Today is not going to be a fun day. It is raining and we have to climb over 6000 feet in elevation to go over the Rocky Mountains on our way around Denver to Colorado Springs. We left Grand Junction at a reasonable time, but the GPS wanted me to take the back roads over the mountains. No matter how many times I made it re-calculate, it would never pick up on the fact that I wanted to stay on the Interstate. Ain’t technology grand!?! Finally I just switched it off. After all, I made it almost 40 years reading maps the old fashioned way. Sarah takes great delight in asking me if “Hallie is getting us lost again” (why the GPS is named Hallie is a long story. The short version is that when I first got it, I thought the female mechanical voice sounded like the sister of the computer voice in the movie “2000 A Space Odyssey”. That computer was named HAL2000 so his sister would have to be…yea, you guessed it) after a trip she and Missy took through the corn fields of Indiana because they were following Hallie’s directions.
Technological malfeasance aside, we did make it to I-70 and started east. It took about an hour to reach Glenwood Springs and for the climb to start. I had thought we might drive out of the rain because it was slowing down and the sky was getting lighter, but as soon as we started to go up, the rain got harder. By the time we reached the Eisenhower Memorial tunnel about 45 minutes outside of Denver (the highest vehicular tunnel in the world with an elevation of 11,158 feet according to the sign) the temperature outside had dropped to 39 degrees. Yea…39 freaking degrees at the end of July!! I guess I should be thankful that it was raining and not snowing.
Hauling the trailer up the incline really sucked. About as fast as we could maintain was 40 miles per hour. If I tried to go any faster, the transmission would drop into first gear and the RMP’s would shoot up above 5000. Better to keep it in second gear and take our time. A hill like that is one of those rare times you are thankful you cannot afford a larger trailer.
We did finally make it around Denver and decided to stop at a Chili’s for dinner. After a nice meal we piled back in the truck and drove the last hour to the KOA campground in Colorado Springs. Most KOA campgrounds are pretty nice and because of that they tend to cost a bit more than other campgrounds. This one is very average and given the price, not a very good value. But, at this point, I am not willing to go through the hassle of finding another place, so we decided to just stay put. It was getting late when we arrived, so we finished setting up the camper and got the kids right to bed. Since I am still not feeling 100% and it was stressful day, I was asleep on the couch shortly after the kids were down.
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