My latest trip, a four day excursion, took me to a tiny speck of a town called Cotopaxi Colorado. I chose this town/campground because it sits alongside the beautiful Arkansas River on Highway 50 in the southern most end of the Central Rocky Mountains. I hoped that it would serve as a great launching point for my other highly anticipated destinations branching off in many directions. What should have taken only a three hour drive to my campsite turned out to eat up an entire day. This long and tiresome day took far too long mainly because, yep you guessed it, I GOT LOST not once but three times. This was due largely in part to 'BAD' directions and lack of planing on my part. I thought I had my route well planned accounting for all possible obstacles and missing landmarks but all the careful planning was for nothing. At somewhere around the halfway point the road signs and city markers simply vanished and so began my desperate searching.
Amidst a barrage of swearing, self loathing and anger towards my predicament, I managed to come a cross a bar in the throws of its Grand Opening where I happened to squeeze out a bit of somewhat accurate directions from some of the patrons. After an ice-cold beer with a few of the "locals", and I use that term in every sense of the word (one old-boy was dressed in coveralls with a long white beard and had a twang which you'd swear you're in the back woods of Kentucky and at any moment he'd bust out a knee slapping dance), I headed out on the next leg of my adventure. Needless to say these directions took me straight into the heart of country living at its..... well..... country best.
After what seemed like several hours later, I finally reached a major highway (CO 9) that I was familiar with, and felt a bit more relieved but still had no real clue as to how much further I had left to go. Almost at the point where I felt another bout of hari-kari coming on, I realized that I knew exactly where I was and was maybe 30 minutes out from camp. The overwhelming sense of relief was evident as I could almost let myself relax and enjoy the beautiful canyon walls of the Arkansas River. As I headed south-west down Highway 50 I began to remark to myself, "This canyon is gorgeous but how in the world can they fit a fairly large campground alongside the river there is no room at all". Well that DID IT! The dread began to seep back in again, I'm going the wrong way! So I turned around and headed back up the canyon. I came up to a cluster of various family campgrounds but none of them looked like mine. I had no choice but to stop and simply ask if I'm at the right place. I spoke with the manager who happened to be outside the front door, when I asked him where the KOA is, he said "You're looking for that one over there, we get these questions often". I wasn't sure how to take the comment but he was kind and courteous so I shook his hand and off I went. As I pulled into the check in area of the KOA and walked into the front office, the female clerk must have picked up on my demeanour because she said "You look exhausted, have you been traveling long?". I didn't have the strength or the desire to go into to much detail. I simply said "Yes, and I'm so glad I'm here". As I gave her my name to look for my reservation, which I booked several moths ago, she had a puzzled look on her face. She asked If I made a reservation, "I sure did!". And wouldn't you know it..... She asked If I was looking for the Cotopaxi KOA. "Yep that's the one" I said with a slight smile of anticipation still lingering on my face but fading fast. She said "I'm sorry dear, but that KOA is 40 minutes back west on Highway 50". My heart just sank 100 fathoms deep into the ground. Oh but of course! I would have expected nothing less on this day from hell. So with an almost disgusted look on my face, I climbed back into my truck and headed right back where I was not 45 minutes ago down Highway 50. Even after all of this, I still had a glimmer of hope that it would soon be over and I would actually reach camp eventually.
0 comments:
Post a Comment