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June found us on our way east. Our original plans had us making a leisurely, counter-clockwise loop from the southwest to the south, up the east coast then back towards the northwest. Everyone knows that plans are made to be changed so, we are now headed for Rhode Island by the 4th of July.
We stopped at Circus Circus in Las Vegas our first night on the road. Next to us was a rental class c motor home and five single guys from the Netherlands. They were about to depart on a three week journey to the west coast, then up to San Francisco before returning to Las Vegas. These guys where going to have a blast.
Our first stop was in Denver to visit family and old friends. One of the things we have noticed as we have traveled is the larger the city, the fewer nice campgrounds. Denver is no exception. This trip we tried the Chatfield State Park in Littleton, a suburb southwest of Denver. This is a very clean and scenic campground situated on the Chatfield reservoir. Reservations are recommended as it's a popular weekend getaway for the local residents.
In a past life I was one of the owners of a software company where I provided customer support to the users of our system. My partners and I sold the company in 2000 and had not seen much of each other since. Two of them live in the Denver area so we had them and their families out to Chatfield for a cookout. We had a blast, visiting and catching up on each others lives.
We also visited with Joan's father, sister and brother. Prior to leaving California we had offered to pick up Joan's nephew Ryan and take him to Rhode Island with us. Back in February Ryan and his mother came to California to visit Disneyland along with my daughter and her family so he had become friends with my grandsons, Brandon, Dillon and Zack. Now he was going to spend part of his summer vacation traveling across the country with us while we traveled to my daughters home in Rhode Island.
We planned to attend the wedding reception for Joan's niece in Minneapolis-St. Paul so when we left Denver we had two additional passengers. Joan's sister and nephew where going to travel with us to the reception. The five of us left Denver and our first stop was in Sioux Falls, SD to drop off her nephew and pick up our mail at Alternative Resources. Next, we traveled to Lone Rock, IA to spend a few days with Joan's mother and stepfather Dwight. Dwight has the wood shop I used last year to make my computer desk. This trip I took advantage of Dwight's kindness and built a magazine rack that I installed on the wall just behind the passenger seat.
After four days in Lone Rock we traveled up to Minneapolis for the reception. It was held in a beautiful setting at the home of a friend of the family. The food was fabulous, the setting was perfect and everyone had a great time. Joan's sister flew back to Denver after the party so Joan, Ryan and I departed for Rhode Island.
Our route took us up and over lake Michigan through the upper peninsula then down across the Mackinaw Bridge and along the eastern shoreline of Michigan. Michigan is a beautiful, scenic state however where ever we traveled we where surprised how much real estate was for sale. I some places along the shore it seemed like every third property was for sale. We talked with some local residents and they explained that in the past several years the states economy has not been good. Don't know if that's the reason or not.
We left Michigan at Port Huron and crossed into Canada for the first time. Thankfully we had researched travel into Canada so we had the correctly worded letter from Ryan's mother that allowed us to enter without any problems. In fact the only problem we had was two bundles of firewood I had purchased in Colorado, apparently Canada is concerned about our "buggy wood" so they where thrown into the dumpster at the border.
Our next stop was Niagara Falls. The border patrol when we entered recommended visiting the falls from the Canadian side. I had visited the U.S. side almost twenty years ago so we decided to give it a shot. We found a spot at a Yogi Bear Campground a couple of miles from the falls and spent two days playing tourist. I've got to say, if you visit Niagria Falls check out the Canadian side. The facilities are great, the views are spectacular and the people are very friendly. Our crossing back into the states was uneventful and we where soon on our way to Rhode Island.