The last two weeks I have been able to breath. Maybe not the best at 9100 feet elevation when walking an incline, but I have breathing room.

This week has been nearly a vacation. My stay has been at Golden Gate Canyon State Park, and it has been wondrous taking in this world, I love this park. I firmly love coniferous trees, and their heavenly scent, and the stands of aspens, which right now are just starting to have tiny leaves, in this vivid yellow-green color. Divine.

I rolled in, more like up, on Friday, May 26th. The road in was steep, it was slow going with towing. Lots of time that day provided me me with the ability to get a few things accomplished. While in Lakewood I started to make my own tent weights: 3 inch diameter PVC pipe filled with concrete. I was able to finish that project, and then move on the the next: organize my truck.

The middle of the month brought my first visitor, my mom, who came out to attend Gala. You may know that I am (still am for the next 3 hours, at the time of writing) President of AIGA Colorado, the professional association for design. Every two years, you we hold a sha-bang to celebrate two new Fellows, folks that have contributed greatly to our community.

It was wild having my mom “meet” Sylvia. I picked her up on a Tuesday and hung out at work to accomplish just a few things, then out to Lakewood, where I was staying that week. Bear Creek Lake Regional Park was just what I needed, for the time being, and I will most likely circle back often. It’s in fair range of the city, so easy for commuting, as well as cheap. Not the best view, there’s a Home Depot in one direction, but if you look past that or away from it, you can see green rolling hills. The park also provides some good trails, and I plan to put the kayak in the ponds one of these times. I moved spots a few times during the 12 nights I stayed there. It was interesting to see the other campers play hopscotch around as well.

The week had started out beautiful, but weather was coming. Propane heater worked just fine. I had to run north for a gala errand, and spent the entire drive in snow! I also learned that you can get ready for a gala in a travel trailer. OK, so showers were at the bath house. But we slid past each other getting ready back at the trailer. I have generally been taking showers just at the bath houses, because, well, it doesn’t eat into my water tank and it’s a continuous stream of warm water. An RV shower isn’t meant to do that, there’s a handy start/stop switch on the handle of my shower head.

The gala was a blast, and despite all of our hopes and dreams of holding it outside on this lovely rooftop deck, the weather was a cold rain. The location provided a cozy atmosphere and it was a lovely celebration. Went by so quickly really. And it was awesome to look out during the presentations to have my mom there!

Meanwhile, back to organizing the truck, you can see that after moving, having a gala, and figuring out the craft booth, the truck was a little over loaded and I was confused with where everything was and where it should go. I am trying so hard to practice mise en place in the trailer, but the world was just getting thrown about elsewhere.

I took the time to organize and get ready also for Saturday, when another market was on the docket – the reason I chose Golden Gate was it was fairly close proximity to the town the market was in, and then with Memorial Day I would only have to commute to Denver twice (plus totally awesome drive for the commute).

The weather struck again. The market was canceled, and we were to be notified by email by 5am the day of. Well, guess what, there’s no signal out here. At check in, I asked the staff if there was a ridge that they know of that could possibly get any bars. Yes, you can get a bar the by the flagpole. Seriously. I got a 1x, which isn’t really much of a bar.

So Saturday morning, in my jammies, I popped into the truck and went to the flagpole at 5:30am. The show was canceled.

Lo and Behold, I spent the rest of the day in my pjs and got so much accomplished. I made Christmas ornaments (never early enough), magnets for NH, inside the trailer organizing and filing, and no internet to get in the way. I listened to NPR, I finished a book, and now almost through a Dan Brown.

Between the semester ending, gala, and moving into the trailer it was such a whirlwind. A wonderful, wild whirlwind.

As a further review, I did spend one night in this mix at Chatfield State Park. I really am getting the tour of the local parks, and soon I am going to boondock, just quite not there yet.

Chatfield was nice. I would go there again (way better than Cherry Creek SP, IMHO) . Very congested, but it was a Saturday night. I was there ahead of a Sunday Girl Scouts event where we rode horseback, kayaked and canoed. It was great to park there for the evening (great commute the next morning); I had a little bike ride along a path that circles the park, a good little walk with Kioko, and washed a ton of laundry. I was right by the bath house, and their laundry was dang cheap compared to a place I stopped in in Denver ($4 for a load – compared to $1.75 at the park). Also, it seems that they don’t enforce the dogs on leash rule, and it drove Kioko nuts.

On positive notes, I haven’t broken or damaged anything further. And I’ve nailed backing into spots three times by myself. Yes! I want to thank the random guy parked across from me in one of my spots in Lakewood who finally said the “thing” that clicked. Yes, everyone has told me to steer from the bottom of the steering wheel, and then there was the fellow that helped at the National Western Complex who helped with the “opposite” mentality which works for me, but Lakewood guy (wish I could remember his name!) said “you have to catch it.” I was always having trouble getting so close to jack-knifing, and just couldn’t work out the mechanics yet in my mind, and when he said it that way, boom, it literally eased into place.

There’s a lot to remember, and work out. I am starting to figure out what are on those lists so I don’t F anything up, like, when you plug into the outlet pedestal at the campsite, you actually need to flip the breaker on.

I am down a water tank cap, frickin should have been on a cord… and a previously lost bumper cap, but found one on a hike. The house still is in the lead, but I won that round.

Did you know that’s where the grey and black tank emptying hose is kept? In the bumper? I’ll leave you with that.

Here’s a little video of Stella and Sylvia in the trees at  Golden Gate Canyon.