Over the Rockies

To see the pictures better just click on them.
Saturday – Little late getting this done. Thursday was a busy day. Lots of miles again – for us anyway – almost 300. Most of it up and down over the Rockies. One pass was 9,500 and the next 10,700.

Jennie was a trooper. Just chugged along. No problems, didn’t overheat. Didn’t hold up too much traffic. And coming down the 7% grade no problems either. The Driver was very impressed with Jennie’s performance. Of course he treats her really nice.
Gearing down and not riding the breaks like some of the cars around us.

The high plains are kind of pretty. Lots of fields of golden wheat (the only reason I know it was wheat is ‘cause one of the fields had a sign saying Durum Wheat. Thank you farmer.
Also lots of potatoes grown up there too. One town we went through was getting ready for its Potato Festival this weekend. I went to middle school in Idaho (many, many long years ago) and every year in the fall the schools closed down for a week so the kids could help with the potato harvest. That’s where a lot of them made money for winter clothes. We called it “Spud Vacation.” Wonder if they still do it.
Still getting used to Jennie. Silly things. I wanted to put my window down and was looking for the button to push. Was about to ask The Driver how to put the window down when I noticed THE CRANK!!!! I had to wind the window down!!! – Didn’t know they still made crank windows – but after all she is 12 years old.
Going over the mountains was a beautiful drive. Some of the Aspens are already turning bright yellow.

Coming through one area we saw the usual diamond shaped yellow sign with an elk on it – meaning watch out for elk. Then there was another sign “Elk Detection Signal Area” What? Soon we started passing signs that would light up to show information – they were just black – then we came to one that was lit up it said “Wildlife in Area” – gad isn’t technology wonderful. How do they know? Someone sits out there behind the bushes and triggers the sign? I wonder if it lights up for squirrels?

Seems like we are using a lot of gasoline but then I have to remember that Jennie only has a 55 gallon tank as opposed to Alfie’s 100 gallon tank. Alfie gets about 8+ mpg consistently and Jennie is getting between 6 – 8 so far. So we have to stop much more often to refuel. Here in Colorado diesel is cheaper then unleaded. East of Co unleaded was cheaper than diesel. Will be interesting to try to figure out after we get home, which would have been the cheaper trip gas wise. Alfie or Jennie.
We took Red Roads all day from Walsenburg to our night stop in Cortez, Co. Very good road all the way. Lots of campgrounds along it. We ended up staying at a KOA – extremely nice campground. Good Wi-fi and nice bathrooms. Have to mention – we finally bought windshields wipers at Wal*Mart last night. So Bill will put them on tomorrow a.m.[They are now on]
After getting parked and set up we took off in Willie and went to visit Mesa Verde National Park. It was a few miles back the way we came and then 15 miles up a very winding road. But it was worth the trip. Amazing place. Just a couple of pictures will do a whole piece on it later. Mesa Verde was a thriving community about 1,400 years ago. Lived there for more than 700 years