Our 2 nights at Clear Creek was great and we were fortunate to luck out on such a nice location. We are going to have to come back another time to do more exploring in Golden. But today, we have a date to keep in Lakeside. It is the first day of Alumafandango and registration starts at 9am.
Tomorrow we are headed to the inaugural Alumafandango Airstream event in Lakeside a few miles down the road so today will be our last day here in Golden. The original plan was to go spend the day in the Golden Community Center which seemed a lot like the community center we loved so much in Fruita. But after all, it is Monday. That means I am stuck in the Airstream corresponding and working with my clients while Marlene and the kids had to find something else to do.
We got into the greater Denver area last night after the drive over the Rockies. We were beat and needed a place to crash. Marlene called up the Walmart and they gladly took in 5 weary travelers in their parking lot for the night.
Fruita, Colorado has treated us really well since we reemerged into civilization after our 10-day stint in Utah. We needed the 5-day stay to unwind and take things easy. Especially for Marlene who was on the verge of a panic attack after 10 days of driving through some of the most amazing but hair-raising mountain roads via Scenic Byways 12 and 24.
We are starting to get to know this little town of Fruita pretty well in our 5 nights here so far but that only means we will be moving on soon. Our first morning here, we tried to eat at the Hot Tomato Cafe only to find that most of the stores and restaurants here are closed on Mondays. Almost a whole week has gone by and we are finally getting around to try our luck again.
Today was hot. It was probably in the high 90s all day and at our electric and water only campsite, the AC for some reason was tripping the breakers after running about a half hour. We stayed in and tried not to melt until it got a little cooler but we had big plans for some late afternoon sightseeing.
Our campground at the Colorado State Park of Fruita is directly adjacent to the Dinosuar Museum. The girls have been excited about going to a museum on this trip and today we are finally getting a chance to do just that.
This morning we took a little trip into Grand Junction. Fruita is a small town about 10 miles west of it and there are lots more shopping and service options there. We are headed east on I-70 over the Rockies on Saturday and Marlene has been fretting the drive over the Rockies. We wanted to be as prepared as we can so off to the brake shop we go to get them checked out.
Our time at Capitol Reef National Park has come to an end. Tomorrow is Monday and I have pushed off my work obligations as long as I can without causing any serious pain for myself and others. It has been an awesome and unexpected experience as we knew very little about it prior to our arrival.
Today is our only full day here in Capitol Reef and we have a full agenda. Yesterday we completed the girls Junior Ranger program and got their badges so today we can just have fun and do some exploring.
Our night at Wonderland RV Park was brief. In a more populated area, we would have found a place to boondock instead. But since our 3G card doesn’t work real well, we opted to pay for the night since they promised a great wifi connection. Well, the connection was less than great up until about 11PM. Once everyone went to bed, I was able to take better advantage of it.
Last night’s drive-in really pooped the girls out. They were so into the Looney Tunes, they stayed up through the whole movie and slept in until almost 10am.
