July 9, 2009 Steamboat Springs

July 9, 2009

I wish I had the words to describe what we’re seeing here in Stagecoach State Park in Steamboat Springs, CO. We’re completely surrounded by low green mountains. Once again, there is an abundance of yellow and purple wildflowers. There is water around about half of us. The sky is nearly all blue with only a few wispy white clouds, just enough to keep it interesting. (A park ranger just stopped by on his mountain bike—he said that this area can best be described as a semi-arid kinda desert with alpine forests. He said the animals we’ve been trying to learn about are really exotic—ground squirrels!)

We arrived here yesterday afternoon at about 3:30 p.m., after an easy 3 ½ hour drive from Aspen. We are nearing the end of our audio book, The Help, and almost wanted the drive to be longer so we could finish it. We set up our campsite and prepared to relax without any time schedule whatsoever for the next five nights.

A guy staying in a 20 foot Airstream came over to look at our TD. We’re getting used to this. He was a most interesting person. Ed is a retired attorney from Tucson, who spends at least half the year traveling. He seems to know the area around here like the back of his hand and gave us some ideas for routes to take, etc. When he’s not in his Airstream, he’s diving. He’s on his way to Belize after he ends up this trip. He left this morning, but we hope we run into him again somewhere.

In Sarasota, if you walk outside you’ll see lizards hopping around everywhere. In Colorado, they have another creature that does something similar. It’s not a reptile—it’s something akin to a squirrel, chipmunk or—ahem—rat. Chipmunk seems so much more appealing. We’ve been asking everybody if they know what they are, but nobody seems to know. We MUST find out. I’m being extra careful about keeping my little screen porch door snapped up tight, as I really don’t want to find one in my bed!


I’ve got to talk about my first pay shower this morning. It costs four quarters for a 4-minute shower. You can extend it by adding one quarter for each additional minute. This morning I very carefully undressed in the immaculate (whew!) shower booth, placing everything I needed within close reach, but placing the things I wanted to stay dry in a more distant location. I inserted the quarters in a leisurely manner, thinking there would be a slight pause before the water would start spraying. Oh, no—that was not the case. The water suddenly hit me with the force of a five-alarm fire hose. It targeted my sandals and blew them straight out of the booth. The temperature was nice and warm, but OMG, the pressure was way, way too much. If I had washed my face in it, I’m sure I would have been bruised beyond recognition. I survived another camping challenge!

We’re going to go into the town of Steamboat Springs in a little while. We’ll grab some lunch and check it out. It’s supposed to be really cute.