After some morning exercise, Dan made French Toast for brunch. We re-packed the car, and it looked more organized after our recent purchases. Lynette and Eric drove their car, and we drove ours west on route 6 and I-70 to Gypsum, CO to see Courtney. She has a job, and she’s looking well. We took her out for coffee, and then we continued on to Hanging Lake, a hike just off I-70.

The parking lot was full, so we we drove to another lot, consolidated vehicles, and looped back. This time we got a spot. Given the state of the parking lot, it was not surprising that the trail was crowded. Many hikers seemed unprepared, with flip flops, no water, and no manners. It was a short but steep climb to the beautiful lake. A pretty waterfall emerged from a rock a bit farther up the trail. Most people didn’t bother to go that far, but it was worth the walk.

After our hike, we drove back to our car and ate our sandwiches on a bench by the Colorado River. We continued west on I-70 to Glenwood Hot Springs Lodge, where we donned swimsuits and headed for the hot springs. Everyone else had the same idea. It is the largest hot spring pool in the world, and it was pretty full. However, after a few minutes, we felt pretty mellow and didn’t mind.

Some of us went to the Farmers Market, while others slept late. The sisters went out for pedicures; some of us hadn’t touched our toes for 22 days. Ryan drove in from Fort Collins to spend the day with us. The seven of us (not Courtney, as she was in Gypsum) went to an “escape room” in Boulder and solved the puzzles in 40 out of a possible 60 minutes. (It was kind of a Half-Life-esque experience, according to Dan.) The advertised success rate was 35%, so we felt pretty good about it. Many of the clues involved chemistry and math, so were in good shape.

Before dinner, Eric and Ryan played bridge with us. Three weeks on the road did nothing to improve our game.

Dan went for an 8 mile run, while Rosalind went to Lynette’s deep water aerobics class (she teaches). The sisters did a couple of errands on the way home, so Rosalind wanted a restful afternoon. After washing and vacuuming the car, Dan went for a tour of Jonathan’s shop, Hennings, where Jon works part-time while going to college. He demonstrated how he mills gun upgrade parts out of solid blocks of aluminum using a computerized milling machine. Jon and Dan repaired the headlamp and the camping stove. Dan also stocked up on necessities at Home Depot and Target.

We rose early for a 6 mi. mountain hike on the Caribou Trail with Lynette’s hiking group. We saw an abandoned mine, a waterfall, and an historic music studio. Afterwards, we ate lunch at the James Peak Smokehouse.

In the afternoon, we went on an epic shopping trip in Boulder to fulfill all our pent-up retail desires: REI, Title 9, McGuckin’s Hardware, Trader Joe’s, and a hipster coffee shop. It was a busy day! We were glad that Lynette did all the driving.

After checking out a couple of RVs owned by our fellow campers, we were on the road again. When passing through Steamboat Springs, Dan spotted a restaurant called “Dude and Dan’s.” Since it was lunchtime, we stopped for a Reuben and gumbo. I bought a T-shirt for my dude, James, but they had none in Dan’s size. Otherwise, we had an uneventful drive to Longmont to visit my sister Lynette, her husband Eric, and their kids Ryan (25, lives in Fort Collins), Courtney (21, lives in Gypsum), Jonathan (20), and Aryn (17).

It took us 1.5 hours to drive to the Canyon side of the park (in CO), because of construction on the park entrance road. The hike for the day was a 9 mile out-and-back to Ruple Point, with views of Split Mountain Canyon. The view at the destination was nice, but the scenery along the way was somewhat boring. We are getting spoiled by beautiful views all along our hikes. At least this route had cute little prairie dogs who were fairly tame. We also crossed some open range (“land of many uses”) with suspicious cows and calves. They were not sure what we were up to.

After our hike, we drove to Harpers Corner and hiked another 2 miles round trip to a lookout point above the confluence of the Green and Yampa Rivers. This time we had gorgeous canyon views on both sides. It was a better view/effort ratio. We put whitewater rafting on the Green and Yampa Rivers on our wishlist for a future trip.

After a nice camp breakfast, we headed for a hike in Box Canyon (a box canyon, coincidentally) while it was still cool. We climbed all the way to the rear wall and explored some little caves. We ate lunch at a picnic table near the Josie Morris homestead. She was an independent woman who fenced her livestock in two box canyons and kept a big garden. Her house was small and simple, but it was in a little oasis in the desert.

We stopped to look at some petroglyphs (lizards, trapezoidal figures, and a flute player) on our way to the Visitor Center. The museum is built into the hillside, with a wall of exposed dinosaur fossils. Fascinating! We then took a short walk to see other fossils, but it was too hot and not much fun. After dinner we went for a hike along the river. The water was shallow, fast-moving, and cold. Not nice enough for a swim, but adequate for a quick clean up.

It started to rain soon after we got up, so breakfast was packed with campers, leaving us to wait for crappy service. Then google maps forgot my route, and I couldn’t find my AAA map. After much confusion and frustration, we realized that our campground is in Utah, while the majority of the park is in Colorado. We got some coffee in Jackson Hole, which improved our moods. Then we had hours of driving through desolate Wyoming. Pinedale (“all the civilization you need “) appealed to us as a more down-to-earth gateway to adventure than Jackson Hole. We’ll have to come back sometime. After stocking up on food in Rock Springs, WY, we traveled south into Utah and passed the Flaming Gorge Dam and Reservoir. Dan was disappointed that we were too late for the dam tour, but we still had miles to go before our destination. We arrived at the Green River Campground in time to make dinner. It was very windy and hot, but it cooled a bit at night.

After breakfast back at the Ranch House, we did 3 loads of laundry. With the permission of our neighbors, I set up 2 clotheslines behind our cabin, and everything dried quickly. We had planned to catch up on our email and blogging at the laundromat, but the wi-fi there was terrible. Fortunately, I found a better signal at the cabin guest lounge. After a lunch of leftovers, we spent a relaxing afternoon at the beach. Not content to spend the whole day slothing, we took a quick hike to Swan Lake (not Tchaikovsky’s) before dinner. Since it was our anniversary, Dan made a reservation at the Mural Room of the Jackson Lake Lodge. This is obviously where the cool people stay, but they weren’t having as much fun as we were. Rosalind had prime rib, Dan had bison rib eye, and they brought us a free dessert for our anniversary.

What do you talk about when trapped in a car for two months with the woman you’ve been married to for 34 years? Hopefully you can avoid that question with audio entertainment!

Today we finished “Dear Bob and Sue” (audio book), a travel log written in the form of a collection of e-mails from Matt and Karen Smith chronicling their visits to all 57 national parks (with an appendix for the most recent addition #58, The Pinnacles, which we have visited many times). The book was recommended to us by an IRL hiker in the White Mountains, and it seemed appropriate for our road trip. I usually don’t go for “books on tape,” but I made an exception for this one.

Otherwise it’s mostly music. I have at least two days of Madonna, and although I would be happy to have that on an infinite loop for two months, Rosalind would be taking the next plane back home before the first day was over. (Same for me and her Billy Joel.) We figured that since we are going out West that country music would be appropriate, and something new for us. Sirius XM has a half dozen country stations. “Bluegrass” and “Garth” were OK, but got old pretty quickly. “Outlaw” and “Highway” were unpleasant. We listened to “No Shoes” for a day. Apparently “No Shoes”: Kenny Chesney :: ”Parrot Head”: Jimmy Buffet. According to the WSJ, Gillette Stadium is some sort of spiritual home for Kenny, and he sells out a few shows there every year. Go figure. The music was nice, but the frequent chats with No Shoes Nation citizens was annoying. We settled on “Willie’s Roadhouse.” We have a soft spot for Willie Nelson since his rendition of “As Time Goes By” was the first dance at our wedding. As you might suspect, Willie likes country music from the 60’s and 70’s. For the more up to date country music we listened to Erin Rae’s Tidal playlist of up and coming women country artists a couple of times. By now Rosalind is getting tired of country music, but I’ll sneak it back in later.

What about good old AM/FM radio? Not much available in the middle of Wyoming except for televangelists.