Kabin Life - Locations and Neighbors

 Our second day found us at our main destination; Estes Park, Colorado.  It pretty much serves as the base camp for the Rocky Mountain National Park, so many of you have probably been there. Since it is hugely a tourist town it was right up Ellen's alley, with streets of shops and restaurants and all sorts of activities going on.  

 We stayed at the KOA there, which is located, I believe, at the south end of Estes Park.  Our Kabin was quite close to the main entrance and to the main KOA lodge, or store, or whatever they call it.  

  It was handy to the showers as well, which was really nice since we stayed at this location for 2 nights. 

As I stated before, it was here that I realized that the memory foam mattresses and I do NOT get along.  For some reason it puts me at an awkward angle and makes my back hurt like crazy.  I'd take forever to get in a halfway decent position to sleep and then wake up with my back aching.  

 So I snagged Gary's air mattress and sleeping bag and slept on the floor for the rest of our trip, even for a bit at the motel.  Haha.  There may or may not have been random comments to the effect of it being rather "hillbilly;" the husband on the bed and the wife on the floor, but my back was happy and didn't give me any more guff the rest of our vacation.  

Also, a word about actual sleeping:  There may or may not have been members of the party who snore, I readily admit to that myself, but I won't name any other name/s to protect the sensitive.  I had trouble falling asleep every night simply because of adrenaline maybe, I don't know.  But one night in particular, at about maybe 11 PM, I recall lying there listening to someone doing some serious log-sawing.  It was quite bold and creative and I kept suppressing the urge to giggle.  Then I heard someone sigh for the second or third time and someone else turn over restlessly and I couldn't contain it any more; I just burst out laughing.  Then so did everyone else.  I believe a sock might have been ineffectively thrown, then words were spoken out loud, laughs were had by all, someone turned over and we finally went to sleep...more or less.  

Anyway,  Our 4th night we spent in Salida, CO.  This was probably my least favorite KOA Kabin, simply because of location.  This was a relatively newly established KOA.  It looked like they had taken over an old campsite of a different company that had gone out of business long ago.  There were various signs of it all over; including an old defunct swimming pool off in the distance.  Our Kabin was quite a walk away from the main lodge, from any sort of internet access and, most importantly, from the restrooms/showers.  My 3:30 am bathroom trip was a bit of an adventure; I wouldn't say it was a full football field length, but very close. 

As you can see, it was quite dry there...as it has been everywhere this summer in the Midwest.  

Our last KOA Kabin was in Alamosa, CO.  We were late getting there due to road construction along our route.  This was one of our favorite KOA Kabins because they were just "extra" about everything; the outside furniture, two grills as well as a barbecue pit; just very colorful and accommodating.  Plus they had an internet repeater and the bathrooms close by.

As you can see, it was just really homey feeling.  I loved all the trees.  This was early morning, when we were packing up the car for our final leg to get back to Kansas. 

KOA Kabin life was great fun.  It becomes its own community filled with like-minded people of all ages.  Gary so much enjoyed greeting and talking with our neighbors; if we missed him we knew he was off yakking with someone.  Often we would see our neighbors at the same attractions we visited.  In Estes Park we kept seeing the hiking teacher and his family around town, and in Alamosa we met the can-opener people at the same attraction as well.  The can-opener people were the ones in the Kabin next to us.  We both arrived at camp at about the same time and it wasn't long afterward that the guy came over to our site to ask if we had a can-opener as his wife had packed everything but.  It happened that I HAD packed a can-opener, even though we hadn't brought along anything canned, and we never did use the opener ourselves.  

I wonder how our neighbors referred to us!?  Haha...

It was fun to watch people walking their dogs, or going to the swimming pool or lodge.  Gary talked for quite a while to another retired farmer.  Everyone was friendly and helpful; from the RVers to the tent campers. In the evenings there was usually the scent of barbecue on the air and the sound of laughter floated around. At every location, except maybe Salida, there were chipmunks and rabbits bouncing around the camp; nearly tame. In all it was the perfect vacation atmosphere that you can't get at a motel.