Homemade spumoni, a real bed, as in ‘with a mattress,’ hijacked wi-fi, Dave Letterman, air-conditioning. All things for which mom and I are almost crying with gratitude. We had reserved a campsite in the foothills (not having a tent) and were determined to sleep in the Ford. We pulled up at the Royal Gorge KOA (just west of Pueblo, CO) which had boasted a pool, being “right on the Arkansas River,” charming little groves of Pinon trees and a cafe on site. When we finally found the place, after rolling past the boarded-up cafe and go-kart lanes, and
after a drive through the dusty, scrubbish, awkwardly sloped sites, I sized it all up as looking much like the perfect setting for some B-grade horror film, “KOA: Killer On the Arkansas.” The story line of this movie would have been well fortified by the fact that the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility was a few miles away. We made our getaway.
We are now happily nestled in at the Canon City Best Western, after a tasty, economical dinner at Merlino’s Belvedere Italian Restaurant, a local institution since 1946 (which is where the aforementioned, seemingly misplaced spumoni came from). A hearty breeze is blowing outside, a day of walking (in Santa Fe) and driving (up I-25) is behind us, and we feel like doing absolutely nothing tomorrow, so that might be exactly what we do. Our plans have changed and we won’ t be heading more northish to Boulder. A friend who needed a ride back east doesn’t need the ride anymore, so we’ll be heading home a bit sooner than expected. Although “soon” is a relative term, because we’re sort of inching our way back, meaning that tomorrow we’re only going as far as the Colorado Springs KOA. Sound ridiculous? Like I said, we feel like doing nothing.
I’m just tapped. More on Day Nine.