Travels with Tucker

Travels with Tucker

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Saying Goodbye to a Friend and New Beginnings

After the great bluegrass festival in Westcliffe, we had planned to spend a week in Colorado Springs, but a nagging repair issue with our trailer made us change plans and head instead to Longmont, an hour north of Denver. Here we had an appointment with an “expert” on our trailer to hopefully deal with it once and for all. Well, it didn’t work out the way we planned. The “expert” was a bust and we despaired of ever getting the slide-out on our trailer working again, and started to worry about what else might happen, and one thing led to another that led to ... our deciding to trade in the old Cypress and get a new trailer. We had gotten a tremendous amount of service out of our ten-year-old trailer that we bought knowing practically NOTHING about RV’s. As much as we loved the old Cypress, we had long wished we had some more room and some of the modern conveniences, . Long story short, we bought a new trailer in Longmont, to be delivered in mid-August, so we had a month to get ready to move and say goodby to our home for nearly 4 years. After we left Longmont, we spent the next month in Cheyenne, the Medicine Bows, Dumont Lake and Dillon Lake.
Returning to Longmont on the 16th of August, we spent a day moving ALL our stuff out of the Cypress and into the new Open Range Roamer. We spent the next six days trying to shoehorn everything into the new space, at times despairing that we coud fit it all. But we eventually managed and drove off into the sunset. We love the new trailer and look forward to many happy travels living it her.  We are thinking of naming her"Serenity"--a few of our friends may recognize why.

In remembrance of our first trailer and our home for so many adventures, here is a photo tribute:

Alabama Hills, CA
Big Sur, CA
Blythe, CA
Buena Vista, CO
Carlsbad, CA
Cedar Mesa, UT
Cedar Mesa, UT
Dana Point, CA
Death Valley, CA 
Dumont Lake, CO
Ft. Pickens, FL
Gettysburg, PA

Grand Canyon, AZ
Grass Valley, CA
?????
Jalama Beach, CA
Joshua Tree, CA
Joshua Tree, CA
Joshua Tree, CA
Key  Largo, FL
Kings Canyon, CA
Klamath River, CA
Klamath, CA
Kodachrome Basin, UT
Lone Pine, CA
Mammoth Cave, KY
Mesa, AZ
Natchez Trace, MS
New Brunswick, Canada
Niagara Falls, NY
Cheticamp, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia, Canada
Winery near Toledo, OH
Truck stop, somewhere in OK
Organ Pipe Cactus NM, AZ
Palm Springs, CA
Palo Duro Canyon, TX
Santee Lakes, CA
Tampa, FL
Valley of Fire, NV
Western VA
Western VA
York, ME
Yosemite, CA

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Dillon Reservoir, Summit County Colorado

We got to spend a long weekend with Jeff and Katie, who flew and drove in from San Francisco. We did some hiking and some brew-pub crawling and some Rummicube playing and kept them busy the whole time. The Dillon Lake area was a total surprise to me, exceeding expectations. It’s right on Interstate 70 and in the middle of five ski areas, so I figured it would be totally developed. It sort of is, but there is so much easily eccessible nature and the campground felt quite isolated, that we loved it...and enjoyed the civilize amenities too.

We hiked McCullough Gulch, Lily Pad Lake and Lower Boulder Lake. We explored Loveland Pass, one of the highest passes in the country. We drove down a wicked bad road to a little lake and completely lost the trail that was supposed to go around it, so we just hung out on the shore. We cooked Jeff and Katie our mega-nachos and watched the amazing clouds play with the amazing mountains. And we nervously prepared to hit the road toward what we knew was going to be a momentous week...stay tuned!

Mountain goats on the McCullough Gulch trail
Lake at the upper end of McCullough Gulch in the Tenmile Range


We got a bit turned around on this hike...but never lost!
Lily Pad Lake
Little Lily Pad Lake
Cataract Lake
Sunset light over our campground at Dillon Lake
On the trail to Lower Boulder Lake
Glimpses of the Gore Range on the way to Lower Boulder Lake
Lower Boulder Lake
Lower Boulder Lake

Little waterfall below Boulder Lake