Brad, it was the KOA where I ran into the grumpy lady.. It apparently did sell for we stopped in the following year, 2005, and they had a sign up that the place was under new mansgement. We still stop in there if we get that far on Interstate 70. However the last 4 or 5 trips we have stayed at the Limon KOA and cut south to the Springs, where my wife grew up. Then up to Woodland where she went to high school and on west to Ouray or Montrose.
The last time we stopped in Strasburg, a Canadian custom wheat harvesting crew was camped there. There were about 75 workers, all young men and the bosses and their wives. It was quite the operation. The had custom built bunk house 5th wheels for the crew, a dozen or so combines, all fairly new John Deere machines and the trucks to haul them, plus mechanics, grain trucks, etc.
the owner, a guy probably 35 years of age, told me he worked under contracts with farmers, starting in Oklahoma, the moving to eastern Colorado, then north to Nebraska, then the Dakotas, over to eastern Montana and finally back home to Alberta.
He must have had ten to twenty million dollars tied up in equipment. My wife and I had noticed how clean cut all the young men looked, short hair, clean shaved, clean clothes, very pleasant to talk with that evening. When I mentioned this to the owner, as we were visiting, he said those were his rules. He explained them to the crew before leaving Canada, and enforced the rules all summer. He then said any of the crew that didn't wish to follow his rules were welcome to catch a bus back to Alberta.
He also had a curfew time set for them and no drunkenness was allowed. They had a three beer per night limit. The crew really respected the owner and knew he was serious about their behavior.
