April 13th – April 17th

My focus was on traveling west. Starting in Illinois, I proceeded across Missouri, Kansas, and into Colorado. This was largely wide open and flat roads through the open prairie, mostly grasslands. When I could, I found Harvest Host (HH) places where RVs are welcome. The first night was at a place called Aerial View in Polo MO. The owners take people on flights in the area and take videos. Beautiful sunsets.

The next day I drove through Kansas, went around Kansas City, and spent the evening at another HH place, the North 40 Alpacas in Osborne KS, in the middle of the state. HH is based on “free camping”, but RVers are expected to give donations to owners or purchase their products. I shopped in their store and bought Alpaca wool socks for Kelley, Casey and me. The next morning I went back in and bought two cute little Alpaca toys made of very soft fur from young alpacas for the two babies I had met earlier (#12 – Gwendolyn – 9 weeks old; #18 – Francis Jane – 4 weeks old). HH suggests you contribute about $30 per night, but I spent a total of over $100! It was worth it!

I was trying to cover a lot of distance, and the third day was a sprint across Kansas to get to Denver, a little over 900 miles in 3 days! The roads were mostly straight and flat. I rarely go more than 200 miles a day, so this was a stretch. I stopped at Cherry Creek State Park in Aurora CO, a little SE of Denver. I was very tired when I got there, and ended up spending two nights there because of the forecast of high winds the next day, 30mph and more. I stopped at REI in Denver to get a new Tilley hat – I lost my favorite one somewhere along the way. One more stop in CO at a KOA RV park in Craig CO.

Next stop: visiting some RV friends in Utah.

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