July 4th Weekend

It's gotten much more difficult to spur of the moment pack up and go camping in Colorado.  We have had a huge influx of people over the past decade to the state and after a winter of well above normal snow pack limiting availability of some site still it adds to the problem.  Late in the game this year we decided to head up in the hills for the long 4th of July weekend.  After some hunting and searching with no success I called up a smaller RV Park in La Veta, Colorado.  When I asked about availability, a very nice lady on the phone said "if you have a rig shorter than 18 feet and no slide outs!", well that works great for us at this point so we booked a spot at Lucy's RV Park.

They only have 30 amp service, which also works for us right now, but it was a full hook up site.  The park is small and I'm guessing it has been around for quite some time.  The folks running the park are very friendly and of course so were our neighbors.  We pulled in around dinner time on the 4th, got set up and warmed up some chuck.  Back at the fixed home we have too many neighbors that spend a large amount of money on fireworks (the big illegal ones) and blast them off until the early morning hours without any consideration of anyone but themselves.  In La Veta, there were some fireworks that we heard but they stopped by around 9:30 pm.  Small towns, gotta love them!

Friday we headed up Old La Veta Pass, something I've wanted to do for some time, and found the ghost town of Uptop at the summit.  We did some wandering around and a little geocaching and enjoyed a beautiful morning.

After some lunch back at the rig, we headed out to Blue Lake southwest of the town of Cuchara.  Weather was nice and comfortable, got a bit chilly at times, and the fishing was good.  We ended up catching 6 and headed home for dinner.

It rained a bit Friday evening and we enjoyed talking an playing games after dinner.

Saturday morning the town had their "4th of July Parade" so we headed down to Main Street with our chairs to sit and enjoy the festivities.  In my opinion, America has become lost in the big cities.  The spirit of our great country and community has been set aside for a hurry up lifestyle of cell phones, video games, and material collecting.  But, it is still alive and well in the rural communities.  Great parade with floats, tractors, cars, horses, and lots of candy tossed out for the kids.

4th of July Parade start in La Veta, Colorado

After the parade we went back to the rig to get a bite to eat before heading back into town but it started raining and didn't really stop until the evening.  We decided to stay in and played games most of the afternoon and evening.

Sunday morning was clear sky, sunny and beautiful!  Unfortunately we had to pack up and head back to home base.

Info:
La Veta, Colorado
Lucy's RV Park
Website:  http://www.lucysrvpark.com/
Site: 24 - Full Hook Up - 30 Amp
Cost: $35/night - cash price

Amenities of note to us:
Very clean bathrooms, Only 1 male and 1 female
3 out of 5 campfires!

Of special note:
This park only had 30 amp service and the sites are pretty close to each other even without slides.
Get gas in Walsenburg on the way in or back out; much cheaper there even right next to I-25!

Camping Close to Home - June 21 - 23, 2019

Have you ever had one of those weeks that at the end of it you just need to get away for a couple of days?  We had a hard time getting back into the grove after our week at the Spring Rally so we started looking for campsites and found one close to home that had one open spot left for Friday and Saturday night.  Needless to say we booked it without knowing what the site we selected, not by choice but necessity, even looked like.  Thankfully with a 14 foot rig and no slides we can wiggle in just about anywhere!

About 30 minutes outside of Colorado Springs, just a little south of Woodland Park there is a small body of water (Manitou Lake) and 3 campgrounds near it.  We were camping at the Colorado Campground this trip.  It's nice and close but still makes you feel like your in the mountains and there is fishing close by at the lake.

Site 20 at Colorado Campground near Woodland Park, Colorado

Was able to sneak out of work a little early, got home and hooked up and off we went!  Got there, set up and Andrea made dinner.  A little rain and small hail that evening so we enjoyed some us time in the rig playing some games and talking.  During the week life can get pretty crazy around our house and we just don't get time to really talk to each other.

North side of Pikes Peak from Manitou Lake

Saturday morning was sunny and beautiful with some clouds around Pikes Peak and we were able to get in a couple of hours of fishing before the weather started to change.  A cold front was moving in and we headed back to the campsite before the rain started and the temperatures dropped.  In Colorado in the summer the days are nice and warm in the mountains and the nights can get down right chilly!  This weekend it was chilly during the day too!  More us time and we even worked a nap into the afternoon.

Even though it was only 2 nights, any time camping is better than none at all!

Info:
north of Woodland Park, Colorado on 67
Pike National Forest - Colorado Campground
Site: 20 - Dry camping
Cost: $27/night
Firewood: $7.00 Bundle

Amenities of note to us:
Very clean bathrooms, right next to site
Walking distance to Manitou Lake
4 out of 5 campfires!

Rocky Mountain High SKP's Spring Rally 2019

We had a long winter in Colorado this year, we had planned to head out and do some camping in April but weekend snow storms kept us grounded at home base.  Our first chance to hit the road this year was for the Spring Rally of the Rocky Mountain High chapter of the Escapees RV Club June 3 - 7.  This years Spring Rally was at the KOA Campground in Colorado City, Colorado.

If memory serves me right there were about 14 rigs that came to the Rally.  This was our first Rally with the club and we really didn't know what to expect.  We were warmly greeted and they acted like we had always been there, a great bunch of folks.  I think we had the smallest and oldest rig in the group but that didn't matter.  We met up each day for "happy hour" which means lets get together and talk and eat.  We made lots of new friends that week and were also able to get away by ourselves some too.

Site B2 at KOA Campground - Colorado City

We took a long drive on our first full day into the San Luis Valley over by the Great Sand Dunes National Park to go to Zapata Falls.  The drive to the trail head to get to the falls was rough!  Rocky as all get out but still passable by car.  We took it slow and easy and it still rattled Andrea's back pretty good.  Once to the trail head we headed up the 1 mile trek to the falls.  Beautiful hike and some really cold water coming out of a crack in the wall. 

We managed to get over to Lake Isabel to do some fishing on 2 days an caught our limit of trout on both days.  Beautiful small lake in mountains that makes me think of the old song Indian Lake from the 1960's.  We shared the first days take with some of our fellow campers and brought home the bounty from day 2!

After the summary of our trips we plan on providing some information about the park or campground that we stayed in as well as some of the local activities and sights to see.  We'll provide some links for addition information as well as our rating of each place in number of campfires 1 - 5.  If you would like more information, please feel free to reach out to us!

Info:
Colorado City, Colorado
KOA Campground Pueblo South/Colorado City
Website:  https://koa.com/campgrounds/pueblo-south/
Site: B2 - Full Hook Up
Cost: $47/night
Location right next to I-25 but you really don't hear the traffic

Amenities of note to us:
Very clean bathrooms, 3 shower stalls
Mini-golf
Pool
Spa
Meeting room
4 out of 5 campfires!

Local Food we ate:
We had some BBQ from a place just up the street Obie's - not bad Texas Style BBQ (we had them cater some food in for the group - brisket and pulled pork).

Of special note:
Get gas before or after coming to Colorado City, fuel prices there are ridiculously higher than anywhere north or south on I-25!

The Journey Begins

In the summer of 2018 we really started to consider joining the RV lifestyle.  Tired of the expense and hassle of the brick and stick home, not getting any younger and looking at retirement in the near future and talking with Steve's parents we were giving it some serious consideration.  In September 2018 Steve's parents gave us the gift of a membership to the Escapees RV Club and the learning started.

Since that time we have read a lot of articles and watched a lot of video's of the lifestyle and what we could look forward to; the good, the bad, and the ugly!  We are going into this eyes wide open and know it's not all rainbows and roses.  We have had a whole lot of questions, found answers, and come up with more questions all the time.  Little questions and big questions like do we have to wait until retirement to hit the road?  More research to do every day!

We also joined the Rocky Mountain High chapter of the Escapees so we could hang out with like minded folks and gleam some knowledge from their experiences.  We've researched into Workamping and how it works and even into starting our own business on the road (more to come on this one!).

We still have a ton of learning to do but we are well on our way!  So begins our journey to hit the road and in the mean time still get in some travel and camping along the way.

Why the title of the blog Wagons Hoo!? Well the 2 o's in Hoo is because the spelling with 1 o was already taken! But the main reason is the love of the history of the western half of the USA.  In a former life we would have been hitching up our oxen to a prairie schooner or a Conestoga wagon and joining one of the many wagon trains heading west to the Rocky Mountains and beyond.  Life in the city has become a grind, and there is so much to see in this great country of ours that we want to hit the road and enjoy as much of it as we can.

A Brief History

This story begins back in 1983 when a young GI (Steve) and a beautiful young Fraulein (Andrea) met in the small village of Neubrucke in West Germany.  They fell in love, got married and the journey began.  They moved across the ocean 3 times, so adventures involving relocating are not new.  They settled down for quite awhile in Parker, Colorado in the USA and eventually moved to Colorado Springs at the base of America's Mountain, Pikes Peak.

During this time, Steve's parents left the stick and brick lifestyle and became gypsies, traveling around in the RV.  While Steve and Andrea loved hearing about their travels they never dreamed of hitting the road themselves.  In the early 20-teens, and limited funds, they bought a small 1983 Viking Lil' Gasser pop up camper.  After a good bit of refurbishing and remodeling it was road worthy and camping off of the ground ensued. 

After a couple of years of cranking it up and down and the fear of taking a canvas sided trailer to Yellowstone, we found a used 1978 Fleetwing 14' travel trailer.  The price was right, still on a limited budget, we new it had seen some wear and tear and a little water damage so we handed over the dead presidents, hooked it up and headed home.  Well the water damage ended up being a whole heck of a lot more than ever anticipated and the wear and tear of sitting in the hot sun in Pueblo Colorado did its damage as well; but it was paid for!  We tore out walls, replaced the rotted and moldy framing, patched the leaks, removed a very large honey comb from inside the back wall (the bees had long since gone) and started fixing her up.

She was finally ready to hit the road, at least on the inside, so we head off on many camping adventures.  We've made improvements to her along the way and the inside looks great and is very comfortable for the two of us.  We still have some more tweaks to the inside and we're currently working on some of the outside things that we would like to improve and need to fix.  When we hooked up to head out on our first trip of the year in 2019, we discovered we had electrical problems with our tail lights.  We've enjoyed remodeling and rebuilding her (for the most part!) and taking her on the road.

Some of our biggest trips so far have been to the Black Hills of South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore, Antonito, Colorado to ride the Tultec and Cumbres Railroad, South Fork, Colorado to visit the place in Lake City where Alferd Packer had his friends for dinner, and Chadron, Nebraska to visit family.

During these travels and many other campsites in Colorado, we were bitten by the RV'ing bug and have begun our journey to hit the road full time.  We are considered dreamers right now but are working our way to the freedom of the road and exploring like Zeb Pike did many years ago.