Casino Hopping

Yes we went to the casinos at Black Hawk, Colorado yesterday. I did practice some at the crap table. It is a very hard game to understand. Big chance to make a lot of money and a big chance to lose a lot of money. Don't know if I will be able to put real money on the table or not. As is normally the case, Twila won money on the slots and I lost, but thankfully she won more than I lost. So, we went back today but we went to Central City instead of Black Hawk. I actually won and Twila lost but I didn't win enough to off set her losses. We only lost about $32.00 so I consider that as a win.

We had supper tonight with our next door neighbors, Ron and Jennifer. About the time we were leaving for Center City they invited us to have supper with them. They had prepared a pork loin wrapped in bacon and basted in a teriyaki sauce. It was cooked with potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery. Very good. We plan on pulling out some of our steaks and having them for supper some time next week. It got a little warmer today, 79F for a high. Really nice. We are thinking about trying a new 4X4 trail tomorrow. It will probably be an easy one.

More dizzy than usual

The last two days have been pretty laid back. I don't know if I have a case of altitude sickness or if its just blockage in my inner-ear but I have been real dizzy. I felt better yesterday and even better today so I guess it doesn't matter which one it is since it seems to be over. I think Twila is probably having withdrawal pains over the casinos being so close and yet so far with my not feeling good so I wouldn't be surprised if we don't have to make a visit today. Colorado is changing their gambling laws July the 2nd. I played blackjack last week and found out they have a maximum of a $5.00 bet and some tables are also a $5.00 minimum so it is next to impossible to beat them. You would have to have an unbelievable lucky streak, but starting July the 2nd they will raise the maximum bet to $100.00 which will give you a better chance to get ahead when the cards are running your way. Most of the casinos have not had craps since it takes so many employees to run a crap table and at $5.00 maximum bet it wasn't profitable. They will start the crap tables on July the 2nd and are now having free lessons to train their employees and to get the public acquainted with craps. I have always wanted to learn craps but it is a very complicated game and can be expensive to learn when you don't know something about it. If we go to the casinos today I plan on learning more on how to play craps while Twila is playing the "one armed bandits".

The weather is finally starting to get a little warmer since summer is officially here. It has been in the mid to upper 70's since we got here and in the mid 40's at night. We wouldn't mind it getting a little warmer but not much since the cool weather is what we came here for in the first place.

Not fun and a little scary

We drove to Mt. Evans today. It is the highest paved road in the US. This was fun and not scary. The scenery was breathtaking, and I mean literally. The end of the road was over 14,000 ft. We didn’t stay long since it was in the high 30’s to low 40’s and the wind was blowing a gale. Of course being seasoned experienced travelers we didn’t have any jackets in the Jeep. Now for the scary part. On the way back down from Mt. Evans I noticed there was a 4 wheel drive road about 10 miles from Idaho Springs. The name should have been warning enough, it was Devil’s Canyon Road. The second warning should have been that someone had swiped the sign to the road, but of course being the seasoned experienced 4 wheeler that I am, I totally ignored the warnings. The road started out as rough but not much of a 4 wheel trail, in fact, I remarked to Twila that a high clearance SUV could do it. Well, we came to a junction in the road where we could go left or right. We had a National Forest hand out map that show a road to the left, one to the right and one in the middle, so being a good Republican, I went to the right. No problem, still about the same as far as the road went. Then we came to another junction with 2 or 3 options. I picked the one that looked the easiest and we continued on. Before I knew what had happened, I was on a fairly rough road with no place to turn around and then all hell broke loose. I came to a section that luckily was down hill cause I don’t think my “Baby Jeep” could have made it going up hill. It was really bad, large rocks everywhere, I was sure wishing I had gone ahead and put skid plates on. Since I was going down hill I was able to go really slow using the brakes to easy over the rocks. Yes I did drag in places but we made it. Twila even moved some rocks that were small enough yet large enough I was afraid I would get them caught under the Jeep. We made it and the road got better except we came to another junction. Again 3 choices, this time I took the middle road, about 35 minutes later and an abundant of bad road we figured out we had made a long loop. By this time we were both thinking we might spent the night on the mountain. We were thinking it but not saying it. When we figured out we had made a loop that eliminated 2 of the three option we had before the loop. Being the great mathematician that I am that only left one road so we took it and about 1/8 of a mile down the road we came to another junction. We didn’t like the looks of the one to the right so we went straight ahead. We finally came to what I thought was the first junction we had made and sure enough we finally found the highway again. We both screamed for joy. Lesson learned, never take a trail that isn’t in my 4 wheel drive book or I am with someone else that knows the trail. I am worn out and only about half of it is from the driving. I think the rest was from being afraid we wouldn’t find our way out before dark.

Small town, so so campground

The town of Seibert, Colorado probably used to be a one horse town until someone, maybe the town drunk, ran over the horse. No that is not a true story but lets just say it makes Yale, Oklahoma look like a metropolis. The campground wasn’t much and it was a little over $25. The good new is it had 50 amp so we could run both air conditioners. I had thought about staying at Wal-mart in Goodland, Kansas but figured it was too hot and I would have to run the generator late. I don’t like to do that at a Wal-mart or a rest stop unless there are 18 wheelers running their engines.

We got up this morning and looked in our old “Next Exit” for somewhere to eat breakfast. We decided to stop at the Flying J at exit 361 in Limon. The only problem was the Flying J wasn’t at exit 361, so we just had a hamburger at Wendy’s. After eating we got back on I-70 and guess what, at exit 359 we found where the Flying J had moved. Going through Denver was a snap. I think I averaged about 55 mph; however the east side of Denver was a different matter. Some of the grades I was down to 35 mph, but “Big Blue” made it OK. I just backed off on the throttle and got a lower gear so she wouldn’t heat up.

We got to the campground (Cottonwood RV Camp) in Idaho Springs about 2:30 pm and were checked in and hooked up by 3:15 pm. The lot we got is not large, none of them are, but it is fairly level with plenty of room for the slides and parking for the Jeep. Looks like we are headed to Central City to check out the Casinos. More later.

More rain, long day

Yes, it rained again last night but it didn’t storm so no big deal. We got on the road by 9:20 am and headed north on I-135. Turned west at I-70 and then the boredom set in. Couldn’t keep Twila awake. Mile after mile of rolling hills. Stopped about 20 minutes at a rest stop for lunch then west, west, and more west. 331 miles from when we left, we arrived at Shady Grove Campground in Seibert, Colorado. Since we had crossed into Mountain Time to us it was 4 pm but it was only 3 pm here. Didn’t matter, we were ready to stop. We got hooked up and about 4:30 pm we had a small rain with a little wind. Just to be safe we pulled in the slides on the west side. It wasn’t to bad and only lasted about 25 minutes.

We won’t be in a big hurry tomorrow morning since we only have 167 miles to get to the campground at Idaho Springs, Colorado. We do have to go through Denver on I-70 though. Hopefully it won’t be to bad. We will probably leave about 11 am.

Mother Knows Best

Well as I said yesterday I had a plan. Get up, put it all in Big Blue, and leave by 10 am. Mother Nature had another plan, rain and more rain. Some time after 10:30 am it quit raining and we started moving. About 12 pm we left ……. so instead of going to Ellis, Kansas (339 miles) we got to McPherson, Kansas (200 miles). The great thing is “it don’t matter”. We still should be in Idaho Springs, Colorado by the 16th. I said should cause you don’t want to “mess with Mother Nature”.

We pulled into Stapaulaken Ranch RV Park & Horse Motel here in McPherson about 4:15 pm so we plan on getting a good nights sleep and then heading for the next stop in Seibert, Colorado tomorrow.

All I got to say is we're on the road again.

Last night in Oklahoma for a while

The bottoms of our feet are starting to itch. Just one more night and were on our way to Colorado for the summer. We are both ready to travel. I took the Jeep in to Bill Simpson, my mechanic in Yale, OK, and had him check the hoses, belts, brake pads, and rotate the tires so we should be good to go. Todd is going to have a going away/Father's day supper tonight. He said he's having steaks so it sounds good. Might be a little wine sipping going on too.

Twila picked up a new copy of Photoshop this week and I am trying to figure out how to re size pictures to load on the the blog. Its been a while since I worked with Photoshop and I haven't quite figured it out yet. I need to reduce the size of the pictures so it doesn't take so long to upload and download the blog.

We went to Tulsa last night to see Bill and Pat before we leave and to make sure the Indians have enough money to make it through the summer without our normal distribution. I'm pretty sure they will be alright. We were up all night and then drove home. I guess there is something I am missing about not being a youngster anymore. We got to bed about 8 am and I slept till about 1 pm. I hope it wasn't so much that I won't be able to sleep tonight.

We will be doing our last minute packing of the MH and the Jeep this evening so hopefully we can pull out about 10 am tomorrow morning. That is our normal departure time. I plan on driving to Ellis, Kansas the first day, which is about 340 miles. That is a little farther than I like to drive but it will make for an easy 2nd and third day and make it easy to get across Denver and into the Idaho Springs Campground in the early afternoon on the 16th. Guess I had better quit for now and get the whip after Twila.

I just added a picture to the profile. YEH!!!!!!

Stormy Weather

Wow! I just went through a very strong thunder storm. I had to bring the slides in on the passenger side of the coach because they were being sucked in and out about 4" at the top. The MH was being rocked back and forth pretty good also. Twila wasn't here, she went to Perkins to get her hair cut before we leave for Colorado.

We are planning on leaving here Sunday morning and will stay 2 nights on the road arriving at the campground in Idaho Springs, Colorado on Tuesday the 16th. We will be there until Tuesday morning July the 7th. We are looking forward to seeing Scot Andrew, his girls, and Angie while we are at Idaho Springs.

Well the storms are over for now, at least until the next wave, good old Oklahoma! More another day.