One of Six!

How much does that tripod weigh? – Day 36 (3304 miles)

We have been visiting family in Colorado for many years, previously on road trips via other states and we’ve actually not seen that much of Colorado itself. Not so surprising considering just this state alone is approximately 17,ooo square miles larger than the whole of mainland UK (what do you mean did I Google that fact?)!

We headed down to the Great Sand Dunes NP which is in the South East corner of the state for a couple of nights camping, we had heard the scenery is pretty spectacular as the park is surrounded by the Sangre de Cristo mountains and also includes the highest sand dunes in the USA.

Some days we still underestimate the toll that the altitude here (8,200 ft above sea level) plus the temperature which is over 30c most days, takes on us. We set up camp and set off to walk to the visitors centre, it was only 1.6 miles up and down a bit of a hill but in the afternoon sun it was a bit of a slog. The coolest room in the visitors centre was set out for a TV presentation, perfect we thought, sit here for a bit and watch an information film while cooling off. In breezes a young, eager park ranger who announces the start of a 45 minute art class to create our interpretation of the sand dunes! We were so hot we stuck it out just to cool down. No need to comment on the results thank you.

Next morning we were up at 5.30am to walk the 699 ft to the top of the dunes for what promised to be a worthwhile view in the early morning sun. How hard could it be? Well, understandably John wanted to get the best pics he could but the effort of carrying the tripod, cameras etc. kind of shows….

Intrepid explorer

I think John would have done without the tripod if he had realised how hard it would be to walk in that much sand but saying that he got some great photos.

That’s me!

And more…..

We’re eating well

Loving the sand!

A little footnote to Sylvia, Andrea and Gus, we really enjoyed our chats with you all, wish we’d taken your photo! Wishing you all happy travels on this trip and those to come.

Adios for nowxxx

People and Parks – Day 32 (2947 miles)

On arrival in NY we had a couple of days to wait for Juanita to clear customs. We were staying in a Air BnB room in Queens, what a great location! To get into the centre of the city was only a 20 min/ $4.50 train journey, we did go in one day for some cheap sightseeing (walked 14km) but to be honest Queens was such a friendly neighbourhood we were happy just to walk around and talk to people. We ate great Afro Caribbean food for reasonable prices and chilled.

Not bad for $40 dollars a night, our host Deborah was incredibly helpful.

We picked up the van from a grotty warehouse in Newark, were relieved there was no damage and pleased to get going.

As we found when travelling on the motorbike one of the best things about this type of slow travel is the people you meet.

Not only did we have family to catch up with in the US but also friends we had met previously. Our route to my sister’s home in Gunnison, Colorado had been planned to zig zag a bit to include some nice camping and visiting.

We headed down through the Appalachian and Smoky Mountains, not travelling very fast, happy to cover around 300 miles a day.

In the Smoky Mountain NP we got to see our first black bear (doing a meerkat impression). On leaving the National Park after 3 days of no phone or wifi access we heard the result of the EU referendum. We lost track of the number of people who on hearing our accents asked us how could that happen? All we could say was we had no idea and won’t be rushing home anytime soon!

I have packed a few more clothes than perhaps I should so space inside the van is a bit tight, however John has not been forced to sleep under the van (he loves to tinker).

At one campsite we enjoyed talking to Carl the site owner, it was a beautiful spot surrounded by lakes. Here is Carl and his dog enjoying a spin (you’ve got to love dogs on bikes!)

Our first city stop was Kansas City (in Missouri, not Kansas!?!) It was great to catch up with Dave G, last seen Bangkok 2011! We chatted, ate, drank, saw our first Baseball match, did the laundry (so important!) and generally had a lovely time. Thank you Dave let’s hope it is not so long till we see you again.

When we’re in the US we tend to gravitate towards the mountains, desert or ocean but in a country this size you have to get through the featureless bits as well……..

Let’s just say the high plains of Kansas were bloody hot and equally boring! It’s a good job the Wizard of Oz put it on the map as the scenery won’t.

It as a relief to get into Colorado and a more interesting landscape, before we headed for the mountains we spent a few days with my niece Sarah, her husband Rick and their boys Steven and Trevor. Our first get together for around 7 years. So nice to spend time with them all, thanks for looking after us so well.

Continue reading “People and Parks – Day 32 (2947 miles)”

Remember us?

Well hello there, it’s been longer than we planned but at last we are starting our blog. The reasons for the delay are too tedious to waste much time on but suffice to say we have fallen foul of Apple v Google rivalry, our original plan to publish our blog in Google Blogger/Photos as we had previously used is not possible on an I-pad.

As much as IT is not my thing I’ve wasted too much of my life trying to get around it rather than believing the other frustrated users on the net (silly, stubborn me!).

So now we have our own website (ooh get us!). As you can see the design needs some work (!), give it a few months and we may have smartened it up somewhat, in the meantime hopefully the content will at least give you an idea what we are up to.

We left home 1 month and 2 days ago so the next post will be a brief wiz through our travels so far.

Ooh forgot to say, due to our absolute nil knowledge of website building please let us know if there are any glaring errors or you cannot view or comment etc.