It seems that everyone in Colorado camps, so we decided to give it a try. I picked out Mueller State Park just west of Colorado Springs, because it's got a really nice campground with views of Pike's Peak. Plus, since it was less than 2 hours away, I figured if camping turned out to be a disaster, we could always jump in the car and head home (probably not the best attitude to start out with, but I tend to be more of a resort-hotel kind of girl).
We tried camping about 5 years ago in Missouri, but we were the only tent in a sea of RV's. It seems that people in Colorado are a little more outdoorsy, because there were quite a few tents in the campgrounds. The state park facilities were incredibly nice. I think the camper comfort station was cleaner than my bathroom at home (but at least I don't have to put quarters into a machine to take a shower at home). The only problem was the wind. It was blowing so hard, we had a devil of a time setting up the tent. We finally had to tie it down to 3 trees to keep it from blowing away.
Because there's been so many wildfires in the mountain states, there is a fire ban on wood and charcoal fires. I found a tiny little propane stove on Amazon, called a Pocket Rocket, that basically boils water. And I got a recipe for "Cowboy Stew" using instant mashed potatoes and canned chicken on YouTube. We didn't even have to wash any dishes, because you eat it right out of the bag. Yummy. Luckily there was a vending machine at the camper station, so I could buy a DP to wash it down.
I doubt we'll make camping a regular pastime (not at least without making some major changes, like a cushiony blow-up mattress), but we may go out a couple more times this summer. There certainly are some beautiful areas in the mountains that don't have resort hotels.
In other news, the Bike Club went on a breakfast ride this week. We rode an 18-mile loop to downtown Parker and stopped at Rory's Cafe. I'm putting this restaurant on my go-to list, because it's the only place I've found so far that serves a basic breakfast - eggs, bacon, toast, and hashbrowns. I also went bike riding with Brian's old physics teacher from SLUH (but forgot to take a picture). He came into town for the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and since he was staying near the airport, we decided to try out the High Plains Trail. He was so impressed that the trail was flat and paved (he's more used to the crushed rock surface on the Katy Trail), but I was a little frustrated by all the street crossings we had to make. The trails in my neighborhood tend to have underpasses that let bikers ride under roads at intersections.
I took a water-wise class this week. Water is VERY expensive in Colorado, so many people are ripping up their lawns and putting in low-water plants. We've been debating doing this, especially since Aurora has a rebate program that will pay for the plants. The only problem is the labor. Most of the landscapers around here are in such demand that they require a minimum job order of $20,000. Yikes! That's equivalent to 3 Alaskan cruises or 5 years of snowbirding. Maybe we're not too old to do the work ourselves. After all, most of the yards around here are already half-filled with rock, so all we'd need to do is take out our putting-green strip of grass and replace it with mulch. Since it's already dying in the heat, we might be able to just cover it up with mulch and call it done.
