Colorado!

I finally left home on May 31st,  two whole days later than I wanted to.  It took longer than I thought to move everything from home into the storage unit, and to move the contents of the small storage unit into the new bigger one. My back was really hurting plus it was very hot, so I wasn’t able to do as much as I thought I could. Pretty miserable time but I finally kicked free!

The first day I drove as far as Durango, CO and stayed at a place called Durfield BLM between Durango and Bayfield. The GPS coordinates took me to a residential subdivision and as I was turning around, a man came up and told me how to find the place. He said that happens a lot. So I found the correct turnoff and then there were several ways to go. I chose the wrong way and ended up at a locked gate with no place to turn around! I had to back the rig up for more than ½ mile, downhill and around curves, with a big dropoff on one side!!  That got my heart going good. I finally found the right road and got a nice campsite in the pines.

The next day I went on, thinking I’d head to Granite or Leadville, where I had several choices of where to camp. After I went over Wolf Creek Pass, I kept seeing signs that said “National Forest Access Road”. My curiosity got the better of me and I turned onto one of them and found some really nice  campsites on a lively little stream. I had no cell service so I drove on out to town to let my “keeper” Patricia know where I was going to be, and that she might not be hearing from me every morning. Normally, I text her every morning to say “I’m still alive”.

So I have this lovely little spot in the pines, on the edge of a stream. There’s a very large site right across the road from me and two older ladies pulled in there just seconds after I got this site! Phew, I’ll bet they would have taken this one if they’d seen it first. It is about ten miles to the little town of South Fork. The elevation here is around 8200’ and the temps have been in the 70’s. Last night it went down to 32 degrees but I’ll take that along with the cooler daytime temps.

The only drawbacks to this place are that it’s a very dusty dirt road and there’s a considerable amount of traffic from cars & trucks plus ATV’s, and there are mosquitoes at dusk and dawn.. So far the dust is blowing away from me but that could change.  I was only going to stay the weekend here but now I think I might stay longer. If I continued on to Granite or Leadville, the temperatures will be considerably colder at night. I usually have a pretty good idea of where I’m aiming for, but South Fork was not even on my radar! I’m glad I found it.

The first day I went into South Fork to get a few groceries and on a crazy whim, I decided to have lunch at the South Fork Malt Shoppe, a cute little take-out diner that advertised hamburgers, shakes and malts. They were way more expensive than I thought they’d be, so I thought and thought a long time before I ordered, but in the end I just went for it. Gulp! I paid $13.50 for a hamburger, fries and malt! And that is why I never eat out. It was a ⅓ lb. Angus burger (that’s the cheapest thing on the menu) with seasoned skinny fries, and it was delicious but I couldn’t eat it all. Roxie got the rest of the hamburger with her dinner. The malt was really good too, so at least I got GOOD food for the money.  

I came back and took a two-hour nap. This is the life!!