Welcome to Part Two of the travelogue about our RV trip to Utah, Colorado & Nevada in the fall of 2018.
Map of Part 2 route
Saturday, Oct 6, 2018 (Colorado) Vail, CO (Gore Creek Campground) to Superior, CO (Cynda and Marcel’s home)
We saw yet more lovely scenery as we headed out of Vail Pass and toward Superior.
Upon arriving at Cynda & Marcel’s home, we got situated in their driveway, although there was a fair amount of brush swiping the coach as we backed in. And to get far enough back so that some of the tree branches weren’t blocking our door, Chris had to climb up the ladder on the back of the coach and hold one of the sturdier branches up and out of the way while I backed up the coach another 5 feet or so.
The day before we arrived, Cynda had mentioned possibly going out to dinner, but we gladly accepted their offer of a number of Persian dishes leftover from a group they’d had over the night before. We had a nice evening catching up and sharing photos and stories of our current trip and their very recent Colorado River rafting trip.
Sunday, Oct 7, 2018 (Colorado) Cynda and Marcel’s house
Today we went grocery shopping, a little over a week after leaving home. Time to replenish some dairy and produce, as well as ingredients for dinner that night. I had offered to cook dinner for all of us, and our nephew John joined us for chips & salsa, tortilla soup, Carnitas, and refried beans. We all love Mexican food so that was an easy choice. And then some more catching up and sipping wine.
Monday, Oct 8, 2018 (Colorado) Cynda and Marcel’s
No big plans today. Chris went with Cynda to see the offices of her foundation, Secure World Foundation, and Marcel’s foundation, One Earth Future. Check out the links to read about the wonderful work these two individuals are spearheading.
I stayed at the house and puttered around the kitchen, chatted with Cynda’s personal assistant Irma, and did some preliminary preparations for dinner. Tonight I made dinner again (my version of Chicken Cordon Bleu and French green beans), and joining us for dinner this night was Peter, the newly hired executive director for Cynda’s foundation.
During our stay we sure enjoyed visiting with Cynda’s cat ‘Boots’.
We also enjoyed drinking some great wine from Marcel’s cellar (an actual cellar, with a tiny ‘creek’ running through it).
Tuesday, Oct 9, 2018 (Colorado) Superior to Cañon City (The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey)
It’s time to say goodbye to family (and friends). We left Superior this morning and headed south, with a planned stop at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.
We had hoped to ride our bikes on a sight-seeing loop here, but it was drizzling, so we drove the loop in the coach, and took our pictures through the windows.
The uplifting and erosion that occurred here over millions of years left some really interesting shapes, including essentially vertical sheets of rock.
Our camp site for the night was another Harvest Host, The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey. There’s some interesting history here. There used to be Benedictine monks in the Holy Cross Abbey next to the tasting room. They made wine there, briefly, to help support themselves, before ultimately selling the abbey, and taking up residence in various other monasteries.
We browsed the lovely gift shop and did some wine tasting. And of course bought a couple of bottles of wine—a very nice Chardonnay and their ‘Reserve’ Cabernet Sauvignon.
Wednesday, Oct 10, 2018 (Colorado) Cañon City (The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey) to Del Norte (Town Park)
In the morning, we took a few pictures of the ‘Abbey’ from the coach, and then headed out. As we climbed, it began raining and then, in the area of Royal Gorge, it began snowing. Initially, there wasn’t enough to stick to the road, although it was collecting on trees, shrubs and rooftops.
As it got heavier and heavier, we went through a stretch where it was collecting just a bit on the road, and we pulled over in a campground parking lot to check the weather satellites to see just how long this storm might last. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a signal and decided to proceed, slowly.
Eventually the snow became rain, and we enjoyed lovely scenery driving along the Arkansas River, in spite of the cloudy, gray skies.
And as we neared the end of the gorge and started our descent, there were blue skies ahead.
