Tony and I departed on our “Winging It” road trip tour at the end of August. The only reservation we had for this road trip was for an Airbnb in Golden, CO to celebrate our 26th anniversary. For this trip we decided to not make any reservations and just figure it out a day at a time (aka Winging It) as we sadly had to cancel our mid-summer Friends & Family road trip which resulted in hundreds of dollars in cancellation fees for our reservations. Our general plan is to be gone 6-7 weeks with a travel itinerary to include Colorado, Canada and the Pacific Northwest.

Prior to our departure from AZ, we were able to implement a few upgrades and repairs to our van, Tofu. Tofu had their squeaky after-market Bilstein struts removed and replaced with the original Ford struts (which we had to re-purchase. Sigh), a swivel seat added to the passenger seat to provide some additional seating when parked, an additional 100-amp hour lithium battery added to our power bank to further our idle time capabilities, a new shelf with undercabinet lighting was crafted by Tony and some other general upgrades including the addition of attachment points in the sliding doorway for my yoga swing.

We had several “failure to launch” days leading up to our planned departure as the weather was so nice in AZ and we were enjoying spending time in our new hot tub for which we had waited 8 months for delivery and installation. Eventually, time was running out so we made the mad dash to Golden, CO.

On the drive to Golden, Tofu continued to squeak and rattle even though we replaced the struts with the Ford struts which was supposed to resolve this issue. The further we drove, the worse it got and we had to make a decision to continue or turn back. We decided it was probably not a safety issue and pushed on and scheduled a service appointment at the Ford dealership in Colorado.

Our Airbnb was SUPER cute, a 10/10. We sometimes are disappointed with our Airbnb’s upon arrival when they look nothing like the photographs and realize the owners used creative photography angles and perspectives to market their unit. This Airbnb was not like that at all as it was even better than the pictures and description. New, great location, quiet, clean and tons of thoughtful details. Neither of us had ever been to Golden before and we immediately decided this was our type of town with mountain views, walkability to downtown, a river running through the middle of the city, cool weather and lots of bike/walking paths. While we were in Golden, the Colorado School of Mines launched their driverless electric shuttles on campus which was fun to see. As an electric car owner, I can’t wait until this technology is available for my own car.

Within 3 hours of our arrival, I misjudged the edge of the molding around the kitchen island and caught one of my toes on it. Tony and I both heard a “crack” sound and my toe immediately swelled up and turned black. It was certainly broken but surprisingly with it buddy taped it only hurt for a few days and then I was able to walk and bike on it fairly normally without too much discomfort.

The Ford dealership had Tofu the entire time we were in Golden. This was a disastrous combination of incompetence and laziness, so our van was returned to us with absolutely nothing done to it. When I hear business owners talk about difficulty finding good people these days, this dealership is the perfect example of this as their employees are literally just warm bodies and nothing more. It was unacceptable on so many levels but we did not have much recourse at that point so we decided to just push on with our radio turned up a bit louder to drown out the rattles. Luckily, we had purchased folding Brompton bikes prior to our trip which we used for transportation while we were in Golden. These bikes are so much fun and remind me of riding my Huffy Desert Rose as a kid. Tony says I smile the entire time I am riding this bike. We rode these bikes everywhere from the grocery store to exploring the new section of the multi-purpose Peaks to Plains trail which had just opened. We were stopped by at least a dozen people asking about them and we both agree this might be our best recent purchase due to its HFF (High Fun Factor).

Tony took part in the Golden Gran Fondo covering 63 miles and 7400 ft of elevation. There were about 300 cyclists and the route was more difficult than he anticipated as there were some very steep gravel sections which tested his legs. It was tough mountain terrain and I was proud of him for completing it and doing so within the allotted time he set for himself 50 years old and still killing it!

We are headed north with plans to spend a few days in Montana awaiting for our COVID-19 test results before crossing the border into Canada.