Kansas Highway

Driving in Illinois, with all the development, sure made me miss the stark grassy tree-lees plains of Colorado and Kansas.  Many probably find it boring, but I just can’t get enough of those 15 mile views and the big sky endless horizon.  I envision the early Native Americans sitting on horses looking at the vanishing point that is the horizon.  The early settlers coming from Europe called it a paradise.

From Joliet, we continued our eastward trek on I-80.  It’s a busy road all the way into Indiana.  It also becomes a toll road.

My in-dash GPS, who I named Helga, steers me right most of the time.  But, there are times when Helga starts jabbering away telling me to slow down or letting me know there’s a curve ahead.  Sometimes she thinks there’s a shorter route and tells me to exit and take a back road.  It’s not often, but on some routes she can become a pain in the ass.  Thank God for the mute button.

Upon leaving Joliet, I had to put the muzzle on Helga. The silence was nice and I thought I must have been daydreaming when I saw the sign that said “Welcome to Michigan”.  Hold the phone and stop the friggin presses!  I-80 doesn’t go through Michigan.

I asked my son to grab the map and see where we were.  Whoops a daisy.  Looks like we were on I-94 headed north in Michigan.  Not sure how that happened.  Perhaps it was payback from the GPS gods for silencing Helga. But, with Helga’s help (nice girl, nice girl), it was an easy recovery to get back on I-80.  And, I let her lead the way home for the rest of the trip.

Day 5 of the journey home had us making it past Cleveland and landing at the small town of Geneva. This little town sits near the shore of lake Erie. I like this section of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.  With Lake Erie being like an ocean, the area feels like the seashore.  And’s it’s full of vineyards, winerys, and nice little resort towns.

We spent the night at a resort campground called Kenisee Grand River Campground.  What a nice place.  It’s in a nice quiet wooded setting about two miles from the highway.  It’s a large place with three lakes and seems to cater to seasonal campers.  It reminded me of a kids summer camp with all the planned activities.  It has full hookups and not a bad deal at $35 per night.  I made a note to plan a return trip to visit this area of Lake Erie.

Day 6 came and like the Willie Nelson song, we were “On the Road Again”.  Home was 550 miles away.  More that I wanted to drive in a day.  There’s not many places along I-90 in New York to boondock and with the July 4th weekend approaching I was concerned with finding a place to spend the night.  But, thank God for Indian Nations with Casinos!.

The Oneida’s run a large casino, Turning Stone, along with a campground outside of Syracuse in the little town of Verona.  Its a little pricey at $44 per night, but The Villages RV Park at Turning Stone is a lovely place.  It’s beautifully landscaped with nice large sites.  It has full hookups, wi-fi, cable tv, laundry, and a large pool.  There’s also a free shuttle to the casino.

The casino is large and a fun place to hang out.  As our last night on the road, we treated ourselves to the casino’s buffet, which was great.  Then we hung out at the Tin Rooster country western themed bar and participated in a couple of hours of free line dancing lessons. It was a fun night for this dancing cowboy.  This is another place I would return to spend a few days.

Day 7 and it was only 230 miles to get home.  It was a long way back from Colorado.  Seven days to get back home.  Some would have done it much faster, but I like a slower pace and don’t like to hurry.  I’m also very pleased with the places I picked for overnight stays.  I got to visit another Colorado State Park, visit a Presidential Library, see some of the Lake Erie shoreline, and do some line dancing, If I had blasted home and done late night stops at camp Walmart or trucks stops, I would have missed all of that.

On this road trip, we were gone 6 weeks, drove over 6,000 miles, passed through 14 states, visited five National Parks, two Presidential Libraries, and had a wonderful time.  It sounds like a lot but most of the time was spent in Colorado and for the places we visited we only scratched the surface.

J. Dawg’s morning view at Crested Butte

This was my third year spending part of the summer in Colorado.  I grew up near the ocean and still like seashores, but The Rockies have become my favorite place to hang out in the summer.   It’s so different from the East Coast.  In Colorado, there are so many varied and beautiful places to see and there’s plenty to do.  I love Colorado and will probably go back next year to see more and linger some more in the mountains.

If you have any suggestions for my next year’s visit, please leave me a comment.