One last stop off before we left Michigan was to check out Pere Marquette Park in Muskegon. We let Woody lead us out onto the jetty for a clear view of the lighthouse, beach, and open “ocean” that is Lake Michigan. It was a nice, clear day, not a lot of beach goers in the morning, and we got to watch the ferry “Lake Express” head out to sea with a load of passengers. It was nice to see the crystal clear quality of the water…

Michigan behind us, it was off to our next stop, West Lake Park near Davenport, IA. West Lake Park is a county park with a couple of campground areas, one with FHU’s and the other with W/E, all surrounded by several small lakes. Unfortunately for us, as usual, the park was in the middle of some type of restoration and the lakes were dry for the most part. So much for the anticipated scenery! We still tried to make the best of it. They have a hiking/biking trail around the park which we attempted on our bikes, only to find they do not mark the trails and trying to follow the map on the park’s information pamphlet was an ugly endeavor. 

We stumbled upon the Freight House Farmer’s Market in downtown Davenport next to the Mississippi River. We walked the area of the market, it being the modestly sized market it was, and it was a typical farmer’s market with the various booths of produce, crafts, wineries, etc. It also had a small stage area with a live band for entertainment.

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Stompbox Brewery was our lunch stop of choice while walking the downtown area. They had some pretty good adult sodas (aka: beer) and holy moly what a lunch! I had a polish sausage and Jeanne had a veggie burger and both were humungous! After completing that gluttonous orgy, we had to walk it off in a big way. Nearby we checked out the Skybridge. Skybridge is an elevated walkway over the main drag, River Dr. At night it is supposedly lit up in spectacular fashion. But we chose to see it in daylight and we were treated to some cool views overlooking this part of downtown and the mighty Mississip. 

Continuing our post-lunch-walkoff, we ventured down to the LeClaire Park & Bandshell. This is a large park area for music venues and we just happened upon a practice session gearing up for the current yearly event titled “Riverfront Pops”. It is a music festival featuring the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, each year they perform a musical homage to a particular musician, and this year they are playing Mick Jagger tunes. Orchestra does Stones, quite a concept. We watched part of the practice session, then mosied further down the river area to a small parking lot area where a band called “Squonk” was playing for a small crowd. Their music was something similar to Woodstock fare.

The Dallas County Fairgrounds became our next short stop in Adel, IA. The campgrounds for the fair were nice enough, we got FHU’s with 50A service albeit parked right under a thick tree, so much for satellite service. We only stayed a couple of days, quickly toured (read “drove through”) the megalopolis of Adel, then continued on our merry way.

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A couple of quick stops at some KOA’s was on our agenda. We have been running into issues finding places to stay lately, lots of full RV parks and whatnot. We overnighted at the Grand Island KOA, then parked for a couple more days at the Ogallala KOA, both in the barren state of Nebraska. At Ogallala we at least had to check out their “world famous” Boot Hill. This was a disappointing re-creation of what once was. Apparently the graveyard basically burnt down years ago; most of the “residents” had already been relocated to another cemetery; and all the wooden grave markers are re-created versions of the originals.

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The Boulder County Fairgrounds campground in Longmont, CO provided us with a good base to do a couple of days of exploring. It was a small campground with W/E and a dump station on site, and for $15 per night, just about the right price. They run a farmer’s market which was very convenient for campers such as we to check out. And nearby we found the Left Hand Brewing Co. as well as Oskar Blues Brewery to go visit. Left Hand was OK, but Oskar did not disappoint since it is one of my favorite breweries.

We took a day drive out to Nederland, CO in search of a brewery our son Chad recommended we hunt down, Knotted Root Brewing Co. The drive was very scenic through the mountains and we happened upon Boulder Falls. This is a small waterfall area tucked back just off the highway, popular tourist stop. After gawking at the waterfall, we continued out to Nederland. It is what I would call a small hippy town (throwback to the 60’s), kinda reminded me of my working days in the river town of Monte Rio, CA., but even smaller. But Dorothy, we are not in Kansas any more. In fact, we are in Colorado now, as evidenced by the massive proliferation of marijuana shops. There must have been at least 3 different shops we passed while driving around town. As a matter of fact in just about EVERY tiny little town we drove through here in this area there were numerous pot shops in each town. Dope smokers rejoice! (Lots of sarcasm here…). We found Knotted Root, sampled some of their fare (underwhelming) with a deli sandwich, then returned home to prepare for another travel day.

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Next stop was the KOA in Central City, CO, in the mountains outside Denver. It was a nerve racking drive, what with the altitude and grades, constant worry over frying either my transmission or my brakes. But we survived and arrived. This was a very nice KOA, but along with that it was pricy as well.

First order of business was to go ‘splorin’ the big city of Central City. This was a big mining area back in the days. We parked “downtown” and walked the area, gawking at the old buildings and quaint layout of the town.

Another suggestion from Chad was to hunt down the town of Frisco and a local brewery, Outer Range Brewing Co. It was about an hour’s drive from Central City, further up into the mountains with some pretty steep grades along the way (glad we were Jeepin’ it!). We tested some of Outer Range’s brews with our lunch, their Ledges Imperial IPA was outstanding as was my Ahi Poke lunch. I’m not one for eating fish bait, but this raw tuna was pretty tasty.

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Now Central City is a small town alright, but it is a little bigger than what we had covered in our walkabout previously. I suggested we return and cover a little more ground in the Jeep, and Jeanne agreed. Holy moly Billy Batson! We got caught up in some of the one-way streets and ended up a very short distance away through the hills at another megalopolis called Black Hawk. Black Hawk is even smaller than Central City, but it is a virtual mini-Vegas. Wall-to-wall casinos, most of which are of the very large sized variety. There was a small area of town that looked to be newly constructed/renovated buildings with the outward appearance of being residential but me thinks they were soon-to-be little stores & shops. Well, twist our arms, we just HAD to test the waters in the casinos at the Pai Gow tables, it has been a while since our last transgressions. It was a good time had by all (both of us hit straight flushes within about 15 minutes of each other)! And this time we managed to avoid donating it all back to the house…

Our time in Central City expired, it was onward and upward, actually downward as in down the mountain. We managed to get off the mountains without frying either transmission or brakes again, and made our next stop at the Colorado Springs Elk’s Lodge so as to regroup and plot out our next course of action. Until next post…