August 25th (a glorious day, because it is the day that a very special G, A.Crain, was born!) through September 8th was spent near Steamboat Springs, CO. We parked Dyna a bit outside of Steamboat at Yampa River State Park. What’s so special about parking here? It wasn’t just the vibrant night skies which put on a nightly show of the entire milky way. It wasn’t even the mosquito bites which frequently occurred due to the fact that the park has been designated a ‘no spray zone’. Nope, it wasn’t the super attentive park rangers who covered the tent campers’ belongings whenever it started to rain. It was Bob, Janice, & Guinness parking next to us in their rig!
Spoiler alert: contrary to statistical probability, Guinness did not eat Jake! By the end of our neighbor-ship, I would go so far as to state that Guinness and Jake were on ‘good’ terms (as long as Jake had meatballs in hand.)
We spent our two-ish weeks near Steamboat doing a lot of work on Dyna (okay, so that was mostly Jake & Bob), a little work on Bob’s rig, drinking good beer, and rotating small dinner parties between the rigs.
Jake had to return to a dentist while in Steamboat (side note: do NOT trust a dentist who claims to find several cavities in your mouth even though your normal dentist didn’t find any 6months prior to this appointment. Furthermore, don’t let said dentist drill in your mouth. Poor Jake). The good part of this dental trip is that we were told about Zirkel Circle, a really sweet hike/run up in the Routt Forest. It wasn’t just awesome because the name rhymed with itself; it was also awesome because it was decently run-able and it was highly varied in terrain.
Our friend Holly who resides in Denver (yes, that Holly- the super attractive, awesome person one) and suggested we all rent a pontoon boat for a day. Great idea Holly! We rented a pontoon boat on Steamboat Lake Labor day weekend and spent a day letting Captain Bob find gentle waters, drinking, and enjoying some sunshine. Then we camped overnight at the lake and made an evening visit to the Strawberry Hot Springs (we previously made a daytime visit with Bob & Janice) before hitting downtown Steamboat for delicious Cinnamon buns followed by another visit to our favorite Hayden brewery.
In closing, Steamboat was a good two weeks. Although some of the town smelled a bit funny (sulphur springs!), it was still super cool. The best part might have been the whole ‘Guinness not eating Jake thing’. Because I need to take Jake with me and Dyna to our next stop: Longmont, CO!
