The Journey Begins in Green Mountain Falls, CO
After a few apparently ineveitable delays, we were finally on our way. We were still reeling from the recent monumental move out move in weeks. We were buried in boxes, packing material, and chaos at every turn. Where’s this? Where’s that? Have you seen, well, anything? I found the cat. Whew, all good. Wait, what? We had two? Do we need two?
We had squeezed so much into these past few weeks that our brains were beyond fried. However, I now know what it feels like to be holding only a small bucket when the dam breaks just few yards upstream. It’s fine, totally fine, right? We can swim. The move happened, thanks to our wonderful family who helped, and we’re still standing, all-be-it shakily and damp, but there’s no rest for the weary fore departure day had arrived. We were no where near settled, and in hind sight, we likely should have pushed things back a week or two, but when you have just enough youth left in you to be stupid, you don’t miss a chance to use it.
On the day we left, we had planned on leaving relatively early to get the to our first campground in Green Mountain Falls CO. The plan was to set up camp, and still have plenty of time to drive an hour south to see Shelby receive an FFA award in Pueblo. No problemo, all would go smoothly and we’d make it with time to spare.
We had just made our first rookie mistake. The best laid plans can get up and run away.
After a comedy of errors, that were not funny at the time, involving emergency work issues for Ryan, a truck oil changing mishap, unavoidable trips to town for parts an hour and a half away, a cattle drive on the highway, and a neighborly distraction, we were on our way. Yay! We could do hard things! The good news was that we were finally on the road and heading south after hours of delays. The bad news was that there was no way we were going to be able to make Shelby’s awards ceremony. Boo. The day had been an emotional roller coaster from start to finish but even on already thin nerves, we’d stayed calm, flexible, and rolled with what came.
Rocky Top Motel and Campgound
Our Stay
Rocky Top Motel and Campground is a fine enough stay. I have to hand it to their wonderful and welcoming front desk staff. I had called to confirm our check in time for the next day and was told whenever we got there woudl be fine, and were left with just a “Drive safely and see you when you get here.” (Remember when we thought we had it in the bag and were leaving home early? Ha ha ha!). Well, when we hadn’t shown up an hour before the office would be closing, they called us just to make sure we were still coming and weren”t lost somewhere in the Rockies. Legit concerns I suppose. After I telling him about our ‘Day for the Books’, he told us how after hours check in would go and to again to, “Have a safe trip.” Super simple and easy.
The campground was clean adequate for what we needed. We stayed for two nights and were nice and “cozy” snuggled up between our neighbors. (We stayed in a back up site – #22) There was not much space between sites, but it was enough. The sites were pretty level and well graveled. Our Starlink worked well with some trees lining the outsideof the campground, but they were certainly not dense. We had beautiful views of the Rockies behind and in front of our site, which helped take our minds of some of what was directly around us.
The campground has year round rates, so there are quite a few folks living there indefinately. While that in and of itself was not a problem at all, a few of their sites looked a bit unkempt – a bit like a trailer park. The park itself was pretty weedy and with a lot of dirt patches, but as CO has been in a drought, that’s likely more the fault of Mother Nature. The turn in and out of the campground is largely difficult most of the time and it’s hard to see what’s coming from each direction and the traffice moves pretty fast.
The facilities were also just fine. The dog park was nice, but was mostly dirt and very liitle grass. It was on a slope and uneven, but Sadie found the ground and scents up to par. The laundry was nice and clean. The machines were coin operated and worked well. There was an old ‘Rec Room’ which was pretty sad with one old treadmill and a few meager weights. There were no games or activities around that we saw to help pass the time, should you be RV bound for any length of time.
This campground was fine with good customer service being the best part. We thought the price tag of $80 a night was a bit high for what it was and we would probably try to find another place to stay next time around, but woud stay here again if the need arose. All in all, I would give it 3 out of 5 campfires.
Round Town Dining
And because when you’re in Rome, you eat as the Romans do, we tried out a couple of local kitchens. The first one Ryan and I tried was Boards & Barrels Bistro & Whiskey House. It was pretty average. As I am still new to this, I failed to remember to get any photos. Blogger fail, but you can check it out for yourself in the link above. All together, this was a nice place to eat and our food was average. We ordered the charcuterie board (gluten free) to share and enjoyed it. We also ordered the Peanut Butter and Jelly wings which were fair. They were baked wings tossed in a Thai inspired peanut sauce with a fruit preserve like dipping sauce. The wings were very fatty and slimy. They would have been better fried, (in fairness, I would not have ordered them had I known they were baked) but they were still tasty. It was priced pretty average for these days and the atmosphere was pretty homey. Sadly, we would not feel the need to go back and would give it 3 out 5 campfires.
The second restuaurant we visited, along with Shelby, was Wines of Colorado. It’s difficult to get too if you are in a vehicle of any size and the parking is limited. Tucked back just foot steps from the busy road is a quaint restuarant with an lovely flowing river behind it. There is a patio in the back to enjoy the water along with your wine, but even at 4:30 in the afteroon, it was already fully reserved for the evening. With that in mind, I would definately make reservations if you want to take advantage of the scenery and take in the river. We were sat at a table inside which was just perfect. The staff was very friendly and knowledgable about dietary restrictions, so being gluten free was less of a challenge. Almost everything could be altered which we really appreciate in a restaurant. Alas, friends, I again forgot to take pics so again, check out the linik above. However, I do remember I ordered the Caprese Salad which was exceptional. Shelby ordered the Shrimp Scampi GF which she enjoyed, and Ryan ordered a burger or some kind which he also liked. The food overall was solid and we enjoyed our meal. We would go to Wines of Colorado again. We gave it 4 out of 5 campfires.