And it's off to Rocky we go - yay!

 We had been watching the weather for our little northeastern corner of Colorado since the end of May and it was pretty consistently cold, chilly and quite rainy, so the decision was made to wait for fairer weather. Finally, by the 3rd week of June it looked like it was coming around for us. The Boss was fairly chomping at the bit by this time, so after making a last minute push to finalize things at home, we headed out.

Applying an old strategy we hadn't used in a long while, we sourced a large Omaha Steaks Styrofoam cooler from a neighbor and loaded it up with some of our frozen meats and ready-made meals. This not only helped clear out the freezers but also ensured we wouldn't have to shop immediately upon arrival, and would have a few easy "heat-n-eat" meals on tap. On the way out of town we stopped to pick up 2 slabs of dry ice, 10x10x2", loaded everything up, (it was full!), and duct taped it shut. It either would or would not last the whole trip - I was sure praying it would! 🙏🥺️ (PS. It made it with a little dry ice left!!)

Driving through Georgia we saw plenty of very green & healthy-looking pecan orchards. Some were large, old, established trees and some were young trees, but they were all very healthy looking. So pretty, wonder who owns them.. Bill Gates? the Chinese? Who knows.

A young Pecan Orchard in Georgia

We stopped for the night in Gadsden, AL, right by the Coosa river, and had a small stroll along the waterfront and a take-out bite for dinner.

I'm lagging behind with my torn meniscus but what a pretty evening.

After crossing the Mississippi @ Dyersburg, we headed further north and stopped in New Madrid, MO, a place the Boss has always wondered about. Sleepy little town on the Mississippi river now, but before the railroad came along it was hopping with river traffic and even carried some of the Native Americans westward on the Trail of Tears. It's main claim to fame is the New Madrid Tectonic Fault Line which in 1811-12 produced 4 of the largest earthquakes ever recorded in North America, along with hundreds of smaller aftershock quakes that year. We stopped at their museum and spent an hour or so there.  They had a couple of short movie clips describing the town at the time and how the earthquakes changed things including the course of the river, they had to move the town back more than once. Very interesting little museum with locally dug artifacts from early Mississippian Culture (600CE to 1600CE), the Civil War, WWI/WWII, plus an authentic 1800's kitchen - fascinating. I should have taken more pics.

Early American Kitchen with all the goodies,
you should have seen that woodstove!

The Mississippi looked low with quite a few sandbars in evidence, and I'm sure making navigation treacherous. 

Sandbars along the edges of the Mighty Mississippi

Traveling a bit further north we stopped in Sikeston, MO for the night and picked up a pizza for dinner.  

The next day we headed further north so as to catch I-80 westward, then stopped just west of Nebraska City, NE @ Lied Lodge, a stately lodge on 260 beautiful acres. This is the birthplace of Arbor Day, and they have all kinds of activities on the property. Maybe we'll stop for a more leisurely stay on the way home. We had a great dinner at Timbers, their fancy restaurant.

Entryway of Lied Lodge
(pronounced LEED) 

From there we travelled through some lush-looking farmland before coming into hills then mountains. Almost there.

Tidy looking farm

Rocky here we come!

One of the tasks the owners of the park were planning to handle in the off season was to replace the existing transformer with a bigger one. The intention being, so that when the RVers all run their A/C's at the same time Forth of July weekend it doesn't trip the circuit. Well, I guess it was a long, cold winter into spring and things just weren't conducive until the week we got here, lol.

The bucket truck in the foreground is handling the transformer
stuff while the guy in the background  behind the fence
is going to pull the old power pole straight up & out.

Whew! All's well that ends well. Here's a shot of the Boss in his happy place, here at Rocky, with his newly washed Explorer.

Well, that's about it for this first report from our summer abode. I'll close with a couple of shots of some columbines in bloom here in the neighborhood.

Thanks for dropping by and sticking with a rather long entry. Comments are great! Comments are welcome! 😄