Heading for Home!

7^th Sept.

The family running this camp at Manitou Springs turned on a Pancake breakfast. We drove to the car park for the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. Pikes Peak is one of the 14,000’ers in Colorado at 14,150ft. For most NZers, Pikes Peak is famous for its hill climb dominated by Steve and Rod Millen. The Cog Railway climbs from Manitou Springs right to the summit. A Cog Railway uses a centre toothed rail and a series of cogs power the train instead of the friction on the outside tracks.

This means that it can climb a 25% gradient. The ride to the top is only 9 miles but it takes 1.5 hours each way. It is the longest and highest cog railway in the world. Our trip was 4 hours with a ½ hour stop at the top. At 14,150ft you can certainly feel the effect of the altitude! The track was installed in 1891 and the present train has been used since 1964. It was a great relaxing ride with fantastic views from the top. After lunch in the car park we drove a short distance to Lake Pueblo State Park for the night.

8^th Sept.

We shopped at the Wal-Mart in Pueblo. We even managed to fill our propane tank (LPG). We are now on the long drive to Dallas where we will be storing ‘Ernie’. This trip is about 750 miles and will take us 6 odd days. As per the usual Megget ‘modus operandi’ we are not following the main interstate highways but the two laned country roads thru many small towns in Kansas, Oklahoma and north Texas. We headed east on the ’50’ and into Kansas. The land is flat and all farming. Lunch was at a park in Las Animas and our overnight stop was at a free Wildlife Area at Hamilton. It is a long time since there has been water in this lake! It was a nice place but the flies were horrendous. There was a feed lot for cattle 2 miles down the road which may be the reason for the flies. In the evening we sat outside and watched the lightning illuminating inside the huge clouds.

 

9^th Sept.

Breakfast in lovely sunshine before heading further east. Driving was a bit tough with a strong SW wind buffeting ‘Ernie’ and we stopped at Dodge City. This is Wild West country and the sheriff was Wyatt Earp. We walked thru the town but it was all a bit disappointing. We had lunch in a car park before continuing on to Greensburg where we camped, again free, by a fishing lake. The temperatures during the day are around 37C. It did not cool in the evening and sleeping was difficult, not helped by another time zone change, until rain and a wind change, brought the temperature down. Greensburg’s claim to fame is that in May 2007 the largest tornado on record in the USA destroyed the town and killed 12 people. We must be crazy staying here!!  

10^th Sept.

The weather is much cooler and the wind is now behind us making the driving much easier. Eventually we left the flat farmlands of Kansas and crossed into the rolling country of Oklahoma. The small rural towns are fascinating most with a “Main St” with two storied brick buildings. Like everywhere, however, the small shops have closed, replaced by one supermarket. We stopped for the night at Roman Nose State Park. (named after a local Indian Chief) In the evening we rode our bikes to a couple of natural springs, one with a waterfall in a cave.

11^th Sept.

We followed the ‘281’ for 100 odd miles zig zagging thru small Oklahoma towns and eventually took a slight detour west to the Wichita Mountains. For mountains read hills but in this part of the world anything can be called a mountain! We checked out the visitors centre before finding a great camp site in this Wildlife Refuge. On the way we spied some long horned cattle. We overlooked a small lake and sat in the afternoon enjoying the sunshine thinking we would do a bike ride and a longish walk tomorrow. There is a total alcohol ban in this park so we had to be slightly discreet with our evening drinks.

12^th Sept.

We woke to the pitter patter of rain which slowly got heavier and the wind increased. It was also cold. So much for our bike ride and hike. We spent the day inside reading and a few odd jobs. I even fixed a couple of bike punctures in the kitchen sink. The heavy blanket came out tonight.

13^th Sept.

Pancakes for breakfast and we even ran the gas heater for a while. We headed further south thru Oklahoma to the Lake Murray State Park. After lunch we biked down the road to the next camp for a view of the lake. Our route home was the Anadarche Trail. This turned out to be a “challenging” but nice ride with mud, rocks and steep bits. (had to walk some parts!) We deserved a beer when we got back to ‘Ernie’.

                                     14^th Sept.

South again and into Texas. These must be God faring folks! The churches are huge, mostly Baptist, and everywhere. It is hard to imagine where everyone comes from on a Sunday to fill them. We stopped at a Wal-Mart for a few things before continuing on to the Ray Roberts Lake State Park. This was much dearer than last night in Oklahoma. Some State Parks charge a day fee as well as the camping fee. This is a huge park and we cycled 3 miles of pathways before heading down a track to some cycle trails. Unfortunately we got thoroughly lost and ended up again on “challenging” tracks going round in circles never seeming to come to an end. Eventually, to our relief, we recognized part of the track and found our way back to the camp.

15^th Sept.

This is our last day on the road. It was a short drive thru ever increasing traffic into the outskirts of Dallas and Fort Worth. Our first stop was at the storage facility where ‘Ernie’ will have a well earned rest for about 7 months. We were thrilled with the professional looking outfit where we signed our rental agreement and saw our storage site. It was a short drive to the camp we had booked for the next three nights, to clean and prepare the camper for storage on Thursday.

16^th Sept.

You are not allowed to wash vehicles in this camp so we headed down the road for a couple of miles to a car wash. They had a bay big enough for ‘Ernie’ and we soon got the hang of the system. It cost us $4.50 which we thought was cheap as it included the shampoo. Back at the camp I cleaned and service the bikes and a Val did a wash. In the afternoon we sat in the shade reading. Most nights we watch an hour’s worth of DVDs, either half a movie or an episode of two TV series which the girls gave us. We watched the very last episode of ‘Outrageous Fortune’ (thanks Nicola) and will watch the last episode of ‘Call the Midwife’ (thanks Claire) tomorrow night.

17^th Sept.

This is our last full day in the USA. Val washed the bedding and we put the mattress out to air. It did not take long as it is about 37C. In the afternoon we worked inside with the air con on cleaning and packing. Tomorrow morning we have a taxi booked from the storage place to the Dallas Fort Worth airport where we have a flight to L.A (3 ½ hours) and then the long flight home. It has been a great 6 month trip. We have driven 9,500 miles and visited 13 states as well as B.C., Canada. The trip has been more varied this year with the coastline, mountains, Alaska cruise, the Rockies, the Prairies and the flat lands of Kansas,  Oklahoma and Texas. Next year we will start by heading south into Louisiana and New Orleans.