Urban Camping

Home is currently Heaton Campground on the shores of Dillon Reservoir, in Dillon, Colorado, just outside of Breckenridge.

The campground is virtually in-town, equidistant from Frisco and Dillon. It takes about 4 minutes to get to Whole Foods, and 4-1/2 minutes to get to Starbucks in Frisco, and 5 minutes to Starbucks in Dillon (where this report is being written).

Although it is urban, the setting is primo.  We have great views over the reservoir and towards all of the tall peaks in the area.

If we want, we can go shopping at the Silverthorne outlet malls, Bed Bath and Beyond, Safeway, City  Market, Lowe's, tons of restaurants, just about anything you want..

And all this for only $10/night ... and a beautiful campsite. We had spent some time driving around the area to familiarize ourselves with the surroundings and to scout out camping. We looked at 4-5 campgrounds, noted the "best" sites in some (although not all were great) and happened on this one. As soon as I saw it, I said to Alicia "let's get out the tent" and we proceeded to plunk it down even as we still had a one more night in the Bivouac. We decided that this particular site was by far the best we'd seen all day.

Moral: when you find the best of the best -- own it!

Next Stop -- Breckenridge CO

We chose to go to Breckenridge because it is home to a lot of pretty good trout streams. It is also up at 8500'+ or so in elevation, so it's cold and we get to beat the heat and humidity... Alicia likes that a lot! If only I could breathe!

Travel to the Summit County area is straight out I-70, so nothing interesting along the way, unless you like corn, wheat, alfalfa, etc.  Mostly flat open plains, long views, and some interesting dark clouds.

The most interesting thing was the change in the temperature as we started to gain elevation.

I can just envision being in a Conestoga wagon crossing the flat eastern plains of Colorado and seeing these looming ahead.....

Honey!...  What? ..... LOOOOK .... oh no ... we have to cross THAT?

Of course there were no communication towers in the early 19th century

Yup, it was getting cold --- I was looking for snow, but we didn't get any

We arrived at The Bivouac.. an appropriate establishment name for climbers and "home" for a couple of days. WAY better than the last bivouac that I made in the rain on Mount Moran...

The "Great Room" ... a great place to hang out and use the excellent WiFi...

Home is ... Wilson KS

We often find some interesting places to stay when we search for B&B's in states throughout the country. Many times we do no have to venture far from an interstate, or we may just make the place the destination for the day and take an alternative route through the country side.

Well, Wilson, Kansas was both a country-side drive and a little off  Interstate 70. There is no simple way to leave Mountain Home, Arkansas going west, or any direction for that matter.

Let's just say that Wilson was "smallish", a farm town that contained a fun B&B.

Here are images of the town and "home" for the night.

Every town has a water tower!

Main Street

It's all about grain

SIMPLE HAVEN B&B ... "home"

Comfy bed

Our living room 

White River mascot

We have designated the Great Blue Heron as the official mascot of the White River.

There are hundreds of them; they are spaced every 200 feet or so along the river. You just can't go down the river without scaring a dozen or more from a perch.

Fishing with Paul Bobby

The main reason that we returned to Mountain Home was to fish with Paul Bobby. Paul is a transplant to this area by way of Alaska, where he was stationed in his military service as Military Police. He also was a fish guide there.

We fished with Paul here last year and found him to be a real nice guy and a conscientious guide (that means that he is committed to giving you the best service and to put fish on your line).  He works to give you a great experience.

He runs a river guide service called GI on the Fly. www.gionethefly.com

Although we are Kevin and Alicia, Paul often calls us Sir and M'am. Hard habits to break for a GI.

Here's a shot of Paul making Alicia happy by getting her into a good sized fish - a 20" rainbow trout.  (Alicia is still getting the hang of holding a big fish without it flopping out of her hand - so Paul is holding it.)

Two days later ... an even bigger fish ... 24" rainbow ... this time, Alicia made Paul happy. Always good to make your guide happy.

A "two-fer" ... we both hooked fish at the same time...

Another nice rainbow ...

Mower Madness

Ran across this place just outside of Mountain Home

There is something oddly wrong when a place that sells mowers displays mowers in uncut tall grass.

Old Man of the Sea?

Not really, maybe Old Man of the River

The White River --- on fire!

Just plain purdy

Our home in Mountain Home

We found a cute little cabin in Mountain Home to rent for a few days. Last summer when we were here, we stayed in the state park campground that is close by, but decided to go "high end" on this visit ... so that Alicia could have air conditioning! It is a small cabin that sits right on the White River. It has a nice dock to tie up a boat... alas, we don't have a boat!

The White River is a power generating river with the dam a short way up the river from here. The water typically runs about 50-55 degrees for most of the year since the water release is from the bottom and the reservoir is very, very big.

As a result of the temperature difference between the air and water, fog is pretty common.

Our little place

Views from out little place. Each day, toward the end of the day, fog comes up off the river. This happens because the water is very cold and the air temperature is very warm. It could be 85F at the cabin but feel like less than 70F near the water (about 100 feet distance between the two).

On to Mountain Home, Arkansas

Arkansas? What's in Arkansas?

Well large trout live there and can be exciting to catch, and Mountain Home has 2 "trophy rivers" - The White and Norfolk.

We traveled to Mountain Home mostly on back roads and were able to retrace sections of the bike route that we used to cross the country in 1996. We were particularly keen to drive through Paris TN, the town where we were looked upon as celebrities and ended up on the front page of the Paris TN Post-Intelligencer newspaper.

Here's a small section of what we saw along the way.

This was "home" in Bowling Green, Kentucky for a night - a beautiful large brick home, long driveway, lots of well-maintained grass and a four-column portico. Along the route we saw this "theme" repeated numerous times: lots of well-maintained grass and four-column porticos on LOTS of homes - big, small, brick, shingle, pre-fab and trailers. It seems that "keeping up with the Joneses" requires nice lawns and four columns.

A big red barn along the way:

More lawn - we spent most of the drive on a narrow two-lane road, with no place to pull over. We saw many lawns and columns, but we just couldn't stop to take all the pictures we would have liked to. Here is more lawn.

Everyone sits down to mow!

Not much to comment on these two! 

Check out the glasses.

Where are we?

• A few months ago, there was a report of a sink hole that opened up and swallowed a bunch of antique automobiles. 

• We looked for, but did not find, 10 pins

• Home of the National Corvette Museum

If you guessed "Bowling Green, Kentucky", you're a winner! We were there a few days ago.

We were last in Bowling Green in 1996 when we bicycled through it on our cross-country trip. Back then, it was a "rest day" stop for us, and we did take the time to tour the National Corvette Museum, which was fun. We did not tour again this time, but did stop by to see what is happening. They are fixing the sink hole in the ground, and the plan is to cover it with a strong plastic see-through floor and reinsert the badly damaged cars into the hole -- basically, turn it into an attraction.

On the way to Bowling Green, we passed through Lexington, KY (where we spent a weekend several years ago), and we still found the place to be beautiful: large lawns, white fences, horse farms, lots of green. Lexington has a truly weird deal where some guy built himself a castle - very stupid looking and certainly unusual. The other exceptional thing in Lexington is Keaneland, a race track second in Kentucky only to Churchill Downs.


Selected shot of the National Corvette Museum

Even Model A guys travel to see the Corvette museum

The logo

This car is a special tribute to the armed services members of the USA

.

The crazy castle

Home is ...

... The Savage River Lodge in Frostburg, MD ... at least for a night this past weekend. Wonderful place ... all private little cabins.  www.savageriverlodge.com

The front porch of our cabin:

Beer tasting for Kevin:

Alicia enjoying the place:

Here we go

We have officially started our summer trip! We know that we need to keep our happy readers entertained and informed. We are already behind in posting, so check back often for updates.

The original idea for the blog was on the theme of "Home is...."  but we could not get that as a blog title; it was already taken! So we went for the rather long title of "Home is wherever we are."

Our theme comes from a phrase that Alicia coined last summer. When we are on the road and meeting new people, we are frequently asked "So where is home?" Alicia came up with the perfect answer to that question: "Home is wherever we are staying tonight." She even created a bumper sticker for us.

This year we also hope to add more slideshows and improved photo images ... that is, if we have time and a good internet connection.

In addition, I (Kevin) will be trying to post in Facebook so that Facebook friends have easy access ...  but having tried to post to FB, I am already frustrated so posts there will probably be simple.

So stay tuned.