After 6 weeks and almost 5,000 miles, it was time to point the RV east and start the long drive home.  My 2015 Colorado Road Trip was one of my best journeys so far and like all good things, it also had to come to an end.

Visiting Aspen and the Maroon Bells was such nice way to end the trip on a very high note.  From Aspen, I took the “chicken shit” route home back tracking west on Route 82 to Glenwood Springs to pick up I-70 instead of going east up over Independence Pass and down to Leadville.  Going up over a 12K ft seasonal mountain pass with single lane twist backs over a 7% grade in my RV put it in the “no-friggin-way” category for me.  My route was 23 miles longer but it had no panic attacks.

And it was just as well.  I got to see a little bit of Glenwood Springs and Glenwood Canyon to added them to the return-visit list.  It was my first time on this section of I-70 and the drive eastward was pretty dramatic.  Here’s some dashcam footage of the road near Glenwood Springs.

In fact the whole section of I-70 down to Denver was dramatic.  First there was Glenwood Canyon, then the big slow climb at Vail, the Eisenhower Tunnel, and then the long twisty descent down off the Rockies.  Having spent the past few weeks up around 8K, the ride down to mile high Denver made me appreciate the heights even more.

After getting through the Denver sprawl, it was nice to get on some flat highway and just set the cruise control.  I took a new route home for me.  We went out I-70 to I-76 following the South Platte River.  This was part of the Great Overland Trail.

Over first night was spent out on the prairie at another great Colorado State Park – North Sterling State Park.  This state park is on a man-made reservoir near the small town of Sterling.  It’s somewhat off the beaten path being 13 miles north of Sterling.  The area is still open treeless prairie with some ranching and some wheat fields.  The state park has four campgrounds with two having hook-ups for RV’s.  It was a busy week-end when we arrived, but I was able to snag a nice site overlooking the reservoir.  Here’s a couple of pictures.

The state park was similar to the others we stayed at (Ridgway, Colorado River) in facilities (dump station, laundry, shelters) and site layouts.  Colorado does a great job and has some of the best state park campgrounds that I’ve seen.  The cost was $27 per day and that included the $7 per day vehicle pass that Colorado charges for entry to all its state parks.

The park is popular with locals for boating, fishing, and camping.  The one down side of the park was the bugs.  Since it was near the water, there was an abundance of small flies.  Not the biting types, just the nuisance-drive-you-crazy type.

From North Sterling, we continued our trek east getting onto I-80 and following the Platte River through southern Nebraska.  In Nebraska, you can readily see (everywhere you see) how the Cornhuskers earned their name.  Since it was almost July 1st and constantly HOT, I wasn’t going to boondock and not have AC.  Instead, we found a super nice campground outside of Lincoln called Double Nickel Campground.  It looked like it was a KOA at one time.  A nice couple bought in last year and have made it into a very nice place.  It was full with weekend campers, but we got a nice pull through site with full hookups for $32.  And I got to enjoy a late afternoon soaking in and around their pool.  A nice way to cap off a long day behind the wheel.

The trek home means several long days behind the wheel.  I try to limit my drives to 300-400 miles on these type of days.  I also don’t like to hurry.  My schedule on travel days is try to get on the road around 9ish and off by 4ish with lots of  breaks for walks and stretching.

Campsite at Coralville Dam Overlook Campground

Day 3 brought us across Nebraska and into Iowa.  I had planned to stop and visit the Herbert Hoover Presidential Museum in West Branch.  We found another nice place to spend night near by at Coralville Lake. The Corps of Engineers made and run several camping areas around this reservoir.  They have nice shaded well spaced sites with electricity for $20 per night. Water spigots were near by and they had a dump station.

The next day we had just 10 miles to get the Hoover Museum and spent a couple of hours learning about Hoover.  From there, Day 4 brought us to Joliet, IL – birth place of “Joliet” Jake and Elwood Blues (aka The Blues Brothers).  We didn’t see the prison where Jake was born (Jake’s Mom was doing time there for murder) or the Elwood Ordnance Plant (they made grenades in WWII) that Elwood was named after, but we did stay over at the Hollywood Casino RV Park.

The casino has a nice RV park with electric and water hook ups.  It’s a little pricey at $38 per night, but we got a free breakfast the next morning at the Hollywood Hotel and free shuttle rides to the casino.  The casino has a buffet, upscale restaurant, and a nice sports bar.  Its was a good change of pace after being on the road for four days.  However, the roulette gods seemed to always be seeing red when we were betting black.

Four days and we were a little over half way home. It’s a big ol country.  More about the journey home in Part 2.