Made it to Colorado

Kept heading north on Hwy 64/84 and entered into Rio Grande National Forest.  Another very pretty drive.  We arrived to our reserved campgrounds and after testing our internet and theirs decided that the connection wasn't strong or consistent enough for the work week, so called down the road and found a spot.  

We were lucky it wasn't high season yet, because this town is a happening place and all the sites are usually booked.  We are being more careful with our campground choices after that. 

We have found that especially out west we are limited with where we can stay because of internet coverage.  That translates into more expensive campsites because we are having to stay more central to the towns.  We're adapting and will see how it goes.

We loved Pagosa Springs.  

You can feel a touristy vibe, but also can get a sense of the community of people who live there. Beautiful mountains in the distance, tons of biking, hiking, and things going on.  I have entered a zone where my beach cruiser is not cutting it:).  Luna and I attempted a bike trail that was marked green, but ended up walking or bikes to the top.  There was a flat surface at the top that we enjoyed and saw lots of deer.  The cruise down was good but with full brakes. The guy at the visitors center gave me a few spots to bike from that were more level, but the rain didn't allow us to make it.

We had quite a bit of rain while we were there, even some snow on Saturday.

The girls and I attempted a drive to Williams Creek Reservoir, but with all the rain and forest roads I was slipping all over the place so we turned back with about 5 miles to go.  Hated to do it, but we were pretty isolated and the rain just kept coming down so the roads were getting worse.  I'm not sure at which point 4 wheel drive is a must, but I wasn't up for finding out right then. The drive up to that point was beautiful though.  That backcountry Colorado setting with barns and horses and mountains.  The rain couldn't even touch it.

Something really cool in Pagosa is that the library let us join to check out books while we were there and also has given us access to their online books.  So now our nooks have 2 libraries to borrow from.  So cool.

We received our mail after 2 months to find lots of toll charges from Florida and to find out that Diego's license and our trucks registration has all been suspended.  The DMV in Florida had mixed up the insurance between our car and camper.  They couldn't validate so they suspended  We got it fixed over the phone.  The letter was dated back in April, so not sure how long we were driving like that.

The girls have been wanting to horseback ride for a long time and we finally found a place we liked and booked a spot.  

It wasn't until I got on the horse that I remembered I don't really like horse back riding.  I had flashbacks of the horse rental near blackwater river as a kid and the horses taking off in a full gallop for the barn. This cowboy assured me that their horses were very well behaved.  For the most part he was right, but my horse couldn't keep his nose out of Sofia's horse's butt.  That is one house rule I do know, don't get too close to the butt.  

Also mine didn't want to stay in line and must have know I was a newbie because would glace back at me with evil eyes when I tried to correct her.  I survived.  The girls and Diego has a blast. 

Mesa Verde national park was a two hour drive from us and I wasn't sure if we would be passing by this close again, so we went for the day and are glad we did because it was very cool.  

Cliff dwellings similar to Bandelier, but we could actually go inside the kiva and did a ranger tour of Balcony House.  That one made my knees weak and I actually could not look down while climbing up the ladder.  The drop behind me was straight down.  Beautiful place and very nice drive from the north part of the park to the south.

Made great friends from Australia, Jowita and Owen, at our campground.   Potlucks, game nights and pie :).  Miss you guys!

Loved Pagosa Springs.  They just need a Trader Joe's :)

A puppy at the campground.

Wolf Creek Pass on the way out of town