DAY 1, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018

Off we go at 9:20a.m., ready or not!  We planned just a five hour trip to Craig, Colorado, over the mountain from our hometown of Loveland.  The week was exhausting and filled with unexpected complications, and so a shorter drive is great.  Cloudless blue skies with occasional views of forest fire smoke were with us all day.We crossed two mountain passes: Cameron Pass over 10,000 feet and Rabbit Ears Pass at 9,426 feet. The autumn colors changed dramatically as we reached higher elevations.  Aspen trees came in such beautiful shades of golden yellow, orange, and red and are framed by tall evergreens on every side. At mile marker 51 my first crippling charlie horse hit my right leg; it was so painful JL had to pullover so I could walk it off on the side of the mountain road.  Sometimes the human body has no mercy on its aging occupant. Twenty miles up the road and the left leg was not to be outdone.  Fortunately, we were stopping the Moose Center anyway so that worked out.  We never see moose there but they usually have bird feeders out, and we see Steller jays, pine siskins, pine grosbeaks, and hummingbirds. Today we were later in the day and really saw very little.

Colorado mountain passes have dramatic climbs up and down and sometimes take out-of-staters by surprise.  Imagine one is trying to descend without burning up the brakes and this large sign appears on the right and then again and again with decreasing  distance.  

The yellow lights flash ominously, and driver and passengers wonder if the term “truck” includes pickup trucks with heavy campers. Finally the dreaded(or lifesaving) ramp appears. 

                                 

The truck occupants exhale a great sigh of relief at having avoided such a calamity, and just as the driver tries to pry his locked fingers from the steering wheel, the entire  sign process starts again!

     At the top of one of the passes a Chinook helicopter flies over carrying a huge bucket of water headed for a fire nearby.  So many fires this year and so little rain in some the places.

At the bottom of Rabbit Ears pass we are met with beautiful ranch country as we head into Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  Steamboat is a resort town with great outdoor activities in every season from skiing to river rafting, hiking, and biking as well as a hot springs.  It used to be quaint and nestled in the foothills in the valley.  Now it is sprawling everywhere like so much of Colorado.  Skiing and the hot springs brought this little town from a hidden treasure to a commercial hotspot. We arrive in Craig for an overnight at the KOA Journey campground which had full hookups, meaning electric, water and sewer.  Just a bit of comfort before continuing.

  HOW IT ALL BEGAN

  Sept 20, 2018

     My husband JL and I are starting a great overland adventure.  When asked this week where he was taking our cabover camper pickup, he told the young clerk at the propane dealer, “The United States of America.”  I sure she saw him as an old guy who probably shouldn’t be driving this rig around town, much less traveling. He then gave a more expanded answer that we would be traveling across the country over several periods of time trying to see most, if not all, the states.

     So to back up a bit:

     In the beginning JL thought it would be grand  to take a 365 day trip all around the country in our camper.  Now a cabover camper is a self-contained camper that fits in the bed of a pickup (in our case a pickup with a long bed) with an extension over the cab for the bed.  In its compactness it contains a gas range,a small refrigerator/freezer, a microwave, a bathroom with shower and toilet, a queen bed, air conditioning and heating unit, and one slide out for dining!  That is quite an engineering and design accomplishment and would be considered “glamping” by those used to tenting.

                                       
 Back to the beginning again:

   

As a mother and “Granna” who has done quite a bit of Grannacare over the past nine years and with the the youngest grandchild at the adorable (most of the time) age of 3, I did not immediately take to the idea of leaving for a year.  So I offered him a compromise: Make the trip in 4-5 two to three month loops over the next 18-24 months.  It would still be the magic number of 365 days, but we could come home for a month or two between legs .  So began our adventure.

     One would think that a year would be more than enough time to research and plan such a set of trips; life, however, has a way of interrupting planning, and the tyranny of the urgent almost always triumphs.  We set general goals, but our planning became more “flexible.” Factoring in birding migration seasons, anticipated weather conditions, forest fires in the Northwest and California, and national and state parks and wildlife refuges, we planned the first leg through the Northwest and California Redwoods for September 21-November 19 (+/-). Family and volunteer commitments shifted the dates back and forward with almost windlike randomness, so we decided to be more free-spirited and are leaving with only one KOA reservation for the first night and two stays on properties of friends.  We have ideas of campgrounds, but we are unfettered, as it were, and maybe at the mercy of strangers and the ubiquitous Wal-Mart parking lots. 

     I tried writing a blog few years ago about birding adventures, but I quit after three posts. I’ll try to do better this time, but internet access will be quite spotty since we will be in the woods much of the time.  Postings will not be regular, but do not panic if a few days pass between posts.