August 9, 2010

Vacation - Part I

As promised, here's more from the vacation, almost two months behind us now... :(

We began our adventure with a stop in Moab to spend the night.  We stayed at a rinky-dink RV park right in town where trailers were what seemed like a mere 2 feet apart.  I may exaggerate a little, but not much.  We had several spots to choose from, so we picked a nice looking area and got set up.  Shortly after, Tom and Bray went driving around town to see the sights, leaving Savannah and me to get dinner and relax.  Five minutes after they left, a biker gang (and not the Christian Motorcycle group either!) pulled in and set up camp in the 3 vacant spots right across from us.  The rest of our evening was spent watching them get more and more drunk, but at least it was entertaining.

The next day, after visiting the Hole in the Rock, we drove to our destination, an RV place near Dolores, Colorado.  When we were planning our vacation, I had studied up on all the RV parks in southwestern Colorado, spending countless hours weighing the pros and cons of each.  I finally settled on the one I made reservations for because it *seemed* like it was in a central location for all we wanted to do, had a river running right through, had fire rings for my campfire-loving honey, and had the widest spots so we could spread out and enjoy ourselves.  They also advertised themselves as being "family friendly," with a playground even, so I booked us for 3 nights.  Boy was I wrong!  Although it was a beautiful spot, it was much further away from things than I had thought (sure didn't look far on Google maps!), and the majority of the inhabitants were a motley collection of the world's most cantankerous senior citizens.  If they didn't have a seething hatred for children and large dogs, they were apparently not allowed in.  From the moment we entered, we endured glares, and you could almost sense an evil aura, something I never would have believed in before.

On our second day there, after an incredible half-day at Mesa Verde National Park, we happily returned to our campsite to find half a dozen (at least) gathered around our trailer.  Seems Stitch, our black lab (who's the world's biggest couch potato - the doggy-version of a slug), had been crying the entire time we were gone.  We had left him in his crate, which he loves and where he will purposely stay for hours, knowing that if we had just tied him up he would have cried.  However, rather than just leave him be, several of our new neighbors took it upon themselves to camp out at our campsite and wait to lynch us for our abuse when we returned.  Never one to disappoint, Stitch howled mournfully the whole time they sat there.  Had they left him alone, he would have quieted down within minutes.  It was quite the experience, and one I certainly hope to never repeat.  I won't repeat some of the things that were said to us, but if my children ever acted like those so-called caring adults did, they would have found themselves in some serious trouble.

Anyway, after that we decided that we'd had enough of that RV park and forfeited our final night's deposit in favor of friendlier accommodations; preferably one where they didn't eat small children. 

Regardless, we really did have a great time at Mesa Verde, and even went on a paid tour of the Balcony House ruins which are reported to be some of the most well-preserved in the park.  The pictures from our whole trip were all shot in automatic, just because I hadn't taken my class yet.  I'm thinking a do-over is in order, minus Dolores!

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