Most Awesome Road Trip Ever – Blog 6, Abbott & Costello and the Raccoon Dance

We Made it to Colorado Springs as planned – from Texas through part of New Mexico and on into Colorado in one day. Our first stop was King Sooper for groceries. Craig rolled the RV to a stop at the entrance, where Laura got out to grocery shop and Grandpa and I got out to stretch. As it happened, King Sooper was next door to Queen Liquor. Grandpa and I walked over to have a look. Knowing that we’d have a real kitchen in the cabins at Timber Lodge for 2 nights but not knowing all preferences for libations we decided to get an assortment. We arrived at the checkout counter with bottles of red and white wine and 6 packs of several flavors of beer. Noting the raised eyebrows of the young man at the cash register, Paul stuck his credit card in the chip reader and said cheerfully, “We are traveling in an RV with 8 people, we’ll probably be back tomorrow!” That got a laugh, and we grabbed the bags and walked out.

Big Truck was appropriately parked in the empty spaces at the far end of the parking lot. As we neared the door, out of habit I asked him if he had his credit card. Turning back toward me to check his pocket, a beer half-sprang free from a 6 pack holder, was punctured and began to spray me. About that time the Queen checker comes running through the parking lot toward us, holding up Paul’s credit card. She ran all the way to the RV. Before she would release it to him she asked to see his ID – after all, it had been almost 1 ½ minutes since she had seen us and we were such typical customers. As Paul reached into his other pocket for his drivers license, the spewing beer caught my other side. I tried not to say any ugly words since the checker was there, but I was highly annoyed at getting double beer sprays and smelling like a brewery. It was straight out of an Abbott & Costello routine. I knew who was on first but had no clue what was on second. (You Tube it)

On to the cabins. Ah, a kitchen(ette), living space, individual bedrooms with doors, grassy areas in cool air for the kids to play. A break from Life on the Road. Yes this was going to be nice.

And it was. Spaghetti, garlic bread and your choice of beverage for dinner on the front porch of our cabin with a view of the mountains. Only one person could do the dishes because only one person could literally fit in the kitchen, but you had your choice of scalding or freezing water in which to wash them so it was done quickly. Then time to relax. A very nice end to a day on the road.

We had been asked upon check-in to be sure and keep the lid on tight of our outdoor garbage can to keep raccoons from dumpster diving. Molly had never seen a raccoon and she really wanted to. As darkness descended she started doing a Raccoon Dance in the moonlight to attract raccoons. She had heard several times already that we would probably see raccoons but she wasn’t taking any chances.

Of course, what she needed to be doing was an Alex go to sleep dance. Another new environment was not an encouragement to him to settle down. I don’t know if the raccoons came that night, but I do know that Alex eventually nodded off. And so did we.