good morning from colorado today i am headed to a place that is new to me i've never been
there aspen colorado where i will be doing some camping and hiking over the next several days
i'm really excited there's a place that i've wanted to visit for quite some time
that is very near aspen so this will be a fun trip
i've been driving alongside the colorado river it's been really beautiful yesterday when i got
into colorado it was still quite smoky from wildfires in surrounding states i don't know
if there are any here in colorado however there's a front moving in and some thunderstorms expected
over the next couple of days and i think that is clearing out the smoke it's really pretty today
so
i have made it here to my camp about five miles south of aspen proper
the difficult campground it's kind of a funny name i found it on the campendium app
and i made my reservations through recreation.gov i only made the reservations a couple of days ago
so i'm very grateful that there were sites available i'm here for two nights however i
will have to move from this particular site to another site tomorrow this is a very popular
uh destination for tourism so i think i got pretty lucky it is a really beautiful sight surrounded by
you guessed it aspen trees and it's pretty private considering it is a public campground it's a
forest service campground i saw only a couple of options for boondocking and i was a bit nervous
that there wouldn't be any camping available considering the fact that it is a very busy area
so i thought i'd just go ahead and pay for camping just to know for sure that i had a place to
lay my head tonight i think i made it here in just the nick of time because the skies are
looking very ominous and i'm thinking that those thunderstorms are going to happen fairly quickly
here i think for tonight i'm just going to go ahead and relax it's been a long day of driving
i don't have cell service here but i knew that in advance from reading the reviews so i downloaded a
bunch of tv shows and movies and i also have books to read so i think i'm gonna have a nice relaxing
evening here and then tomorrow we're gonna do some cooking some exploring maybe a little hiking
and it's going to be a great day i will see you all in the morning good night
it's raining
top of the morning to you from a very wet aspen colorado it rained off and on all night
and more on than off and very heavy at times i did know that there were thunderstorms expected
however i don't think they were supposed to last this late into the morning it is currently raining
now and somewhat heavy you might be able to hear it falling on the camper it is a very
soothing sound to go to sleep too i often listen to rain sounds to help me fall asleep so
i didn't mind that overnight however it might affect the day's activities
when i drive out of here i do have to switch uh sites as i mentioned yesterday so when i
drive out of here i will go to where i have some cell service and check on the current forecast
we'll check it out and we'll find something to do and somewhere to explore today regardless there
is a trailhead right here at the campground and i read some good things about the trail however
after all the rain last night i think it's going to probably be a muddy mess anyhow nothing sounds
better on a cold rainy morning than some comfort food so it is time to get some breakfast going
now in the same pan i'm just going to fry up a couple turkey sausage
and an egg and what would a breakfast sandwich be without a slice of cheese
okay let's plate this bad boy
beautiful the dishes are done it didn't take much to do i try to cook in one pot or one
pan if possible to conserve on cleanup and water which i always have to keep an eye on
and it is time to do what i call battening down the hatches and that's just basically
breaking down camp which doesn't involve a lot all it really means is putting away all
the loose items i usually store all of my sink items in the kitchen sink and then i have a
kind of a bungee cord on the cabinet above that i secure the upper cabinets with and
i do the same in the bathroom just make sure that everything is put into the sink
well it's still raining so i think we will take a little driving tour into aspen like
i said i've never been there before so i want to check it out see what town is like
okay i found some paid parking on the street so i went ahead and paid for it
i think i'm going to explore by foot it seems a little bit easier to do
uh i have my grain gear on i'm gonna grab my umbrella i have no idea where i am in town but
that is part of the adventure so let's take a look around aspen on a rainy day by foot
aspen in colorado's rocky mountains is a ski resort town and year-round destination for
outdoor recreation it's also known for its high-end restaurants and boutiques
fancy schmancy
founded as a mining camp during the colorado silver boom and later named aspen for the
abundance of aspen trees in the area the city boomed during the 1880s its first decade
it's a little bit expensive for my taste around here but it is a beautiful town
there is a reason i came to this area which you will see in an upcoming video now this is my
kind of store but who am i kidding outdoors gear can be almost as expensive as prada
did somebody say coffee why yes please
well that's a little bit different type of adventure than you're used to seeing me on
we are going to head to a nature preserve while it's not raining before heading back to camp
there was something that i felt coming in the air during this trip to aspen
and that feeling was autumn
a little bit of blue sky showing itself
those beautiful patches of blue sky did not last long because as soon as i got back to camp
it started pouring i am in my new site i was in site 16 and now i am in site 23. they look very
similar however this site is much bigger so if you have a big rig this would be a good site
for you there aren't any services here it's dry camping other than pit toilets so just be prepared
for that but they are very private lots of trees around each site so you don't see your neighbors
i really like it actually it's a nice place i wasn't expecting such a rainy day today so
i have had to adjust my plans accordingly and actually it was kind of cool because i wound
up going into town which i probably would not have done had it not been for the rain
and i enjoyed it i enjoyed my stroll around town it's very pretty it's nice having all the
beautiful green mountains surrounding some of the old architecture of the buildings and i enjoyed
my cafe mocha it was really good anyhow i am getting pretty hungry i have not eaten since
this morning other than a few pistachios when i got here to camp so tonight i'm just going
to make a quick easy go-to meal that i like to make and it is pretty healthy actually as well
tonight i will be doing a super easy stir fry i will be stir frying these veggies with this
chicken that i had left over already cooked so it's just warming up and this uncle ben's
jasmine rice which is super easy you just add a couple tablespoons of water and heat it up
and it is done it's very tasty i'll add some soy sauce
and uh yeah it's gonna be good just going to saute my veggies in a little olive oil
i added a little pepper but no salt because the soy sauce has salt in it
even though i did get low sodium soy sauce there's my rice getting warmed up
added the chicken and it is looking good i've plated it up and it looks amazing
i'm just gonna add some soy sauce and it's ready to eat and we even got a little sun
so
holy moly i am stuffed i ate so much i'm so full i'm going to go ahead and get comfortable because
it's feeling a little chilly out so i'm going to bundle up and get warm and start preparing for
my day tomorrow i have a little bit of prep to do because i will be getting a very early start
make sure you stay tuned so that you can see that video next week i hope you enjoyed joining
me in aspen my first time here it uh you know it was a little adventure sometimes i take you on
big adventures and sometimes it's just more like everyday life but i hope you enjoyed coming along
and yeah don't go anywhere we have a lot more to come and i will see you all on
the next one thanks so much everybody i really appreciate your support bye
you