And so launches our 2025 Summer Tour: Escaping the Corn Sweat
Our seven week, seven city tour, we will hit a few towns in Colorado, a stop in northern Arizona (for destinations in southern Utah), then on to Albuquerque for my annual green chile haul.
First stop: Salida, Colorado
Change in Plans
We initially planned on bringing the newly acquired RV to Salida and camping in a spot at the Four Seasons RV Park for a month. The plan was then to return home for a couple of weeks then head on out for our next excursion to Fredonia, Arizona, for my (early) birthday trip.
After the troubles we ran into on our excursion to Backbone State Park, the thought of being stuck in a tiny RV in a much smaller spot with NO idea how the Starlink was going to work petrified me. I expressed those concerns to Brandy and she agreed. If we weren’t WORKING from the RV, it would be a different story, but knowing we’d have to be stuck in that cramped, tiny space for at least 10 hours a day was not ideal. We decided that we are going to sell the RV (later on down the road) and re-work the plan for this trip.
Brandy started by changing our reservation from a 1 month stay in an RV spot to a 2 week stay in a cabin. She did want to be in Colorado for the full month so we needed to find somewhere else to stay for the other two weeks.
After some discussions, it was decided, we would stay the 2 weeks in Salida, spend the weekend of the 15-17 in Gunnison (ironically, in an AirBnB RV) then on to Walsenburg for a week. After that, we would head to Fruita on the western border of the state, very near Utah. Since we would be so close to our next destination, Fredonia, we decided to stay there for two weeks then, instead of returning home and then going right back to that area, just go straight there. We will then continue on with the rest of the plans as originally planned.
On To Salida
We followed our SOPs in the week leading up to our departure: packing, prepping, shopping, shutting off mail, etc, etc, then, finally, the day came. We headed out early Friday morning, on the road just before 7:30, stopped at Scooters for coffee and a treat, then headed on in earnest.
We stopped at the same Motel 6 in North Platte, Nebraska, that we stayed on our way to Gunnison to kick off our Greens Summer Tour of 2024.
We got back on the road bright and early the next morning and made it to our destination, Four Seasons RV Park in Salida, just before 2:30. Brandy ran in to check in then walked to the cabin, which really is just a mobile home in a row of four.
I unloaded while Brandy kept Ash occupied with a stroll around the immediate grounds, then we tag teamed: I set up our workstations while she unpacked the non-clothes stuff. Once we were done with that, we took Ash for an expanded walk down to the nearby Arkansas River (the same Arkansas River we strolled the banks of on our Brandy birthday trip last year.) We let him dip his paws in the water then we headed to the on-site “dog park” (very small fenced-in area where dogs can be off-leash) then tucked him away while Brandy and I headed to the Safeway in town.
While out, we decided to stop for dinner. Shockingly, Brandy (of all people) suggested stopping at Casa Calaca, a taco place on Highway 50 occupying the building where Uptown Grill used to be (we stopped there for breakfast on a previous trip to the area in September 2020).
We’d passed the new iteration with a giant sugar skull on the hero sign a few times on previous trips but I’d never even thought to ask if we could stop there to try it out. To have HER make that suggestion was something special.
The place is totally decked out in Dia de Los Muertos decor: calaveras and Catrinas scattered hither and yon. It was all very brightly colored and initially, I had trepidation about the authenticity of the food we were about to eat.
Sure enough, we opened the menus and were greeted with offerings like fajitas and seafood chimichangas but beyond that, they offered street tacos (exactly what I was after) for $4 each. I selected a lengua (tongue), a pastor, and a carnitas. I also added on a horchata and a plate of beans and rice.
The table chips and salsa were fine, nothing to write home about, though the chips were served warm (not made in-house, though, they were pre-packaged). The horchata was awfully sweet but still tasted good.
Brandy also ordered chile con queso (ELEVEN DOLLARS for a tiny ramekin of cheese sauce) and guacamole (FOURTEEN DOLLARS!!!).
The queso was standard fare, nothing special about it, but the guacamole was really good. The texture was super creamy yet still held on to the texture of some of the avocado, the tomatoes, and the onions, and it was seasoned really well.
Soon after, our entrees arrived, Brandy with the aforementioned seafood chimichanga and my tacos. Each of them was really good. I haven’t had a lengua taco in forever so it was refreshing to have one again. the pastor taco wasn’t overly sweet like some of the other ones I’ve had lately. And the carnitas was nice and crispy, cooked really well. The salsa that came with the tacos was pretty good too, adding a little heat but not too much, and a good amount of flavor with it.
On our way out, I snapped a handful of pictures as the decor was just SCREAMING for a photo shoot. Check out those pictures in the ol Photo Diary.
After dinner, we made it to the store, picked up the few things we needed for the two weeks and headed back to the cabin. We got back in short order then we each took gummies and the rest of the evening was spent in stoned bliss.
First Outings: Stone Bridge
Sunday morning, we took Ash for a stroll to get his legs moving and get him some exercise before we headed out on our Ash-less adventures. Brandy was told there was access to the river if we went up the highway a bit more, turned right, followed the road past the cattle ranch then turned right again. We did our best to follow those directions but didn’t find any water access. We did, however, find a butt-puckering 4WD trail that had us canted over a steep and deep drop that Brandy panicked through. It was a single-track trail with ZERO room to turn around. Our only options were to power through and hope for the best, or reverse out of for a quarter of a mile or so. We decided on the former, found ourselves a spot to pull a four point U-turn and did it again.
We decided to head back out of town and to a destination that I’d spied on our way in to town: Stone Bridge (aka Brown’s Canyon Bridge) which is part of the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area. A quick 15 minute drive (and a stop in the on-site vault toilet) and we found ourselves once more on the shore of the Arkansas River.
This recreation area seems to be a popular place for boat launching. As we pulled in to the parking lot at 9:00 am, there were already four trucks with their empty boat trailers in the lot. In the actual launch areas, there were a couple more trucks launching their own watercraft. We went down one of the boat ramps to the water where Ash immediately waded in, took a couple of drinks and laid down in the water.
We went back up the ramp and upstream a bit further to the bridge itself. The bridge was built in 1908 and is significant in that it is one of the earliest remaining reinforced concrete slab and girder bridges. While the bridge is blocked of from vehicular traffic, pedestrians are free to walk onto the bridge and get almost all the way across it before a gate warns people off of private property. The bridge is in less-than-desirable condition- lots of spots with crumbling concrete and holes through the deck that, I believe, held long-since removed sign posts or something similar.
From the bridge, we headed upstream a bit more then dropped back down to the banks of the river, watching more people float by on their boats.
We headed back up to the launch area, then up the stairs to the parking lot and headed back to the cabin to drop Ash for the rest of our day’s adventures.
Pictures from this adventure are in my Photo Diary.
Canon City
After dropping Ash, who was all tuckered out after all that adventuring, Brandy and I drove an hour to Canon City to go to a Goodwill.
Really.
That’s why we went there.
So, we got to the Goodwill and she shopped for a little bit, then we made our way to downtown Canon City down the main drag looking for a place to eat.
We wound up at Fremont Provisions, where we had a dinner from on our previous visit to Canon City. I got the patty melt with onion rings this time. It was standard fare, though was served on Texas toast instead of rye bread, but otherwise, it was fine, even if a hair overdone for my liking. The onion rings were alarmingly crunchy. Like, I’ve never had such crunchy onion rings before. Again, they were still good.
After dinner, we headed over to what appears to be a consignment store called Autumn’s Attic. We spent a good amount of time in this store browsing the antiques and bric-a-brac filling the store. A mid-shopping bio break took us across the street to the coffee shop we’d stopped at last time, The Bean Pedaler (which is located inside a bike shop, hence the name.) I got an iced chai latte then we headed back to Autumn’s Attic to finish shopping. We checked out then made the hour drive back to the cabin, unloading our booty from Clyde. I made an curbside pickup order at the store named after the Waltons, scheduled it for pickup between 7 and 8 that night, then immediately took a gummy with no intention of picking it up that night.
Brandy took a TON of CDB and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening in the chilled bliss of CBD’s effects, and I spent the rest of the night watching movies on the cabin’s TV. And so ended our weekend.
The Work Week
As usual, we worked while on this trip, so Monday we started our ritual.
After work, I made the drive down to the Walton store for my curbside pickup only to realize while I was there that I had set the pickup in Canon City instead of Salida. This is not the first time I’d done this.
Once I realized my mistake, I headed in to the store and shopped for the items I had already ordered and what was waiting for me an hour away, plus a couple more small impulse purchases.
Once I got back to the cabin, I started dinner, tater tot casserole per Brandy’s request, then she and I went for a short walk around the campground while it cooked in the oven. We got back just as my timer was about to go off, so I pulled it then started on something I had been dreaming about since before we’d left for the trip.
I chopped a healthy amount of green chile left over from last year’s harvest, and finely chopped like half a sweet onion. I browned some ground beef then removed it from the pan, added butter, the chopped chile and onions. I let that cook up over medium low heat for a bit until the onions were getting translucent then added some garlic, let that go for about 30 seconds, then added a little flour to thicken things up. Once the roux was built, I added about 3 cups of chicken stock and let things simmer for a while, stirring occasionally. I tasted, seasoned with salt, cumin and chili powder then added the ground beef back in, let those seasonings mingle with the beef and made one final seasoning adjustment. It turned out absolutely PERFECT. A little smokey, a little hot, a little sweet, a little umami… it was *chef’s kiss*.
I served myself a helping of the tater tot casserole then smothered it in the newly minted sauce, sat down, and watched Supernatural as my gummy kicked in.
It was an absolutely perfect evening. Even as warm as it was in Salida in the weeks we were there, the days still felt shorter and I could absolutely feel Fall coming.
Sleep that night was rough though, as we three are crammed into a queen sized bed, which is never comfortable…
Salida River Trail
The next day, I rode the fall euphoria I’d felt the day before and made myself the best huevos rancheros I’d even dreamt up.
It was even warmer outside on Tuesday, though there was a good amount of wind that spiked my serotonin levels every time I took Ash out. I could SMELL the Fall coming.
After work, I took Ash for a stroll around the campground as Brandy finished up her workday. I got back to the cabin and she and I headed out for a stroll on the nearby Salida River Trail, an easy 3.8 mile out and back trail with negligible elevation gain.
The trail originates next to Marvin Park, an athletic complex along the shores of the Arkansas River. We strolled past three baseball/softball diamonds and into a flat, level trail right next to kayakers and rafters making their way down the river.
It was very warm and the breeze we’d felt all day was broken by the trees around us. There were a few areas where the wind did cool us down a bit but they were short lived.
We made it to Sands Lake where a family of ducks swam through the murky water, quacking their calls the whole time.
We rounded the lake and passed by a small island smack dab in the middle of the lake where a handful of white pelicans picked and pecked about.
We made it up to just about the western shore of the lake then decided to turn back. We made it back to a nice rocky outcropping that we climbed down to the water’s edge. We took off our shoes and dangled them in the river’s frigid water. We sat like this for a while when I felt something nudge my foot. I looked down expecting to find a fish or something poking about but instead found a snake just under the surface of the clear water. It swam by me, past Brandy and under the outcropping, likely hiding from the humans it’d just encountered.
We sat for a while longer then I got up to let my feet dry for a bit before trying to put my shoes back on. As I looked down at Brandy, a fish came darting from down river, past Brandy to the spot where I’d been sitting, made an abrupt u turn and swam away as quickly as he’d arrived.
We put our shoes back on and made the rest of the trek back to Clyde then made the drive back to the campground, with a brief detour at the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area in downtown Salida, where Brandy said she wanted to try walking the next day.
We made it home without incident and just chilled the rest of the evening. Pictures from that walk are here.
Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area
Right in the heart of Salida’s Downtown district is the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, a hub of outdoor activities including rafting, tubing, hiking, kayaking and even surfing. That was our after work destination on Wednesday, after I took Ash on his requisite walk down to the water for a quick dip.
We made our way through the tiny streets of downtown Salida to the dirt parking lots at the end of F Street and quickly found a spot next to a vintage Westfalia van all decked out with a trailer hitch mounted gear rack loaded with all the outdoor stuff.
We hopped out and made our way over the bridge and to the cement path that runs alongside the water. As we strolled along the busy trail, countless people swam, boarded, and paddled by on the running river. There were many man-made “rapids” (that’s really the only way I know how to describe it) that afforded the opportunity for kids on body boards to practice boarding, and where a line of surfers waited to drop into the water.
We passed by several patios of restaurants that line the waterway and made a promise to stop by the pizza joint right at the corner of F Street and the trail for lunch on Saturday.
We took the trail to the end then doubled back, passed the bridge and to the other segment of the trail. We stopped and sat for a while on the outcropping near the river’s edge and watched the surfers practicing their craft.
Nice and rested, we headed back to Clyde and made our way to the F Street Five and Dime, quickly walked through (without making a purchase) then to the grocery store for a few items before heading back to the cabin. I made some nachos, watched some TV and headed to bed, another adventure-filled day in the books.
Photos from this adventure can be found here.
End of Week 1
Thursday after work, we just took it easy. I had a huge Friday ahead of me, and Brandy needed a break for her body so after work, I sat down to work on this post, took a low dose gummy and read for a bit before going all out, getting totally stoned and hitting the sack.
As I’m sitting right around 3,000 words on this post as of right now, I’m going to go ahead and end this post here.
I’ll be back with a recap of the weekend we had in Salida in my next post! Stay tuned!
-Phil