Wednesday, July 27, 2011

2011 Jeep trip















Well, our long awaited jeep trip was last weekend (sorry for the delay in getting this posted, but as you all know, we had a very ugly virus and just got our computer back this week), We left South Fork at 9:45 a.m. riding with Jim Chapman in his jeep. We met up with Jim's brothers, Ron with wife Cindy and Don with two friends Rick and Sharon along with another friend of theirs Rendall and his son and girlfriend. All total, we had (4) jeeps on this trip. The first part of the trip was pretty much all highway driving until we got to Lake City, Colorado. Once we arrived at Lake City, we all took a small break before we hit Engineer Pass ( 12,795 ft). The first few miles were two wheel territory, but after that it was all 4 wheel high clearance. We were on a total of four different passes that day: Engineer Pass, California Gulch Pass (12,963 ft), Hurrican Pass and Corkscrew Pass (12,217 ft). The scenery from the highways is always great here in Colorado, but......once you get into the back country you see some of the most spectacular scenery anywhere in the world. Both Linda and my eyes and heads were swiveling every whichway. The two track took us up and down and back up, sometimes over 12,500 foot. when you hit the summit, it was a long way down on narrow tracks that were dug out of the side of the mountains. Most of the roads were hand dug back in the mid to late 1800's by miners wanting to get their gold, silver and other precious metals to market or to a procesor. We arrived at our destination, which was Ouray, Colorado at around 5:30 p.m., checked into our hotel for the weekend, got a bite to eat and then we all CRASHED. We were all exhausted!!!!!!


Day 2 started with a nice breakfast and we were on our way at about 9:45 a.m. We left Ouray and headed to Imogene Pass (13,117 ft). This pass was much more difficult than the passes that we were on Friday. I'm glad we had a very experienced driver. We arrived in Telluride around 2:00 p.m., had a very nice lunch at Smuggler's, wandered around town a little (this is a very "yuppie" town) and got back on the "road" around 4:15 p.m. We took Ophir Pass (11,789 ft) back to Ouray and got back to the hotel around 6:00 p.m. Originally, we had planned on a nice dinner out, but since we ate lunch so late, we decided on a few drinks instead......which turned into a few more drinks......I think you get the picture.



I could go on for hours telling you how spectacular the trip was...but in reality you would have to do it yourself. All of the pictures we took (256) can not do justice to the trip.

An example of this is the picture of Linda above. If you look close you will see at her feet a valley. She is standing on the edge of a cliff that is at least 1000-1500 tall. Scared me, I had to look away in case she fell!!!! You all know that she has no fear of heights at all.....unlike me!!!!!!!!


So, instead of me trying to tell you how beautiful it is out here......just look at the pictures....it will give you some idea of what it is like.





We both told Jim C. that we wanted to do it again, only this time both of us want a chance to drive some of the trip....Looking forward to doing that in 2013 which is our next year to travel during the summer.


We can't thank Jim enough for including us in this wonderful trip.........


Take care, love to all of you

Jim and Linda





























Wednesday, July 20, 2011

South Fork, Colorado

Hi All
We are at the National forrest campground in South Fork. Have been here just over a week and love it. No hookups. The views are spectacular. Will be here until September 13th and than not sure where we are going. Talking with Jim and Bobbie about a trip into Washington, Oregon and California, but that is still cast in jello.
Computer crashed upon opening an email from a friend. Need a new hard drive and it is still at the repair shop.
We will be taking our jeep trip this Friday thru Sunday and are looking forward to that. One downside is that the scariest pass is still closed due to snow....I really wanted to do all of them...what the heck if I am going to be scared, might as well be really scared.
Jim and Linda

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Hotter than the hinges of you know where

I plan to post a travel update, including our vacation, when we get to Colorado. That will be tomorrow.
When we looked at the weather going across Kansas on US54 and US50 it was 105....so we changed plans and are zooming across Kansas...well at our rate anyway....345 miles a day.
AsI write this in Garden City it is 103 and we have seen temps as high as 107 today....we are both sweating lots and lots...the sweat is dripping off of me as I write this. Yes the air conditioner is on, but the trailer was well over 100 when we stopped so it will not cool off until about midnight.
South Fork Colorado is supposed to be in low 70's with rain for next several days!!!!!!!
Holy sh-t is it hot!!!!!
Jim and Linda