Lake Powell – September 2017

We left Bluff, Utah on Sat, Sept 9^th, and headed for Page, Arizona. We enjoyed driving through famous Monument Valley where numerous westerns were filmed.

We thoroughly enjoyed our two weeks at Lake Powell and had good weather. I was busy getting new tires put on our boat trailer, having the hydraulic pump to raise and lower our stern drive replaced, and installing a new battery. In spite of these routine repairs, our 14-year old boat is in great shape.

I enjoyed my birthday this year at an Italian restaurant with friends and carrot cake back at our campsite after dinner.

I saw this car one day when we went to Safeway to pick up a few groceries.

We played cards most nights with our friends Kris and Jan from Albuquerque. We have enjoyed meeting Kris and Jan at Lake Powell for the past 9 years, the weekend after Labor Day. We missed my sister Marcia and brother-in-law Mike from Virginia this year at Lake Powell as they had to turn back home after suffering a tire blow-out on their motorhome.    

We are now headed towards San Antonio, Texas to visit Julie’s mom, her sister Cindy, and brother-in-law Terry. Then we head towards Florida, with a few planned stops along the way.

Steve & Julie Cornelius 

Littleton & Fruita, Colorado plus Bluff, Utah

We left Colorado Springs on Tues, August 29^th and “moved” to Chatfield State Park in Littleton.

Wednesday afternoon we enjoyed seeing the Colorado Rockies play the Detroit Tigers at Coors Field. The game ended around 4:30, just in time for our drive home in the commuter traffic on I-25.

We decided to go to one of our favorite places for lunch on Friday, Steuben’s Restaurant, in the Uptown Neighborhood of Denver. We enjoyed their legendary deviled eggs and some sandwiches for lunch.  

After lunch, we toured Margaret (Molly) Brown’s House Museum, in the Capitol Hill Neighborhood. We had never toured the home before and it was historically very interesting for us. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

The last night we were there we went to the Platte River Bar & Grille, on South Santa Fe in Littleton, for dinner. They serve a wide variety of food and I ordered the two sliders entrée off the Happy Hour menu. They were hand-formed cheese burgers and were very good.

We experienced smoke and haze in Denver the whole week we were there, from the wild fires burning out west in Montana, Idaho, Washington and California. You could clearly see the haze as it obstructed our view of the mountains and even the buildings downtown Denver.

We left Chatfield State Park on Wed, Sept 6^th, and drove west through the mountains to Fruita, about 10 miles west of Grand Junction. We spent 3 nights at the James M. Robb-Colorado River State Park-Fruita Section.

While there, we visited the nearby Colorado National Monument for the first time. The 32-square mile area was designated a National Monument in 1911.

We left Fruita this morning, and headed to Bluff, Utah for an overnight stay. We stopped in Moab, Utah for lunch at the Moab Brewery. We were lucky enough to find a place to park along the highway. I especially enjoyed a glass of the locally brewed cream soda and a glass of the root beer with my lunch.    

South of Moab on U.S 191, we stopped to see Wilson Arch. Very impressive and so close to the highway!

We had dinner at Twin Rocks Café, a place we’ve enjoyed several other times we’ve stopped in Bluff.

We head to Page, Arizona tomorrow morning for a 2-week stay at Lake Powell.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Colorado Springs

We left Alamosa on Friday, August 18^th and drove to Colorado Springs for an 11-night stay at Cheyenne Mountain State park. We always visit Colorado Springs in late-August to take care of our annual doctor and dentist visits.

On Monday, August 21^st, we viewed the solar eclipse from Cheyenne Mountain, where it was 90% in Colorado Springs.

We enjoyed dinner on Tuesday night with my two daughters Kim and Jen and two granddaughters Audrey and Hannah.

We took our motorhome to the local Freightliner service center in Fountain on Thursday for its annual servicing. It was lost among all those trucks.

Last Friday we met our friends Kris and Jan from Albuquerque who were overnighting in Colorado Springs on their way back from Wyoming where they saw the total eclipse of the sun. We drove them to Westcliffe, where we met our friends Vince and Lisa for lunch. Then we all went to Vince and Lisa’s house to spend the afternoon and take in the great views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

On the way home, we stopped in Pueblo for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Jorge’s Sombrero.

Yesterday we "moved" to Littleton, a suburb of Denver, for an 8-night stay at Chatfield State Park.  

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Arboles, Creede and Alamosa, Colorado

We departed Lake Powell on Sat, July 29^th and drove to Arboles, Colorado and Navajo State Park for a two-week stay. Although we didn’t have our boat with us, we enjoyed our great view of the lake. We also enjoyed watching all the families, with their RVs and boats, come and go on their summer vacations.

On Saturday, we drove to Durango about 40-miles away to go to their Farmers Market. We got some fantastic home grown tomatoes, lettuce, and beets. We enjoyed those tomatoes on salads and even a few B-L-T sandwiches. After shopping at the Farmers Market we went to one of our favorite breakfast places, The Durango Diner.

We left Navajo State park last Saturday and drove east through Pagosa Springs, over Wolf Creek pass (at 10,856 feet of elevation), through South Fork and north to Creede for a 5-night stay. We had never been to Creede before and it’s a beautiful area of Colorado with a silver mining history. Creede has a year-round population of just over 400, but grows quite a bit during the summer with the influx of summer residents (mostly Texans) and other summer visitors.

    

From its headwaters in the nearby mountains, the Rio Grande river flows through Creede on its way south to New Mexico and Texas.      

Creede was a very interesting town with its 125-year old hardware store, gift shops, and many restaurants. We especially enjoyed dinner at Arp’s restaurant our last evening. I thought they had the best carrot cake on the planet.

We departed Creede on Wednesday and drove 75-miles to Alamosa for a 2-night stay. We had reserved seats on the Rio Grande Scenic Railway a few weeks ago for their trip to and from La Veta today, a trip just over 50-miles one-way. We left Alamosa at 9:30AM and the scenery was spectacular, especially going through the mountains near La Veta pass.

Our seats were in the Super Dome car and later we ate lunch on the train in the dining area of our dome car. We had time to walk down town to get some ice cream after arriving in La Veta. We also wandered into other cars, including the private car that used to be on the Chicago-New Orleans route. We also enjoyed the open air car to see the scenery and get lots of fresh air.

Steve & Julie Cornelius