RV Sabbatical Adventure

We started Day 27 by buying Lamar donuts, a KC legend. We brought them to the Richter Family for our last breakfast before they headed back to Nebraska. It was an amazing week and it is always hard to say good bye. Great memories and thanks Ed once again for coordinating and hosting the family trip. It had been a long time since we were all together.

The rest of the week will be spent enjoying time with Emma, Grace and Carlos. We headed to Estes Park to enjoy lunch at our favorite pizza place. We then spent time enjoying the sites and shops of Estes Park. And we were entertained by Elk wandering the streets as well. We had a great time on the road trip there catching up and enjoying the views. We had to navigate some rain but that did not dampen our spirits to shop until we drop. Everyone found a t-shirt, sweatshirt or cool rock to reminder the day together. Speaking of cool rocks, the rock store allowed us to open a rock. So, we see what surprise it had inside. The surprise did not disappoint and Theresa, who is an avid rock collector, found a gem! The person at the store was a rock geek and she was over top excited about the find. Theresa chose wisely! We wrapped up in Estes with taking some great selfies by the river.

We then headed off to visit Rocky Mountain National Park with our main destination being the Alpine Visitor’s Center. We started our journey hoping that the rain would not impact our visit. The views on the way to the Alpine Visitor Center are spectacular. The road can be scary because of the switchbacks and lack of guardrails. The girls were all sitting nearly each others laps in the back seat. They wanted to avoid seeing the high drop off on the right side. Carlos and I were having a great time. However, I was instructed to keep my eyes on the road and was not allowed to enjoy the view. I believe you can guess who was providing the instructions. The traffic was light and the journey was about an hour. We arrived to cool weather and high winds. I did not bring a sweatshirt and quickly headed to the visitor center to purchase one before they closed. We did some shopping at the shop and cafe before they closed shortly after we arrived. We then debated whether to make the hike. We wanted to recreate the photo we took 17 years ago at the top. The weather was the issue and we saw our window and began the hike up the stairs. Theresa made a go at it. However, her knees were not going to allow her to make it to the top. The hike was crazy with the winds and the altitude definitely dictated a slow and steady pace. We were nearly alone on the hike and we all at one point thought is it really worth it. It was and we replicated the picture minus Theresa which we will photo shop in at a later time. The view was spectacular and the hike down was much easier as it was downhill all the way. We then started the journey back down the Rocky Mountains to head back to Fort Collins.

We safely made it back down. The journey back to Fort Collins was uneventful. We missed all the rainy weather. We finished off the evening with enjoying the BBQ Brisket sandwiches from Buc-ees, Yum! We had movie night as well with everyone staying with us in the RV. Emma, Grace and Carlos will be heading back to KC on Saturday.

I hope you enjoy the photos and I will wrap up the week shortly with catching up the blog finally!