Rita Nat'l Grassland, Taylor Lake Reservoir, and Escaping Texas (NOW WITH PICTURES)

It's been a while since we left Texas, and good riddance! Texas and us didn't get along so well. It took us more than three days to escape, which we should have been able to do in one day. Forty minutes down the road from the llama farm we suffered both blown tires on the trailer along with a dry-rotted spare JUST after the closest tire place had closed. We decided to wait til morning to replace them and avoid the $85 after-hours service fee. The next morning as we were getting ready to slowly move across the parking lot of the truck stop to the tire place, Juno and Piper decided they were not having a good morning which resulted in a half-dollar sized chunk being removed from Juno's neck. I dropped off Dan and the trailer at the tire place, took Juno to the vet half a mile down the road, and we ended up with our wallet $125 lighter.

We finally escaped Texas, saw a tumbleweed in New Mexico for a brief moment, and finally made it to Colorado!

We stayed at Golden Eagle campground in Colorado Springs, took the goat and dogs to the top of Pikes Peak and on a walk through Garden of the Gods, and did a lot of laundry. After two days there we headed to Taylor Lake Reservoir in Gunnison National Forest. It was a nineteen mile drive over a mountain >11,000 feet on a pot-hole riddled packed dirt road, racing the sunset and rain. At the top of Cottonwood Pass we snapped a picture on the Continental Divide. It was too dark to spot any of the free campsites, so we stayed at a forest service campground for $14 with no water or electricity. It was a beautiful spot, but the next day we moved to our residence for the past week which was another mile or so down the rough road. It was pretty hairy pulling the camper in, but we made it and had a wonderful creek-side camp spot for the week.

We just packed up in the freezing rain and aren't sure where will be next.

I'll update this post later with pictures, but the camera is MIA at the moment. Ciao!


Update: I'm gonna throw all the pictures right here since the computer is fighting me right now. Also, shortly after my Kindle took a dive into the water bowl, my iPod took a two-day ride in a puddle in the bottom of the camper. There were maybe a hundred pictures on there that I sorely hope I can recover. At this rate I will be technology-free within weeks. If I disappear you will know that the laptop fell into a mountain lake.

Birch trees beginning to change colors at Pike's Peak

Our first glimpse of interesting looking rock piles in Colorado.

Above the treeline!

They wouldn't all three stay up there at the same time.

Rosie and I climb to the lookout.

Hairpin curves at Pike's Peak, and views for miles around.

Backtrack in time to Levelland, TX. It smelled like burnt rubber, like most of Texas.

 Fantastic inspiring sunset at Rita National Grassland, TX.

The morning drive through Rita National Grassland. Open prairie.

 Our view at River's End Campground on Taylor Lake Reservoir.

 If you look closely you'll see Dan bludgeoning the unsuspecting goat for the camera.

Views from the dispersed campsite at the reservoir.

Most of the traffic here is from ATVs.

Stunning sunsets

Back in Texas we passed a lot of wind farms. Good for people, bad for birds.

Llama-Rama!

Who rang the dinner bell?

It's been a while since I last posted, but we've been busy! The last three weeks have been spent at Southwest Llama Rescue in Harper, TX. Our generous host, Baxter, has been giving us an electrical hookup, a fenced yard for the animals, and all the food we could hope to eat in exchange for a few hours of work per day. The whole setup is courtesy of Helpx.net, a website that matches volunteers with hosts who need work done to facilitate affordable travel around the country and even the rest of the world. 

There were ten llamas here when we got set up, and another two arrived last week. The llamas here are all rescues waiting to be adopted, and so a lot of them are seniors and very shy of being petted or approached. One of the two new llamas had an injured neck and she held it down on the ground all the time. She has been slowly healing with daily massage therapy and painkillers! 

Dan paints a house!

Dan summons demons from the Underworld

Throughout our time here Dan learned a lot about farm work, and he even got to use a lawn mower for the first time! I made sure to take pictures. We put up and took down fences, cared for the animals, did some painting, burned a few brush piles, and various other farm chores. One of Baxter's friends also hired us to paint, caulk, and clean her house, so we made money for a few tanks of gas. 

Kerrville Folk Festival

Frankenstein orders us a cherry limeade at Sonic

Stonehenge II and the Easter Island head

For leisure we went to the Kerrville Annual Folk Festival and heard some original folk music, wandered around the campground, and perused handmade crafts. It was the calmest music festival ever, mainly composed of old hippies and young families, and it was a very relaxing time. Last week we took Piper, Juno, and Frankenstein to the dam of the Guadalupe River in Ingram. Piper fetched massive sticks in the water, Dan and I went swimming, Frankenstein chilled in the shade, and Juno exhausted herself racing up and down the concrete side of the dam. All the sun and heat here in Texas has turned our skin brown, and Dan looks like a whole different person. On our way back from the dam we passed by Stonehenge II, a 2/3 size replica of what stonehenge might have originally looked like, along with a couple of Easter Island head replicas. 

                           

"What the heck is that yellow blur?" Rosie got a wild hare.

Rosie claims her throne

At the farm Rosie, Juno, and Piper had full run of a chain link fenced yard. They all stayed in there together during the day while we worked, and at night Rosie slept in her crate and the dogs came inside the camper. Rosie bonded with the dogs and we enjoyed watching them all chase each other around the yard. She loved to sit on top of the patio table so much that we had to remove it from the yard and replace it with a few stumps to prevent a berry-covered table. 

Oscar trying to look thin for the camera

The cats have decided that they want to dart out the door at every opportunity, so we have to work on a way to deter that behavior. The door swinging open problem was fixed with a simple locking hook latch on each side, although now it's far too easy for us to accidentally lock each other inside at inopportune times.

In other news, our car's overheating problem continued happening and we took it to a mechanic for a diagnosis. I paid close to forty bucks for the diagnosis, and the estimate for a repair of the radiator cooling fan was about $450. I politely refused service, bought the part online from Advance Auto Parts for $66, and fixed it myself. Dan assisted in rotating the tires, we changed the oil, and got new spark plugs. Our wallets were very happy that we did it ourselves! The internet is a wonderful resource. 

The clouds were the best part of Texas

With the car maintained and everyone packing up to go it's time to say goodbye to everyone here at the llama farm, and we're on our way to beautiful Colorado just in time to see the Northern Lights this Friday!