I Wanna Go Home!

It was our altered plan to go to Pagosa Springs after leaving Colorado Springs. We thought we were going to have to go home because the places we'd called in Pagosa Springs were all full. Then one place, Happy Campers, called to say they'd had a cancellation if we were still interested. Indeed we were! (Anything to keep from going home to that 100 degree heat!)

So after breakfast and a morning walk on Friday, we set off for Pagosa Springs. The GPS said it would take about four and a half hours to get there. Mark's back was still hurting a bit but he was okay.

We'd hadn't been on the road that long - maybe an hour and a half - we were just south of Pueblo on I-25 - when we heard a horrible noise. We thought it was the monster-sized motor home passing us but it was well past us and we were still hearing the noise. "Good grief - it must be us!"

Indeed it was! The rear tire on the driver's side had literally come apart. But it didn't stop that F250. It never wobbled - it kept soldiering forward! But we pulled off the road as soon as we were able.

In my opinion, we were in a dangerous place. We were off the road, but just barely. But people were going by so fast and didn't even move over. Mark's back was still hurting but it would have been too dangerous for him to try to change the tire even if he'd been feeling 100%. Best leave the job to professionals. Time to call AAA.

It took them an hour and a half to get there. And then the guy they sent couldn't change it because we didn't have some kind of key that you need to change the tire. (Often a problem when you buy a used vehicle.) And trust me, we tore that truck apart looking for it. Our kitties had to sit in their box by the side of the road and they were not happy about it. I'm not sure whether it was good or bad that they were both in the same box. (The zipper had broken on Heidi's crate and while we still had it, we couldn't put her in it with a broken zipper, so she and Harry were sharing.)  Since the tire couldn't be changed, we would have to be towed to a tire store. (I am so glad I added the RV to our AAA membership!) Unfortunately, the guy they sent didn't have the right equipment to do that. We had to wait another half hour for a guy who had a truck he could load our truck onto and a hitch for towing our RV.

Once he got there it didn't take him long to get us loaded up, hooked up and headed back to Pueblo. The driver, Mark, me and a crate with two nervous cats all in the front seat of that tow truck! By the time we got to Discount Tire it was nearly 5 PM. Time to call Happy Camper and let them know to release our reservation to someone else. As much as we might have liked Pagosa Springs, it would have to wait until another time because we were still well over four hours away and we had a vehicle with a missing tire.

It was at this point we decided we wanted to go home. The sooner the better. After they put the new tire on we hitched up the RV and headed for the nearest WalMart. I didn't like the look of this WalMart but by this time Mark was in so much pain with his back, there really wasn't anything else we could do. We would leave for home "at first light" the following morning. It would take a bit over 15 hours to get there. But there really is no place like home - even if it is 100 degrees outside.

Pikes Peak or Bust

Since the cog railway to Pikes Peak was sold out until Saturday and we had to check out of the RV park by noon on Friday, we decided to drive up "America's Mountain" on Thursday.

Even though I knew it would be cold up there, I forgot to take a jacket or fleece. Mark was still feeling some pain in his back, and at 14,000 feet, neither of us could breathe. But the views were still fantastic!

No Place to Park

Our plan for this trip was to go to Black Canyon of the Gunnison for the better part of a week and then head to Winter Park to meet up with friends who have a condo there. From there we planned to park up somewhere near Boulder so Mark could do a Continuing Education course and we could meet up with one of my school friends. Then we would head home. That was the plan.

The reality? Somewhat different. Black Canyon of the Gunnison - check. We had already noted before we left home that there were no, shall we say "proper" campgrounds in Winter Park. There were only three small state park campgrounds that were being run by the local Lions Club. The problem with most state and national park campgrounds is that while they are a fraction of the cost of "for profit" campgrounds, they lack amenities. Things that happy campers (like me) want - electricity, water, sewer hookup, wifi. You know, the basic essentials of life.

But we really wanted to be in Winter Park. We knew that we could go three days before we would have to empty the black or gray water tanks. That's about the same amount of time it takes us to use all the water in the storage tank if we are quick about showers and don't run the water constantly while doing dishes. So a few days in one of these more primitive campsites would be okay from a water perspective. Mark bought a generator so we could have air conditioning if we needed it. (The lights and refrigerator will run off the propane - but the air conditioning will not.) I assumed the phones would work because we were in the United States and not that far from Denver.

We also knew the campsites were first come - first served.  Mark had looked at them on Google Earth before we ever left home. We learned something about Google Earth. The images are somewhat flat. You don't get an accurate look at the topography. And things can appear larger than they really are. What this really means is that when we got there, there were only about three sites that we could have actually parked our RV in and of course, other people were already parked in all three of them. The remaining sites were either too small or angled so steeply that the RV would have rolled down the hill into a tree. (I still haven't figured out how people could even camp on those sites in a tent.) The curves on the narrow little road running through those campgrounds were so tight I feared (as did Mark) that we wouldn't be able to get out of there without some kind of damage to our truck or RV.

But we did get out (even though we had to go the wrong way through the Entrance. (It was supposed to be "one-way" but we couldn't make the turn to go through the Exit.) We started looking for a "proper" campground. They were booked up for miles. Miles. We ended up in Black Hawk, over an hour away from Winter Park. This campsite had electricity and water but no sewer hookup. So the three nights they had available would suit us just fine. They also had wifi. When I reserved the spot I told them where I was and asked if there was a place to stop and buy food along the way. I was assured that there were plenty of places to stop and that they also had a store where you could buy food.

I must have missed all of those places to shop. They did have a store - full of junk food. And bread. We bought a loaf of bread (which was all we needed to make BLTs) and a jar of pickles. We could go out shopping the next day. We couldn't find the water hookup. The owner came out to show us where it was - way too far for our hose to reach. They were very nice to loan us an extension hose - even though it leaked badly and created a big puddle on the road. As for the wifi - it mostly only worked if you were standing in front of the store. Other than that, every now and again the planets would align and our phones would make noise as data came through. But typically that only lasted a few seconds. It was fairly amusing to see at least a half dozen people huddled outside the store staring at their electronic devices. (I know, I was one of them on more than one occasion!)

Our new plan was to tough it out there and find a place near Boulder so Mark could do his continuing education course. When we first bought the RV, some friends who had been RVing for years told us never to worry about finding a campsite. "You may not get your first choice, but you'll get one." Clearly, these friends have never been to this part of Colorado in July. The closest campsite we could find was in Colorado Springs - hours away from Boulder. The only thing we could do was cancel Mark's CE class, let my friend know we wouldn't be getting together after all and then head for Colorado Springs.

So our plans changed. No big deal. We were willing to go with the flow. We planned to spend a few nights in Colorado Springs and then figure out what to do next. I always wanted to ride the cog railway up to Pikes Peak. The guy who checked us into the RV park told me that you have to buy your tickets a day ahead of time. No problem. I called to order the tickets. There was a problem - no availability until Saturday and we only had the RV space through Thursday night. We would be leaving Friday morning. We would have to drive up Pikes Peak. But by this time, Mark's back had gone out. He could barely get the RV set up. And I suppose that's where the real trouble started.

High Altitude Golf

I like to play at least one round of golf when we travel. We played last year when we were in Colorado with no problems. As we were playing this year, I guessed that the elevation in Cortez (where we played last year) was significantly lower than in Gunnison - because this year I could barely breathe. I checked - it's only a 1600 foot difference but it felt like a 6100 foot difference! Doesn't seem like it should make that much difference, but it does!

I also hold the altitude responsible for my inability to think clearly causing me to "forget" my socks and visor.  I'm fairly picky about visors and don't particularly like the one I had to buy, but it did the trick - kept my glasses from falling off my face and kept the sun out of my eyes. It's one thing to buy a logo'd visor but buying socks is no thrill at all - you definitely over pay for everything in a pro shop - especially and socks.  Unlike visors which sit on your head, socks disappear into your shoes. No one can actually see them. Usually they are plain white - (although these had a bit of fluorescent yellow on them - but not where you could see it.)  At least this pro shop had ladies' socks. Imagine my surprise when I found the socks I "forgot" in my handbag three days later. Lesson learned - do not put navy blue socks into a deep handbag.

But back to the round of golf. Neither of us could breathe. Walking to the ball was laborious. I wanted to drive by with the cart and just swing at it - sort of like polo. I'm convinced I would have scored better if I didn't have to catch my breath so often.

Bottom line - we played badly but had a lovely day. The course and the views were beautiful.

We even saw a fat little marmot!

Don't Drink the Water

We are such bad cat parents. We actually forgot to take their favorite Hill's Science Diet food with us. Of course we couldn't find a Petsmart on the highway, so we ended up buying them a bag of Iams. It's a good quality brand. They were happy to get their Hills back when we got home, but they were okay with the Iams.

After we got settled in Gunnison, I noticed that something was having an ill-effect on them. While we were "in transit" I had been giving them bottled water. We only use the water in the RV storage tank for flushing the toilet, doing dishes and other mundane tasks. But once we got to the RV park, we were connected to "city" water and Mark said it would be okay to fill their water dish with water from the tap. So I did.

That second night we were there, I was sound asleep - like always. Let me say that I've been awakened by loud noises before. I've been awakened by people or animals moving before. But this is the first time I've been awakened by a bad smell. A really bad smell. I'm not kidding - it was like someone set off a stink bomb. One of our cats had used the litter box.

OMG! It was awful!! For days, every time either of them used the litter box it would smell to the high heaven. This was a problem. We were going to have to find a new location for the litter box. Preferably five miles away!

The only thing I could think of was the food. Iams was clearly NOT a premium brand. We didn't experience this horrific smell at home when they were eating Hills.

Before we figured out what to do about this dilemma, we moved camp. We headed for Winter Park and since we were no longer connected to the "city" water, we resumed giving them bottled water. No sooner did we do that than the horrible stink bomb smell went away.  Clearly, this problem had nothing to do with Iams and everything to do with that "city" water.

In retrospect, I am glad that Mark and I stuck to the bottled water - otherwise the problem may have been epic. In the future Harry and Heidi will always have bottled water, as well.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

I can't believe I never even heard of this place until we bought our National Geographic book on National Parks. This is not to be missed! While the Grand Canyon wows you with it's sheer size, depth, width and total area - the Black Canyon of the Gunnison is deep (between 1100 and 2700 feet), and it's only about 48 miles long. Only 14 of those 48 miles are in the National Park. The rest of it is divided between the Curecanti National Recreation Area (where the boat tour originates and ends) and the Gunnison Gorge Conservation Area (which we did not see.) The drama here comes from it's width. It is extremely narrow - 40 feet at it's narrowest. It is called the Black Canyon because there are places within it that only get about 30 minutes of sunlight per day. (Want to learn more? Click here!)

Our first day there we drove the South Rim. We thought the views were absolutely stunning.

The next day we took a boat trip about seven miles into the canyon. A bit of a challenge to get to it - 232 steps and then a mile or so hike - but well worth the effort. (Getting back up the 232 steps was the worst part!)

We didn't think we'd have time to drive the North Rim, but a friend indicated to us that it was not to be missed. Wow! Was he ever right!

Even the drives to the canyon through the Curecanti Recreation area had stunning scenery.

Monarch Crest

We went over Monarch Crest on our way to Gunnison and decided it would be a good way to spend an afternoon since we'd blown our morning with Fred. It was a great way to spend the afternoon!

Cool weather. (I had to buy a fleece!) And fantastic views! The wind was so strong on the observation deck that people had difficulty opening the door to go in and out. (Of course someone inside had the brilliant idea to lock the door and then it took a bit of pounding on the part of those of us who had gone outside to get back in.)

Here's a sample of what we saw.