Texas - Colorado

*Sorry these posts are delayed, our battery box is acting up so I couldn't charge my laptop for a while.

So instead of seeing Roswell, NM, Chris and I decided we would head straight through to Colorado which would allow us to be closer to our destination we had reserved the next day and avoid any chances of getting stuck in the New Mexican desert. Colorado Springs was the new destination of the day! We left the dry, very windy campsite in Texas and drove northwest. We never did get to talk to the dirt bike rider again since he slept in past when we left. Western Texas stretched on with more and more desert and then suddenly we were in New Mexico and it looked exactly the same for a few hundred more miles. These are the areas where you really have to watch your gas level or you could run out in the absolute middle of nowhere and be in quite the pickle.

We happened upon a gas station when we were down to half a tank and decided it was time to fill up just in case. This station was the trucker oasis in the middle of the desert. It was a restaurant, convenience store, and more. We decided to stop for lunch since we knew it could be a while until we found anything else. There was a "Now Hiring" sign on the door and I couldn't help but laugh because who in the world would want to work there?? Their commute must be insane. Anyway, we both got Mexican steak with rice and beans and it was, well, edible. We continued on through New Mexico and soon enough were in Colorado's desert. (America has a whole lot of deserts that we use for power production, farmland, or abandoned buildings)

The next campsite was booked at a KOA in Colorado Springs, just off the highway. We got to this one before 6pm - the sun hadn't even set! :O accomplishments. I fit in a quick run with Zena and did some exercises before taking a shower. It was COLD here which we had not really experienced yet on the trip. Chris was nice enough to drive the truck over to the bathrooms for me so I didn't have to walk across the property with wet hair. This was about the time we were figuring out something was wrong with the inverter so he messed with that while I showered. Since it was so cold out, we decided it was worth going out to dinner so we could sit inside a real building. The best part? We found a DOG FRIENDLY PUB!! It was called Pub Dog and dogs could come inside with their owners or play in the dog park area out back. It is Colorado's first and currently only dog-friendly restaurant. They were closing soon when we got there so we opted to just have the dogs sit-in with us and order relatively quick bites. There were two other families with dogs there, one with a few children and a hyper aussie mountain dog, and a young couple with a very well behaved hound. Upon entering, Ratchet nervously retreated to the corner of the room behind all of us and the table to be in a "safe" corner, while Zena excitedly tried to visit all of the other guests and taste their food while knocking over tables and chairs. Could they be any more different? The set up of the restaurant had us order and pick up our food at the bar, then take dishes to a bus tub when we were finished. I ordered a taco salad, Chris got a turkey club sandwich, we shared artichoke dip, and Zena got some chicken soup, Ratchet said he wasn't hungry. The people food was classic pub food with some flare, but the dog food was impressive since they clearly made the soup fresh with veggies and chicken in broth. Zena gobbled it right up while pushing the bowl all over the floor. By the way, the floors are cement and the dog food comes on disposable dishes. Since they were about closing, we wrapped up and left highly impressed that this place existed.

Back at the campsite, we brainstormed ideas on how to keep warm in the dropping temps. We had planned on a heated blanket and three small 12V space heaters but 3/4 of those things had failed us for various reasons. We wired up two of the heaters, layered on the blankets, and had us and the dogs all snuggled up and it felt a couple steps above survivable. I woke up extra early from being freezing, but hey, no frostbite! The truck cap was wet again since we did not have the vent fan running but this time the windows were frosty, my contact case had frozen solid, and the truck battery had died since we were running those heater fans on it until we could fix the inverter box. Boy, isn't this exciting?! The morning involved walking the dogs, jumping the truck with our other battery, defrosting contacts (it worked!), taking vitamins, and really appreciating the warmth sunlight brings. Our next excursion was...driving up to the summit of Pike's Peak!!

The base of Pike's Peak is only about a half hour drive from Colorado Springs. We stopped for breakfast (I know this eating out stuff is getting bad, we need to go grocery shopping again) at Starbucks where Chris got some sandwich and carrots box and I got a morning protein pack and a grass-fed butter latte. This was the best tasting hot drink I've had in a while after braving that cold night. We drove on to Pike's Peak and met a girl at the gate that sold us tickets and gave the puppies treats, Ratchet didn't even bark at her! It costs $10/adult and is a 19 mile trip to the top is the road is safe all the way up. When we began, only 13.5 miles were open but they opened the last section during our traverse up the mountain. The road was very windey, had many switchbacks, and only had guardrails in a few sections. Chris was surprised they let the public drive up there, it was also the first time I had seen him drive purposefully below the speed limit due to worry of danger. As we passed each mile marker we awed at the elevation we were gaining and the views around us. I was fascinated by the granite formations around every turn. When we finally made it to the top over 19 miles later, we parked the truck and hopped out to much colder and windier weather than either of us expected. We knew the air was getting thin as it was even harder to breathe sitting in the car. We barely made it across the parking lot to the summit sign without getting blown over. A few photos later and we hopped back in the car and cranked the heat. We drove past an unexpected army building and realized the lodges up there were mobile homes. This made sense because where in the world do you find construction workers willing to work at altitudes above 14,000 feet? but was still surprising that they has semi-trucks pull all these buildings up the mountain. We pulled back onto the windey roadway and began the low-gear trip down the mountain. A few photo-ops and a gift shop visit later we were down the mountain and on the way back to our KOA to pick up our trailer and head out to cross the Rocky Mountains with all of our belongings this time.

Our next journey was from Colorado Springs to Steamboat Springs, CO. This was the big pass that we were worried about because we had to do the elevation climb with the trailer that holds all of our belongings and is pulled by our six cylinder truck. The whole trip was supposed to take about four hours but it always takes extra since we're pulling the trailer and stop for food and gas, so we expected extra. We got on the road heading north to Denver and then switched over to route 40 to I-70 to head northwest. As we climbed the foothills of the Rockies Chris repeatedly asked "Is this the steepest part?". I tried my best to encourage him that we could keep going. Every time we dropped below 40 mph in order to keep the truck from revving too high he put the flashers on but we kept chugging along up the hill. Soon enough we were in the villages in between mountains and some gusty winds really began to kick up. Suddenly we heard a pop and saw the lid of our cooler fly up in the wind and Chris began laughing as I worriedly looked around to see if any of our food was flying out too. He realized before me that the pop was just the bungee we had on the front boxes breaking. He paused at the bottom of the next hill so I could shut the trailer lid and somehow it stayed closed for a while even without the tie down. We continued up the next hill where we were really climbing into the main part of the Rockies, but luckily the road was paved as to keep a relatively consistent and reasonable incline. Continuing up I-70, we passed a few ski areas and eventually started seeing signs for Loveland. I had remembered going over Loveland Pass from traveling the route during my geology field camp two years prior so I decided we needed to take that exit and go over it together this time! We took the exit towards Loveland and the signs informed us it was another few miles to the pass. Chris asked if this was the route that went up and over the mountain as opposed to through the tunnel but I denied that that was the case. This road was only about six miles long but it definitely had the steepest sections we had traveled yet on the drive. The speed limit slowed to 30 mph but we continued hovering just under that. There were so many turns that I kept thinking were the last one to reach the top but it wasn't until about the eighth one that we finally really did. I was ecstatic! It was so exciting that we finally made it all the way to 11,990 feet elevation with all of our belongings, the two dogs, and everything using only our 4.2L engine, 20 year old truck!

I told Chris to pull over so we could hop out and experience the view from the pass. It was a big too cold to get the dogs out so just the two of us ran up to the sign and appreciated the stunning view surrounding Loveland Pass. After snapping a few pictures, we jumped back in the car and once again began a descent from high elevation. We cruised right on down the mountains and into the next gas stop as we had used 3/4 of a tank of gas getting over the Rockies. It took about another hour and a half to get to Steamboat where we found our reserved Airbnb, picked up our ski and board rentals, and went grocery shopping. The Airbnb was a tiny blue house where we rented a studio apartment-sized portion with a futon bed and sloped ceilings. It was nicely decorated with wood floors and modern minimalist design. It was especially nice to have a warm place to stay while in the cold Colorado weather.

On March 7th, we woke up early trying our best to get to the mountain for slope opening. Chris made an awesome breakfast for us while I walked the dogs. He started with a pack of uncured bacon, then decided we would need some veggies and made greens and mushrooms cooked in butter, then found a very ripe avocado he split in half for us, and finally fried some organic eggs over easy to bring it all together. I feel very lucky to have a husband that learned to cook such great food since we've been married. So we left our house and drove to the mountain, about ten minutes away. It was a Wednesday and we found free parking that we had come across the night before and there were still spaces even by the time the mountain was opening. We gathered up our gear and found the gondola and the ticket office to pick up our lift cards. This was Chris' first time skiing in Colorado and I hadn't been out here skiing for eight years. We boarded the gondola and ascended the mountain enjoying the peaceful hum of the car as I awed at the gorgeous views surrounding us. We were riding with another couple that was from Kansas city and taking a vacation snowboarding all over Colorado. Every time we appeared to be cresting a hill Chris thought we were getting off only to be surprised with yet another section of mountain to climb. When it was finally time to get off, we grabbed our gear and made our way to a nice easy green circle slope called 'Why Not' to start the day. The morning consisted of a lot of blue square slopes, a few winding green circles, plenty of interesting people on the lifts, and sunny blue skies. We waited out the normal skier lunch rush and paused our day around 1pm in the lodge at the saddle of the mountain. I had packed us a bunch of different keto snacks with a few fresh foods that I had fully expected to last in our backpacks but of course Chris somehow smashed his avocado all over his bag (p.s. this was the second time this had happened to him). Anyway, we refueled on tuna, jerky, nuts, cherry tomatoes, and got back out for a couple more hours of skiing Steamboat. We tried to stay on some more calm slopes since we had mostly fried our legs during the morning but that's about impossible so we road until we just about collapsed at the bottom of the mountain. After finally getting the truck and heading back to the house, we spent the rest of the night walking the dogs, making dinner, stretching, and watching movies. Riding Steamboat was a success...and we still had two more days here!