On Saturday, our agenda consisted solely of driving from our campground in LaJunta to our campground in Loveland. As we set out from LaJunta heading north on rural Highway 71, we came across a most unusual sight a few miles outside of town. Walking on the side of the road was a man dressed all in white (white shirt and pants), wearing a white cape and a white hat, sporting a white beard, carrying a walking stick, and wearing a huge cross around his neck that came to rest on his chest. He could best be described as a cross between Colonel Sanders and Moses. As we passed him, he made eye contact with us and pointed upward. I suppose that’s his way of evangelizing!

We stopped for lunch at a Love’s travel stop. As we travel in our camper, we have to look for truck stops since we need a place that can accommodate a big rig. So we pulled into this Love’s and it was so crowded – there were probably about 100 or 200 trucks parked there. Since our truck/camper combination is so long, we had no choice but to park in a truck spot. Unfortunately they were all back-in spots. But Joe superbly backed the camper into a spot nestled between two trucks. He is a pro at backing up the camper.

 

 As we travelled along today, first north and then west, we kept looking for our first sighting of the Rocky Mountains. The mountains are so beautiful against the backdrop of the horizon. This is why we took this trip: to see the Rocky Mountains that were a part of our everyday scenery when we lived in Denver. We were so anxious to see them and when we came over a hill and had our first sighting, we were thrilled! We look forward to having the Rocky Mountains in our backyard for the next week.

We arrived at our campground in Loveland around 2:00 p.m. The couple that owns the campground are from Oil City/Franklin, so we immediately made a Pennsylvania connection. We got settled into our campsite and then headed to St. John the Evangelist Church for the Saturday Mass. When we returned, our camping neighbor was outside and we chatted with him a bit. His name is Wilson and he is from Houston. He and his wife tried to purchase a house recently, but with the housing market being what it is, they were unable to get a house. So they ended up buying a camper, and now they travel around the country living in their camper. Wilson works from “home”, so he is able to work from his camper as they travel around the country.

We will be at this campground in Loveland until next Saturday. We will venture out to areas from here over the next week: Rocky Mountains, Denver, Colorado Springs, etc. Tomorrow we will be going to the Colorado Rockies game to see them play the Pirates. Another Pennsylvania connection!