Vacation

By now, anyone reading this must think I’m the King of Breaks. While I like taking time off, I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself the King. It’s just the time of year, and the fact that raising two ten-year-olds doesn’t leave a lot of options as to when we’re going to take our vacation.

With that out of the way, we spent most of the last two weeks camping – or perhaps I should say “kamping” – in Colorado. We mostly stay at KOAs, and I know a lot of people wouldn’t call that camping. When I was a kid, my parents wouldn’t even consider staying at a KOA for just that reason. The fact is, until a few years ago, I wouldn’t either. But things change, and these days I think I prefer not to rough it so much.

This year we spent a couple of nights in Vernal, Utah, and visited Dinosaur National Monument. It was interesting, but we were disappointed that the Dinosaur Quarry was closed.

Next we went on to Cotopaxi, Colorado. The KOA there isn’t bad, if you can get over the ants and gophers. It’s right on the Arkansas River, and I got to do a little fishing and caught a couple of nice rainbow trout. We also did some touristy things, like visiting Royal Gorge, Cripple Creek, Bishop’s Castle, and Cave of the Wind. I’ll try to post more about those later, but for now, suffice it to say that most of the time I was struggling with my fear of heights, and slight claustrophobia.

The last few days of our vacation were spent in and around Cortez, Colorado, where we got to see the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, Four Corners National Monument, and Monument Valley. Again, I’ll post more when I get the chance.

Most of the time the weather was hot, and I kept thinking that perhaps late June and early July were not the best time to vacation in those places, but as it turned out, the hottest part of our vacation was getting home, where the temperature was 106 degrees. The yard is dried-out, and I’ve got a lot of work to do, so that’s all for now.