Visiting With Friends

August 10th – 19th, 2022

My new destination was back at Turquoise Lake and the Molly Brown Campground. I needed a couple of days with cell service to take care of logistics. I was also close to the Leadville Library where I could print documents (you can mail them to the librarian and she prints them for a small fee), and I had mail coming in to General Delivery at the post office. On Thursday, I rose at 3:30 am to make a run down to Boulder to meet my son Tyler. He had a few items I needed to pick up.

We met at The Buff. This is a breakfast restaurant in Boulder that serves great coffee and omelets. Try it if you are ever in the area, but go early, as it is very popular. We discussed pros and cons of internet access methods when living in a camper. I have talked to a few people who get a better cell signal in marginal areas with a booster. A good one is around $500, but may not boost the signal enough to get data (i.e. internet access), but can provide voice and text abilities. There is also Elon Musk’s new Starlink system. It is a satellite based system rather than using cell connections. The hardware for it is currently $600 but then also charges $135 per month for people living a mobile lifestyle.

I have not yet decided if I will try either one. Being able to access the internet does reduce the feeling of isolation you sometimes get, when out in the middle of nowhere. Or, perhaps I am just experiencing internet withdrawal. Regardless, I would like to continue posting to this blog during the long winter months where I will be in the desert southwest. Perhaps I can dig up a little remote Database Administration work to supplement income.

On August 12th, I moved to a friend’s property near Leadville in order to await the arrival of my compatriots from Minnesota. They are on a loop through Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana to visit friends and relatives while towing their A-Liner camper trailer. After spending 4 days in Leadville, which included watching some of the finishers of the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race, we headed back up to Yampa for some camping, fishing and hiking. We left during a rainy, cold, overcast morning. I arrived in the mountains right after the 4th of July weekend, and this was the first day where there was an overcast sky and rain in the morning. The normal pattern is sunny mornings, and afternoon shower and sun in the evening.

I don’t start a campfire in the evenings when alone. My friends however have one every night. It is enjoyable to sit with old friends and reminisce about old trips and adventures and plan future ones while hearing the crackle and feeling the warmth of the fire. But alas, they headed on to Montana, and I again headed south to the Leadville area and evening quiet. When I got down to Yampa and the highway south, I received a cell signal, and talked with my two sons. Doing so helped fight off those feelings of depression when suddenly being back alone.

This weekend is the Leadville 100 mile running race. There will be about 750 entrants running the same course as the mountain bikers did the previous week. It is supposed to be a cool, rainy weekend and will challenge the runners ability to continue all day Saturday and through the night into Sunday.

I will camp in the general area of Leadville for the next days, waiting for my son’s defense of his PHD paper. As it starts to get cold, I will visit him down near Boulder before heading west into Utah and making a left hook towards Moab and the canyonlands. The cold will push me southward as I avoid frozen water pipes in the trailer. I have never traveled the southwest canyons and deserts before, so this will be new for me. I want the experience this fall and winter of all new topography and geology. If I become bored, then perhaps next year I will work my way across the Gulf Coast, visit a cousin and a couple of friends, and watch the waves roll into the beaches.

My sister Dawn suggests that I keep my mind sharp this winter and perhaps delve into some type of art (I used to do well with water colors) or perhaps do some writing. That will be in the future. Right now I have fall for which to look forward. And fall is my favorite time of year.

“He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring