Trip home. Wow. One day short of fifteen (15!) weeks. Not ready for it to be over, but then again, way ready.

Got a late start to the day – another cold morning, but it warmed up acceptably fast. This KOA has the latest check-out time I’ve seen – noon. Most are 11, some have been 10. Today, no rush, which is good, because we need to take almost everything out of the trailer. No need to leave food in it, so all the dry and canned goods have to go (and there are a bunch! We’ll never go hungry on a trip!), as does everything in the fridge – the refrigerator needs to be off and open so it dries out and doesn’t mildew. It takes longer than we expected, but we’re done just minutes before noon … but then we get to talking to the neighbors (a very nice couple from Garland (!) … and jabber on until one! Well, we don’t get charged extra (we’re practically the last two campers in the whole park, and definitely the only ones within 100 yards. We are surrounded by empty sites!)

One o’clock, on the road. In less than fifteen miles, we’re in Oklahoma. It’s official – Oklahoma has the WORST highways of all the places we’ve been! There were dirt roads on several National Forests that were smoother! Seriously! There was one stretch where I literally had to clench my teeth to keep them from rattling! And a few miles later, the road undulated up and down at least six inches every second or so, at the speed limit. Hard to maintain control! I thought they had a lot of oil revenue that they could tap into to fix their highways. Go figure.

Anyway, six o’clock, arrive home. The house is still there. Looks just like when we left! Try to remember where the car keys are! Oh, yeah, in one of the safes … which one? What are the combinations? How does the TV work? What’s the network password? It’s amazing how all these things are blank, until you think about them, and then, slowly, they come into view in your mind. An hour after I get here, I’m back. There’s so much to do. Clean out the house, cut down the tree, build a fence, buy several new appliances and install them. So much to do.

12,130 miles. Over $4,000 just in fuel. Camping, about $3,000. Food … I’ll have to add it up, but probably more than fuel. Expensive trip! And worth every penny!

I’m sad the trip is over, but excited that we can start planning the next one, and just knowing how much better it’s going to be.

But that’s for the next blog … I’ll post a link.

Travel day again! Triple digit day – can’t believe we’ve been out so long. And we’re going to Devil’s Den … sort of. The State Park is full, so we can’t stay there, but there’s a KOA in Alma, a bit South. This actually works out better, because it puts us closer to home for the last drive, which should be Sunday. I’m ambivalent about this – the trip’s been a blast, but I’m kind of missing home. Then again, I’m not sure how I’m going to do amongst so many people – one thing that’s been really nice about the trip is being in so many smaller places, where there aren’t hordes of folks everywhere. Even Kansas City kind of gave us the willies, so I can hardly imagine what DFW will do. Gonna take some getting used to.

Well, enough of that! Tomorrow, we go back out to DDSP, to see how it’s changed in the dozen or so years it’s been since we’ve been here. Looking forward to it!

Travel day! Rainy travel day … and you know how I like that! Actually, it was just barely raining, but we took our time with breakfast, because we were hoping the rain would let up, and it did. Didn’t stop, but it was down to just a bit of splattering, not an issue. Pushed the “Down” switch on the winch … nothing. Hmmm. No time to troubleshoot. Luckily, they designed it right and there’s a pretty easy override, just put an electric drill on it and let ‘er rip! It’s slow, but it works, and that’s all that counts. I’ll fix it later.

Fairly short drive, under 200 miles, so we pull in early afternoon, get to the site, and when we get to that point, I press “Up” on the winch, and … nothing. But this time, I was expecting it! I’ll just use the drill – next stop is Devil’s Den in Arkansas, and after that it’s home, so we only have to put it up one more time.

For a late lunch, we went to Smokehouse BBQ:

To get a little Kansas City BBQ. Wow! EXCELLENT food! And you know how I like good food! Mmmm!

Tomorrow … we hope to ride, but it’s supposed to rain, so we’ll see.

Another travel day! Two in a row, both over 300 miles. Ugh!

No photos today, not much to look at – both Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas are just flat. Fortunately, no excitement either, except maybe the one time when I was tooling along, on cruise control (actually set to the exact speed limit!), passing a couple of vehicles, when we saw two cop cars in the median – a local cop and a highway patrol. Just as I passed, the highway patrol pulled around, he’d been facing West, and he made a U-turn to face East. Barri got nervous, asked me if he was chasing me down, but no, he was just parking himself East-bound. Whew! I knew I was fine the whole time!

Tomorrow, we head back West an hour to Wilson State Park, so Barri can ride Switchgrass. Woohoo! Well, me too, since last time I rode very little of it. I’m looking forward to it. I think we should push ourselves to ride all of it – it’s only 22 miles!

By the way – Hooray for Utah!!!

Well, I’m pissed it took them this long, but as we neared our destination today, we heard on the radio that Utah basically said “Screw the Federal Government. We need these National Parks open, so we are going to fund them until the Feds get their shit together”. I may have paraphrased a little bit, but I’m positive that’s what he meant. And supposedly, four other States have followed suit. Not California, ’cause they’re broke, but five REAL States have taken matters into their own hands. Good for them! The Feds better watch out, or the States will figure they don’t NEED the Federal Government, or at least most of what the Feds do. I’d love to see this shrink the living daylights out of the Federal Government. It was NEVER supposed to do as much as it tries to do.

Ok, end of rant.

Travel day! Looong travel day. Over 300 miles. Wake up early, I want to leave by 9, if possible. Well, as usual, things go a little slow – for one, it’s raining. Waiting for a lull to stow the tent. A bit after nine, it happens, so we get it all packed up and are on the road a bit before 10. Here’s the rain in Grand Junction:

Yuck, but at least we’re warm and dry! Speed limit is 75 most of the way. What we could see looked pretty good – the colors have really started to turn on the foliage:

But look at those clouds! We drove through rain for the first 100 miles, then had almost an hour of clear driving. When we started climbing again, the weather started again, the worst of it when we got to the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel, about 50 miles West of Denver. It was Raining when we went in, starting to sleet, as you can see on the signs here:

That’s what the white stuff is, stuck to those signs. Then we drove through the tunnel (duh!):

A little over a mile and a half, and when we came out:

No, that’s not a reflection on the road – it’s snow/sleet/ice, and it’s snowing as we’re driving! A bit over 11,000 feet, I figure it will go away before we drop into Denver, and it does. Whew!

After that, the drive was pretty uneventful, until, about 25 miles from Limon, I look in the rear view side mirror, and here we are, 75 mph down the highway, with tent from the trailer flapping in the breeze on the left side! Immediately pull off to the side, and let’s go see what happened. Well, there are four catches, one on each corner (well, actually a bit inside of the corner, on the sides of the trailer), and the front left one popped loose. When it did that, the rough road bounced up that corner, the wind caught it and opened it about six inches, and then the wind caught the tent and pulled it out. Looks like no damage done. Double whew! Of course, when we’re out there, we notice the wind … it’s a bit strong. We figured it was, because we’d heard it, and I’d felt a pull to the left … a push, rather. But this wind is stout, and there is dust as far as the eye can see, which isn’t very far, maybe a couple of miles visibility. But at least it’s not raining!

Well, we get to Limon, and the wind is fierce. No, really – check this out:

Yeah, 30 mph steady, with gusts to 51! We’re going to dinner, and if it doesn’t let up, we’ll get a motel room – we’re not putting up a tent trailer in these winds! Oh yeah, and then it starts to rain. Again!

I stop in the restroom at the KoA, and get a chuckle:

I keep my distance.

Ok, dinner is at IHOP, and we decide not to camp. The site is paid for, and the trailer will be safer there, so we leave it at  KoA and find the K&S Motel, just down the road. I have all kinds of issues trying to get on the web, and finally decide to ask if they have wifi, even if it’s paid – they do, and it’s not, so here I am!

Well, tomorrow we have another long drive, so this works out better anyway, no time needed to pack up – all we have to do is hitch up and go.

Ok, no photos again today – same place we were almost a month ago. Left mid morning, and as we entered into Moab from the South, we clicked over 10,000 miles on the trip! It was supposed to be a 4,000 mile loop! Well, we knew it would be more than I’d guesstimated. Also, it was three months to the day we started this thing – tomorrow begins MONTH 4.

Got into Grand Junction just after noon, and got set up – evidently the grease i pumped into The Beast’s lift system has started to spread itself out, because the lift system worked VERY well today. In Moab, it gave me grief, I even had to break out my electric drill to use it to help me jack up The Beast. Today, it was almost like butter – instead of having to stop over a dozen times for it to get rested, I only had to stop twice, and stopped another time to straighten out the canvas. Life is good! I’ll lube the rear of the lift system again (I ran out of grease last time), and it should be “like butter”. Well, with 10,000 miles behind us, it was also time to get Junior’s oil changed, so we did that while we had the time – we plan on riding A LOT the three days we’ll be here. Good thing we saw the Colorado National Monument last time we were here – it’s closed, thanks to the morons in Washington.

Ok, so tomorrow,we’ll ride – somewhere! And I promise I’ll bring photos!

Travel day again … kind of a sad one, we’d have liked riding Phil’s World again, but the reservations had been made, so we must move on. Moab it is.

Excitement at the campground this morning – some guy who must be new at driving a bus turned waaay too soon and ran over a post that marks the end of the campsite he was in, so he tilted it over and it got thoroughly wedged under his motorhome. He must have stared at it for fifteen minutes, not all in one stare, he had to keep coming back to it to see if it had fixed itself, I guess. I would have just cut the post, driven out, paid some money and apologized profusely. Not sure what it was he did to resolve it, but it did involve the KOA folks. Hopefully he learned something today. When we left. I made sure I swung Waaay out. Never done that before, hope I never do. I did clip a pickup once at a gas station in McKinney, back when we had our fifth-wheel trailer, but I have an excuse – the truck was running on fumes, and I really, REALLY had to go pee. TMI? Yeah, probably. Anyway, never done it again.

We fueled up before we left, at a City Market (Kroger), and it was exciting – 11 AM on a Monday, and EVERYBODY was trying to run over everybody else to get to a pump. It was a madhouse! And trying to get out, cars kept cutting me off. Here I am. 21 feet of truck with 26 feet of trailer behind me, not huge, but pretty darned unwieldy, and cars are trying to zip around me, not realizing there’s nowhere to go, and I can’t just wish this rig wherever I want. Finally, we get out, and thankfully that’s all the excitement for the trip to Moab. Here’s a bad shot of us entering Utah:

Yes, there was a map laying on the dash that messed up the photo, but WE. WERE. THERE.

Not long into Utah, we stopped for a snack and a drink … ok, and a … rest stop. On the way there, I see this sign. Now, I’m not trying to be judgmental or anything, I’m not trying to say anything, I’m just posting it for your enjoyment. So many things come to mind:

I don’t make this stuff up, I just post it.

Travel day! Short drive, so no big deal … BUT – it’s raining. and it rained most of the night. Ugh. This thing is basically a tent, so putting it up wet is terrible. You can’t keep water out of the inside, and that kinda sucks. We drag our feet, and thankfully the rain stops, so we get to pack up while it’s dry. Still water on it, but that’s not so bad. After we collapse it, I crawl under to grease the lift system – it’s been sluggish going up, and the manufacturer suggested lubing it – sounds like a plan to me! We manage to leave only a few minutes after check-out time. I hate it when I do that … thankfully only the second time on the trip. which I think is pretty good.

We drive an hour to Cortez, and set back up. Go out for lunch to Tequila’s – pretty good Mexican food! Still can’t wait to get back to Texas for it, though.

It’s gonna freeze tonight, so we put out the electric heater, and it can barely keep us comfortable (almost!) after night falls. I decide to investigate one of the standard features of The Beast – it has electrically heated mattresses! And they work! Woohoo! We’ll be able to sleep comfortably after all! I get up a couple of times during the night, and it’s COLD inside, but under the blankets, it’s roasty-toasty! We’re over 100 yards away from the bathrooms, so yippee for The Beast’s toilet!

Oh, yeah, the sunset was spectacular:

And here’s a closeup:

It looked like the bottoms of the clouds were on fire. The photos don’t do it justice, plus these were from the phone. I’ll try to get some tomorrow night with a real camera.

Travel day! We hated to leave Crested Butte, but then, it will be nice to be able to breathe again – I never did fully adjust to the altitude up there. Plus, because of the Jimmy’s generosity, letting us stay in his townhouse, it will be very hard to go back to the beds in The Beast – they’re not uncomfortable, but they’re not Memory Foam mattresses, either! Thanks Jimmy! It was great staying there!

It’s not a terribly long drive to Durango, a bit less than four hours supposedly, but first, a stop in Gunnison for breakfast! I’ve read that The W Cafe is a really good place for breakfast, so that’s where we head. We have to walk a few blocks, because, with Junior and The Beast as a package, parking on the street is a miracle – you have to find at least three adjacent spots with a good approach! The reviews are right – breakfast is awesome! Gotta come back here next year!

We get back on the road, and in a few miles hit our first hitch – road construction! Well, we knew about this, because we hit it on the way in to CB, and sure enough, it takes about a half hour to get through it. Twenty minute wait, and ten minutes to drive through, but soon enough we’re on the other side, cruising along at speed. The vistas are great, the passes all have snow on the ground, it’s outstanding!

And this:

And here is Junior and The Beast up in the snow:

At this point, life is grand! We’re cruising right along, really close to Durango … maybe 30 miles away … DETOUR! Yes, turn right, and get on a little two-lane road, speed limit 35. Hmmm, it’s gonna take a while to get to Durango on this road. We’ll hardly get there before the bike shops close, but maybe, if we’re lucky! Yeah – well, you know us – if it wasn’t for bad luck, we’d have no luck at all, sometimes. Yes, traffic slows to a crawl – I mean truly stop and go – why? Why? Because there is a trash truck up ahead, picking up the trash! Move up one house, stop, pick up the trash, move to the next house, stop, pick up … ok, you get the idea. Yeah – we got to Durango almost at six. Shops were  looong closed. Oh, well. We’ll hit them tomorrow.

Short drive today, so we don’t worry too much about rushing out. Oops. We barely make it out by the 11:00 check-out time. Well, ok, I was about three minutes late getting out. We hit the road and head out across Colorado. Of course, there’s road construction, but it does not delay us much. We did make one unscheduled stop in the middle of nowhere, where Barri saw a couple of campers like ours at an RV dealership, and we decided to stop and check them out. Not exactly like ours, but very similar – two were tent trailers with a cargo area, the third was a hard-side with a front cargo area. Cool stuff. We got the guy’s info and hit the road. Why? Well, several folks have asked us about it, so we figure we’ll get cards of places that have them, so if folks are serious about finding one, we can point them in the right direction. They’re not that easy to find!

Anyway, we hit Crested Butte at about three in the afternoon, Jimmy came out to greet us and let me know where he wanted me to park The Beast. It’s going to be nice to sleep in real bed. Well, it’s not that the bed itself is uncomfortable, the issue is the sheets. RVs use non-standard bed sizes, so sheets for a real bed do not work, as a rule. Yes, a very small number of RVs, all of them high-end ones, actually use standard bed sizes, but what 90% (my guess) of RVers have to sleep in are non-standard beds, and regular sheets don’t fit, so you typically end up either with sheets that are too small, so the bottom sheet pops off the mattress in the middle of the night, and you’re on bare mattress, OR the sheets are too big, and even though it may fit in one direction, it’s waaay loose in the other direction, and you get wrapped up in the bottom sheet as you sleep, waking up like a mummy. Ok, I exaggerate, but it’s still incredibly irritating.

Oh, yeah – Crested Butte! Jimmy took us out to dinner to an outstanding Oriental restaurant called Ryce – SUPERB food! I see it in my future! And what did it do while we were there? IT RAINED! Of course it did! I have proof:

And I got the other end of that rainbow also – it would not all fit on my phone in one shot:

Oh, how I wish I’d had a real camera in my hands!

Oh, well – we’re here, and we’re going to try like hell to get some rides in. We’ll see! I have to try and climatize to the altitude, it’s almost 9,000 feet and we’ve only been around 5,000 recently, so it’ll take some getting used to. But I’m looking forward to it!