Central City Meetup

Well hello Colorado! If ya’ll know me, you know I DON’T DO SNOW! The first thing we see on the way to our luxury campground in Central City, CO is SNOWY peaks! UGH 😩

We had some wicked cold 60° nights in Moab and that was bad enough. My body totally stops working when it gets below 70° and by “stops working,” I mean just that. My brain cells freeze, my teeth chatter so badly that I can’t verbalize anything, I lose all feeling in my central nervous system, therefore I also lose feeling in all important extremities and my joints don’t move anymore. I turn into a really, really broken down version of the Tin-man. I can’t even function enough to ask for the oil can. 🙈

When we arrived at our campground, the scenery was stunning and I was pleasantly surprised that it was still almost 80°, but I was VERY wary. There was a strong, cool breeze blowing through those mountains, at almost 11,000 ft of altitude. The leaves on the trees were starting to change and I could SEE the snow from where I stood. All bad signs that pointed towards me being cold soon. 👀 By the time we finished setting up our campsite, that sun wasn’t far from setting.

The whole time I was prepping for dinner, my paranoia kept me wondering if we were gonna get a surprise mother of a snowstorm and get trapped on top of this mountain for the rest of our lives. Everyone around the campground, me being the exception, was still running around in shorts and a t-shirt. I truly believe they’re all in on tricking me into staying or they’re crazy. Or both!

Just in case I die from freezing, here’s a last pic of us happy and warm-ish.

The town folk even went so far as to lure me here with casino billboard after casino billboard. I know how much Ben loves the mountains, especially the Rockies and I think he picked this campground due to its proximity to gambling. His backup plan is to haul me off to the casino if the snow starts flying and he needs to distract me. I’m gonna stay strong and not fall for it, but $1,000 in free play for new members!!!! Who can pass that up? 🤦🏼‍♀️

Nope. Not falling for it! Ben definitely knows we’re in danger because three bundles of firewood magically appeared and one of our Airstream propane tanks was refilled and delivered to the campsite. The heater runs on propane! ALL RED FLAGS! 😳 Who plans a fire when it’s 80° unless they KNOW there’s gonna be a serious drop in temperature???? Suspicious!

I have to give myself credit though. I acted so totally cool with Ben’s plan to open the camper windows and air it out for a bit. It was still pleasant and there were several weeks worth of toots and a little bit of skunk trapped in that metal tube. 🤢 What Ben didn’t know is while he was opening windows, I was back in the bedroom putting on 4 more layers of clothes and fiddling with the thermostat so I knew how to turn on the heat, when that cold, dreadful winter storm slammed down upon us. The poor Airstream hadn’t been turned to heat mode yet, so I truly hoped it worked.

While I was planning for snowpocolypse, Ben and his brother Dave were devising a plan to get he and our nephew, Peter, up to the campground for a tent sleepover the next night. There just happened to be a spot open right behind our spot. Now we’re planning to torture a small child with freezing temps and a night in a tent? Ugh poor Peter!

When Ben informed me of the plan, I forgot about the impending cold weather for a second and went straight into “Aunt” mode. Aunt mode includes planning for lots of high sugar snacks and the messier, the better. Definitely s’mores ingredients are on the grocery list, as well as chocolate milk and cookies because I know Peter LOVES chocolate milk, with a side of double sugar.

With my grocery list in hand, the windows all securely shut again, old toots forgotten and dinner all cleaned up, Ben seemed really excited about that campfire. Hmmmm. He knows I’m about to freeze to death. I’m certain! Being the brave human that I am, I decided to tough it out, but I brought a blanket and my fuzzy slippers, as extra insurance on top of my four layers of clothing. It wasn’t five darn minutes after Ben lit the fire that he said he was cold in his shorts and flannel long-sleeved shirt. 🙄 I had to remind him that his Florida rule to never wear long pants unless he’s cutting down trees is DUMB in the mountains and to go get some pants on. Nope. Stubborn men!

I was actually enjoying the campfire, in all my layers and blanket, so I asked him to hold my blanket and keep it warm while I secretly went to get HIM a blanket. And darn if he didn’t happily accept my gift, except he kept the blanket that was already pre-warmed! 😂 He’s definitely more of a Florida creature now.

I was pleasantly surprised that we survived the night, with heat on, of course, and still in 3 layers of my extra clothes. One layer, unfortunately, had to be shed to rid myself of campfire smell. Love the smell, but don’t like sleeping with it.

After a quick breakfast and Ben heroically walking Pepper, until she pooped (yes, it was steamy!), it was time to find a grocery store! We were finally back in a land where I recognized grocery store names, so I picked one on Google that I thought would be safe. Kroger it is and it’s only 12 miles away through the winding mountains.

When we pulled up, I could tell this particular Kroger was a little “off” from what I was used to in a Kroger. You know something’s off when you pull up and see in tiny letter’s “Bart and Agnes’” before the real Kroger logo. 🙈 I grabbed a cart with confidence, because how hard can it be to find campfire food essentials, even in a mom and pop mart?

Help me Lord! Everything about this store was WRONG and THE BART knew nothing. Apparently Agnes was the “brains” of the organization and she wasn’t around. I had no choice but to hunt and gather under dire circumstances.

The burgers all expired in two days. Every last package lol. No gluten free graham crackers or gluten free anything, which I kinda expected, once we pulled into the parking lot. Ugh I knew I should have stayed in the truck with Pepper and let Ben and Bart figure this mess out.

The killer though, no full sized Hershey bars. 😳 This is definitely where I had to challenge Bart. What self-respecting grocery store doesn’t have full sized Hershey bars in stock, especially in the fall? It’s the quintessential must have for s’mores! Half a candy bar fits perfectly on a regular, full-of-gluten, tasty graham cracker! It’s not even October yet and the Christmas candy was on the shelf but no regular sized Hershey bars???? BART!!! Bart was about to see a woman from Florida have a melt down.

Poor Bart. I ran him ragged, searching backrooms, pallets of food that hadn’t been stocked yet, secret hiding places where Agnes might hide her personal stash. Nothing. Empty handed. It was then that Bart suggested either a Halloween treat sized bag or a Santa pack of treat sized Hershey bars. This was all wrong. Wrong! I could tell Bart was becoming a little afraid of me, so I snatched the Halloween treat sized bars from his left hand and paid my store ransom of $168 for 6 tiny bags of food (plus $.10 for each plastic bag). Crazy land!

I’d finally calmed down by the time we made the short 45 minute drive into Denver, to meet up with David and Peter. Unfortunately, Katie was working and we were gonna miss her altogether. Sorry Katie! ❤️ Ben thought it was wise to warm me up in the Denver sun for a few hours before we began the “Peter night of camping” in freezing, higher altitude temperatures.

I finally broke down when we had cell signal, in Denver and I checked the weather. AH HA! Now I know it’s getting down to 42° tonight! YIKES! I shouldn’t have checked, because now I’ve just alerted my body to proactively shut down. Goodbye toes and fingers. 👋🏻

Peter was so ready to go camping though! He even had ME excited about camping in the frozen tundra and I had ZERO plans to be in that tent. This kiddo must have a super, built-in heater because he’s in shorts, a t-shirt and sandals and what was the thing he wanted first, before camping? ICE CREAM 😱🥶

And what better way to burn off the extra energy from ice cream?

I’m learning to appreciate small children again, now that ours are grown. Other people’s children are fun to sugar up and release into the wild. 🤣

I’m happy to report that all survived the 42° night and the tent campers didn’t even end up in the Airstream for warmth. Peter did finally break down and put on a sweatshirt and sweatpants. Colorado people are tough!

Next stop Salina, Kansas! Why you ask? No idea, but there’s a KOA there in the middle of nowhere and it has to be warmer there!