Headed for Colorado

At Hailstone Campground, Jordanelle State Park

  

Above are pictures of our stay at Hailstone Campground, Jordanelle State Park along Lake Jordanelle near Park City Utah.  We have stayed here probably 4 or 5 times now…and have enjoyed each stay.  Temperatures have been in the mid-80’s, just enough to cause the use of AC for a few hours.  At night it has been cool, and by morning it can be a bit cold for a few hours..but we did not turn on our furnace.  Many of the sites include this nice patio area which includes a nice picnic table, a BBQ and a fire pit which also includes a grill.  This one is up a slight slope along a dirt path, maybe 15 yards from the parking spot.  The site comes with electric and water for $30 per night.  There are some areas which have no utilities, but all have access to the dump station and water spout to fill up your tank with.

As we were driving along the salt flats on Monday morning we passed this old VW Bus…it reminded me of the trip that mom, dad, brother Roger and sister Sandy took to Washington DC, summer 1968 in '65 (or was it a '66) blue VW Bus.  Brother Jim was with us as far as Pennsylvania from what I remember, where we dumped him off at a friends place (a girlfriend!).  How did we do it, all that way in August without A/C???  By-the way…if you run out of gas in one of those things, it will run on White Gas, the type of gas one used for portable camping stoves before the small propane canisters became the more popular method of fueling camp stoves.  That trip is something I will always remember...sleeping in a tent at campgrounds, visiting Gettysburg, taking the stairs down the Washington Monument (elevator up), Arlington, Smithsonian, Capital (up the steps and right in the door back then)...but I can't remember the heat at all.  How do I remember the year?  Because Bobby Kennedy’s grave was still fresh at Arlington… 

 

Our purpose of being here was to see Stephanie.  (Above she is between her two brothers, Ryan on the left and Michael on the right at Michael’s wedding back in July.)  Stephanie just moved into a new apartment about 10 days ago, with the help of Michael and his wife Anna.  We had two days to visit, to get a few things for the apartment, and a couple of dinners…Olive Garden to go at her place, and a steak restaurant this evening.  She is doing so well, and I am so proud of her.  Those who have followed the blog for a long time know that she is still suffering the affects of multiple head traumas which included hitting her head on a rock while hiking, having a surfboard hit her in the face, and multiple falls before and after her diagnosis a few years ago.  Her location puts her close to mass transit, two of her three medical professionals that she sees, and in a safe, controlled entry location.

 

The campground is also right along US-40, and we are taking US-40 over to Colorado towards the Rocky Mountain National Park.  There is one fire, which is about 6 weeks old, has burned over 68,000 acres, is 90% contained, started on July 1st, called the Dollar Ridge Fire.  The fire destroyed over 70 homes,  hundreds of sheds and many RVs.   It closed US-40 on July 4th through the 6th, but it will not be a problem to travel through now.  My plan is to make it to Lake Grandby / Grand Lake area in Colorado by Monday where we will camp for a number of days and explore the surrounding areas.  The question is…can I restrain ourselves and travel the 400 over 4 days…heck, we do that in a day many times.