We go to the Zoo

We left Pueblo yesterday morning and continued on North on I25. This stretch of interstate runs along the foot of the Rockies. We could continually see the mountains off to the left and then the start of the Great Plains off to the right. As we went through Colorado Springs we could watch snow capped Pikes Peak on our left. Colorado Springs is where the Air Force Academy is located and it's where we started into the heavy traffic. It was four to six lanes wide and moving fast. There was also Monument hill to get over which was another 7800+ peak. But we managed to deal with it all and got up to Denver about 11:00am.

Coming into Denver, the overall brown smog layer is dramatic. It really cuts the visibility and I didn't want to linger any longer than we had planned. But we wanted to go to see the Denver Zoo so in we plunged. I misjudged the exit and left I25 at one exit too late and wound up lost in central downtown. I couldn't get the internet to work but my Garmin GPS saved the day and got us routed to the zoo. Driving in downtown Denver is no fun. The streets aren't especially wide and the traffic was heavy and there were huge buses in the right lane all the way. But the zoo was nice.

I had scoped it out using Google Maps so I knew the lay of the parking lots but when we actually got there the place was absolutely full with almost no parking anywhere. It being Friday there were, as I had expected, several school field trips and their buses had filled any bus parking. I got one of the last places at the far end of the lot but that was good enough. I knew that the admission would be $12 for seniors but when we got to the window, they let me in free because I was pushing the wheelchair. I only paid the $12 for Diane. I pushed her all over the zoo, into the buildings and around the pens and into the gift shop. By the time we were done at 2:00, I'd had enough. But it's a good zoo, very clean and very nice displays. It's a little smaller than Memphis or San Diego but has some different species. No big stars like Pandas or Polar Bears but enough to have a good time. We've never seen so many strollers in our lives. Doubles and triples and people towing wagons besides. It was mostly mothers and kids out for a day at the zoo. I felt sorry for most of the mothers but they seemed to be managing.

From Denver we kept on up the highway to Loveland, CO where we stayed the night at a fancy RV resort. I don't generally like to stay at a place as feature rich and expensive as this but it was the only place around. Good boondocking has been hard to find, although we could have stayed at the local Walmart but elected to have hookups instead. Today I'll stop at a local liquor retailer to pick up some local beer and then we'll head up into Wyoming. Fuel is cheaper up there so I'll get fuel when we cross the border, then it's on up the road.

I want to stop at Guernsey, WY to see the cliffs with the wagon tracks from the settlers wagons and then we'll go North a ways more to camp for the night. At that point, we'll likely be out of cell range for a couple of days while we visit Devil's Tower. Then we'll swing back down to I90 and stay somewhere around Sturgis before going further down to Mt. Rushmore.