Our Rocky Mountain High

We left Kansas City last week & traveled to Sioux City IA where we spent the night visiting with a good friend who used to live in KC. Considering they had record breaking heat of 106° just yesterday, I’m sure glad we got thru there before it.

We then went to Sioux Falls SD to pickup our mail & renew the pickup & Casita license plates. We were going to shop for a hand gun but learned we’d have to have a physical address for at least 90 days to purchase one. Oh well, guess I’ll just practice using the shotgun. I’ll probably have a better chance to hitting a rattlesnake anyway. Although I was somewhat indifferent to having a hand gun, it’s somewhat upsetting to learn that eligibility hangs on a permanent address for law-abiding senior citizens!

From Sioux Falls, we traveled west across the southern edge of SD to the Snake Creek Recreation Area campground. . .right on the swollen Missouri River due to a dam not far downstream. It was a gorgeous campground! We had some threatening looking storm clouds but never got rained on.

After two cool, quiet nights, we continued west thru SD & finally headed south to Scottsbluff NE. Just north of Alliance NE, we stopped to view Carhenge. It’s different. . .

We were planning on staying at Minatare Lake State Recreation area NE of Scottsbluff NE but 1) the lake is drained each winter & was still pretty low & ugly, & 2) the deep row of tall trees on the northwest edge of the lake made getting satellite TV reception impossible. So we passed & headed into Scottsbluff.

Using a new (free) Android app called RV Parky we ended up at Riverside City Park — finally. The app doesn’t show the campground location accurately. It’s located behind the Zoo, near the Platte River. It was a clean, quiet little campground, with electricity for $10/night & free wi-fi. Plus there was a great view of the actual Scott’s Bluff.

The heat was starting to build, so we turned on the A/C & got some movies from Redbox up the road at Wal-Mart. Saw Lincoln, Flight, Argo, & Looper. We enjoyed all four movies.

We also visited the Scotts Bluff National Monument — behind & on top of the above photographed bluffs. There’s a scenic drive up to the top with a fantastic view of what seemed like to be entire county.

We’re camped off down there near the center of this photo.

We also drove out to see Chimney Rock but it was late afternoon & I couldn’t get a decent photo. It is a significant local historical landmark, but . . . more of a needle rock than a chimney rock to me. Definitely doesn’t compare to the Chimney Rock between Pagosa Springs & Durango CO!

Full of anticipation, Monday we finally completed the last leg of our journey to our summer job at Archer’s Poudre River Resort, about an hour west of Ft Collins CO up the Poudre River Canyon (Highway 12). Probably ALL canyons are amazing & dramatic. . .but this long, skinny canyon is just FUN — one twisty turn after another, mostly squeezing between the Poudre River on one side & the canyon walls on the other side. It’s at least 10° or more cooler up the mountain than in Ft Collins too. Apparently, we barely got here before the record heat hit the Plains states. That amounts to a brief two weeks of Spring out there. . .between the late snow falls 2 weeks ago & now record heat! Whew!! Thankfully, we missed all the storms goign thru TX, AR, MO, IA, SD, NE, & CO. Wish I knew how we managed to dodge all the bad stuff so I can repeat it. But for now, we’re expecting (hoping?) for cool(ish), unhumid weather here for the summer. At this rate tho, we’ll get snowed in by an early winter about the time we leave here in October. Better that than suffering with 100+° summer temps somewhere else tho.

I’ve posted lots of canyon photos in a new Picasa album here, or just click on this photo.

We start working at the Canyon Grill Friday (thru Sunday, each weekend). Not only is our RV neighbor also from MO (traveling with a cat) & a father living in Branson, but several other people here are from MO too, including the owner. If first impressions can be trusted, we’re really going to enjoy the scenery, weather, & people here this summer. The actual working part may take some getting used tho. LOL  We have several day trips planned around the area also during the summer, so I’ll post again with new photos & experiences.