6kadventure

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Day 4 – Cripple Creek and The Gold Rush

I didn’t do much driving today which I’m ok with. Still having nightmares about that trip through Kansas. Once I got to stirring I grabbed some breakfast and hit up a Starbucks for the free WiFi. Updating my blog this morning from there so I wouldn’t have to use up data on my Verizon MiFi.

From Starbucks I jumped on highway 24 towards Woodland Park, ending up at my next stop in Cripple Creek, Colorado. It wasn’t a very far drive and the scenery was spectacular like most of Colorado. I first hit the KOA that I had planned on staying at and well guess what….. IT WAS BOOKED UP!!! Ugg… I’m starting to think these KOA’s really hate me. With the help of Google I found a handful of other RV Park/Campgrounds in Cripple Creek. I drove by a couple and they looked so sketchy I didn’t even bother pulling in to them.

Next on the list was Cripple Creek Hospitality House & Travel Park. The name sounds a little odd but a quick Google search gave me some neat details on the history. Per their website: “To accommodate the booming mining population in the early 20th century, the Cripple Creek Hospitality House & Travel Park was constructed in 1901 as the original Teller County Hospital. The hospital closed and was renovated as a hotel in the early 1960’s to accommodate travelers desiring to experience Cripple Creek’s vast charm and rich history.” The history alone behind the place made me want to camp here. Wonder if I’ll hear any ghosts tonight? Oh and did I mention that I’m sitting right at 10,000 feet above sea level right now? This is certainly the highest I’ve ever camped.

After getting a campsite and setting up the tent I headed out to explore this little town that got put on the map because of the gold rush that took place here. From 1890 to 1910, more than 22,400,000 ounces of gold were extracted from 500 mines in the Cripple Creek Mining District. My first stop was the Heritage Center to learn about this little town. Aside from the tons of information on the town they had a donation box made of clear acrylic with all of the states on it. So you could donate to the Heritage Center by putting your money in your state. Looks like I wasn’t the first person from Kentucky to stop in at the Heritage Center. Shucks!

My next stop was the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine. It’s no longer being mined but they perform tours of the mine. To get in the mine you are shuttled down a 1,000 ft mine shaft. Our tour guide was a local gentleman that was born/raised here in Cripple Creek. He actually worked in the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine when it was active. I would write an entire blog entry with all of the information he shared. I won’t bore you with all those details but it was cool seeing shafts that he had dug himself with his father. Oh and the best part…. FREE GOLD ORE!!!

Our guide told us about an active open pit mine about 2 miles away so I had to drive by it too. Obviously I couldn’t get close to it but I did take some pictures of the operation. The guide said they process $1,000,000 worth of gold everyday from it.

Once my sightseeing ended I headed back to camp. I fixed a Mountain House dehydrated meal and relaxed while watching the sunset.

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Day 2 – We aren’t in Kansas anymore

Today has been exhausting. Loving the trip so far but that drive across Kansas… Damn!

I woke up in the KOA cabin instead of my hammock which was a little disheartening but not a deal breaker. While I have loosely planned what I’m doing and where I’m staying with a couple goals in mind I’m open to whatever. Hey that’s the adventure, right? In a “perfect” scenario I would have got to the KOA with enough time to reserve a tent site. Better yet I would have reserved it online. Now there is an idea. HA! Then I would have woke up and started boiling some water for a cup of joe and ate a Mountain House breakfast meal.

Since none of that happened I said screw it and ate breakfast at a TravelCenters of America. Just the normal eggs, hash browns and toast with coffee. Instead of my normal mad dash to finish the food as fast as humanly possible I slowed down. Had a little conversation with some random truckers and watched a “guy from corporate” well… humble some employees. To think I was complaining about my morning. Sheesh! It’s funny how we get so interwoven into the events of the day that you lose sight of the bigger picture.

Back on the road after breakfast. I can’t say I witnessed anything breathtaking today while driving. I did manage to finally conquer Kansas. Driving from east to west across the entire state. I snapped a few pictures but nothing to write home about. So I’ll write the interwebz… lol. The place reminded me a lot of Nebraska. Fairly flat and lots of wind turbines.

The original plan was to stay in Kansas tonight then travel on another 3 hours to Fountain, Colorado. Well I decided to push on another 3 hours to get to Colorado tonight. Boy I’m glad I did.

I didn’t get to explore much tonight because I met up with some friends, Stephanie and Jake. I did get a few pictures of the Rockies off in the distance though. After chilling for a bit I decided I should call the KOA to see about making reservations so what happened last night didn’t happen again. Wanna guess what happened? Yeah the KOA office was closed. Oh well, no big deal. I booked a cheap hotel on Priceline. It was only $67 with tax so I didn’t care. I would have paid $30 to camp.

Wait there is more… I get to the Ramada I booked and they don’t have a reservation for me. WTF!?!?! At this point from being up for hours plus driving an insane amount I’m not even sure if I’m at the right hotel. Dead serious! I run out to the car to grab my phone to double check the online reservation I made. As I’m walking back in the gentleman behind the counter says he can see an order was placed but it hasn’t came through yet. Or something along those lines. He said we could wait about 15 minutes or he could cancel it/book it again right then. I told him to do whatever was easiest and quickest. Oh and that $67 some how ended up $54 with tax. No clue on that one and didn’t ask.

As day 2 closes I have yet to sleep in my tent or hammock but I am one day ahead of schedule. I guess that means I should utilize tomorrow to plan and get this adventure back on track. Then again… who cares… it’s about the experiences.

#6kadventure

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Day 1 – Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri

Day 1 is in the books. Nothing much happened today in terms of adventure. Today was pure driving bliss. HA! I ended up making decent time considering I was held up in construction numerous times on interstate 64 and 70. I was pushing it down to the wire though and pulled in to the KOA here in Oak Ridge, Missouri literally 6 minutes before they closed the check in office. Upon asking for a tent site I was informed everything was booked except 1 primitive cabin site. So guess where I’m at currently…. lol. While I prepared for camping and brought all of my gear I don’t mind sleeping in a bed another night. The hammock is calling my name though.

While in route I did capture a few pictures of the St. Louis arch and a few random cloud pictures while sitting in construction. Hey you’ve got to entertain yourself some how when you are riding solo. I suppose I’ll attach those to this post.

I guess the thing that impressed me most about today was the gas mileage of the little Cruze. That 2.0 liter turbo diesel really cranked out some number considering. I won’t say I was operating at an unsafe rate of speed but I will say that I was worried about not getting to the KOA before they closed and may have went slightly above the suggested 70mph. All in all I covered 562 miles today from my house in Lexington, KY to my cabin here at the KOA in Oak Ridge, Missouri. From start to finish I used 12.30 gallons of diesel which landed me right at 45.69 mpg average for the first day. Not too shabby in my book.

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The Gear, Gadgets and Food

I’m just a few days away from hitting the road. Trying to plan everything prior to leaving so I don’t have to stop often to restock or pick up items that I’ve left behind.

Gear/Gadgets:

  • ENO Doublenest hammock
  • Marmot Limelight 3 Tent – Just in case I get caught in a crazy downpour and don’t want to “brave the storm” in my ENO.
  • Marmot Trestles sleeping bag
  • GPS
  • MacBook Air
  • Verizon Jetpack
  • Optimus stove for boiling water and such
  • Yeti Cooler
  • SEEK Knife – Shout out to Steve at Johnson Adventure Blades for hooking me up
  • Duracell 175w Power Inverter – Hey I’m a computer geek remember… Gotta keep everything charged
  • GSI Cookware

Food:

  • Mountain House classic assortment bucket
  • Lots of beef jerky – Thanks to the team at Lucky Beef Jerky!
  • Quaker instant oatmeal
  • Several boxes of KIND bars
  • JIF Peanut Butter
  • Ramen Noodles – Wouldn’t feel right without at least one pack of carb loaded ramen. HA!
  • Old El Paso Tortilla Stuffers
  • Instant Potatoes
  • Tuna/Chicken in a can
  • Egg Beaters/Milk/Bacon/Sausage – All of this will be picked up along the way as needed and stored in the Yeti

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hanging lake

The stops along the way

As I cross multiple states I have mapped out the KOA campgrounds that I will be staying at. Since I won’t be familiar with the areas I chose to stay at KOA’s because I can look up the location of each one online. Granted once I get in the area I may choose another option but at least for now I have a destination to camp. I plan on camping every night of the trip either in my ENO Hammock or my Marmot tent depending on weather and location.

So far here is my list of stopping points where I’ll be spending at least one night.

  1. Oak Grove Missouri KOA right outside of Kansas City
  2. Goodland KS close to the border of Kansas and Colorado
  3. Colorado Springs KOA in Fountain CO
  4. Moab, UT
  5. Las Vegas, NV
  6. San Diego, CA
  7. Mariposa KOA right on the edge of Yosemite
  8. Gold Hill KOA in Central Point, OR
  9. Seattle, WA
  10. Missoula, MT
  11. Billings, MT
  12. Deadwood, SD outside of Sturgis, SD
  13. Jackson, MN
  14. Rock Island, IL
  15. Back home in Lexington, KY

At each of these stops I’ll be exploring the surrounding areas. My main goal is to get into the outdoors. See the wildlife, the mountains, local communities…. etc. I’ve added some pictures to this post of a few places I plan on seeing.

Hanging Lake - Colorado

Hanging Lake - Colorado

Pikes Peak - Colorado

Pikes Peak - Colorado

Moab - Utah

Moab - Utah

Las Vegas - Nevada

Las Vegas - Nevada

Coronado Island - California

Coronado Island - California

Yosemite National Park - California

Yosemite National Park - California

Seattle - Washington

Seattle - Washington

Lolo National Forest - Montana

Lolo National Forest - Montana

Black Hills - South Dakota

Black Hills - South Dakota

Black Hills - South Dakota

Black Hills - South Dakota

6K Adventure

The Trip Planning

Welp if I’m going to be serious about this trip it’s time to buckle down and plan.

So first things first… What I’m I driving? Where am I going? What do I want to see? How long will I be gone? etc etc etc

My daily driver is a 2012 Chevy 2500HD. While I love the purr of a Duramax engine I don’t care much for the gas mileage.

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To cure the gas mileage issue I’ll be embarking on this 6,000+ mile journey in my other diesel. A 2014 Chevy Cruze. The advertised average fuel economy is 44mpg. However, on most trips I’ve personally driven with this car I’ve easily seen 48-50mpg. I’ll be keeping track of my fuel consumption along the way to see what the numbers actually work out to.

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So far this is the route I’ll be taking. Leaving from Lexington, KY. It will be over 6,000 miles and cover 18 states including Kentucky.

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I’m planning on keeping this trip under 3 weeks while trying to hit as many National Parks along the way as I can.

6K Adventure

So what is 6K Adventure?

Nothing special really… Just a random place to store some thoughts, experiences, pictures and whatever else related to my adventure. What is this adventure in question? Well a 6K Adventure of course.

A little background on me. I’m a computer nerd. Not the typical dungeons and dragons nerd but more of a web developer. I’ve worked for a Fortune 50 company and currently own a web hosting business. To sum it up, I sit in front of a computer monitor for hours upon hours in between meetings with clients. Who am I kidding, I love my job! With that being said, this blog won’t be used to advertise in any shape or form but rather a basic tool used to share my life over the next adventure.

There comes a time where you need a break. From years of little to no activity and a nice air conditioner I had packed on a few extra pounds. Finally getting tired of attempting to move my belly to tie my shoes I joined a gym. Low and behold I dropped a few pounds. Over the past year or so I’ve tried to get outside as much as possible. The fresh air and lack of electronics is rather therapeutic. Who would have guessed?

I’m somewhat spontaneous, and coming back from a trip to Tennessee with a friend I mentioned that I’d like to go on a random road trip for a few days. This idea stuck and I pondered on it for the entire time I drove back to the Bluegrass State. I literally started planning this trip the next evening. The mileage roughly totals a little over 6,000 miles thus the name, 6K Adventure.

I’ll use this blog along with social media to document my adventure.

Stay tuned!

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