Gail South

Friday, October 3
First hitch of the trip. It went below freezing last night and the drain lines froze. Jerry broke the handle while fighting with them. Still, it was a beautiful drive into Castle Rock, about 75 miles. We drove the RV a total of 4671 miles in three weeks. Took the vehicle to the car wash and had all the paperwork done (they didn’t charge for the broken part—I guess it wasn’t really broken) and were on the road by 11:30. Got to Salina, Kansas in time to have dinner at the #1 restaurant there—a take-out or eat-in barbecue place called the Hickory Hut. I am spoiled by the Northeast and Florida. Drove 408 miles in the truck. Abner slept in blissful peace the whole time. Lost an hour to Central time.

Saturday, October 4
Ten and a half hours and 721 miles.

Sunday, October 5
The sun came out in PA after the first tunnel so we had beautiful fall vistas all the way to Beach Haven. Stopped at Shoprite and were home (to Abner’s delight) at 6:30—ten and a half hours and 643 miles. We drove 3789 miles in the truck for a total of 8460. It’s a big, big country.

As this is our last night, we finished up the leftover food and cleaned the vehicle in preparation for our return to Denver tomorrow morning.

The city of Central, or merely Central City, is a historic mining settlement founded in 1859 during the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush and came to be known as the "Richest Square Mile on Earth". On May 6, 1859, during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush, John H. Gregory found a gold-bearing vein (the Gregory Lode) in Gregory Gulch between Black Hawk and Central City. The year 1863 brought the first attempt by hard rock miners to form a hard rock miners' union. Of 125 miners signing a union resolution in Central City, about fifty broke windows and doors at the Bob Tail mine, forcing other workers out. After a night of shooting and fighting, the union effort among Central City miners failed. Many Chinese lived in Central City during the early days working the placer deposits of Gregory Gulch. They were forbidden work in the underground mines. Most of them are believed to have returned to China after making their stake. The frontier gambler Poker Alice lived for a time in Central City and several other Colorado mining communities.Gold mining in the Central City district decreased rapidly between 1900 and 1920, as the veins were exhausted. Mining revived in the early 1930s in response to the increase in the price of gold from $20 to $35 per ounce, but then virtually shut down during World War II when gold mining was declared nonessential to the war effort. The district was enlivened in the 1950s by efforts to locate uranium deposits, but these proved unsuccessful.The population of Central City and its sister city Black Hawk fell to a few hundred by the 1950s. Casino gambling was introduced in both towns in the early 1990s, but had more success in Black Hawk (which has 18 casinos) than in Central City (which has 6 casinos), partly because the main road to Central City passed through Black Hawk, tempting gamblers to stop in Black Hawk instead. It is a tiny town. Imagine Atlantic City in ten square blocks. We got hopelessly lost twice before a friendly lady at the Post Office led us out of town and up, up the mountain to the KOA, which had the most beautiful site we have encountered so far. The manager didn’t answer his phone and was so apologetic when we finally found him that we got a prime site overlooking the town and valley.

Longs Peak—elevation 14256 feet

It took us two hours to go the first sixty miles, as I kept stopping for photo ops. Part of the trip was down the Thompson River Canyon, where there was major flash flooding just a year ago. After experiencing Hurricane Sandy, we can certainly feel for the people who lost their home in this major weather event. One of the signs seen along the road said, “In case of flood, climb to safety.”

Thursday, October 2
Left Laramie about 8:30. Sunny and 31 degrees—frost on the grass. One of the things I haven’t mentioned is that all of the major highways have barricades and signs that read “Road closed when lights flash. Return to …” It will be fun to watch the weather now and see where the winter storms are in the mountains. Another popular sign is “Wind gusts to 40 mph next 10 miles.” We have returned to the land of 20 foot high snow fences, in whose lee rest herds of antelope. It’s very pretty, but just a bit boring so we turned on Wyoming Public Radio. Why is it that no matter where in the US we are, it is always pledge week? Loads and loads of wind farms top the ridges. Jerry had suggested that we get off the interstate to Denver and explore Rocky Mountain National Park, a wonderful idea, as it turned out. It is relatively small, and there were few visitors, but the road was beautiful. This was what we saw as we entered Estes Park, Colorado.

USA & Canada~Northwest Parks   Part 6