This morning we’re hitting the road for our first destination of the summer season. As usual, we’ll begin our journey with our rowdy acapella rendition of Willy Nelson’s “On the Road Again.” The song sets the mood as we begin our adventures again and has been a tradition since day one when we hit the road in 2016.
Farewell Monument, Colorado! We had the opportunity to visit with friends, reminisce, share where we’ve been, where we hope to go and laugh about the happenings in our lives. Still, there were some folks we weren’t able to connect with this time due to our schedule being jammed packed with “Honey we have to…”
We had to take Beau (our RV) in for his 30,000 mile check-up which included the usually lube, oil and filter but also involved work on the gas filter, fluid checks, belt and hose checks, differential service and our favorite…watching dirty, hunky guys rotate 6, 150 lb. tires around. Next Beau needed our personal attention fixing and repairing cabinets, drawers, fixtures and sundry items due to the brutal road conditions experienced during our drive back West. We’re talking about you, Indiana! You are one god-awful state when it comes to road conditions! Beau and everything in it (including us) were tossed, rattled, and thumped around. Then there is the ongoing cleaning that never ends.
Then we had to go to the storage facilities. The first facility holds the household goods we will eventually use again when we buy another sticks-n-bricks house. Several trips, yes trips, were made to drop off items we originally thought we would need or use while tripping around the country in the RV. Well it seems we were wrong. Thus, we off loaded items. Next, we on loaded items from storage. Gee, we really need that after all. Among the items on loaded: our mountain bikes which replaced the hybrid bikes that were stolen in Eugene, Oregon. Rhonda got to spend quality time cleaning and tuning up the bikes in the nice hot, dry weather we’ve had here.
Storage facility number two is where our trailer is located. From the trailer we grabbed the dog carrier. It now awaits our attention in being assembled. Talk about pampered pets! Kip and Kellie will be chauffeured in style with us huffing and puffing up front on our metal steeds.
Now what lay-over would be complete without “provisioning,” which is a nice way of saying, “Let’s go spend money!” We made it out past the Northeast side of Denver where we picked up our favorite all natural, grass-fed/finished beef from Flying B Bar Ranch. It was nice visiting with Margret Buchanan who runs the ranch with her husband Brad. We got a warm welcome from the farm dogs, said hello to the horses and learned the Buchanans have grown their herd to 800 cattle, increased the size of the ranch by 3,000 acres and now provide beef for the posh Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. Moreover, our freezer is now stuffed with steaks and burgers that when grilled properly will make you “wanna slap your momma” with each delicious bite. Of course, we also bought things for the RV, clothes and odds-n-ends.
A final “Honey we have to…,” wasn’t planned for at all. Our “Handsome Boy” Kip, jumped over a small bush and ended up with a long laceration on his inside thigh. Turned out it looked nastier then it actually was but still required 20 stitches and an antibiotic regimen. He just loved that, not. But he also got to get his rattlesnake vaccination along with his little sis’ Kellie.
With all that is it any wonder we didn’t have time to see everyone we wanted to? Hopefully we’ll see them on the flip side when we pass through in September on the way back to Ohio.