Monday, July 16, 2012

Goodbye Wyoming - Hello Colorado

(Buckley AFB, Aurora, CO) Hi 86 Lo 60 -- We hated to leave the Cheyenne area, but we’ll be back someday. We had a very smooth departure this morning. Everything came up and in on the rig like they're supposed to. Our destination today was Denver, Colorado. There’s a background story on why this direction. I remember back in the third grade we were learning about the states and their capitals. I knew that someday I wanted to go to Denver. It was one of those childhood memories that stuck with me my whole life. Why Denver? I have no idea. Maybe something will click while we’re here. If not, at least I've satisfied that longing to be here.

The trip was great. We stopped at the Colorado Welcome Center to get some maps and brochures. We’ll be here two weeks, and I want to see as much as possible.
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View from the visitor center
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When we crossed into Colorado we got our first views of the Rockies.
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We passed a couple of statues along the way on highway 25 up on the hillsides. I missed getting a cowboy on a horse in Wyoming, but got this Buffalo coming into Colorado.
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My first view of the Denver skyline.
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We arrived at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, about 10 miles east of Denver.
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The base is spread out like the one we just left in Cheyenne. The famcamp is in the middle of a field. It’s only been open since the middle of April. We’re setup just to the right of center in this photo.
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There's lots of radar domes all over base.
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Our site. The park is so new there's hardly any grass yet. But we do have a nice concrete pad, and all the roads in the park are paved.
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We have good satellite (duh, no trees!), and very fast Verizon 4G for our internet.

This is looking west, with the clouds obscuring the mountains. I love watching the weather so I’m in a very good area for that. We have the base alarm system that will go off if there's severe weather and we need to leave the RV.
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There’s a few trees around the pavilion and a couple behind the laundry, other than that it’s an open field. The fun now will be holding on when it’s windy. At least we won’t have trees come down on the car or the RV.
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After we got set up we went to the Outdoor Recreation Office to check in, then came back and watched the rains come in from over the mountains. Toward dusk a helicopter landed across the street, then took off when the rain started.
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It rained pretty hard, and we even had some small hail. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.  ;-(

It looks like it’s going to be a fun two weeks.

3 comments:

Rick and Kathy Rousseau said...

No we won't be in the neighborhood at the end of April but we might be able to get together in Florida next year. Safe Travels.

It's about time.

Speedy said...

Have you ever been to Colorado? We love it there and hope to spend some time in Creede. We also like Woodland Park just West of Colorado Springs.

Ellie and Jim said...

The 16th Street Mall downtown is pretty neat, lots of people and traffic though. There's also the Brown Palace Hotel (the Unsinkable Molly Brown), and the State Capitol.

But drives in the mountains are the best.

Hope you have a great time!

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