So, last night, while in La Junta, at around 10 p.m., the thunder starts rolling in and Thom looked at the weather channel to learn, "oh no, here we go again", except this time we were not under a tornado warning or watch, but we were under a severe thunderstorm warning of red and orange, which was accompanied by hail. We pulled the slides in and while doing so the heavens opened up and hailstones were being released right on top of us! Seriously! We arrived to La Junta with clear skies and ended up with a storm! It only lasted about a half hour or a little more but we decided we had had enough and kept the slides in and went to bed. After an amazingly good night's rest, we left and headed to Larkspur, the next stop on our summer journey. Thank goodness there was no damage to our RV or the Jeep!
On our way here, we FINALLY saw some wildlife - antelope! We saw so many but were only able to capture a few photos because we were moving and there was traffic behind us; however, when we had the opportunity we stopped! We took another highway, the scenic route, so the traffic was not very heavy, except when we spotted the antelopes the first time!
We arrived at Jellystone RV Park and then headed to Monument to the local grocery store. On our way back, we took a different road and thank goodness we did - we saw a coyote! We got photos because we weren't in traffic and a small video clip!
Before dinner, a small rain storm with some hail (yes, hail again) came in. Crazy this weather but not as crazy as what Texas and Oklahoma are going through! By the way, Thom checked and Dodge City, Kansas is under a tornado watch tonight!
After the short-lived hail storm this evening, we had a lovely dinner with our friends Paul and Ann, who are here until September working at Jellystone. We had a lovely dinner and caught up since we last saw them in Florida. We will see them again on Friday night when we head to Colorado Springs to watch a AAA baseball game, a common interest we both have!
Tomorrow we will catch up with friends we met in Alaska, Stephanie and Randy, who we knew we were going to see in Iowa and had no idea we were going to be near each other at this time! It will be good to see them again, as we have not seen them since last year!
We are here for three nights so we have a lot to do while we're here. Tomorrow we are going to find the scenic highways to explore and perhaps come across more wildlife!
Here are some photos from today's drive - Enjoy!
Until next blog ...
Our breakfast stop - ham and eggs for me, biscuits and gravy for Thom!
You are now looking at Pike's Peak! Love this mountain range!
The high plains of Colorado look almost like Kansas, flat and you can see forever!
This is why I love driving out here in Colorado or the west in general - 2-lane roads with little to no traffic (unless you want to stop and take photos of antelope)!
This road looks worse than it is - it kind of looked green!
FINALLY! Antelope!
Just a pretty awesome group of silos along the scenic route.
Limon Correctional Facility - I think I may have seen some episodes about this place on "Locked Up" on MSNBC!
Wind turbines in holding pattern!
Now for the real scenic route - West 86!
Another antelope!
We were able to stop on this route to capture a few shots of the antelope!
The view here was fabulous of the snow-capped mountain ranges!
Our parking lot for three nights, where our friends are working this summer.
After our drive here we needed to get to the grocery store, in Monument, a few miles down the road; that is nothing for us since we live in Ocala and everything is at least 10 miles away!
What a view!
More fabulous Colorado foothill scenery.
A great mural painted on the side of a building.
COYOTE! So cool!
Beautiful yellow weeds!
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