The Humble Walker

We headed west out of Grand Junction towards Utah. The landscape was baron but still more interesting than the landscape in western Kansas and eastern Colorado. There were hills and hues of yellow and red. We turned on our audio book, “Project Hail Mary”, and the adventures of Dr. Grace and Rocky helped the time pass as we drove. At times I actually felt that I was on the Hail Mary or on on Adrian in the Tau Ceti System.

As we drove down the long pass into into Provo, Utah we started to see dark clouds on the horizon. We drove through Salt Lake City and as we reached Ogden, we started getting severe thunderstorm warnings on the radio. At one point google maps told us there was a severe storm between mile marker 130 and 142. We were at mile marker 129. We saw very dark clouds ahead and quickly got off the next exit and headed south. We found a grocery store and made it inside just as it started to pour. We saw the flashes of lighning thru the windows. We took advantage of the stop to do our grocery shopping for the next week and by the time we finished our shopping, the thunderstorm had stopped. There were branches down everywhere.

We drove a little further and found a state park on a bay on the Great Salt Lake called Willard Creek State Park.. There were very few campers there as it is off season and we found a beautiful site on the lake. It looks like it is quite busy in the summer. We had supper and took a nice long walk thru the park after. We are trying to get in 10,000 steps even on the days we drive a long distance,

The next morning we headed out for Denver at 6:00 am. After multiple episodes of stalling we finally made it to Dan’s house. We dropped off our camper in front of his house and drove to Ford dealership. Unfortunately, they told us the mechanic scheduled to look at it went home sick and they were unable to look at it until Monday. We were disappointed but I was happy to spend a little more time with Mae.

We spent the weekend riding bikes, at the playground, reading, gardening and enjoying the company of a very inquisitive 19 month old little girl By the time we left, Mae had learned a bunch of new words. .

We left Arvada and headed to Grand Junction for a visit with John’s daughter Molly and her husband Andy and two dogs, Banjo and Daisy. We set up camp at Camp Eddy, on the Colorado River. John headed to Molly’s house with the truck. (and our laundry). I decided to ride my bike to their house as there is a great bike trail almost directly to their house from the campground. They live in walking distance to the famed Lunch Loop mountain bike trails and there is a paved bike path from the campground all the way to the Colorado Monument. Next time we will head in that direction.

We spent the afternoon with Molly and then had dinner with Molly and Andy in Fruita. Molly and Andy are expecting a new addition to their family in about 6 weeks.

We left Mammoth Cave after our tour and traveled thru northern Kentucky into Missouri. We hoped to travel 6 hours and make it to the other side of Saint Louis. Because we are towing the camper with heavy bikes on the back, we usually only go 60 mph. The speed limit is closer to 70 and 75 mph so it generally takes longer than we estimate from Google Maps. I found a campground in East St Louis of all places and because we were quite tired we decided to stop there It had good reviews for safety and cleanliness – two things important to us. I started looking for a BBQ restaurant south of St Louis so we could eat before we arrived at the campground as we were hungry and tired. I stumbled on a local restaurant called Good Ole Days that had excellent reviews so we got off the highway to check in out.

The next morning, we headed out thru the St. Louis rush hour traffic. I had wanted to stop at the St Louis Arch but it seemed like parking with our camper would be a challendge since it is in downtown St. Louis, Instead we settled on pictures from the car and continued on our trip.

We headed off again. We found a county park outside of Topeika, Kansas called Lake Shawnee Campground and headed there for the night. The campground was very clean and well landscaped – another great find. We had a site on the lake, and made dinner, took a walk, did laundry and enjoyed the sunset.

We left Topeika and headed west toward Colorado. Once we went thru Kansas City, it was another long day of driving across a flat boring stretch of highway, We had downloaded “The Hail Mary” audiobook and listening to the story made the drive much more manageable. Our goal was to make it to the very western edge of Kansas and have only a couple hour drive to Dan and Lisa’s house the next day. Of course we were very much looking foward to visiting Mae who is now 19 months old already.

Unfortunately, as we got closer to Colorado, our truck started acting up. Each time we slowed down to get off exit ramp for gas or a break the truck would stall/\. We were able to restart only if we waited 10 or 15 minutes. This was not good or safe as it happened on exit ramps and at traffic lights etc. We finally made it to Goodland, Kansas and camped at a KOA just off the highway, The claim to fame of Goodland, Kansas is that it has world’s largest easel.

Our next stop is Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky – about 6 hours away. We drove back over Newcomb Pass pulling our trailer this time. It was very windy and steep in parts but because our camper is small we made it over and down into Gatlinburg with no problems. There were definitely a lot more people on this side of the park. We drove up and down many hills in Kentucky till we finally made it to Mammoth Cave.

The park was really pretty with bike trails, hiking paths and trees – a nice surprise. For some reason I was expecting dirt and rocks . We set up camp and after dinner went to find the showers. There were no showers at Deep Creek and while we took brief showers in our camper to conserve freshwater and not overload our gray water tank, we were looking forward to a longer (3 min for 25 cent) shower. We had reservations the next morning for The Historical Tour of the cave. The cost was $22 and the tour was 2 hours long. I’m glad I booked ahead as most of the tours were sold out.

We headed down into the cave thru the “historical entrance” following our tour guide ranger with about 50 school children. The ranger was excellent and described how the cave has been there 10 million years – way before the dinosaurs. It was heavily mined for saltpeter used to make gun powder in the War of 1812 and we saw original mining pipes and cars on our tour. The ranger stopped often for questions and the kids in the group asked a lot. I asked if they do safety checks and was told – yes, the first tour of the day ( ours) was the safety check. The cave has over 400 miles mapped and interestingly is too far down to even feel an earthquake. I would definitely comeback for an old fashion lantern tour and some above ground bike riding.

April 27 – 28. Maine to Maryland

After doing some last minute packing and securing the bikes on the back of our camper, we left around noon on Monday April 27 full of excitement about our upcoming adventure.   We drove through Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts and spent our first night near Newburgh, NY at a KOA campground.  Many campgrounds in New England are not yet open for the season.  There were very few campers in the campground as it is still early in the season but it looks like the place is hopping in the summer.   They have several pools, miniature golf,  wine shop etc.  It looks like it would be fun for kids.   We cooked supper and had a walk around the grounds.  

The next morning after a quick breakfast, we left and headed south thru New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  It was a long day driving thru traffic, construction etc. and we were very glad when we made it to a campground in Maryland.  We called ahead to get a site and when we arrived, the office was closed but information about our site was left on the door.  As we looked around, we saw that almost every one of the 250 sites had a camper on it but there was not a vehicle or a person to be seen. It was like everyone vanished.  I felt like I was on an episode of the twilight zone.  In hindsight, it appears that most people who stay at that campground had seasonal sites and since it was a Tuesday in late April, no one was there.   We made the best of the situation and headed off on a bike ride.  We were looking for the C and O Canal Towpath that ran close to the campground.  We found the Western Maryland Bike Trail first – a beautiful paved bike path thru the woods that runs parallel to the C & O Canal Towpath for 28 miles.  From there we did find the C & O Towpath and rode on that for a while.  The C @ O Towpath is mostly dirt and stone and runs 184 miles from Cumberland Maryland to Georgetown, D.C.    There are lots of primitive campsites on the trail.  Interestingly, the path was built for the mules that used to tow the boats thru the canal.