Friday July 31, 2015 - Day 3. North Sterling State Park, Sterling, Colorado, site 23

We ended up where we were thinking of ending up, Sterling State Park.  We didn’t want to drive as far today and we were also worried about the weekend coming up and getting too close to Denver and finding a spot.  We are about 2 hours from Estes Park right now.  We drove only 6 hours today to go about 290 miles.  Once again supporting Ed’s Theorem of driving times.

We left Crystal Lake Recreation Area at 07:30 CDT and arrived here at 12:30 MDT.  Did not turn off the engine the entire trip.  Didn't want to experience the hard start engine issues discussed yesterday.  Gassed up twice today, leaving the engine running.  At a small Cenex in Minden, NE there was only two nozzles and they were both mid-grade for $2.64.  The gas I bought yesterday was $2.32.  An old farmer walked over to Marsha while I was fueling and he was asking about our “fine looking trailer”.   He had never seen a fiberglass trailer before and wanted a tour.  Marsha gave him one while I filled the tank.  He was quite impressed.

The drive today was more of the same as yesterday’s.  We drove the rest of the way across Nebraska on US-6 and took it all the way to Sterling, Colorado.  In Sterling we took 15 miles of county roads to the state park.  US-6 was very rural all the way with almost no traffic.  The cornfields turned into hilly cow pastures and ranches.  Saw feedlots and feed stores.  The terrain became drier and eventually we were into sagebrush.  So we transitioned into the west.

 

The long and not winding road . . .

 

We took advantage of the early arrival to relax for a change.  It was a relatively short drive day and we needed a break.  We signed up for two nights here.  Tomorrow, we are going to check out Rocky Mountain Nation Park so we know where we want to end up on Sunday, when all the Denver people go home so they can work on Monday.

It is 94^o here today, but 35% humidity (yeah, a dry heat), and a nice breeze.  In the shade it’s bearable, but there isn’t much of that.  We are sitting on a plateau with no trees.  In fact, there is so little shade, all the picnic tables have built in metal shades to give some shade and protect from the wind.  I’ve seen pictures of these from BLM campsites, but never saw one in person.  We have electric and have the A/C going.

 

Marsha at the shade/windbreaker picnic table

 

 

 

The Oliver sitting on the wide open pull through site, next to the tent pad and picnic table.  All the sites here look like this.  We've never stayed at one like this.  We're used to hanging out in the forests of the U.P.

 

 

Just hanging out with some munchies after arrival.

 

We took a long shower in the very nice bathhouse in the campground.  You insert quarters into a slot for the water to turn on.  Four quarters for 3 minutes and an additional quarter for each minute after.  Kind of like those spray it yourself car washes.

 

This is the third campsite for this trip and every campground we stayed at had lots of bunnies everywhere.  And they aren’t afraid of anyone.  You walk right by them and they just look at you.  They almost get run over in the roads.  They like the dense bushy vegetation by the side of the roads.