Days 121-123 - Friday - Sunday 10/16-18/2026 - Windsor CO to Allenspark CO

Happy Happy Happy Birthday Tracy Jill (10/18)!!!  We love you and miss you 💕🎂🥳

On Friday we drove from Windsor to Rocky Mountain National Park to Allenspark Colorado, about 60 miles total.  It was a beautiful, sunny, blue-sky day with temperatures in the 50s. 

We called to see if by any chance ER150's new tires were going to arrive Friday, and found that they were not on the truck, and it will be at least Monday before they arrive, as expected.  We had Chick-Fil-A sandwiches and a salad for lunch while we decided what to do.  Since we had a few days of beautiful weather to wait, and didn't need to put many miles on our worn tires, we left Windsor thinking we would spend the night in Rocky Mountain National Park (RNMP) at the only campground still open at Moraine Park.  

Traffic was heavy through the mountains toward Estes Park, then on into RMNP, but it was a WOW drive!

The road follows a river that has cut a steep canyon out of the mountain, so we were surrounded by huge cliffs at every turn.  

The town of Estes Park was beautiful, and very crowded.  There were some pretty lakes along our route, and we saw a few white pelicans!

When we arrived at the campground in the park we found out that they were sold out of sites through the weekend.  We had hoped that at least a few first-come-first-serve sites would be open. There were people everywhere.  I guess they were looking for a last Fall getaway and hoping to see Fall colors, or maybe there was something else going on that we didn't know about.  We saw elk and deer on the side of the road in the park.

The very nice park campground park ranger give us a tip for some possible dispersed camping that might be available nearby off Hwy 7.  So we decided to try to look for it on some National Forest Service land near there.  We found a spot down a long rutted dirt road near Allenspark. 

There were turkeys to greet us when we turned off the main road

and Mike spotted the first IHC Scout II that we've seen on this entire trip!  (Mike has owned and restored several Scouts in his life - and we had tons of fun fishing on the beaches of the Outer Banks of NC in Scouts back in the day!) 

We were at almost 9000 feet elevation, and it was a beautiful area.  We found a great dispersed camping spot with awesome views and settled into it.  We were parked at an odd angle (even after trying to level out with our air suspension and driving up on some rocks), so we decided to reverse our sleeping positions in the bed which allowed us to look out our roof hatch at the gorgeous clear night sky. 

We watched some shooting stars and were just falling asleep late.  At about 3:00 am there was a soft knock on our door.  We are in the middle of nowhere so it was a bit startling, but Mike opened the window to see who it was (worried that we might have been camped on private land accidentally).  There stood a young guy with a flashlight who explained that their vehicle was stuck on the side of the cliff just down the road from us.  Mike immediately got dressed, grabbed his jacket, bear spray, flashlight and 2-way radio, and went to see if we could help.

It turns out that Jordan and Laura had driven up from Nebraska and were wanting to tent camp nearby in a similar dispersed camping spot, but when driving the dirt road in the dark had missed the sharp right turn (not marked at all) and their vehicle was now pretty much hanging over the side of a cliff.  The car was literally dangling, balanced behind the front tires and facing down the mountain. 

It's a miracle that they didn't keep going, and that they were even able to get out of their vehicle the way it was leaning.  Jordan recalled seeing our rig when they had driven passed us, so he walked back up the road to ask us for some help.

We quickly drove ER150 about a few hundred yards down the road to them, and Mike got out our recovery gear and the guys hooked up their vehicle to the built-in winch on the front of ER150.  After making sure everything was secure, and attaching an extra line in case the winch line broke, Mike slowly winched their vehicle off the cliff edge back onto the road.  Jordan was able to get in and put their vehicle in neutral and steer once the tires were on the ground, and they were now safe to drive again!  It was our first rescue attempt on this trip and a success.

We were all happily surprised that there didn't appear to be any damage to their vehicle (although the bottom is likely scratched a bit).  It was in the low 30s and windy, and we were all cold, so I made some hot chocolate for everyone while the guys put away all the recovery gear.  We shared some hugs and said good night and returned to our camp spot.  What a scary situation for Jordan and Laura!  Shout out to y'all and hope you enjoyed your camping and had a safe trip back home to Omaha.

On Saturday we slept in since we didn't get much rest that night, then we took everything out of our back seat area, cleaned it, and re-stowed all of the recovery gear and other random stuff.  We enjoyed the sunny, beautiful weather and also watched the AU-some Auburn football game!  War Eagle!  It was great to finally beat the UGA Bulldogs again after many years, (and they were ranked the #1 team in the country)!  We had some frozen pizza for dinner while watching the game.

Sunday was much the same, a beautiful restful day.  While walking around outdoors to view and take pictures of the beautiful views it was easy to remember that we were at 9000 feet!  It was hard to breathe doing anything.  Our camp spot was on the edge of a gorge, with beautiful rock formations and a forested mountainside to look out at.

We had yummy sandwiches for lunch and got things organized to leave on Monday. 

Friday's journey: 

Days 119/120 - Wednesday and Thursday 10/14-15/2026 - Lander WY to Windsor CO

On Wednesday we drove about 315 miles from the Shoshone Rose Casino in Lander, Wyoming to Ron Jones Garage in Windsor, Colorado.  It was rainy most of the day, and very windy.

The landscape changed again in this part of Wyoming, with scrubby vegetation and mountains / hills everywhere. 

In some places it looked like the earth just opened up and spit out funny but beautiful odd-shaped structures randomly. 

We gained elevation and went through dense clouds,

then drove for miles on straight roads in barely hilly country. 

It was a beautiful drive, and very different again.  

For most of the journey there were what looked like partial wooden fences on the sides of the roads that are designed to catch blowing snow and reduce the amount of wind flow and snow drifts on the roads.  Below is what we learned about them from the Wyoming DOT site:

[Traditional Wyoming snow fences look like outdoor sports bleachers and feature roughly 50% porosity, which research shows is the ideal ratio for disrupting wind flow and dropping snow particles before they reach the road.  Crews place the fences about 450 feet or more upwind from the highway. A 10-foot-tall fence creates a drift roughly 10 feet high and can trap snow up to 350 feet downwind. The Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) maintains over 460 miles of snow fences primarily along major corridors like Interstate 80, Interstate 25, and Interstate 90.  Fences dramatically cut down on whiteout conditions, blowing ice, and multi-vehicle winter crashes.  WYDOT estimates that for every $10 invested in snow fences, the state saves roughly $100 in plowing, chemical, and sanding expenses.]

Even the McDonald's in Rawlins, WY where we stopped for a lunch break, had a brick enclosure around their pick-up window area to protect from blowing snow and the wind in general.  It was sooo windy!

The last part of the drive (late in the day) was again very dark, rainy and foggy, with high elevations and almost zero visibility at times.  It was a bit of a nerve-racking and exhausting drive, and we both decided that we would not choose to drive at night any more on this trip.

In Windsor we have an appointment for ER150 at 8am tomorrow (Thursday) morning, so we decided to just camp in their parking lot to make it easier to be on time (neither of us are really morning people).

So we set the alarm, got up early, secured the kitties and dropped off ER150 for a full alignment, a fuel filter replacement, and a rear wheel-bearing check (which it passed showing no excessive wear at all - yay!).  We very much enjoyed meeting and working with Chris (Chris Miller, Lead Mechanic) there who had plenty of previous experience performing alignments and other services on EarthRoamers for their new customers.

All the folks at Ron Jones Garage that we met were all super nice, and entering their shop was like walking into our high school parking lots back in the 1970's - there were familiar vintage model Challengers, fastback Mustangs, Camaros, Chevelles, and an awesome looking General Lee Charger (Dukes of Hazard TV show).  We also saw old Cadillacs, Porsches, and several other hot rods and custom car builds in the process of being restored, serviced or built.  It was so clean in there you could eat off the floor.  The people who owned those cars came from all over to have work done here, and we understand why.  Just Wow, it was very impressive.

Next stop for ER150 will be at CMC Tire just down the road from here for new tires.  They were custom ordered from Continental (newly released MPT 91's instead of 81's) and we hope they will arrive within a day or two.

We said our goodbyes to the folks at Ron Jones Garage and headed down the road to the local Bass Pro Shops parking lot (free RV camping allowed) to take a nap and figure out our next move. 

We gave a quick call to check in with Lee at CMC Tire to see if our new tires had arrived yet (too soon though), so we will check with him again on Friday.  We decided just to spend the night here and make a plan after we know more about the tire shipment.

We had some hot homemade freeze-dried soup and cheese bread sticks, and went to bed early.  We are both about ready to make our trek home now and follow the advice of our good friend Brance who recently sent us a text that said "I think y'all have seen enough, it's time for Mike to shave and for y'all to come on back".  🪒🧔🏡😎

Favorite place name:  Johnny Behind the Rocks

Today's journey: 

Days 117/118 - Monday and Tuesday 10/12-13/2026 - Great Falls MT to Lander WY

Happy Columbus Day, and Happy Birthday in heaven to my sweet Daddy.  I love you and miss you every day💕.

On Monday we left our snowy campground in Great Falls, Montana

and stopped by Walmart to top off our diesel, and grabbed an extra gallon of Shell Rotella T6 15W-40 synthetic diesel engine oil just to have on hand if needed for ER150.  There was more snow overnight and it looked like a Winter Wonderland! 

The temperature was about 30 degrees, but since it had been so warm before the snow, and the snowplows had been through, the roads were pretty clear.  It was really strange to see the wheat fields like we passed on the way in covered with snow.  The baled hay looked like gigantic marshmallows! 

In many places the snow blended in with the white clouds (and mountains) and it was hard to tell the difference between them.  

As we climbed mountains the temperatures would drop to around 27 degrees, but we never encountered any real ice build-up on the roads. 

The sun came out for a little while and it was so bright with the reflecting snow on the ground it would strain your eyes. 

We went through "freezing fog", which was kinda weird for us. 

It looked like rain but never hit the windshield - it just disappeared.

We stopped in Big Timber at The Fort

for a lunch break, topped off our diesel again and bought a couple more t-shirts 😄.  We are completely out of storage space in ER150, so who knows where we will put them!  We also bought a long handled snow scraper/brush since ours was a bit short to get all the ice and snow off of our F-550 sized windshield, hood, and custom bumper.

We passed a sign with town names that stretched our pronunciation capabilities.

The buffalo were roaming (even a white one!), and the pronghorn antelope were playing and feeding in many places 🐃.

We encountered a Montana traffic jam and stopped and waited for it to clear. 😁🐄

We continued on south and eventually ran out of the snow, and it warmed up to around 37 degrees. 

As it got later it started raining again, so it was a slow, and very dark drive. 

Mike decided to drive all the way to Lander, WY so that we could all rest on Tuesday at a spot we knew about.  We arrived at the Shoshone Rose Casino parking lot at about 10:30pm and settled in.  Back in 2024 when we purchased ER150 (in Montana) we had stayed the night at this same casino on our way to visit EarthRoamer headquarters in Dacono, CO.  I visited the casino (of course) during that stay and hit the jackpot on one of their slot machines!

Funny thing 😎: When we checked their website (before arriving) this time to see if they still offered overnight parking for RVs, this was the website page we saw for them:  

 

This is ER150 when we stayed here the first time over 2 years ago.  What a hoot! - Mike remembered the manager coming out to turn on the RV site electric service and asking if it was OK to take some pictures of our then newly purchased Earthroamer.  We didn't know it would be featured on their website...  Pretty cool - we didn't mind.

 

It was nearly 500 miles of driving to get here (Monday) so we were all exhausted and were soon off to sleep.  Tuesday was rest and recovery day in the casino parking lot in the rain.  Rainy days are just made for napping in ER150!  We enjoyed some Fry Bread

from the casino restaurant.  Mmmmm, fried dough with honey butter!!  😁 IYKYK... and everyone knows my favorite food group is fried dough!!  And of course, I made another contribution to the casino 🎰 today but wasn't quite as lucky as I was on our first visit.  Mike played a little but mostly just relaxed from the many miles of driving.

On Wednesday we will drive to just north of Denver to a shop in Windsor, CO - Ron Jones Garage for an Alignment, and Wheel bearing service for ER150.  We are scheduled for an 8am appointment there with Chris on Thursday morning.   And we are hoping our new tires (the Continental MPT 91 model - newly released) will arrive at CMC tire on Friday a short distance from here so we can get them installed also.

Monday's journey: