Now we’re seeing what it was John Denver was singing about (to listen while reading the blog click his name and it will open in a new tab – I hope it works) . Denver is set amongst some gorgeous scenery but I’ll get to that shortly.
Following an exciting train ride through Royal Gorge we left Pueblo for our final stop on this 2nd leg of our American Adventure, Denver, Colorado. This mid-west region of America is known as high plains area and we certainly travelled across miles and miles of flat featureless country. We had problems in Pueblo with finding an RV park (hence our stay at Haggard’s some 20 miles out of town) and Denver was no easier. The best we could do in Denver was the KOA at Strasburg which, at 40 miles east of the city, was even further out.
Anyway, we were reasonably close to Wichita so with the slightest of excuses we shot over the 510 miles (800+ kms) to Kansas to see our good friends and US saviours Gary & Sharyl. After doing a few jobs in Wichita we headed back to the van just 36 hours later only to have to face one of the huge storms that plague the US at this time of year. Fortunately we always seemed to be headed for the ‘light’ area ahead and all we suffered was several mighty deluges that almost forced us to pull over and wait it out. Eventually we got back to our van (and the rabbits that plagued the area) only to cop the side effect of the previous day’s storms by way of that chilly white stuff. Time to move again.
After much research Shane managed to find a Mobile Home Park that was just beginning to take short term RV’s like ours in the middle of Denver so we packed up and moved in to town. Because the new site would only accept cash we stopped at a large shopping centre to hit the bank and while Shane went in I waited in the car. To my surprise right next to me beside the carpark prairie dogs had set up home here in the middle of suburbia. Nature is amazing in its’ ability to adapt.
But that wasn’t the end to it. This RV Park was also loaded with rabbits and squirrels that you could almost walk up to. We even went for a walk one day around the outside of the RV Park only to see several snakes resting in the sunlight beside the creek. We were starting to think we were in a David Attenborough TV series.
We were blessed for several days with great weather. Meanwhile we searched for somewhere to store our rig while we shoot back to Australia for a mid-year break. While doing this we managed to take in some of the magnificent Rocky Mountain drives. A massive snow season was still causing many roads to remain closed but we got all the way west to Silverthorne. This meant traversing through tunnels, past gold mines and visiting the lovely historic town of Georgetown .
Georgetown is a relic of the days of the gold rush era. Many buildings from 1870s still stand and operate in this town mostly for the tourists these days. Set in a gorge with snow fuelled creeks ambling by we enjoyed a nice lunch and a walk before driving back towards Denver. On this trip we also enjoyed vistas that begged you to take a photo. You could easily flatten the battery in your phone/camera out here. It was the end of the official ski season but because of the magnitude of this past season many ski runs were still open.
We ended off this day with a drive over a mountain road that gave us more spectacular views of Denver and surrounds. As usual the camera diminishes the photo to reduce the impact of the altitude and angle of the mountain where we took these photos from. As always where there is snow to be found Shane can’t resist threatening me. Happily she occasionally has bouts of common sense and she realised that to snowball her husband is bad karma (when he has the car keys). The descent from these heights was awesome and the views fantastic.
On our last day we took the train into Denver CBD for a look around. Denver is not a stand out city but it does have several noteworthy places to visit. Walking from Union Station (which looked like a good location for a social meeting place) we wove our way along a very nice riverside walk too our destination, the Denver Aquarium. We have seen many aquariums and this one is as good as any but the real reason we were here was to have dinner at Landry’s Dive In Restaurant. As Landry’s members we get a good discount and after dinner guests can wander the aquarium after dark until 9:30pm.
I won’t bore you with the usual million pics of fish (I do love aquariums which is why my BSc is in that area) but I will say we had a fantastic meal seated right next to a panoramic window (much bigger than the one in these pics of us in the bar lounge) and more than reasonably priced. I will however post my last three photos to sign off this post. The first is of Denver International Airport and the Westin Hotel out front. The second is a photo of a map on our van showing where we’ve been over the last 12 months in the USA. The third shows (in dark ink) where we’ve travelled. We’re about one third the way through our travels here meaning we still need 2 more years to complete the journey and that doesn’t include Hawaii, Alaska or a visit to Canada. We’ve covered around 28,000 kms and stayed at 60 RV parks. Cost of living (well, travelling) is on par with Australia except for those “tourist extras” like admissions, souvenirs and lavish meals out.
So that’s it for now. I’ll set to posting this blog as it is well overdue. We’ve been back home in Townsville for 2 weeks now and I have only just found the time to write this up. We head back to Denver in July (9th) for another 5 or 6 months before returning to Australia at Xmas time.
Cheers for now
Garry & Shane