Whew, we made it home. It was a long haul, but totally worth it to see Page and Sienna meet new friends at each stop. We didn’t spend more than a day in one spot, lots of driving, but the RV made it a fun adventure.
We left Los Gatos on Wednesday night and stopped in Tahoe at the Naylor’s house. Brendan roughed it in the RV while the girls and I snuggled inside.
Thursday we awoke early and made the long haul to Logan, UT where the bike ride was taking place. We made a lot of little stops along the way so Page could get out and run/ride around.
We made it to Logan before sunset and scored a RV spot in the fairgrounds where the ride was taking place. We had all of Friday to take it easy, swim, fix up the bike, and greet friends as they arrived. The ride on Saturday was for Kelley, a good friend from Park City. She has recently been diagnosed with MS. I chose to ride 75 miles. Kelley’s sister brought along her 3 year old, Gage, so Page had a blast hanging with him while we rode. They went to the zoo and lounged around waiting for the Mama’s to get back… The ride felt great, didn’t reach 100 degrees until the last hour, thankfully most of the ride was under cloud cover which kept things cool.
After the ride, we loaded up and drove to Park City. We parked at Mike’s and pretty much moved into his house for 2 days. We got to catch up with some friends from Backcountry over a BBQ and Brendan got in a ride of the Flying Dog loop, a PC favorite. We took a walk down memory lane and hit up the Park Silly Market for a monkey puppet show, took the girls for a too hot hike and hit the High West Distillery to cool down. Maybe its the hormones but I found myself crying a few times missing the PC life…
We left PC early Tuesday and tackled the long drive to Silverton. We stopped in Fruita, CO to check out the dinosaurs. Then to Ouray to soak in the hot springs. We stopped off at the top of Red Mountain to pose for a pic, Page was soaking in the beauty of mountains, she wanted to stop everywhere and take pics… We spent the night at an RV park in Silverton. Brendan woke up early and tackled the bike climb on Kendall Mountain, he has some great pics on his Instagram account, @bshenanigan (mine is @ippygibby). We quickly cleaned out my storage unit, grabbed my diaries from when I was a kid through post college years and my cherished box of pictures and all the dishes Mom brought us from Mexico. Feels good to finally have my belongings out of that town, but I am sure we will be back. The San Juans never truly leave you…
Now onto Durango!!!! Oh, how I love Durango and all the people in it. We took a quick dip in the Animas River and then headed up to Kennan and Cheryl’s place for a little get-together. Nan, Rob, Sailor, Mark and Dylan came up and there were lots of laughs. Its fun to see all the kids grow up and what a cool bunch of kids they are. We crashed in the RV and woke up early to head to our final destination, Pagosa Springs. But not before a quick stop at Bread to say goodbye to Nan and Rob, Rob generously loaded us up with a couple bags of fresh goodies from his Bakery.
Oh these two are too cute. So many RV snuggle sessions…
Last stop, Pagosa Springs to visit a good friend from my high school years, Dawn and her family, Gary, Marlowe and Harper. They own a pub in London, The Marksman, but spend time in CO every year to be close to Dawn’s parents. Fires have been raging all throughout this area, but Brendan and Gary hit the Pagosa River trail for a mountain bike ride. I took a 4 hour nap with the girls, how did that happen? We caught up over a lovely dinner and reminisced over some local Honeyville wine… Our last day was jam packed with a 4th of July parade on Main Street Pagosa and then off to Hidden Valley Ranch where Dawn’s parents have an amazing *cabin* at the foot of the Wimenuche WIlderness. It was also sweet Marlow’s 5th B-day. Page was introduced to pinatas, baseball, bucket walking, but best off all, she was able to spend some quality time with her new BFF, Marlowe. After the picnic, it was time to leave. The long 17 hour drive was ahead of us…
Alex doesn’t give herself enough credit for her bike riding exploits. She averaged over 30km/h (think Tour de France speeds) for most of the ride in that heat. Nine weeks after giving birth!
It looks like you all had a good time. What lovely memories