July 29th A pretty dull day in Brighton, CO

I had big plans to complete a boatload of laundry in the morning at the campground laundromat but discovered at 8:45am that the park had turned off the water to do some repairs to its water distribution system. After waiting all day the water was finally turned back on this evening at 7:50pm. Hmmmm, I'm not loving this place as its more than rundown, I'm thinking it could be considered a dump with it's nearly empty green colored water swimming pool and rundown, messy trailers (in my row at least) . This is a disappointment to me because it's a Good Sam and AAA recommended park and we're are paying $33.00 a night to stay here. Oh well, it looks like tomorrow will be laundry day. As I had time available (due to not being able to do 4 million pounds of laundry) I planned out the next phase of our trip. Here's the deal: We'll leave Saturday morning and head up to Fort Laramie NM in Wyoming. On Sunday we'll head to the Cody, WY area to stay in a national forest campground for two days before heading into Yellowstone for four nights as I was able to secure a campsite at Fishing Bridge RV Park which is the only full hookup camping area within this national park. Now, we don't need full hookups, in fact I'd prefer not to have them as it's half the cost per night but it was the only campground in the park that accepts reservations that had space available. While I was planning this portion of our trip wicked thunderstorms moved into the area and it started to pour buckets of water. I heard a dog barking and crying at the Airstream next to me and realized that the dog's owners were not at their site and the dog was tied up outside without any shelter. I went right over and unlinked him from his lead and brought him into my trailer where I toweled him off, gave him some fresh water to drink and had him lay down on a blanket that I placed for him on the floor. He is a nice dog and seemed happy to be out of the rain. After a few hours the sky cleared so I took him back to his site and relinked him to his lead. I wonder if his owners noticed he was dry when they got home..... :-)

July 28th Camped in Brighton, CO for a few days

I dropped Leon off at the Denver Airport early this morning so he could catch his flights back to New Hampshire. I'm now holed up at my camp for the next few days which is in a private campground that is crowded, noisy, expensive and rundown to boot. It's only saving grace is I'm parked next to a hot looking late model International 75th Anniversary Editon Airstream travel trailer. I hope they'll be staying for a while. On the other side of me is a wicked run down, messy (junk all around it) older trailer that is being used as a main residence by a gentleman with two barking dogs. Lovely, I'm keeping my door locked.

Don't expect any exciting posts for a bit, I'm going to spending my time catching up on laundry, doing some grocery shopping and cleaning the trailer (it's amazing how much dirt and grime has gotten into everything over the past 3600 miles). I'll also take the time to do some trip planning and maybe try to get campground reservations in Yellowstone, wish me luck!

July 27th Rocky Mountain National Park

Ok folks, you cannot "do" Rocky Mountain National Park in one day. There is just too much to see, hikes to take and ranger programs to attend. But we did not have the luxury of time so we decided to take the loop road through the park before heading to the Denver Airport area in the evening. If you read my last journal entry you know that we suffered trailer brake failure on the way into Estes Park and no one in their right mind would tow a trailer on the Rocky Mountain NP loop road without trailer brakes so Leon spent time in the morning looking for the point of failure. He found a couple of things that were suspect; old taped up wires and a crushed wire but no smoking gun. We connected the truck and trailer and by some miracle our trailer brakes were now working so we decided to continue into the park with trailer in tow as planned. We gladly left the crowded, noisy, expensive RV "resort" and entered the park at the Fall River Visitor Center entrance and began the climb up the mountains passing through the treeline and into the alpine area. The drive was beautiful, breathtaking actually but we were saddened to see the extensive damage done to the park's trees by the Pine Beetle. 60% to 75% of the trees are dead or dying because of the beetle epidemic which ranges from Canada to Mexico. As we drove through the switchbacks with sheer drop offs with only stone railings I changed my mind and decided that no one in their right mind would tow a trailer of any size on the loop road. It was wicked scary at times! Not that Leon had any issues, our GMC HD2500 had no problem handling the thin air or pulling the trailer up the inclines and the trailer brakes worked flawlessly. I had the problem! I have a fear of heights and had forgotten how scary this road was when we drove it in a car back in the 80s, never mind driving it with a huge truck and 25' trailer! My knees were knocking together! Anyway as we got into the alpine area we were thrilled to see herds of elk resting on the mountain sides near the road. We could not pull over to view them due the size of our TV & trailer combo (45 ft in length) so I took pictures as we slowly drove past them. They were stunning to see! After a few hours of enjoyment and terror (on my part) we left the loop road and Rocky Mountain NP and headed east towards Denver as I had found a campground that was within a half hour drive from the airport for me to camp out at while Leon was back home. When we were about 30 miles away from our destination the sky darkened and the wind picked up big time. Our truck and trailer were being pushed hard by the wind so I turned on our CB to the emergency channel where we heard that a severe thunderstorm was approaching us with winds up to 58 miles an hour and golf ball sized hail. YIKES! Airstreamers hate hail! So we made the decision to pull off the highway and wait for the storm to pass through the area and after 45 minutes we were able to get back underway and we arrived at our new base camp before 5:00pm. I was tired from having been terrorized for a good portion of the day and didn't feel like cooking so we went out to a local chicken wing chain where the food was nothing special though I did down 3 Margaritas which helped to reduce my stress level.

July 26th Scotts Bluff NE & travel to Rocky Mountain National Park CO

After a good nights sleep we hooked up the trailer to our TV and towed the short distance to Scotts Bluff National Monument. Scotts Bluff has scientific interest from a geological standpoint as the north face shows more geological history than any other place in Nebraska. It's also the second highest point in Nebraska (which tells me Nebraska is a wicked flat state) but our reason for visiting this NM is it's connection to the settlers movement west via the Oregon, California, Mormon, and Pony Express Trails. The settlers could see Scotts Bluff from miles away as they were traveling through the high prairie and after days and days of the same scenery it must have been a pleasant sight for them. As they traveled through the bluff it became a bottleneck and they needed to have the wagons go through in single file which caused deep ruts in the landscape which can still be seen today, 160 or so years after the wagon trains went through. The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) built nearly every structure at the Scotts Bluff National Monument in the 1930's - the summit road, Saddle Rock Trail, the visitor center, the maintenance barn, and a residence now used for administration. The summit road is the most spectacular of their work with three tunnels carved through the rock and the way it was designed insures it cannot be seen as you view the mountain from the ground so the mountain appears untouched. Leon and I viewed the short slide show in the visitors center about the trials of the settlers on the Oregon/California/Mormon Trails and then walked through the exhibits to build upon what we learned from the slide presentation. I got the mother lode of national park stamps here as all of the settler wagon train trails run through this park, I got 6 stamps for one visit! Outside of the visitor center we took the 1/2 mile trail to view the ruts left by the settlers wagons, it was amazing to me that they are still there! On the way back we took a peek at the display of the types of covered wagons that settlers used and we were both surprised at how small they were. We ask a ranger about the ones we'd seen in western movies from our childhood and he told us those were later period wagons used by freight companies to move goods west. Man! If we can't trust Hollywood who can we trust? :-) Before leaving the park we took the shuttle up to the top of the bluff where we had an excellent view of Chimney Rock in the distance. The ranger who drove the shuttle provided us with additional details about the settlers and the America Indians who called this area home, it was very enlightening. We hit the road about 11:00am as we had a 4 to 5 hour tow to Estes Park in Colorado. As we were arriving in Estes Park, right at the point where the road grades became steep we lost our trailer brakes! We pulled over and tried to troubleshoot without success so we carefully towed into Estes Park to secure a campsite. We checked with a ranger at Rocky Mountain NP who informed us all NP campgrounds were full (not a surprise) so we were forced to select a private RV "resort" just down the road from the park. It was everything I dislike about private parks: Big, crowded, noisy & expensive. It was rally style parking! People who had slides only had a foot or two between them and the next persons slide. Awful! And Estes Park has grown too, and not in a good way. It's a giant tourist trap now which is not how it was when we visited in the late 1980s. Oh well, sometimes you cannot go back again. As I was too tired to cook dinner we went out to a local Mexican joint which was a disappointment. Not a good end to our day.

July 25th Devils Tower WY & Agate Fossil Beds, NE

After breakfast we headed over to the Devils Tower visitor center to attend a 1 1/2 hour, 1.3 mile ranger walk around the base of the Tower. There was a large group of folks gathered for the walk, more than the ranger normally guided but he was not fazed. He set some ground rules about keeping to the trails and not touching the American Indian prayer cloths that could be seen hanging from some of the trees and we were off. We made six stops around the tower and at each stop the ranger gave us insight into how the tower was formed 1 1/2 miles underground and exposed as the landscape above it eroded away, what the tower means to the Native Americans, climbers and local ranchers and the wildlife of the area. It was an interesting talk and we got a lot out of it, much more than if we just walked the base of the tower ourselves reading the information signs along the way. The tower looks so surreal, I understand why it was selected as the spaceship landing site in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I didn't see any UFOs though (bummer). Anyway, here's the geological story as told by the ranger: About 50 million years ago molten magma was forced into sedimentary rocks above it and cooled underground. As it cooled it contracted and fractured into columns. Over millions of years, erosion of the sedimentary rock exposed Devils Tower. The Tower rises 867 feet from its base and stands 1,267 feet above the river. It's teardrop shaped top is 1.5 acres and it's base is 1,000 feet. After our walk we dropped into the visitors center so I could get my Devils Tower stamp stamped into my National Park Passport and to view the exhibits. Before 11:00am we were back in the campground hooking up our trailer to our TV so that we could get on the road to our next stop for the day: Agate Fossil Beds National Monument which was about a 4 hour run from Devils Tower. We traveled on Route 85 in WY to Route 20 into NE to Route 29 down to Agate Fossil Beds. These roads traveled some of the most wide open spaces I ever saw, there was nothing to be seen except prairie for miles at a time. Strangely beautiful though, with the exception of the many junk cars lined up outside of run down mobile homes which were sprinkled along our route. We finally arrived at Agate Fossil Beds NM, man it is out there! No homes, or towns for miles. I wonder how long the commute is for the few rangers that man this lonely park. Anyway, we watched the introductory movie and viewed the exhibits. It was fascinating to learn that the fossil beds were created about 19 - 20 million years ago when a drought struck the plains of what is now western Nebraska. Deprived of food, hundreds of animals died around a few shallow waterholes and over time their skeletons were buried under silt, sand and volcanic ash which preserved them. The most common fossils found are Moropus, Palaocastor, Menoceras, Daphoenodon and Daeodon - Do not ask me to pronounce these! After getting my National Park Passport stamped we continued on our way as it was getting late in the day and we still needed to secure a campsite for the night. Our goal was Riverside RV Park in Scotts Bluff, NE. I had done a bit of research on www.freecampgrounds.com and found this park listed for $10.00 with water and electric. After about an hours worth of travel we pulled into Riverside (which is connected to the county zoo) and found they had spaces available for us. What a deal! It's a very clean park with full hookups for $15.00 and W/E sites for $10.00. We selected a W/E site because we didn't need to dump, paid our 10 bucks and set up camp. We had a little bbq and then retired for the evening as the next day we would be visiting Scotts Bluff NM and then travel to Rocky Mountain National Park.

July 24th Travel day to Devils Tower and some very sad news

We were packing up the trailer and TV when Leon's cell phone rang around 8:00am MT. It was Lucia, Tyler's wife (Leon's boss) calling to tell him Tyler had passed away the night before. We were both shocked. His health had been declining but his death came much sooner than expected. Lucia told Leon he went quickly and peacefully, and that he had been happy the day that he died. Tyler was a great man and Leon loved working for him at C & M Engineering. He will be greatly missed.

It was a quiet commute through the Black Hills of South Dakota into Wyoming. We stopped at the Wyoming visitors center (Route 90, exit 189) to dump our tanks and fill our fresh water at it's modern, clean and free trailer waste station. After dumping and picking up some brochures about Devils Tower and Yellowstone we stayed in the parking lot and made up some lunch (yes, we washed our hands first). Another Airstream had pulled in while we were dumping and the gentleman who owned it came over to chat for a bit. He and his wife had been full timing in their trailer for about 4 months seeing the country and were loving it. This is something Leon and I hope to do someday too. After lunch we hit the road towards Devils Tower, arriving there mid afternoon. We found an available spot in it's campground and set up camp. I found we had a slight cell signal, just enough for me to connect my netbook to my mobile phone for internet access so I searched for flights out of the area so Leon could get home to attend Tyler's services. I did not have too much luck, pricing was quite high so we made the decision to change course and head to Denver, CO so Leon could take a Southwest flight out on Tuesday using some of my banked tickets. After booking Leon's flights we walked around the campground a bit before making dinner and retiring for the night.

July 23rd Jewel Cave National Monument

We slept in, packed up a picnic lunch and then did some work on the inside and outside of the trailer because our Jewel Cave tour reservations were for 1:45pm. Jewel Cave is a national monument instead of a national park so it does not receive the funding that Wind Cave does which means there are fewer rangers available to lead tours and there are fewer areas in the cave that are "tour ready" (meaning no lights or paths). It's also "free" just like Wind Cave with the exception of the cave tours. Tour prices ranged from $5.00 to $8.00 with Senior / Access National Pass holders receiving a 50% discount. After a 45 minute commute which took us outside of Custer SP and past the small town of Custer we arrived at the national monument where we took advantage of it's nicely maintained picnic area. After lunch, when we were in line at Jewel Cave to pick up our reserved tickets we saw many folks being turned away because all of the tours for the day were already sold out. In fact we heard a ranger telling one family group that the next tour opening was 2 days away so we felt pretty darn lucky that I was able to reserve the "Lantern Tour" the day before. The "Lantern Tour" is a 1 3/4 hour tour that follows the paths of early cave explorers using only oil lanterns for light (well, if you are a little kid you get an electric "oil" lamp so you won't burn yourself. I selected an electric "oil" lamp myself). The tour started at a historic ranger cabin that was built by the CCC. The ranger / guide pretended that we are in the year 1936 and provided the history and geology of the cave as it was known during that time period. After the cabin tour we all picked up our oil lamps and descended many steps down to the "natural" cave entrance. Back in the day the first explorers used dynamite to enlarge the opening so I'm thinking it's not so natural anymore. Anyway, we entered the cave and within moments were descending old, steep steps down deep into the cave. It seemed like we were descending 1000s of feet but the ranger said we only went down about 150 feet. It was a tight fit and we were going through small holes in the cave instead of paths. Lots of bending and stooping and it was wicked dark too! Even with my lantern I could not see my feet or where the next step should be. Up and down (mostly down) stairs we went until we got to a small room where we viewed the calcite crystals that lined the walls of most of the known cave. Jewel Cave is named for rooms and passages that are lined with the jewel like calcite crystals which sparkle like gems with illuminated. It was magic! As the tour progressed our guide left 1936 and came back to the present to provide us with the current understanding of the geology of this cave with the most fascinating being it's projected size. Per our guide and the exhibits in the visitor center it is believed that only 5% of the cave has been discovered / explored. If this is true than Jewel Cave has the potential to be the largest cave in the world. Right now 146.1 miles of passages and rooms have been documented (this is updated everyday) compared to the current largest cave in the world (Mammoth Cave in KY) which is listed at 387 miles. Remember at 146.1 miles it is thought that only 5% of the cave has been discovered! I'll keep an eye on this over the next few years to see if it actually does end up being the largest cave, wouldn't that be cool! Half way through our tour it was time to head back and of course we had to climb up all of the 750 steps we can down on. There was lots of panting going on, even the little kids were struggling with the climb. Oh, I should mention that cameras were not suggested due to the tight spaces so I did not bring mine in. Others did, in fact one family took about 30 pictures of themselves during the round trip which blinded the group each time their flash went off. I was thinking to myself how many pictures does one need of of themselves next to brown rock? Oh well, I hope they enjoy their memories. As this was our last night in the area we decided to spurge by going out to dinner at Sylvan Lake Lodge within Custer State Park. We arrived a bit early for dinner so we got a couple of drinks from the bar and found a good spot to use the lodge's free Internet access to do a couple of blog updates. We went to dinner around 7:00pm and we both ordered game. Leon got bison and I got elk which we shared. The food was wonderful and worth the $$$ though the service not so much. The wait staff were friendly but not well trained which distracted from the fine dining room and food. After dinner we headed back to camp to begin to pack up as we were leaving South Dakota and heading to Devils Tower in Wyoming in the morning.