.  Off the freeway… road construction… and a detour.  An hour later, we are so frustrated.  We were thinking of staying at the Elks in Denver, which is only about 50 miles away.  But we were DONE!  We know that 50 miles may take hours!  So, we pulled  into a scenic viewpoint, and called it a day.  It was only a bit off the highway, so it was noisy.  NOISY!  But my vodka tonic still tasted good.  Dinner was great!  I could read and do puzzles.  The temperature was comfortable.  Screw the noise.  The view was quite nice.  A river, trees, railroad tracks with a tourist train.  It was pretty.  But noisy… 

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