Rabbit Valley, Colorado
July 2-3, 2018
In between our days of fun with friends in Kanab, UT and a chance to meet up with other traveling friends in Colorado we had very little time. There wasn’t enough time to plan an additional destination in between, so we decided to make the 8.5 hour drive one long stretch, with a night of boondocking to break it up over the course of 2 days. We really like breaking up a single long drive this way. It allows the morning of breaking down camp less stressful, since there’s no rush to arrive at a campsite early enough to grab a site or even set-up. In fact, the later the better for arrival, since all we plan to do there is sleep. So tearing down camp can be leisurely, with the only goal of arriving at our sleeping space before dark.
Then the next morning there is very little to prepare before we are ready to launch again. We can finish out the final hours of the travel more or less refreshed. Often, like in this case, we don’t even unhook from the truck all the way, so continuing on in the morning is a breeze.
We were delighted to find a free parking spot right along the highway in Rabbit Valley, CO, just a few miles east of the Utah border. This allowed us to knock out over 5 hours of the drive on day 1 and keep the remaining 3.5 for the next morning.
I don’t have the most clear memories of this day beyond being very sad to leave the hummingbirds before knowing that they’d successfully fledged, and fighting a fever. I hadn’t been feeling well the day before either, but our day to drive I wasn’t well at all. I rode in the passenger seat under a blanket part of the day, having a hard time regulating my own body temperature. The views driving from Utah into Colorado are breathtaking, but I wasn’t appreciating them as much as usual.
When we arrived at our parking spot it was late in the day but still hot, and without hookups we had no way to cool the trailer beyond opening all the windows to encourage cross-breeze, of which there was very little. I was delighted to see a field covered in dozens of scampering prairie dogs, and I enjoyed watching them a bit. But my fever pulled me inside and to bed almost immediately after we got parked.
With no A/C it was stifling in the camper, but I just needed to lay down. I put cold rags on my head and arms to try to cool down.
At their bedtime, the girls couldn’t sleep either. And their little bunk beds were hotter than our bedroom. So all 3 of us lay across my bed, all with cool rags to try to cool off. Brad sat outside which was a bit cooler than inside, doing some work on his laptop and giving us space until it was dark out.
This was by far the hottest night we ever spent in Stumbo, so the irony that it was also when I was fighting a fever was just hilarious.
After a restless night, we got up the next morning to continue our trek to meet friends in Colorado…
Rabbit Valley views, with one of the many prairie dogs in the foreground.
