Rochester to Denver

On Friday (8/31) we departed our summer digs in Rochester and pointed our coach west toward Moab, UT where we will begin our Canyonland adventure. Moab is adjacent to Arches National Park and marks the beginning of the Canyonland Parks. Our plan is to work our way west and eventually reach the grandest canyon of them all. 

This day we made it as far as Milan, OH where we found the Milan Travel Park. It was a nice little park and the campers were friendly. One in particular from Michigan helped me jump the HHR the next morning as the battery had drained during the night. Apparently I got the neutral tow switch in the wrong position resulting in the cars lifeless condition. I discovered that I could not get the car into neutral for towing without power so once I had it running I just towed it for a couple of hours with it idling to recharge the battery. I have had no problems with it since.

 

 Saturday morning we set our sights on Chicago as we wished to visit our friends at Shorewood Bible Church and attend services on Sunday. The crimp in our design was that we could not locate a travel park anywhere near there. The solution turned out being to set up in the parking lot at the church. This was our very first experience with dry camping (no hookups). After getting situated I fired up the generator and we had all the comforts of home.

 Along the way, we did stop in Elkhart, IN at the RV/MH Hall of Fame. It was a fun hour as we toured the museum and looked at the historical precedents to our Winnebago Journey.

 We had a wonderful visit in Chicago, actually meeting some folks that we had previously known only from Facebook.  Saturday evening we had dinner with my niece Stacy Jordan at Bahama Breeze and we were able to catch up on the goings on in her family. Sunday we dinned out with Richard and Cynthia Jordan. It was good to spend some time with them and to let them know how much we appreciate their ministry.

Our Winni's Great Grandfather

Labor Day Monday we again headed west driving for hours through the bucolic heartland. Miles and miles of corn, soybeans, etc. is what we saw. That evening, after an uneventful day, we stopped just west of Des Moines, IA in sleepy Adel where we over-nighted at the KOA campground located there.

SBC parking lot

Tuesday brought more of the same as we tacked on another 300 plus miles stopping for the night at Gothenburg, NE. We did make a stop at Camping World in Council Bluff for new wiper blades for the Winnebago. I had been searching for replacements at every truck stop we came to, without success. I even tried a truck parts house but came up empty there also. Thank goodness for CW.

Denver was in our sights for Wednesday as we had previously made contact with Ken and Josie Fredericksen about seeing them while passing through. Ken suggested Chatfield State Park as a place to stay and a great suggestion it was. It is, by far, the nicest park we have stayed in having full hook-ups and concrete pads. We normally avoid state parks as they don’t usually have sewer or 50 amp service. 

As I am writing this I am looking out at the mountain view and I am impressed that the scenery is definitely changing. Yesterday we motored through hundreds of miles of prairie and then we climbed to the Mile High City.

   

Chatfield State Park

We met Ken and Josie at The Fort (an eclectic local eatery) for dinner last night and it was good to visit with them as it has been at least six years since we were last together. Today, Thursday, we might go downtown with Ken to see what Denver is like.