Day nine

Today, since we’re in such a nice camp ground and we’re taking our rental car back, we decided to take care of some housekeeping and laundry stuff before we headed out out on tomorrow’s trip to “Priest Gulch” in the San Juan Mountains on the “Trail of the Ancients”! Sounds cool, right? We also decided to spend the rest of our day doing some actual “camping activities”… or at least, our version. Here’s our version…

Sewer, water, electric, tv: Hell yeah! We don’t “Boondock” (camp with none of the preceding) anymore. And if I’m sleeping on the ground without AC? Something has gone terribly wrong!

Campfires: We don’t make wooden campfires, we use a gas fire pit mostly because it turns on when we want it to and we can turn it off instantly when we want to go somewhere. I agree that “there’s just something about a wooden campfire”, but most of those “somethings” are why we don’t do it.

Cooking and eating: We don’t especially care for the first all that much, but we really like the second one, so we prefer to keep our cooking gear and our menu uncomplicated. Sometimes we bring a gas grill, but an electric skillet, small convection oven and a microwave will cook just about anything we want to cook. And because cooking isn’t the goal… eating is the goal, we will go out to a restaurant or ordering delivery in a heart beat.

Alcoholic beverages: Yep. We are social drinkers, but we’re mercifully past the point of over, over indulging. But I guess it depends on your definition.

Outdoor activity: Although we do like to hike, bike, and kayak, we’re not what you would call “ate up” with any of it. We’re not going to race, worry about how quick or how far we go and we’re certainly not going to paddle, walk or peddle for more than a few hours. These are just fun things to do for a while and then you stop and go sit in a comfy chair in the shade.

Relax: You know, relaxing isn’t as easy as you might think. Some people simply have a hard time disconnecting and up until a few years ago, I was one of those people that just couldn’t sit still. But I’ve gotten pretty good at it, the last couple of years. I think it’s like the old saying: “Everything in moderation… including moderation”

Parting/staying up late: It’s the lucky couple that’s on the same page here. Neither is us like loud “party campers”. We like to sit up at night with friends and talk, play cards and then go to sleep… way sooner than I ever thought I would.

There’s more; but it’s a cool, quiet evening and Lori and Yogi have went inside to bed.

We’re on the road again tomorrow with miles to go.