Aug 4th to 6th - Loveland CO

Aug 4th – Thurs – to Loveland, CO
I kind of misjudged reporting the altitude yesterday – Rawlins is at 6800 feet. We headed to Colorado today. The snow fences we saw yesterday were half of what we saw today. A lot of them are a newer design with posts in the ground and a vertical fence rather than slanted sections with braces on the lee side. As we approached the south side of Wyoming, there was more grass and huge herds of cattle.
We found a PA park in our book but they did not have a space for us for 3 days. They called a park just down the road so we are at the Canyon Valley Campground just west of Loveland. It is a small park off the main road so I expect it to be quiet tonight.
After we set up and had a late lunch, we went back to Loveland so I could get a much overdue haircut. As we walked into WalMart, it started to rain but stopped by the time we were done. We made one more stop at a hardware store before heading back to the campground to relax and have a good dinner.

Aug 5th – Fri – Loveland
I packed a lunch and we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. A couple of miles down the road we entered a narrow, steep-walled, scenic canyon containing the Big Thompson River. We went through Estes Park (a town) and entered the park. I took this opportunity to get my Golden Age Pass as I am officially an “old fart” according to the federal government.
We drove along the Trail Ridge Road which is the only road through the park. We only went part way through – to the highest point on the road which is 12,183 feet. We saw a herd of elk beside the road and had to brake suddenly to avoid running over a coyote who knew he had the right of way crossing the road. The scenery is stunning and the Trail Ridge Road would cause some of our friends to look the other way when the edge of the road is looking over a canyon. Terry suggested that we come through Steamboat Springs and pull the 5th wheel through the park – what a mistake that would have been!
We found a picnic table to have our lunch and as we were eating the wind came up and dark clouds moved in. We continued to where we were going to go for a walk but when we saw a sign saying the parking lot was full and we would have to take a shuttle, we turned around and went back to Estes Park where it was much warmer than the 55 degrees on top of mountain.
We wandered up & down the main touristy street of Estes Park and bought a decorative item for the empty wall beside the steps up to our bedroom.
We had a new neighbor at the RV park and we enjoyed talking to them (Charlie & Deloris) before and after dinner.

Aug 6th – Sat - Loveland
We had a piece of molding and a panel partially pop off in the kitchen so Terry got working on that first thing this morning. It had only been stapled and the wood behind did not even go the entire length of the panel so Terry put in some screws and glued the molding on to cover the screws. Of course he was working in the small area behind the counter so it wasn’t easy.
Then we went to hang our new wall hangings and 2 of the 3 had keyhole cutouts for screws upside down. So we had to make a trip back to Estes Park (22 miles) and exchange them for correct ones.
We explored more of Loveland and found it is quite a large city. We had a couple of small items to pick up at different stores, got diesel ($3.75) and had lunch. We drove past our RV park to see what was up the road and found very nice, large houses and lots of horses & boarding farms.
Back at the rig, we hung our wall art which took a while as the 3 pieces had to be level & equidistant apart and secure. We were both kind of cranky which got interesting sometimes!
We thought we were going to get a rain shower to cool things down but it only amounted to a few drops so it remains hot tonight. Our neighbors toured the park today and we talked to Charlie for a bit this evening.