Thursday, September 14, 2017

A quick update and a few comments

First of all, from all reports we have heard from friends and family in Florida, and the park where we spend our winters, there was little damage from Irma!  Fantastic news!

After making the trip down to Durango to drop off the truck at the body shop, we killed a few more days in Montrose, then made our trek south to our home away from home for 5 weeks, Alpen Rose RV Park.  It is one of our favorites in one of our favorite towns.  We have been very lucky to have been able to stay at our favorite site there for the last few years, and made our reservation last year for the same site, but as at the majority of campgrounds they don't guarantee a particular site, so we drive in, separately this time, with our fingers crossed hoping we will get that site.  You can see it clearly from the entrance so when we see it vacant, our hopes go up until it is confirmed, or denied, by the host that meets you. Well, hooray, we got it again!

We have spent enough time in Durango over the years that it feels very homey.  We know where most things are, don't need a map or GPS to navigate around, where to eat, where to find things, etc.  This often is not the case as we travel, as we usually don't sit anywhere long enough to really get to know it.  It works for us.  

We had several appointments and errands to run.  Little things that are just a bit challenging when full-timing such as Doctors, hair appointments, getting items sent to you, repairs, you get the idea.  We also wanted to run over to Pagosa Springs to see Harvey before he shuts down his campground which we did yesterday.  We had a nice surprise as his and our friend Jan(Yon) was still there after postponing his drive back to Florida until the power came back at his house.  We had a really nice visit with them.  We spend the winter as neighbors in Florida with Harvey, tail to tail.

It has been extraordinarily dry this August here in Durango and the Animas River that runs through town is lower than we have ever seen it, in fact all the streams in the area are very low.  Otherwise it is beautiful, the smoke has finally blown away, hopefully for good, the skies are clear, there a a few signs of the upcoming fall and winter, and the evenings are getting chilly, just how we like it.  In fact our fire pit is out for the first time since we left Florida.  

So Jan got her hair cut, we've already eaten at 2 favorites, seen a Doc, repaired my computer, replaced my almost new phone, visited Harvey and Jan, kept in contact with the body shop on their progress, got a new air filter and wiper blades for the coach, 
walked around town, and just chilled out.  All good.

Now for some fishing, hiking, 4 wheeling, sight seeing, looking into our generator slide problem, our awning problem, air filter replacement, and just enjoying the changeover to fall for the next 4 weeks.

On an aside, I have mentioned several times this year that we are seeing more and more full campgrounds, reservations can become dicey, and many have warned us that if we want to come back next year we better make a reservation right now.  Now we usually make our travel plans for the year in Florida around Feb-Mar time frame, polish it up in April, make a few reservations for popular spots and over the holidays and off we go.  Well, unbelievably, we have already made reservations for 6 places for next year!  And amazingly we have had to move days around so as to even get a reservation at 2 of them. The times they are a changing.  Our size definitely has an impact on this, we still talk to folks that wing it but in most cases they have much smaller rigs and don't really mind where they end up.  We wish we could be looser, but we have talked about some specific destinations at specific times, mostly to do with fishing this go-around.  






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