Almont, Colorado

Good morning, my friends! It's so good to see you this morning! I was sure we'd be without internet here, but there's a brand spanking new cell tower right on site, and the cell signal is banging in! If you thought you were going to get a break from my compulsive prattle, you're going to be disappointed.

The kitties were chill as always when we took off yesterday morning. Smitty rode the side slide in. (We call that "surfing the slide.") Sadie was in her cubby. 

It was around 70 miles to the state line. Soon enough, we crossed into Colorado. 

The road started out easy enough, if a little rough.

Eventually we crossed over the top of a mountain. Here we slowed way down to make some hairpin turns and steep inclines. In the image below, you can see the road above us running diagonally through the middle.

It was back and forth like that, around sharp curves, until we reached the summit of Douglas Pass at around 8,200 feet. What a view! This is one of the things we love about Colorado. It's easy to reach the top of a mountain and feel as if you're king or queen of the world.

And then it was down, down, down, still negotiating sharp curves. We traveled like this for many miles. And at such slow speeds, we probably added an hour to our trip just getting over this mountain.

When we reached the bottom...there we go...straight as an arrow.

We passed through the tiny town of Loma where I captured this old schoolhouse. It appears to be abandoned with the lower windows and doors boarded up.

There was scant information about this building, but Wikipedia tells us "[t]he first school was established in the 1890s, and the two-story Loma School was constructed in 1910 from yellow brick, fired on the grounds. The brick school remained in use until 1982, when Loma Elementary School opened."

Admittedly, I didn't take a lot of pictures yesterday since I wasn't expecting to be chatting with y'all. We traveled east quite a distance on US Hwy 50, heading north when we reached Gunnison. Along the way, we paused here, at this idyllic countryside.

It was a nice view, but we were stopped here 35 minutes waiting for a pilot car to take us through some major road construction. It went on for miles. It was hard to tell what was going on here, but they appeared to be completely rebuilding the road. Perhaps a landslide or flood caused some damage, but we couldn't tell for sure. 

Unfortunately, we'll have to go back the way we came. There is no alternative. Just now I looked up some information about the project. We'll be leaving here next Monday, and the information informs us that if we get through the area between 6:30-8:30 a.m. on Mondays, we can get through without delay. We're filing that information away for our future travels.

We were getting into some pretty country by the time we reached the other side of the construction project. This next image is of Blue Mesa Reservoir, which stretched on for miles.

The Google tells us that "[t]he 9,000-acre Blue Mesa Reservoir is the largest body of water entirely in Colorado and one of the state’s best beach spots. It’s in the Curecanti National Recreation Area, which has 96 miles of shoreline for sunbathing and other outdoor activities." It's formed by "Blue Mesa Dam ... a 390 foot tall earthen fill dam on the Gunnison River. ...[B]uilt in 1965, it created the Blue Mesa Reservoir."

Nearing our final destination, we saw a few barns. I nearly missed this first one. (I'm not really understanding the "IVX" part of that. If they're Roman numerals, then they don't make sense.)

Also, this one:

It was a long day of driving, and so we were pretty happy to reach this final stretch along the Taylor River. It's a beautiful stretch of road.

We were very near our final destination of Taylor Park Reservoir. We thought it might be raining, but it was actually sunlight shining through the clouds.

And there's a sight for sore eyes after a very long day of driving. Right in the middle of the image below, you can see Taylor Park Reservoir and Sky High Colorado RV park where I'm sitting as I write this post.

The kitties never act as if they know how much time they've been alone in the RV. They have access to their potty box, food, and water. All they care about is getting their treats. We arrived past their usual dinner time, and so Smitty struck a pose in his most handsome self to communicate his need for some food in his dinner bowl.

There's always a lot to do upon arrival, and so dinner was delayed for about five minutes. Delays in the serving of dinner will result in stern looks.

Okay, so here we are, and I'm going to be able to give you the blow-by-blow of each day's activities. I'm pretty happy about that since I hate to fall behind. Besides, it's a hassle setting up the time traveling machine, as I'm sure you can imagine. Today we'll do some ATV riding. We'll keep it simple to start and then take on some more difficult trails as we get acclimated to the surroundings. Temperatures have cooled significantly since leaving Utah. Being at more than 9,000 feet makes a big difference. Temperature outside just now is 35°F. It will warm up as the sun rises, but for now, it's frosty cold. There's actually some frost on the ATV's. 

After nearly a week on the road, I'll need to do some laundry. The park provides a nice laundry facility. We have a week here, and after such a long drive yesterday, it's nice to be off the road for a while. Also, it's been very noisy every place we've stayed. The RV parks have been along busy highways. Here, it was silent last night. We're in a remote area with only a dirt road for the final stretch to the RV park office. We requested a space away from others since most everyone here is riding some sort of off-road vehicle. It was the first really good night's sleep we've had since leaving home.

Mike has gone back to bed. That will give me some time for slow-stitching before breakfast. For now, get your helmets, goggles, gloves, and boots ready. Today, we ride.