Day 3 (30 miles)

We took our time leaving today. We stopped at the grocery store and got gas before we packed up the camper and headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. We left about 1 PM. It was a lot nicer driving into the mountains at the beginning of the trip instead of at the end of the trip. The road to Estes Park from Loveland is a windy twisty climb. And it is not easy to do with a mini van loaded to capacity towing a camper.

It took about an hour to get to the park, so driving all night did pay off in the end.

We got to our campsite and setup the camper.

Then we went for a drive to see what was going on. Right away we saw a heard of grazing elk. We were able to walk right up to them.

Here is a view of the mountains from where we stopped to look at the elk.

We drove down to the start of the Cub Lake Trail (see last years blog). Apparently it has been a warm spring and the Big Thompson River is overflowing it’s banks.

Last year we were able to climb off the path and stand next to the river. Not this year. The river was so high it flooded the path at one point and I had to ferry people across.

 

We drove a little further and saw that they had started a controlled burn. We thought the gas cans were cool.

We headed back to the campsite for dinner. We had grilled sausage, and had cantaloupe, corn on the cob and salad. Here is a bird that came to visit us.

How cool is the view from our picnic table?

We started a fire and had smores.

We went to bed around 9 and  a storm rolled in about 9:30. I actually saw a tent rolling by. It did not last long, but the strong winds and lightning were not the best way to go to sleep. At 11:30 PM I realized the furnace was not working properly, so I got up and moved the van so I could plug it in to the camper and charge the battery. Earlier in the day I found a fuse that had blown and as a result the battery was not fully charged.I guess that is just the way it goes.

Day 2

From Ashley’s Diary:

Today is 6-6-2010

Me and my family are on vacation. Here is the good news, we had fun at the beach. And the bad news is we got caught in a  terrible storm.

Mom and I were terrified. There were tree branches blowing past our camper, large hail , and horrible winds. We don’t think anyone was hurt, but there was a lot of damage. There were awnings ripped off, chairs blown into the field and tents destroyed.

NOT FUN!

Did we mention HAIL?

 

(Tim) It was a was a weird day. I finally took a nap at 2 for a couple of hours. The kids made themselves lunch I got up at 3 and cooked some corn on the cob. We didn’t really eat dinner we snacked on stuff.  The storm came at 5 and I was in bed by 6:30.

That was the end of Day 2 for me zzzzzzz.

Hohman’s Camping 2010

DAY 1 (975 miles)

We left Elmhurst at 4:30 PM. My master plan was to drive through the night and then have the whole day at our first campsite. Our first stop Boyd Lake State Park in Loveland Colorado. Loveland is 975 miles from Elmhurst. The drive was mostly uneventful, however we did drive through a few crazy rain storms. Colleen and the kids watched movies I thought everyone would fall asleep, but everyone wasn’t asleep until 5 AM!  That is when the driving got tough. I drank a whole thermos of coffee and 3 cans of pop. August woke up at 7:30 and said:

“Aug hungry, eating would be good”.

 

Ashley said: “They look like peacocks”

 

We finally figured out she was talking about the trees.

We got to the campground around 8:00 AM (Mountain Time).  We unhooked the camper and went to the grocery store. We thought it made more sense to buy the food when we got there instead of driving it 1,000 miles.

 

Here we are setup at Boyd Lake State Park.