Farewell trip in the big, beautiful camper

 Last month we went camping in the mountains just north of Woodland Park, Colorado.

It was a beautiful U.S. Forest Service campground that made you feel like you were in the middle of the forest.  Since we're old retired people we get to camp in the middle of the week so we almost had the entire place to ourselves.  No electricity, no water, no nothing, but when you have a rig like ours you can easily "rough it" for a few days.

On the first night I decided to try my campfire popcorn popper.

It was pretty much a failure.  Hard to get the temperature just right.  I still enjoyed eating it though.

I love sitting around the campfire in the evening.  Maisy loves it too.  Irv not so much, but he's a good sport and indulges me in my love of campfires.

We even had a visitor!  The camp host said a moose had been walking through camp early in the mornings.  We were never lucky enough to see it.

The next morning we drove to the nearby "red rocks" trailhead.  Lots of things are called red rocks in Colorado.  Again, we had the trail to ourselves except for a very polite group of teenagers visiting from a nearby camp.

The rock formations were beautiful and scattered along the trail.

It started getting really warm on the trail so we didn't make the whole loop.  My hiking strength isn't up to par this summer.  I've been going to physical therapy to work on my back and hip pain.  Just got a letter from Medicare saying they're not going to allow anymore PT because I'm not progressing fast enough and I continue to have physical limitations.  Now what am I supposed to do?  I promise I've been doing my daily exercises as prescribed.  (My first experience with Medicare.)

Here's Aspen walking through a young grove of aspen trees.

After getting back to the trailer we loaded up the kayaks and headed to the nearby lake for a little kayaking.  By then the afternoon storms were rolling in so we didn't get to stay too long.

Beautiful view of Pikes Peak.

Found a few geocaches along the highway.

Made some campfire nachos for dinner.

The next night I made some peach cobbler in the Dutch oven.  Delicious!

Back to the lake the next day for another hike.  There were a dozen pelicans on the lake.  I guess you would call them a pod, pouch, scoop or squadron of pelicans.

Aspen is always in a hurry when we hike.  I have to wear a leash that goes around my waist for her because she's so skittish and is always in danger of running off.  Probably doesn't help my back situation.

Then it was back to the campground where Irv took me on a hike through the forest to find another geocache.  This one was nowhere near a road or trail and we had to climb through a fence to get there.  I'm a rule follower so climbing through a fence goes against every part of me.  Also, walking off trail is hard for me since I'm a certified "Leave no trace" hiker.

While Irv was busy finding the cache I was busy chasing butterflies.

On our last morning Irv was outside with dogs and I was inside getting ready for the day.  When I walked into the living area of the trailer I could hardly believe my eyes--a hummingbird had flown in through the handle opening of the door.  We captured it and released it outside and thankfully it appeared to be okay.  Definitely a once in a lifetime experience!

As it turns out, that was our final trip in my "big, beautiful" trailer.  It was great when I was living and working in Yellowstone, but it's a pain in the butt for short getaways to the mountains.  In that Forest Service campground there were only a couple campsites that could accommodate a rig this size.

At a RV show a couple weeks ago we had found this 18' Ember and we both kind of fell in love with it.  The roof is covered with solar panels, it's got the Arctic package, a microwave that is also a convection oven and air fryer, 82" ceilings and it's made for off road camping.  We took a couple weeks to think about downsizing and eventually we both realized a smaller trailer made sense.

We were supposed to bring it home yesterday, but when the dealership was getting it ready they realized the motor on the slide wasn't working.  Oh no!  Luckily it was still on the lot so they're responsible for fixing it.  I just hope it's not a sign of things to come.  To buy or not to buy the extended warranty is now the question.

Our next planned trip is in 10 days.  They promised to have to ready by then.  Can't wait!