katie's house on wheels

Our trip last week was excellent. I'm really afraid that now that I've been spoiled by going 'camping' in an RV, it will be impossible to go camping in a tent with my little friends. I asked a gal with 3 kids the same ages as ours how she didn't go bananas camping with her crew, and it turns out that her folks always go with them. Somehow, I think Carol's days of sleeping in a tent are long behind her!


Here's a brief synopsis of our fun - on our own and with the Young clan for part. We drove up to Egypt to pick up the RV. The pick up location made me think that if we lived on a little bit of land, we could run our own RV rental franchise. Packing was a dream, because crazy Kat had enough to bring everything but the kitchen sink, and that wasn't necessary because it was already included!
Rog planned a great trip. Monday night we slept at the a trail head in Dotsero. Tuesday morning I hopped on my bike and rode (mostly) down Glenwood canyon with Katie and Alex in the trailer. The water was SOOO high - still too high for most rafters. It was such a great ride - although I confess to walking a couple of sections. Rog and Max met us at the rest stops along the way, which was a good thing since I should have paid better attention to the CLOSED sign at Hanging Lake. The trail had been under water, and so there was a fair amount of debris on the path. The real excitement came at the end of that section where there was a fence to keep people from going UP. I handed the kids and equipment around the blockage to Rog, and then climbed over the fence. Katie and Alex were done riding, so I finished up on my own. Total mileage: 18.2 miles.

Tuesday night we stayed at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. I convinced Katie and Alex to go on a short nature walk that night. We spent Wednesday morning driving through the canyon and walking out to the overlooks. Holy drop offs, Batman! Katie was much more excited about climbing on the rocks than we were ready for. It was funny to watch a mother and her 10 year old who was just as nervous about him standing near the edge as we were of our kids - it would appear that reaction will not go away for a long time! We met up with the Goates and the Miles at the hot springs in Ouray later that afternoon. We were pulling up as they were finishing their swim - sometimes we aren't as fast with our posse as we think we can be! It rained the whole time, which was OK since the water was around 95 degrees.
We met up with the rest of the Youngs at the State Park at Mancos. On our drive over the passes down to Durango we were hit with a fair amount of snow! Spring time in the Rockies. We stopped at a hot spring on the side of the road just outside of Durango. Another family pulled up and let their daughters put their fingers in the water. Meanwhile, Katie and Alex were ready to strip down and climb to the top. There was a problem with the wheel on Cynthia's trailer, so we got to put the sleeping capacity of the RV to the test, and it past with flying colors. We could have easily popped a couple more bodies in there.

The next few days we hung out at the lake. Katie is a huge fan of the canoe, although she had a hard time taking turns with the paddle. She apparently thinks that her 3 years are equal to Cynthia's experience manning the oar. Rog got to do a fair amount of sailing on his newly-rigged boat. Rog and I got to spend some time on the ATVs - luckily Max slept for an entire 2 minutes after we left, so Dianna, Barbara and Donna got to wrestle the inconsolable, screaming maniac for two hours to no avail. I'm thinking I need to make a wig out of my hair to leave with Max when I'm gone so that he can survive our 'traumatic' separations.

On the trip back, we stopped by the Sand Dunes. This is where the RV really earned my appreciation. The campground was full - what?! full on a Saturday night?! - so after we played, we just pulled over and Roger whipped up some grilled cheese for dinner. Then we drove along a road until we found a good place to pull over and that's where we camped for the night. In the morning we went back to play in the sand while it was warm. Katie LOVED coming up with new ways to roll down the mountains of sand. Alex stopped crying intermittently. We sang a lot of 'the eensy weensy spider' to snap him out of his funk for moments at a time.

We had a great trip. Katie and Alex loved spending time with their cousins. They had a great time running around with Madeline, and having Sam and Jeremy at their beck and call. We had a great time and it was great to spend time with family.