Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Brush, CO - Smashing the Bar-be-que

This part of our journey, between Great Basin NP in Utah and West Des Moines, IA actually took 5 days, with 1 of them spent in a small town in northeast Colorado, called Brush. Here is a small city campground with electric hook-ups and a dump and potable water faucet. Just what we need after 3 days on the road, looking forward to 2 more. We’ve spent time here before and usually we use this campground to spend 2 nights in to rest.

We hooked up, had dinner and relaxed in the evening. The next morning, we packed our computers into our bags along with my IPad and Gary’s IPhone and hiked up to the local restaurant for breakfast. With our computers, it was a bit of a heavier hike than usual but the breakfast was as good as it was when we ate at this same restaurant on our way out in the fall. Of course, since the portions were huge, I had some breakfast left over - but how to carry them now along to the library in my computer bag? Hmmm.

Then to the library where we hooked up and got all the computer updates possible.

The library was a very nice small town library, one we have enjoyed before. Very light, open, comfy and they have tables with electricity and free wi-fi. We could also hear the small baby coo as its mother used the library computers and watch the little girl color as her father tried to learn how to use a computer to order something for his wife. Nothing like a small town library.

Before we left, we gave a donation to the library and told them how much we had appreciated it.

On the way home, we were walking down the main street when I remembered where the ice cream store was. Sure enough, down the block, around the corner and there was a sign on the sidewalk with a picture of an ice cream cone on it. Gary wonders how I remember these things. Silly man, does he need to ask? Actually, the owner had taken a hiatus from September, when we had been there first, to May, when we’re visiting now. Good ice cream.

Back in the campground, we were amidst about 6 or 7 other campers who were part of a group which was holding a rally in the county fairground next door over the next weekend. Actually, when we arrived in the campground, we parked out side it and walked in to check out the campsite we wanted. A guy had seen us approach, walked over and pointed out a campsite near where he was standing, ‘nice site here’ he said.

‘No, we want to use this one’ I said and walked over to the site we had used in the fall and liked. It was shaded by some tall trees which also blocked any wind that blew up on the prairie here. Well, now, 1 day later, I see what he was doing. The site he pointed out had no services and was treeless. I think he wanted to save the site we actually wanted for some others in the group and have us take this poorer site. Too bad.

About 6:00 that evening, another RV wove in. And, when I say ‘wove’ I mean that it was rolling all over the parking lot. First to the left and then to the right. Who is driving this thing and is that person drunk? At one point, they began to back up - towards us. Whew, missed us but then they veered all the way to the left of the road to try to get into another spot. There, they again began to back up. Now, when Gary backs up or when anyone else in an RV backs up, they usually have a spotter in back to guide them. I stand in back, directly in Gary’s vision in the rear view mirror and use the signals we’ve decided on for direction. Well, there were two people in this RV and no one was guiding them. They backed up and, SMASH, sure enough, they hit a barbecue on a metal pedestal about 6” in diameter.

They pulled forward, stopped, got out and began to walk the 2 dogs. Hey, what about the barbecue? What about damage to your RV? Nope, they began to walk the dogs. Then they looked at the damage. One of the two tried to pull the barbecue back into position. Yeah, right.

To make it a short story, neither seemed to be the least bit concerned that they had damaged some city property and didn’t seem to be doing anything about it. Nor did anyone else in the group that they were in, the rally group. Finally, Gary got out with his IPhone to take a picture of the damage. That got them interested and they said that they would contact the city about the damage. I took a picture through the front window of him, walking back with his phone with the picture. (Looks like Gary’s pretty blurry - either he moved or I did.) And, look at that metal bar-be-que. It wasn’t just a love tap from that RV.
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And, they did contact the city. We saw a city crew in the morning out to look at the angled barbecue.

Back to the RV to relax. That’s what we’re staying in Brush for 2 nights for. Sometimes I think we move to fast, that we try to do and see too much. But, then we’re 65 and want to see it all.

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