Day 7 June 4, 2014

6 Jun

Carbondale, CO  to Golden, CO

Today we had an early morning…for us.  We both wanted to wake up early to see our “camping neighbors” pull out of their RV space.  They arrived yesterday while we were out.  It looked as though they had never parked an RV.  The RV was parked off the parking pad into the grass and was practically sitting on top of their fire pit.

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We were positive that it would be quite an ordeal for them to get out of their space.  We didn’t want to miss it!  Well, they proved us wrong…they were able to pull right out and miss the fir pit entirely!  Good Job!

Since we were already up, we hit the road by 9:30 AM.  We traveled from Carbondale back to Glenwood Springs to get on I-70 towards Denver.  The early part of the drive was a repeat from yesterday and it was just as beautiful today!

I-70 goes up through Vail Pass to an elevation of 10,662 feet.  At this point we were up in the snow-capped mountain region.  It was surprising to see the ponds and lakes were ice-covered.   We passed by the ski areas of: Vail, Copper Mountain, Breckenridge, and Loveland.

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At an elevation of 11,158 feet, we entered the Johnson Tunnel, crossing  under the continental divide in the Rocky Mountains. The tunnel was completed in 1979 and is the longest mountain tunnel (1.697 miles).

The road was very rough today.  I guess the mountain snow, chains, and studded tires damage the road.  At one point it was so rough that it shook the screws out of our Day/Night Shade.  We had to stop and use zip ties to hold the shade up above the front windshield.  It is good that Ken has some McGyver techniques!

The drive from Carbondale to Golden, CO was 168 miles.  We had reservations at the highly rated Dakota Ridge RV Park and checked into our space at 1:30PM.  Once settled and hooked up, I sat outside in the shade working on my blog while Ken repaired our Day/Night Shades.

We chose Wrigley’s Chicago Bar & Grill for dinner.  The Chicago Style Pizza was delicious…we have leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Before settling in for the night, we took an evening walk around the RV Park…we only found 1 open space!