[This blog post is post-dated for our safety. Written 27Apr.]

After a planned night out with some friends, we started to make our way to Denver. We purposely picked a 3-day drive so it would be easier. SO VERY glad we did that.

Austin to Lubbock

The drive from Austin (to the Georgetown storage lot) to Lampasas isn’t too bad. There are even some pretty parts. North of Lampasas, you start to hit the wind farms. Harsh cross winds, especially in a Class A motorhome, is awful. We split the driving (and everything else RV) 50/50, so one of us got the brunt of the windy drive. But the farms are mesmerizing with more turbines than you can count. …and then just as you want to search for a fact about them, you realize you have lost all signal. We are on separate plans, so to lose both is odd. But, everyone loses their signal from there until nearly Lubbock. It’s just how it is. And it’s terrible.

[It’s no wonder the area is a bunch of racist-voting rednecks who are still illegally campaigning for the tangerine turd: they don’t have the Internet. A cable package without PBS, BET, or anything Latino, but with game shows, fax not-news, and extra jesus channels is their entire–very limited–world.]

The place we found to stay in Lubbock was right across the street from L’s grandfather’s glider pilot museum, Silent Wings. We saw all the stuff when it was still in NE Texas, so we didn’t leave time to see it all again, but it was nice to drive past it. The park itself, while older, was very well cared for, had fabulously nice showers at their clubhouse, and seemed to have the most courteous guests/residents ever. It was very quiet, except for the wind that howled all night.

Lubbock to Trinidad CO

Leaving Lubbock was easy along I-27 from Lubbock to Amarillo, but there is awful construction around SW Amarillo. And there was more wind, but this time, there were warnings about the wind shears. Again, the same one of us dealt with the most of that. New Mexico is a very boring state to drive through on all north, east, and south roads; we should know! The whole drive was a big slow climb where it looked flat; the motorhome didn’t care for that. The last bit was both windy and extra hilly. Trinidad’s mountains sneak up on you in a woh-where’d-that-come-from kind of way, but we were prepared for that this time. The motorhome also handled the steeper climb much better than we expected. Once again, the same one of us got the “fun” part of the drive.

Trinidad

We love this little town so much that we want to buy it. LOL! (We were here two years ago on our scenic way to L’s corporate vacation in NE New Mexico.) We made plans to be here early enough and long enough to hit some favorites. The Purple Toad is gone, and its replacement is less than mediocre. The “420” motel where we stayed before and the sports bar we loved are both shuttered. Still, we found pretty driving and some good breakfast with Saltisa breakfast sausage. That town has even more dispensaries than it did before. And we found a favorite weed on clearance!

Trinidad to Larkspur

We couldn’t stay in Denver or Golden (because we couldn’t book early enough), so we landed in Larkspur. The drive up was exactly the same: nice for one of us and windy as hell for the same other person. This time, we had the added fun of a lot of construction. However CDOT has that shit handled and labeled; signs are very clear. The best part is that people (like in Arkansas) really do keep to the right unless they are passing. That makes for a bumpy right hand lane from the harsher use–which makes it tempting to try to pass everyone–but the traffic flow is so much more elegant, smooth, and safe.

Larkspur

A bit before our exit, L noticed a bunch of tiny homes on the left. We still had a little ways to go, but we soon realized they were the cabins for our condo-shopping squat spot. This park is so big that you are beside it long before the exit. There are nearly 400 spots now, with another 150 going in. Most are RV spots, but there are also a bunch of small-to-large cabins built in the style of tiny homes. There is a kids pool with water slides, an adult pool with a tanning shelf and a cafe that sells alcohol, an event center or two, tons of sports courts, two dog parks, and a grassy knoll for outdoor concerts and events. It’s super “family friendly”, but we don’t plan to be here much.
(There are also 3 golf courses in the area. ::le sigh:: That’s a different story for another day.)

After a late lunch, we drove around the park and a tiny bit of the greater area. We even found ourselves on the (technically) cart path of a PGA course. Oops! Good thing we came back when we did because the clouds rolled in, brining a storm with some tiny hail.

By the time the hail stopped, all the ground was covered in white. L declared this was from the welcoming committee.

As we texted with our REALTOR® firming up plans for our condo search, E pointed out that we’d had bright warm sun, clouds and fog, wind, rain, and hail all in the same day and that we were predicted to wake up to snow. She’s Texan, so she said, “Colorado weather is a lot like Texas: if you don’t like it, just wait ten minutes.”