Mountains!

We left Dodge City at 7AM Central time. We left this early because there was a thunderstorm rolling in and we wanted to drop the camper before it started raining. We had a great time travelling west into Colorado. It was a beautiful day, never getting hotter than 80 degrees. Most of the time it was in the mid '70s. We never ran the air conditioner, instead spent most of the time with the windows partway down.

Theresa and I, paying attention, first noticed the shadowy outline of the approaching mountains almost 30 minutes before the kids did. They were busy watching what was outside the sides of the van. Eastern Colorado is greener than Kansas, with sagebrush and small pine trees, things we didn't see in Kansas. We saw several deer. I'm not sure what kind they were. They had single spike type antlers. Were these mule deer or pronghorn antelope? We also saw two elk.

Once we reached the mountains the kids' excitement level really cranked up. The scenery was absolutely amazing. We had to climb over a mountain pass over 9000 feet above sea level to reach the San Luis valley. The van did fine, slowing just a bit, but really not having any trouble.

We reached Alamosa around 1, Mountain time. My grandmother lived in Alamosa as a child, and I drove through here once before, for a family reunion at Beaver Creek. I remember Alamosa as a city in a valley surrounded by mountains. I was right. The San Luis valley is about 80 miles across. We stopped in Alamosa for Frostys from Wendy's, then pushed on.

On the west side of the valley Wolf Creek Pass takes you over the Continental Divide. The road down is incredible, with switchbacks and steep grades, runaway truck ramps, and, to top it off, driving rain and lightning strikes hitting the mountain tops around the top of the pass. At one point we were above a cloud, and the road looped around the sheer rock wall where the cloud was hanging, so we drove 3/4 of the way around it. Really neat.

We got to our campground at Mesa Verde about 5 Mountain time. A total of 11 hours today, which is pretty good considering we lost 20 minutes at Wendys and 30 minutes getting gas and making a picnic lunch in Walesenburg (?). This is a really nice campground. They have two hot tubs, a pool, a strong wireless internet signal, and bathrooms that look like they came out of a luxury hotel. It's our most expensive place to stay, but with our Good Sam discount it's still under $40 per night.

Sam ran about 4 miles while Theresa and I did some laundry and Jeanette got online. There's no cell service here for us at all. I hope there will be service before we reach California, but I'm not holding my breath. Getting off the interstates onto the back roads is a fantastic way to travel (we took lots of pictures out the car windows today), and I guess no cell phone service is the trade off. I'll take that trade.

Tomorrow we're touring Mesa Verde National Park. We're not sure what we'll see there yet, but we know it will be fun.

If anyone needs to reach us, you can email any of us at any of our addresses. We've got internet through Wednesday morning (if we think to check it then) and then will have internet again on Thursday.