November | 2015 | The Martin's American Adventure

I was very excited to start our time in Colorful Colorado. We have lots of friends in Colorado and I was looking forward to visiting with people we actually knew and had relationships with. This American Adventure has been a really fun trip, but Mike and I have been fairly isolated from any sort of regular social life. Most of the time, the only person we know in our environment is each other. I was giddy with the anticipation of interacting with new people! If truth be told, Mike was probably MORE excited than I was because it meant he was going to get a break from me and my constant jabbering. Someone else could listen to me for a change! He is the strong silent type. Man of few words. All that stuff. Me; well I’m talkative. Lively. Some would say to the point on the scale where it tips to obnoxious. Maybe. Probably. Let’s just agree that it is not impossible that Mike was, in fact, MORE EXCITED than I was to see my friends.

Two of the friends I was looking forward to seeing were Amy and Janet. The three of us went to High School together at Westlake in Austin, Texas. Janet and I were roommates in college at UT, and we also moved to Lake Tahoe for two consecutive summers after we turned 21 – to deal black jack at Harrah’s Casino on the South Shore. Amy and Janet had both moved to Denver for various reasons back in the ’90’s.

I took a little detour from The Lower 48 in 48 Tour back in August, and flew to Denver for a girls weekend with those two. While I was in Denver for my quick visit, I started looking around for possible RV parks we could stay in when it came time to spend our month in Colorado. It turns out that there are very few options for RV parks in the Denver metro area. I was getting worried until I found Cherry Creek State Park in Aurora. We three chickies drove out to take a look and it turned out to be a very nice campground. When I returned from the girl’s trip, Mike and I immediately reserved a spot at Cherry Creek to make sure we had a place to stay before the park became totally booked during the time we wanted to be there. Occupancy rates run high at that park, and we felt lucky to get a two-week reservation in one of the only two loops open during the winter season.

We said goodbye to Ogallala, NE on November 3rd and drove 3 1/2 hours west and south into Colorado, and finally Denver. We stopped for diesel at a truck stop on the outskirts of town, and then made our way to the park. Our spot was a pull-through with full hook-ups on a concrete pad with a nice gravel patio and thick grass all around us. We would have happily stayed in the same spot for 6 weeks, but they have a strict 14-day-stay-within-a-45-day-window policy, so we were only there for two quick weeks.

We didn’t engage in too many tourist activities like we normally would do in a town like Denver. We mostly just traded dinner parties at each other’s homes, went to the movies or shopping, and met for lunches, dinners, and happy hours. I did take a solo-road trip west on I-70 across the Rockies to see one of my mom’s dear friends who lives in Grand Junction. While I was out socializing with all my friends, Mike enjoyed fishing for trout in the lake at the park where we were camped.

Our drive on I-76 from western Nebraska to Denver, Colorado. The Rocky Mountains were just starting to come into view way out in the distance.

Spot #9 at Cherry Creek State Park.

The state park was covered in Magpies. They are from the Crow family, but they are much prettier with their white, black and teal color scheme.

Selfie at Nine Mile Station. Heading into downtown for lunch with the gang.

Public art in downtown Denver’s 16th Street Mall.

A tex-mex lunch selfie, I’m sure the blur has nothing at all to do with the number of margaritas consumed at the table!

Union Station in downtown Denver was recently completely renovated. Now, in addition to a train, bus and light rail station, it houses restaurants, shops, bars and a hotel!

Inside Union Station. The doors behind the arches on the top two floors are individual hotel rooms.

The tame mule deer at Cherry Creek State Park. This was taken with NO zoom from our bikes. We were that close, and they did not care one bit.

Part of the lake at Cherry Creek State Park.

Our campground was just north of Centennial Airport in Denver. Mike had lots of fun watching the plans pass over us on final.

Our campground was just north of Centennial Airport in Denver. Mike had lots of fun watching the planes pass over us on final.

More trout for our freezer!

We were happy to host a couple of dinner parties from our first Colorado camping spot. Mike served us up some fresh fried trout when the Sterns visited.

Broncos game on tv, some fishing, a campfire, a pan-fried trout dinner, and games like Taboo and Scattergories makes for a blurry selfie at the end of the evening.

A scene from one of our walks at Cherry Creek State Park.

The views from the campground of the Rockies in the distance made for a wonderful backdrop on our walks through the park.

We had a heavy-duty fire pit at our spot. It came in handy as the night time temperatures started dipping with the passing days of November.

Mike’s typical happy hour view.

Our first significant snow of the upcoming winter season.

It was super convenient to have the Nine Mile Light Rail Station so close to the state park. Mike and I took a quick 20-minute bike ride on paths through the park until we ended up at the rail station. Then, we boarded the train and took it into downtown to meet our friends for lunch. On another day, Mike dropped me off at the station and I made a solo trip back to downtown for another lunch date. $6 for no traffic or parking hassles was totally worth it!

The view from my friend Janet’s office. Denver is booming right now, in case you didn’t notice all of the cranes dotting the skyline.

Water skiers on the Cherry Creek Reservoir. I wonder how cold the water was!

Friday happy hour sunset from a dive bar near the state park called Emerald Isle. Excellent martinis!

When we met at summer camp around the age of 14/15, we did not need cheaters to read!

Piper was very bothered by the mule deer wandering by our camp site. The deer could have cared less about the frenzied dogs.

I took advantage of two back-to-back good weather days to drive west on I-70 across the Rockies to Grand Junction. One of my mom’s closest friends, Sugar, lives there and I wanted to see her. I made the drive over on a Saturday morning, had a great visit, and returned back to Denver on Sunday afternoon. Mike stayed at the park with the dogs while I was gone.

I couldn’t help but take some photos of the beautiful scenery on my Rocky Mountain road trip.

More beautiful vistas through the windshield.

Sugar’s dog Dixie. (I forgot to get a picture of the humans, but I did not forget a snapshot of the dog)!

Colorado National Monument just before sunset.

Another shot from Colorado National Monument.

The changing colors of the rocks in the mountains made the drive so pretty!

The favorite part of my Rocky Mountain Road trip was the time I spent driving through the White River National Forest. Spectacular scenery!

We spotted a coyote meandering through the campground as we pulled out of Cherry Creek State Park.

The reason(s) I wanted to stick so close to the Denver area during our time in Colorado.

We weren’t too strategic as we decided on our second stop in Nebraska. We knew we would be heading to Denver after we left the Cornhusker State, so we looked at a map and tried to locate something of interest somewhere in the middle between Ashland and Denver. Mike honed in on Lake McConaughy on the far western side of the state, slightly north of I-80 (which was the route we would be traveling to Denver). We were so impressed with Mahoney State Park, we wanted to stay in another Nebraska State Park if we could. Mike located a campground with full hook-ups on the lakeshore, but the Parks Department turned off the water to the park after the first freeze of the season, and we were due to arrive after that cold spell. I wasn’t interested in camping without a water hook-up. We have a 100-gallon fresh water storage tank in the Monaco, so we could have managed fine for several days. However, I opted for the convenience factor of parking once with full working water, sewer and electricity… and drive the car to the lake when we wanted to go. We settled for a Plan B and paid for two weeks at a tiny privately owned campground called Country View RV Park in the nearest town of Ogallala . It was just south of town on I-80 by the Tractor store and Walmart. The price was inexpensive and we were only six miles from the lake. All in all, it wasn’t a glamorous place to stay, but it was convenient and had everything we needed.

Ogallala is named for a band of Dakota Sioux and located on the Union Pacific Railroad. In its day, it was a lusty cowtown of the Old West. The Texas Trail went through this town. As did the Pony Express. Its geographic location made Ogallala the gateway to the northern plains in the late 1800’s. An influx of cattlemen who came to town to negotiate prices of Longhorns created a need for saloons, stores and hotels. An enormous cattle yard on the south side of town usually held 10 to 12 herds , each of 2,500 head – while they waited for their new owners. As a matter of fact, the little town still smelled strongly of cattle all these years later. It is obvious why the title of “Cowboy Capital” has been bestowed on Ogallala.

We spent two weeks here in cowboy land. There was heavy traffic on the road in front of our campground, but it was mainly comprised of trucks hauling harvested produce or tractors and other farm equipment. Mike fished at the big lake and at another small lake in the middle of town. He brought home fresh trout, crappie and bass each time he went out. I didn’t do too much from this stop – just the usual cooking, reading, walking, cleaning, blogging and campfireing . It was a relaxing second stop in Nebraska.

This bronze statue is called The Trail Boss. It is a tribute to the courageous men who came up the Texas Trail and recognizes the roll the trail drives played in establishing the beef cattle industry in the northern plains.

We would like to honor the City of Ogallala with an award from The Lower 48 in 48 Tour. Wackiest Water Tower. The municipal water tower had the picture of an alien painted on four sides. At night it had flashing red and white lights around the base of the container – about the bottom of the blue stripe. There was also a flashing red light on the top of the tower. It lit up at dusk each night. (I looked online and learned that it is actually painted to be a UFO, those are port holes the aliens are peering out of. The lights are landing lights for the space ship. Of course).

Mike spotted this little critter watching him fish one afternoon. Not sure, but I think its a weasel.

This hawk escorted us on an afternoon walk one day.

You can see why the two weeks in Ogallala were low key. We were in the middle of nowhere.

Doing some recon for a possible pheasant hunting expedition. Mike ultimately vetoed his idea because it is really necessary to have a few people and some dogs to be successful at pheasant hunting. Cessna is scared of guns, so we weren’t going to be using our own canines…

The types of fish that can be caught in Lake McConaughy.

Our campground was adjacent to a FedEx transfer lot, so the view wasn’t spectacular… until it came time to watch the sunset. We were able to enjoy several warm bright sunsets from this part of Nebraska.

Piper inspecting his human’s daily catch.

Each time Mike went fishing from this stop, his bucket looked like this when he got home.

Lake McConaughy (Big Mac) is one of Nebraska’s top outdoor vacation destinations. With 35,000 surface acres and 105 miles of shoreline, it is the state’s biggest playground offering year-round fun. Fishing is the primary drawing card, but other entertainment options include sailing, camping, windsurfing, scuba diving, water skiing and picnicking.

Lake Ogallala is also called The Little Lake. It is on the other side of the dam, and was created when fill dirt was taken to build the dam.

The road from town out to the lake.

Seems like we sure go to a lot of trouble to cook dinner outside, but it is more fun that way!

There were no walking paths or sidewalks anywhere near out campground. As a result, we loaded the dogs in the car and took them to a paved trail in town every day to get their exercise. From one end to the other and back was just about 3 miles. This was the view during our daily trek.

There were no walking paths or sidewalks anywhere near our campground. As a result, we loaded the dogs in the car and took them to a paved trail in town every day to get their exercise. From one end to the other and back was just about 3 miles. This was the view during our daily trek.

Ogallala is home to the Wild West Soap Box Derby Track. I’m not sure, but I doubt there are too many of these in the USA.

Our spot – number 9.

This glider was hanging out in the skies over Ogallala on the day we arrived.

Our last Nebraska campfire.

The Martin's American Adventure

The Lower 48 in 48 Tour

Monthly Archives: November 2015

Colorado Part I: Aurora

Nebraska Part II: Ogallala