July 23rd - Day 41
When we first began planning our trip, we knew that we wanted to have people join us for parts of the it. Specifically, we wanted to arrange for my mom and Cassidy (Aubrey’s best friend who has become a bonus part of our family over the last 8 years) to travel with us for a week amidst our journey. Since Cassidy is unable to fly on her own (she has not flown before), it seemed like the perfect solution to have my mom travel with her. We picked them up in Denver today and they will be journeying with us for the next 7 days.
Why are they joining this week? Well, besides it fitting in with my mom’s schedule, we had asked Cassidy where she would like to travel to in the United States. In 6th grade, she had done a project on the Pueblo Native American Tribe that lived in cliff dwellings in the southeast, so she was interested in visiting where they had lived. So, tomorrow we will be going to Mesa Verde National Park where a number of cliff dwellings are still located (followed by a number of other great adventures and sites).
A few highlights from the day:
Since we still had a rental car from yesterday in Colorado Springs, Becca and I took the opportunity to go on a coffee date when we returned the car to the rental car company. The kids were happy to stay back at the KOA and play on the playground there. We ended up going to Story Coffee in downtown Colorado Springs, which is owned by former Portlanders, who we share mutual friends with.
After leaving Colorado Springs, we drove to the Denver Airport to pick up my mom and Cassidy. However, like everything else with an RV, you have to plan ahead and work out all of the logistics. In this case, the driving clearance where I would have needed to pick them up at the airport was less than 10 ft. Pulling up in our RV was not an option. Fortunately, I found a place to park relatively close to the airport and they were able to get there via an Uber. Everyone was thrilled to be reunited when they arrived.
When we left Denver, we started to head towards Mesa Verde National Park, which is in the far south west corner of Colorado. After crossing the continental divide, we camped at Big Meadow Reservoir. It is a very peaceful and beautiful lake in the Rockies. Very different than the KOA campground the night before.
