Well, we finally got our act together and got out of Little America. On the way out, we stopped at the post office and mailed a bunch of things home that we don’t need. Old paperwork and maps that we want to keep, photos, some clothes etc. We ate lunch before heading out, and it was 1pm by the time we hit the road.
Briefly down I-15, we exited south towards Flaming Gorge. This two lane road was excellent, smooth sweeping corners and very little traffic. I forget the number of the road right now, but it was the one on the west side of the park. Just before hitting Utah again, there is a steep downhill section with a bunch of tight switchbacks that were really fun. Briefly into Utah, we stopped at Dinosaur National Monument. I had been here once before (in 91), and liked it enough to go back. We just stopped at the visitor center on the west side, where they have exhibits, and info on the beasts. It is a really unique setup, rather than excavating all the bones, and reconstructing the dinosaurs, they have built a building around the hill where the bones were discovered (millions of years ago, it was the bottom of a riverbed that flooded, sweeping in dozens of the guys) and left them half buried/exposed as they were found. Lots of neat stuff for anyone interested in dinosaurs, and who isn't? We couldn't help but think about Tawny :-)
Just out of the park, we entered Colorado (woo hoo!) and stopped in the city of Dinosaur at a Colorado info center. After a quick check of maps and AAA camp books, we continued on towards Steamboat Springs, hoping to find a place to stay 50 or so miles before getting there. The road was dead straight, two lane stuff, but the scenery was great. The first stop was in Maybell. It was just a small town with a community park converted into a campground. It felt real weird to me, being surrounded by houses while camping… We pushed on to Craig. Oh yeah, about 30 miles before Craig, I noticed we had gone 240 miles and not hit reserve, the best ever for me. A quick check revealed what I feared, I had forgotten to put the gas back to on after the last gas stop. I had no idea when reserve was really hit, and the gage was well below empty (but the gage on the Concours is horribly inaccurate, so it's hard to tell). I dropped the speed to 65, and just cruised along, hoping we'd make it :-) We did (phew!), and actually could have gone another 10 to 15 miles. No problem. In Craig, we gassed up, got some groceries for the night, and headed to a KOA on the far side of town.
KOA's are convenient. That’s about all I'll say for them. For security (?) reasons in this particular campground, they leave the streetlights in the campground on all night, so its like sleeping, well, under a streetlight. Anyway, as far as KOA's go, it was fine. At least it had a hot tub :-) After a quick dinner of Mac and Cheese, we hit the tent for the night.
later,
david.
A story I don't want to forget, but I'm not sure if I can capture it appropriately in words. David mentioned the huge light above our tent that made it look like daylight all night long. Anyway, the sites were pretty close together and there were families all around us. David didn't want to make the long trek back to the bathroom so he decided he would just duck behind the tent to change out of his swimsuit. What he didn't realize is that we had completely opened the window in the back of the tent and had left the door wide open. I glanced up from cooking mac and cheese to see David in all his glory brightly lit up standing behind the tent. I just started laughing. Luckily no families were looking so no small children have been corrupted.
janet.
Get your own Free Home Page