September 22nd. Chula Vista

So this is the world in which we have inserted ourselves.  The Chula Vista RV resort is a walled in RV and camper resort on the shore on San Diego bay. 

We discovered this place last year when our friends France and Francine stayed here while Francine had a contract at Sharp Hospital.

Next door to us, really a part of the resort is a marina and a resort restaurant and pub.  It feels different here than Santee Lakes.  Between the resort and the bay, is a small park along the shore.  It is well kept and pretty.  On one end, there is a twenty foot ironwork sculpture of a pelican called "Fisherman".  Near the other end of the park is a series of wind vanes that sway and turn to the wind in a delicate dance. Once you get out to the main road, it runs south into Imperial Beach.  North, it only goes a short way, but it connects to the far western end of H Street.  This is a fairly new construction.  To our east, is a large vacant series of lots.  There are some remaining concrete pads.  This used to be where Rohr Aerospace had it's factory before the industry all but left San Diego.  A bicycle path has been put into this area and part of that runs through the vacant area.  We are near the center of the commerce area of Chula Vista.  Just a ways is the Downtown area which has been going through a revitalization.  Or park is only 7 miles from her work.  In terms of our house in North Dakota, that would get you all the way down the gravel roads to the town of Petersburg. 

We've taken some walks on the beach, done a little geocaching in the area, and begun to explore some taprooms and local breweries.

The boat marina

The Fisherman

One of our first sunsets on the bay.

North end of the beach

A local

Ship repair facility

Coronado Bridge and Downtown through the sea haze

Craft brewers from Brazil started this shop.

June 6th. Later that day.. and June 7th.

France had an appointment, so Laurie, Francine and I drove to downtown Golden.  It is a beautiful little trendy town straddling Clear Creek.  We went to a cute restaurant and ate and sampled local beers.  The girls wanted to talk and I wanted to see more of the town, so I walked around and took pictures while they waited for it to be time to call France. 

Down at the river front, the water was rushing pretty good as it was the early spring thaw.  In a lot of places there are walks down to the river.  These were closed off below a certain point for safety.  A girl in  kayak was traveling down the river.  I noticed a place where there is a small park with a playground.  There is a slide that empties down on the edge of the river where some barriers make a shallow wading pool for kids.  This was closed at this time, but it looked like a fun place.

In the distance, stands the Coors brewery.  We didn't go there.  We met up with France and went home to dinner and some heated games of Rummicube.

JUNE 7th

Golden is just west of Denver.  We should have taken I-76 northwest to where it connects to I-80 in Nebraska.  However, by going straight north on I-25to Cheyenne, we had the opportunity to get a find in Wyoming.  When we left, they led the way up 25 to the Rocky Mountain National Park.  Since we now get into National Parks for free, we thought it a good idea.  O the way, they stopped us at a stone church somewhere in the mountains for some sightseeing.  The Church is St. Catherine of Siena Chapel.  Also called the Chapel on the Rocks.  Here's a link, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapel_on_the_Rock . It was pretty amazing. There is a statue up on the hill above the parking lot.  We looked around and took pictures of course, Then we proceeded to the park.  The weather wasn't going to co-operate, but we went for a short walk down a path.  This is early June in the Colorado Rockies,  A little cold still, and lots of snow in places.  We had a good time while we were there.  A little rain, thunder, hail.  As we were leaving, it got warmer and we came across some elk in a field who seemed unaffected by the throng of visitors talking pictures.  Finally, we said goodbye to our friends and with good directions, continued on our journey.  We stopped in at Fort Collins Brewery and had dinner and sampled their line of crafts. 

The rest of the trip home was uneventful.  We stopped in a number of states for geocaches, Wyoming, Nebraska, where we stopped to see Laurie's recruiter at the medical travel company, Then up I-29 catching finds in Iowa and South Dakota. We landed in Fargo at Eliza's and spent the night.

The next day we finally arrived home to our home in Petersburg.  It was good to get home and I had spent that little time here before Memorial day to get the house ready for us, so we had water and electricity. 

Arts theater in Downtown Golden.

Many cool statues adorn the downtown area.  Love this one.

We had lunch here.

Nature Park and walk ways along the river.  Parts are restricted during the spring thaw.

A local kayaking down the river.

Shallows area for kids.  slide from park up top dumps down here.

Plaques along both sides of the bridge tells the story of early Colorado.

Stone Church.

The ladies.

Rocky Mountain National Park.

Warm day in Golden, up here it was snow on the ground, rain and hail.  Nice walk, though.

Elk

Curvy winding roads.  Lots of high cliffs.

June 5th and 6th. - New Mexico and Colorado

desert, desert, desert, oh, wait... MOUNTAINS!!!

We stopped for the night just along the AZ/NM border.  In the morning we stopped to refresh at a rest stop.  Many plaques here talking about pioneers, and women of Native descent who helped build the west.  We had a great sunrise and picked up our first New Mexico geocache finds.  We drove on through the morning.  Lots of desert, but nicer than to the south, I think.  We made a left turn at Albuquerque and headed north.  The ground rose above us and we were soon travelling up the Colorado Rockies towards Denver.

We stopped for lunch at Dave and Judy's.  It was a nice visit with them.  We left and drove on.  We wanted to get to France and Francine's up in Golden before it got too late.  Once we were up there, we stumbled around with GPS failing due to the high mountain walls around up and Francine on the phone.  We found their road, out of town and climbed a winding road to their place nearly at the top of a mountain.

We spoke for a while and then went out for the night with them.  We stopped at a couple of Taprooms before going to a nice Mexican restaurant for dinner.  After that, we went back to their home and stayed up talking and playing board games. 

The next morning, we got up and France cooked a great breakfast.  Laurie, Francine and I went down the road to a couple of fielded areas on her mountain and helped Francine get her first finds.  We had a great time trekking around the fields and climbing hillsides and stumbling over bushes.  The altitude is higher than Denver and we found we were frequently stopping to catch our breath.  There was a lot of wild flowers growing around and an area where there had been a small fire, taking out a copse of trees.  On one mountainside, while we were searching for the next location, a deer watched us but didn't seem too worried. 

After we tiered ourselves out, we returned home and got ready to go to downtown Golden.  I had a great time there and took a bunch of pictures, so I'll continue this account in my next travel post.    Stay tuned.

From the patio of a taproom we visited on our first night in Golden.

Sunrise the next morning from France's porch.

Down the road.  There was a geocache here. It was Francine's first.

Beautiful open spaces.  Cool air, but it did get hot.  The Oxygen was thin.

A copse of trees burned down.  New life, nature reborn, grows from the ashes.

Cactus. Really? Cactus?

Buzzzzz

Spectator to our geocaching

Took forever to find this.  wandered around and followed the GPS app.  Couldn't find it.  Then, I looked up one more time.  Yes, I climbed the twenty feet.  TFTC.

Francine. Great hostess along with her husband, France.