Growing bored of taking nothing but flower pictures and walking around the same neighborhood, I decided I needed a change before even I stopped reading my blog. So I decided to go to one of the local parks in this part of Denver.

The park I went to is called Roxborough Park and it's about 6 miles from my daughter's house. It's a pretty place and reminds me of the famous tourist attraction in Colorado Springs called Garden of the Gods, except this Park isn't as spectacular; it's more like a miniature Garden of the Gods.

I spent a few hours walking around the park and found it to be a nice peaceful place with scenery worth taking pictures of. But the numerous signs in the area were very adamant about staying on the trails, and I'm just not a trail kind of guy, much preferring to take off cross country following game trails or wherever looks interesting.

But I stuck to the trails which you're required to do when you're near civilization, knowing I was probably missing the most interesting parts of the whole area. To quote part of a song from "paint your wagon" named "The first thing you know."

They civilize the foothills, and everywhere he put hills, the mountains and valleys below, they come along and take em, and civilize and make em a place were no civilized person would go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQjw5F6SnzE

                                                         Theboondork

On the way to the park, a lot of the area is just rolling hills covered with grass. Looks like good ranch-land to me.

But the next thing you know the road goes through this gap in the hills. And on the other side of that hole in the wall....everything changes

The park turns into a craggy wonderland of sandstone rock formations with miles and miles of various trails, paths, and old dirt roads, which your not allowed to drive on, or even bicycle on, running through the whole thing.

More pictures of Roxborough Park tomorrow.

Another beautiful day today, low 80s in the daytime, low 60s at night, and this is predicted to continue for at least the next 10 days. Which means I'm comfortable without air conditioning.

The trip to Lucille's Cajun restaurant has been put off for various reasons, but it looks like it might be on again for Thursday. I'm looking forward to going there, but it's usually something to do with me that keeps the date moving ahead.

Now that the truck has passed its emissions test, and the results should have made it to the DMV by now, I ordered my tag, and hopefully, it will be here in a week or so. Usually, passing the emissions test and renewing my truck tag is my biggest accomplishment of the summer, but this summer, I have to renew my drivers' license by September, and since that's going to entail an eye exam, which I'm badly in need of anyway, that's going to be my major project for this summer.

And speaking of driver's licenses. At my age, typically, the DMV wants you to show up in person so they can not only test your eyes but your hearing, and apparently to determine if you're still rational, which I never was, but I still managed to get a drivers license anyway.

But as a holdover from the Bat flu problems, the state of Colorado is still trying to protect government workers from any human contact, which is why I'm not required to show up at the DMV to get my drivers license renewed, which is great. And if it were up to me, I'd never go to another DMV office for the rest of my life.

                                                            Theboondork

I'm thinking of taking a mini-vacation after the 4th of July holiday. July 10th and 11th, there's going to be a hill climb race at Monarch Colorado, and since I know folks that are racing there, and I've been to that race before, I think it will be a fun way to spend that weekend.

I'll probably leave right after the holidays, which will give me some time to mosey around in the high country before the race the next weekend, because I can use a little high lonesome time boondocking in the mountains.

I'll probably spend one night at my property near 11 Mile Reservoir to see what's going on out there, and I need to get some things out of my storage room in Divide Colorado, and Divide is right on my way. After that, I'll just head up into the high country and slowly work my way towards Monarch.

This will be my first opportunity to look at something the size of the little Bronco as a full-timing RV. I've spent a lot of time in the little Bronco on my mini-vacation, but this will be the first time I will look at something this small as a full-timing RV.

I know it will be difficult to get used to, especially getting rid of so much of my stuff that won't fit in a smaller RV when I thought I'd already gotten rid of everything I didn't need. So all of my choices of what I need to keep and what I need to get rid of will be even more challenging than when I moved out of my house.

Sometimes I wonder if it will be worth all the trouble I've got to go through to make the changes I've envisioned, especially when old geezers my age normally like to be settled down and stay in the same place as much as possible.

But for some reason, I just can't shake that feeling of wanting to travel, see new places, have different experiences, and especially the challenges boondocking offers. It actually gives me a feeling of joy when I'm leaving the next day, but I don't know exactly where I'm going or where I'm going to spend the night. There's something about the uncertainty that makes me feel like I'm in charge of my life and therefore have some amount of control over my destiny, even if it's just to decide where I want to be, and how long I want to be there.... Which seems to me to be the most basic of freedoms.

                                                        Theboondork