April 29-May 8, 2024: New Jersey to Colorado

This blog is the first of a 7-part series describing our 8-week, 7,368 mile epic journey through the middle of the United States, in which we visited 10 national parks and many other state parks. 

April 29 - We left in the morning, heading toward our Harvest Host location at Piwowar Farms. At about 200 miles into the trip Maude started losing power going up hills. Then the engine light went on and we pulled into LaVale, Maryland. We went to AutoZone and they did a test to see what was wrong with the van, finding that it was some sort of super turbo issue. We drove over to a local Holiday Inn Express and asked if we could stay in the parking lot for the night. A bit discouraged and very concerned about the RV, we walked over to  get dairy free Dilly Bars from Dairy Queen which turned out to be a nice treat, particularly as the temperature was over 80° and we are very hot. Back at the van, we looked up several mechanics to take the RV to the next morning. Two other small mishaps happened during the day. for the day. One of us spilled popcorn all over the cab of the RV and one of us  dumped a half a roll of toilet paper into the toilet. Not an auspicious way to start the trip! 

April 30: After calling four different repair places, someone recommended we call Ostrander Motor Werkes in Cumberland. Mike answered the call, said he could fix the van, and to bring it right over. They quickly figured out the problem and said that the part wasn’t expensive, only about $100, but that it was all the way in Hagerstown, about an hour away. So they sent one of their young workers to pick it up. As we waited, we got some coffee and then walked around Cumberland, Maryland, which turns out to be a very cute town. Amazingly, we were on the road by 1PM, and the repair only cost $400. Thanks, Mike Ostrander!

Heading out again, we found another Harvest Host in Greenfield, Indiana (Ant Hill Farm). They charged us $30, which is not usually how Harvest Host works, but the space was very quiet and dark being located on a 10 acre farm. Upon our arrival, we took a bucket bath in the shower, which felt delightful, and followed with some elderberry gin. A good day all around! And we were only one hour shy of where we wanted to be anyway. Coincidently, I realized later on from a sticker on Maude that she was originally from a dealer in Greenfield, IN, so she got to return to her roots. 

May 1: We woke up early to a beautiful sunrise. We had a quick cereal breakfast and headed toward St. Louis. We found parking on the street after driving around for a while and went to see the arch and the museum. Then we drove through the Hill neighborhood to see the Italian area. After that, we headed over to Babler State Park where we had pesto and salad for dinner. Babler is a really nice state park. Our spot was pretty wooded even if it was in a crowded area near other campers. We took a nice shower in a clean bathroom. It started raining so we went inside. 

May 2: We started the day with a wonderful pancake breakfast and then went for a hike on the Virginia Day Memorial Nature Trail. We took another shower, cleared camp, and headed toward Kansas. The drive was pretty rough because of a lot of rain, lightening storm, and traffic. We arrived around 6PM just when our next Harvest Host, Wyldwood Cellars in Paxico, KS, was supposed to be closing. But the woman there was nice and gave us a quick wine tasting. We purchased the American White (dryest option) and green jalapeño jelly. We also took a nice walk along a country road. Then we went inside the van, watched some TV, and went to bed. 

May 3: We woke up early, had toast with yogurt using our generator to run the toaster. Once on the road, we stopped for lunch at Vineyard Park in Hays, Kansas, a nice little green space off the highway. Kansas has more rollinghills than we thought but also has a lot of flat areas and oil wells on what looks like private farmland. Driving west, the hills disappeared and the land became very flat farmland. Route 70 is a straight, flat road with a 75 mph speed limit. Because we were making good time, we decided to end our drive further along in Colorado. We canceled our stay at Burlington RV which we had not yet paid for, and stayed at Trailing Ridge Park in Limon, CO. The RV park was pretty gross - no green space, no place to put out chairs, no picnic tables, and stuffed with huge RVs. But it had full hookups. It was really winding so we stayed inside, made dinner, and watched the movie, Argyle. 

COLORADO

May 4: We woke up early, had breakfast, cleaned up, emptied the tanks, and started driving to Salida, CO. We ate lunch on the side of the road and drove along RT 24 through Colorado Springs with beautiful mountain views. We saw some pronghorns along the way. We arrived at our destination, staying with family members for a few days, around 1:45 PM, took a short walk, went to The Office Bar in downtown Salida, and came home for dinner. After a wonderful dip in the hot tub, we watched some Resident Alien and went to bed. 

May 5: After a very nice night’s sleep, we got up and had breakfast and then went for a hike in Ruby Mountain. It was beautiful and we saw a golden eagle flying and then landing in her nest. Then went to Buena Vista for lunch at the falafel food truck. Best of all, we got pretzel bread at The Simple Eatery and coffee at a local coffee shop. Then we came home, 

showered, and got ready for a gathering of folks going on the Grand Canyon trip. 

May 6: Today it was snowing when we woke up so we worked out in the house, did some shopping, and packed up our van. It was a pretty low-key kind of day.

May 7: We left Salida in the morning to arrive at Mesa Verde National Park around noon. The drive was easy and beautiful, particularly after it had snowed for two days in Salida. After stopping at the Visitor and Research Center (where they sell really good, inexpensive, local blue corn meal) We drove directly up to do the Mesa Top Loop  Road where we saw a lot of old dwellings and beautiful views. The area is spectacular! Driving Maude up to and down from the Mesa was not particularly fun, but not terrible either as we are getting used to driving her on the hills. But the ride up to the top of the Mesa was very windy reaching of 8300 feet. We went to a 3PM tour of the Balcony House which required climbing up a 32 foot ladder and through some narrow passageways. But the Balcony House was really interesting, and our tour guide was an AmeriCorps volunteer who was very good. 

After Balcony House, we went down to the Morefield Campground, checked in, and went to our campsite. The showers were down by the registration office and not very close to the campground so we didn’t shower that night. The Wi-Fi at our site was very limited and better closer to the bathrooms. We had no cell service at the site, but the site was situated in an absolutely gorgeous area and not very crowded. We took a walk up the road and walked the Knife Edge Trail where we saw absolutely amazing views and what we think was a bald eagle flying to a nest. We ate leftover gazpacho and dumplings for dinner, listen to the rest of our audiobook, and went to bed. It was in the 20s at night and we woke up really cold.

May 8: It was in the 20s throughout the night and the van was really cold so we ran some space heaters. There was also ice dripping from the spigot and hose outside. Luckily our bed is very warm. We drove back up the mesa to the Cliff Palace tour. Our tour guide was Kevin Millikin who we think might have been part of an indigenous nation. He was really informative and talked a lot about how those who originally lived in the cliffs migrated south and how their traditions live on today. Seeing the architecture the Cliff Palace was spectacular. Then we went on the Sun Temple loop and arrived back at our campground to find a friend of ours having just arrived there. After a quick lunch of PB&J, we took her car to the top hike drive to hike the Soda Canyon Overlook Trail, which is a 1.2 mile up and back with really amazing lookouts, one of the Balcony House and one with the Mesa with the mountains in the back. It was another really cold night so we ate dinner (tiga edge na) and went into the van and watched the movie, Rustin.