It was a little foggy this morning leaving Denver and heading for the hills. But I was on my way, and I do like being on my way, fog or no fog.

I left Denver this morning at about 9:30, heading for the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, and it was pretty cloudy and about 60°. As I moseyed on up into the mountains, it got mostly foggy and enough so that I had to slow down a little bit. But as I got higher, I came out of the low-lying clouds and into a nicer day, although it was still somewhat cloudy.

Once I got up above seven or eight thousand feet, the leaves started changing, and there was lots of yellow everywhere. And when I got to the top of Kenosha Pass, the leaves were almost perfect, and I would say that the leaves should be at their peak this coming weekend.

I think it's about 200 miles from Denver to the Sand Dunes National Park, and I'm boondocked at a State Wildlife area about 12 miles from the Park. It was an easy drive getting here, not much traffic. But from the look of these Fall leaves, I would say the mountains will be packed with leaf peepers this weekend, and the traffic will be a huge mess.

I don't know if there will be any Sandhill cranes here at the lake where I'm at, and I probably won't know until late this afternoon when the cranes fly over if there are any, and I can hear them making their weird croaking noise as they fly over my head to the lake.

There's been a drought around here for several years, and the lake is a mere shadow of its former self. But that's okay; the cranes don't care about deep water; they much prefer it kind of swampy, and there's a lot of that around here too.

It's been a busy day today with driving here and running around doing things, so my blog post is obviously later than normal.

                                                              Theboondork

 As I got higher into the mountains the weather got better but it was still cloudy and pretty chilly.

Once I got into the mountains the leaves started changing, and the higher I got the more they changed.

Going up Kenosha Pass most of the leaves had changed, or were well on their way.

At the top of Kenosha Pass the Aspens had all changed. But unfortunately it was a gray, gloomy day with low hanging clouds so the leaves didn't glow like they normally would.

Safely ensconced at my boondocking site, ready to go searching for the cunning, Lord of the skies, the Sandhill Crane. Respected by lesser birds, and feared by humans, all I need is one good picture to prove my mettle.

Contractors are doing some road work right next to my daughter's house and they've park their asphalt machine next to the yard for the last three days. You can see the  bronco, and the Arctic Fox in the background.

I'm finishing up a few last-minute projects, so I can hopefully get packed up and take a mini-vacation starting the 30th or October 1 depending on what I want to do as I head down south to the San Luis Valley area.

The big town in the area is Alamosa, Colorado, which isn't very big but it's got about everything you need. Of course, the Sand Dunes National Park is the big draw to that area, and other than that, it's mostly farming and ranching country, with six or eight tiny towns that no one even knows where they are except the farmers and ranchers that live and make a living in the area.

There's a lot of Hispanics living in the area and always has been. The Mexicans have been farming and ranching in the San Luis Valley since the days when Mexico owned most of the West. And when this part of the country became a territory of the United States, after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, the Mexican farmers and ranchers just kept doing what they've done for hundreds of years, and the fact that the name of the government had changed meant little to these people of the land, they just kept tilling the soil and raising sheep and cattle as generations that came before them.

I've never planted a crop nor raised a cow in my entire life, but I can relate to people like that; I don't know why, but people who live on the land and make a living from that land seem like "salt of the earth" people to me. They seem more in touch with reality than a lot of supposedly smart people are today.

My grandfather was a farmer, a sharecropper to be exact, and as poor as a church mouse. But, as a kid, I watched him plow that red Georgia clay behind his mule. The very same red Georgia clay in which he's buried. He was "salt of the earth, " and maybe that's why I relate to the people of the San Luis Valley.

                                                                    Theboondork

If I had tracks like this on my truck instead of tires I could do some serious boondocking.

When the road workers weren't using the asphalt machine the grandkids took it for a spin. I was amazed how much asphalt the kids could rip up with that machine.

Picking up where I left off yesterday. I never knew what I wanted to do in life, so I've done a little bit of a lot of things, never thinking that's what I wanted to do with my life; it was just what I had to do to make enough money to feed and house my family at the time.

So here I am, 75 years old, and I finally figured out what I want to do with my life... I want to live full-time in an RV and travel. Now that does seem a little late to figure it all out, but I reckon I never spent a whole lot of time thinking about it, seeing as how I was too busy trying to earn a living instead of having a goal or making any plans for myself.

But now that I've figured out what I want to do with my life now I can look into the details of how I want to live that full-timing RV lifestyle. And even though I don't know exactly what it's going to be, I do know that I enjoy boondocking more than living in an RV Park. I think I can say that I've stayed in some nice state parks and other public or government-run camping places, but I don't think I've ever been in a commercial RV Park where I would want to spend more than a few days unless I absolutely had to.

There are several reasons why I enjoy boondocking so much; number one would have to be the freedom to come and go as I please. After all, coming and going as you desire is the most basic of freedoms, I believe not being able to do so would be called... prison. It would be very difficult for me to go back to living on a schedule and having to be certain places at certain times, I know I'm not normal with that philosophy, and I can deal with deadlines for a short while, but it would be difficult for me to live that way.

Another reason I enjoy boondocking so much, and this ties in with what I was talking about yesterday. I try not to get too deep in a rut. And as lazy as I am, a rut is an easy thing to get trapped in. It is just too comfortable to stay put and not challenge myself to do something different or go someplace that's more interesting. And the longer I stay someplace, the deeper the rut gets and the more difficult it is to get out of.

 I enjoy being in control of as much of my life as possible and overcoming the various hurdles and complications that can arise when you don't know where you're going to sleep tomorrow, the next day, or next week. And even though that can be a challenge, Still, I'm confident I'll be able to figure it out. Because overcoming hurdles like that is the trade-off you have to make to earn the freedom to come and go as you please.

So right now I will go, and come back tomorrow if I please.

                                                                  Theboondork