Monday, June 28, 2010 - Drive to Walden, CO

Had to pick up some groceries and check my email, so I drove to the nearest town, Walden, CO, about 30 miles away. An easy drive into a town with a Main Street and little else. I think I saw a courthouse just off the main drag, pretty small to be the county seat, but then again, so is our little town at home in Tennessee. Drove from one end to the other to see what was there before deciding my agenda. First to the hardware store to try to solve a pump problem. As there is no water by the horse corrals except a creek about 200 feet away, and filling buckets was a pretty strenuous task, we thought we might be able to find something that would at least draw water from the creek up to the road so we could fill them up in the back of the pickup. I found a cute little "drill" pump, a small impeller that you put a drill into that theoretically could pump uphill for at least 20 feet. I thought it would be more practical than buying a big heavy electric pump that would need the generator to run, and it was much more affordable, so I gave that a try. Next, I found a handy little cafe in the middle of town with a wi-fi signal (the reason for the drive-by), so I went in, found the perfect booth in the back corner with an electrical outlet, ordered an ice tea, and later lunch, and went to work. Stayed there until about 4:00, then headed to the gas station (one of two, side by side, same prices) to fill up the small tanks for the generator, then off to the supermarket (appropriately called Supers). Surprisingly, I found everything on the list, despite being the only game in town. Headed back out to the campground, got there just after 5:30, then settled down for the evening. Hubby's feeling better after having rested for most of the day, though he did do a couple of things on the honey-do list. We also decided to stay here until after the 4th of July weekend. Though we're having to conserve big-time on water, at least we know what we face here, and we hate to move to a new location just before the biggest weekend of the year without knowing what we might be up against. Chances are, no matter where we go, it'll be packed, and at least here, there's a limit to how many neighbors we can have, though we've heard rumors we'll be joined by a rather large group coming up from Leavenworth, KS. No matter, we're settled in ow, and we're looking forward to our first ride here tomorrow, now that Hubby seems to have acclimated and we've recovered from our first few days.