Day 24: Farewell to new friends and Alumafandango.

We woke up this morning to the sound of trucks, trailers and people shuffling around the rally field. Today is departure day and most people got an early start. I packed most of our gear away and scaled back to our basic boondocking setup last night so we can just kick back and wait until most people have left before we make our move.

Our neighbor Michael and Nancy from San Luis Obispo, CA was long gone by the time I stepped out. Instead of being in everyone’s way, we drove across the street to a local eatery, Sunrise Cafe, for some breakfast.

This monstrosity of a meal is their breakfast burrito for $6.25. Somewhere in there is a tortilla wrapped around a bunch of spicy meat.

The rally field was mostly empty by the time we got back. I hitched up the Mish but we were not quite ready to say goodbye just yet. There was only a handful of us that are left. To the left is Fred Coldwell, he is the foremost Airstream expert in all things vintage. If he doesn’t know about it, it probably doesn’t exist. Our van is hitched to the Mish on the right and a few spaces to the right of it is Rich and Eleanor’s 30 ft bunkhouse. All the way to the end of the field, on the other side of that F-350 pickup truck, are the Josh, Jessa and Jack whom we have been hanging out with all week.

The girls will miss Jack very much. At 4 years old, he is already quite the heart breaker. He is headed back to Kansas and will be attending preschool at Josh’s home town. We hope to see them again soon.

And just like that, the field was nearly empty. Two of the only trailers left in this photo is Kyle‘s 23-ft International and Lucy the Red and White Porta-Potty Trailer provided by Timeless Travel Trailers.

We are sticking around for a few more days in the area for a couple of reasons. One is for the package we are expecting to get here at the post office tomorrow. Since we’ve been here, we spent most of our time at the amusement park so we have hardly done any sightseeing of Denver at all. We will move to another campground for a few days so we can do things like the Coors Brewery tour and the Denver Zoo.

We called Clear Creek RV Park in Golden where we spent a couple of nights before Alumafandango but they told us they were booked for the night. Our backup plan is driving 20 minutes to the southeast side of Denver to camp at Cherry Creek State Park. It is a little further away than we wanted to be but it is one of the only options we have.

Before we left, Tiffany and Sean from Camp1899.com (Formerly WanderingAirstream.com) invited us to come by to their house just a few blocks down for a visit. They are another blogger couple whom we have been virtual friends with and finally got to meet them in person when they visited us at Alumafandango a couple of days ago.

This restored Argosy was once their home on wheels. Now it sits in the back of their house in Edgewater, Colorado where they have recently settled.

It is a small bungalow built in 1899 and Sean is in the process of completely restoring and modernizing it.

We originally intended on just a quick stop to say hello and chat with them some more now all of the madness of a rally is behind us. Mila immediately went into decompression mode on their couch.

Tiffany and Sean had lived in Charlotte, NC for many years before heading out for new horizons. That southern hospitality is still deeply rooted in them and they invited us to stay for dinner and drinks which we happily obliged. In fact, they even offered for us to courtesy park in the back of their house where they have full hookups next to their Argosy. It was very generous of them and since we didn’t have any leads on a campground for the night, we gladly accepted that offer, too.

The new friendships we have made here in Denver and the feeling of camaraderie between all of us Airstreamers at the rally is something we will always remember. For the next month or so, we are transitioning back to our usual exploring mode all by our lonesome.

over and out,
dan