A BIG mistake

I had wanted to spend a few days in Fort Collins, CO after the eclipse but prior to a service appointment we had for Harvey closer to Denver.  The schedule got a little tight so we decided to leave Glenrock shortly after the eclipse had passed totality.  This would get us into Fort Collins on Monday evening rather than Tuesday afternoon giving us the extra time I wanted.  BIG MISTAKE!!!

Turns out about 12 bazillion other people were also heading South on I-25.  Our trip planner said if we left at 2 PM we would arrive by 6...4 hours is no problem. We left at 12:30 and sat in traffic.  After 9 hours of stop, then 10 -15 mph we realized we were not going to get to our prepaid camp site that night.  BTW we had also paid for one extra night in Glenrock because originally we were not leaving until Tuesday.  Once we realized we were not going to get to the campground we pulled up a Walmart on our phones and thought we'd just pull in there for the night.  Then we learned this particular Walmart does not allow overnight parking.  So with tears in our eyes we thought about other places to pull over for the night.  Finally, we decided on the Elks lodge in Fort Collins.  They did not have designated RV parking but since we got in at 10:30 at night, there was no one there to tell us we could not park there.  So we did.  Early the next day we left and drove the rest of the way.  It was only about 40 minutes but we would never have gotten into the park or the space we had in the dark and as tired as we were.  I did leave some $ with the Elks as payment for the unauthorized stay.  So we paid for 3 campsites that night.