Stephen's Story
Day 11
Today we started our day pretty late because we didn’t really have a big day ahead of us. We packed up the trailer and the RV and went and dumped the RV. We got on the road and started driving from Silverton, Colorado to Mancos. It was going to be a windy drive through the mountains out of Silverton but Mancos is a high desert so there are no windy roads. We would have gone to Cortez which is right by Mancos but the RV park we are at is only 5 miles outside of the National Forest Park that we planned to visit. When we arrived at the RV park it started raining and being windy then when we finished setting up it stopped raining but its all good.
We hung out, went to the park, mom did laundry and we decided to go to Phil's World which is a mountain bike park with really cool trails. We ate some lunch and headed to the trails. When we got there the maps were very hard to understand so we started at the right point and kept riding until we got to another trail head and looked at the maps to see what trail we were suppose to connect with because we wanted to end up on a trail called Rib Cage. This trail was short but had many jumps and berms to ride so it was more toward the thrill side. I personally think that is the only way to go because you are in the desert and there is nothing really to see for us that is because we live in the desert. But if you don’t live in the desert and rarely see the desert then it might be more fun to just chill and take longer more scenic routes. So we hit the rib cage after doing 3 different trails leading up to it. Then we hit Here for More which is another trail that they call Roller Coaster because there are many fast turns going through there. It took us like 1.5 hours round trip and that is with some stopping along the way and having some deductions on where to go in between trails. It was very exciting to ride and for everyone reading this I have a video of 90% of the trials that we rode today. We were going to go home but the Suns 1st finals NBA game was today so we went looking for a bar to watch the game in but unlucky for us people here don’t like basketball because they were watching Gymnastics, hockey, and baseball. So we ended up going back home and playing at the park waiting until the game started and watching it on TV and on google with updating scores. Kyle went swimming and we played with some bean bags. We ended the night watching Antman putting away laundry and I took a shower at 11pm.
Amber's Story
July 6, 2021 – Tuesday
We only had to travel 1.5 hours today so we slept in and slowly packed up. Everything was wet when we woke up so we hung it out to dry. We visited with others who were packing up and we eventually left Silverton. The haul back up the mountain towards Durango was much easier than the ride there. We saw one RV that went off the road and was upside down in a ravine. Yikes! It continues to amaze me that there are no guardrails on all of these steep drop-offs. I’m sure there is a reason for it, I just don’t know what it is. We made the drive to our new RV park, Mesa Verde RV Resort. We got all settled in and decided to take the boys to Phil’s World, a mountain bike park that we all wanted to check out. We all set off on the trails. Stephen and Kyle rode for about 1 hour and 40 minutes up to the rib cage trail. Mike and I were tuckered out after an hour and were happy to make it back with no injuries. What a fun free activity for adventurous families. We may go back there tomorrow.
After the bike park, we tried hard to find a restaurant or bar anywhere in Cortez or Mancos that would have the Suns game on. I called every location and was told they did not have the game. One sports bar told me they would have baseball and gymnastics on their TVs but no NBA finals. I think these Colorado folks are still upset Phoenix beat the Nuggets in an earlier round. Instead, we came back to the RV park, sat out by the office (the only place we could get cell phone reception) and we got minute by minute updates on our phones. Since we planned to sit there for hours, I decided to do all of our laundry so I wouldn’t have to devote the day to it while I got home. I wish I had five or six washers and dryers at home. It would make laundry so much more enjoyable.
Kyle and I played tether ball and he went swimming. I put my feet in the pool and the jacuzzi all the while continuing to get Suns updates. Stephen and Kyle also played cornhole and actually played well together. After cornhole, Mike and the boys watched Ant Man in the motorhome while I finished “watching” the Suns game. Today was a success. We rode at the bike park, we got all the laundry done and the Suns won! Tomorrow our plan is to spend the day at Mesa Verde National Park.