So why Colorado Springs?

Now if I step on any toes, I'm sorry.  This is what Jan and I thought period.

So why Colorado Springs, well the reasons are few actually.  We mapped out our route last winter and knew we had to zero in on the 4th of July holiday.  I have mentioned in the past that for us full timers the holidays are particularly tough.  You need to find somewhere to be, right when every other RV'er, camper, and family decide to come to the campgrounds.  We knew from past experience we did NOT want to be in a state or national park.  Again this is just for us, they are too crowded, too noisy, too busy, with tons of kids running helter-skelter, so we wanted to find a RV park that we could, even at that seemingly early date be able to make a reservation.  We played around with our itinerary and decided on Colorado Springs, specifically Garden of the Gods RV Resort.  We figured not only would it give us a spot to be over the holiday, it would also allow us to do several errands at places we could find in a city, i.e. REI, Costco, big grocery stores, Jan's birthday dinner, blazing internet, etc.  Little did we know we would also have to deal with the truck:-)  When we looked at the campground, we saw they had 6 "Executive Pull-Through sites" slightly away from the rest of the park, looked ideal, and it looked like they overlooked a trail that ran along a small stream.  Expensive, but maybe worth it?

A pretty view off Wilkerson Pass, 9,504'
halfway to Colorado Springs

As I said earlier we had parts ordered for the AC unit that we picked up there also.  So after our disappointing result with repairing the AC and ordering a new one, we had stuff to do.  

Our site was a little tighter than we expected particularly for the cost of it, but it did have a patio and some shade, and we did look out through a wire fence, thankfully, to the trail beside the mostly trashy and polluted stream.  As we were enjoying cocktails in the early evening we had the pleasure of watching either drunk or drugged out people staggering by, homeless pushing their carts full of their worldly belongings, and even had the incredible opportunity to watch several people actually defecate along the side of the trail!  Really nice.

After that experience, which was the worst for the week we were there thankfully, we were anxious to get out of there and do our thing.  Exploring around it appeared that our campground was right on the edge of the bad, and only a mile or so away was Old Colorado City that looked like it was really trying to improve their lot, many shops, restaurants, bars, a touristy place.  Another goal of Jan's was to get her Senior National Park Pass, as she says it's one good thing about turning 62.  We found a National Forest Office in south Colorado Springs which was more in a normal city like area, but they didn't have one.  The man there told us we could go over to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument and he knew they had some.  We had never heard of it, but it looked interesting and only about 30 miles away.  We didn't have time that day so we ran up to REI to do some shopping.

We got our Costco fix taken care of, bought a bunch of wine and noted how expensive bourbon was in the fair state of Colorado.  We found that the blazing internet wasn't there and we even had trouble with our cell phone coverage.  Talking to others there, we all were experiencing the same problem whether AT&T or Verizon, maybe a weird pocket?

We went out for Jan's birthday dinner at Ted's Montana Grill, she had her heart set on bison short ribs.  It turned out great, the food was excellent, the waiter was excellent, the free dessert was excellent!

Jan's Birthday dinner

She didn't like it:-)

Dessert

And wow, they even gave us some of those incredible pickles to go!

Once the weekend was over we drove over the the Fossil Beds, and best of all Jan got her Senior Pass.  If you don't know about this, when you turn 62 years old you can buy this for $10, soon to be $80 for LIFE!  It gets you in to all the National Parks, Monuments, Forests, and usually gets 50% off camping!  Jan and I think the $10 is a steal, the $80 will be a steal, and even if it was $250, it would be a steal.  The fossil beds turned out to be an interesting place with exceptional hiking.  They have 15 miles of hiking trails in the monument.  Millions of years ago, unbelievably there used to be redwood trees growing there, the climate was much warmer and wetter then, oh my!  Volcanic eruptions mixed with ash and water to create mudflows which inundated the area and the redwood trees, and petrified the wood.  Many stumps remain that were not picked off by souvenir seekers in the 1800's.  It is quite strange to see the petrified enormous stumps in the middle of a meadow.

One of the enormous stumps, this tree was estimated
to be more than 230' tall and 750 years old
when buried by the mudflow

If you look close you can see two saw blades
that were broken off by souvenir seekers
trying to cut off a chunk of the stump

That part was pretty fascinating, but the hiking trails were awesome.  We decided to do a 3.8 mile loop trail.  It went out through the meadow and through the pine groves, it was quiet, peaceful, and we only saw a couple other people.

Heading out

View across the meadow

A gorgeous day!

Jan at the namesake boulders on the
Boulder Creek Trail

In fact as we were finishing up, we felt so good we continued around another 1 mile loop trail to see several of the petrified stumps.  We both remarked it was so nice we would come back the next day and do a more remote hike on the other side of the park.  Since we had a lot of time, and really weren't in any hurry to get back to the campground we took a detour over to Cripple Creek and took the Old Gold Camp Road back to Colorado Springs.  We went by a huge mine near Cripple Creek that had positioned the bed of one of the huge mining trucks to make a viewing platform.  It was amazing how big that thing was!

That is huge!
That is me up on the top

It was an interesting winding narrow dirt road with awesome scenery that finally worked around and plunged back down the mountainside into Colorado Springs.

Along the way

One of the tunnels

So we did come back early on the 4th.  We parked in a small picnic area on the other side of the park, we were the only ones there and took off on and out and back that was supposed to be 1.6 miles each way, again when we got to the turn around spot we decided to keep going.  It was wonderful, the weather was stellar, temps around 65, and again it was like we were the only people in the whole world.  We finally turned around at the 2.25 mile point and made our way back, and passed only 3 people coming in.

A meadow to ourselves

Through an aspen grove, you can see where the snow
reaches in the winter

What a view!

Our turnaround spot

Ha, little did we know, we would hit the deer in about 30 minutes....

So to sum up our time in Colorado Springs.  Jan and I just didn't like it, just felt wrong, but perhaps the majority of that feeling was generated by the location and vibe of the campground, and of course the "ambiance" of the trail.  We both felt much better up on the north side of town, and we both think that had we arrived from the north, found a campground up in that area, we would have a different take on the place, but in the meantime, we see no need to ever go back..

Thrown for a loop.

It was time for a normal update about what we've doing, where we've been exploring and where we've been hiking, but we've been thrown for a loop.  A lot of our future plans have needed to be altered and we are still working through some of the details now.

First on the list, when we arrived in Colorado Springs, we ran over to pick up the new capacitors for our broken rear air conditioner hoping to fix the unit.  Up on the roof we went with good thoughts that the new parts would solve our problem.

Compartment open and ready to go

The new PTCR and start capacitor

New run and start capacitor installed

So with happy and hopeful thoughts we turned on the breaker and tried to start it up, and...........no good!  We need a new air conditioner.  So this is now Thursday afternoon before the 4th of July holiday at about 4pm MDT, so I go online, and start calling places to see if I can find one.  Jan and I together called about 10 places in Denver figuring we could just run up there and get one.  We learned several things, first of all no one, not even Amazon stocks them.  It seems there are just too many models to stock any, so they all just drop ship from Dometic.  The other thing we learned is these are shipped on a truck, so there isn't anything like expedited shipping unless you want to spend over $600, and even then it's iffy.  So we start thinking maybe we'll have to extend our stay in Colorado Springs, a place and campground that neither Jan and I are warming up to, in fact we aren't very happy with either.  So we keep brainstorming and finally find a company that says they can get it ordered and shipped Friday, and even with the holiday believes we can get it on Thursday or possibly Friday latest even with the holiday.  Hmmm.  So Jan and I decide to try to go back to Buena Vista, which we really did like.  We call and they can accommodate us for 6 nights, plenty of time to get it even if it goes into the next week (which we both think is a distinct possibility).  Then we have to cancel reservations in Grand Lake, and Yampa. So we are all set.

So without going into detail, I'll do that later on our exploits in the Colorado Springs area, we are, on the 4th, after a very pleasant hike driving back to the campground when Jan screams, and boom we hit a deer!  Good news, we are a bit in shock, but neither of us is hurt, and we pull off the side of the road.  This is a semi divided 4 lane road with fairly heavy traffic.  I never saw the deer but it hit us right at the left side of the driver's windshield.  A couple saw it happen and they pulled over to make sure we were all right.  They said the deer had veered through oncoming traffic, and crossed right into us.  As I sat there with glass pieces all over me, I was amazed the engine was still running.  We got out, the driver's door wouldn't open all the way, and found the deer had missed the entire front end, we were lucky with that, and bounced on down the driver's side of the truck.  The cops came and we found out we needed to file an accident report with the State of Colorado, which we could do online.  After assessing the damage and cleaning the glass out of my seat, we determined that drivability was not affected.  We looked bad, but it drove fine except for the windshield that obscured visibility, and we worked our way back to the campground to contact the insurance company and make our required accident report.

Our poor truck.  The insurance company took the claim and said with the holiday we would hear from an claim representative the next day.  

We have given quite a bit of thought to situations similar to this.  We bought an extended warranty that includes a loaner car even for routine service.  This is our only vehicle so the ramifications of being without it are great.  But thinking about it and having it happen are two different things.  Once we calmed down we were able to really look it over, clean out the glass, and saw that we were extremely lucky, other than the windshield, it was all just body damage, the driver's window, handle and lock all still worked, and other than only being able to get the driver's door open about a third of the way, we felt we could wait to have it repaired until later when we had the luxury of time.  But obviously the windshield needed attention asap.

So with much back and forth with the insurance company, we arranged to have the windshield replaced, a rental car to have during that time period, have an adjuster take a look at the damage, and put off repair until we were in Durango for 5 weeks in September.  We were able to arrange with the campground in Colorado Springs to move the coach off our site before check out time and park in in another spot while took care of all this stuff.  We picked up the rental, went to the body shop, about $5000 damage, then over to the glass place who said the first appointment was Saturday afternoon, so we planned to drive separately to Buena Vista, and then come back on Saturday to pick up our truck.  The adjuster was able with a body shop guy, to bend the sheet metal around the driver's door so we can now get it all the way open.  

So with all this done, we go back, grab the motorhome and Jan and I head to Buena Vista, all set, right?  Well about half way there, my phone rings and I am told Dometic shipped the WRONG air conditioner, and by the way, it won't get there until Monday, and please refuse it!!  Are you kidding me?

We get to our campground in Buena Vista, all hooked up and we try to figure out what to do about the AC.  We have already changed things around, so the first thing is to find out what they are going to do about it, and how soon can we get a correct one here, or should we have it sent somewhere else?  So as Jan and I are figuring things out and talking to the company that we ordered it from, my phone rings, what now?!?  Well, good news, it's the glass company and our truck is already done!  Wow, okay, so we arrange to pick it up today, and save 2 extra days of the rental, not that we're paying for it.  We are told that the AC can be here next Thursday, yeah we've heard that before, so we decide with everything considered it would be best to extend further here, if we can, so we have a known quantity for a place to change it out and know we are good going forward.  We are looking at our itinerary and reservations and figure the "easiest" way is to try to shift our reservation in Wyoming 3 days, cancel another 3 day res in Wyoming, and extend here through Friday to ensure we get the AC, famous last words.

It all has come together so far, we have a new windshield in our truck and it's here in Buena Vista with us, we have been able to extend here 3 days, although we will have to move sites on the last day.  We were able to slide our 4 nights in Alcova, WY 3 days, and cancelled our Thermopolis, WY res.  So all in all if we get the AC on time now, we have had to alter and cancel 5 different stops.  When you live on the road and are in the middle of the popular summer time, you have to be flexible enough to go with the flow.

It is a bit harder these days as we are finding more and more campgrounds are absolutely full and unable to offer reservations unless they are made well in advance.  I just read an interesting article about campgrounds and RV's in America and how crowded things are getting.  The gist of it was the industry is on track to sell 400,000 units in 2017.  There is talk of very limited campground vacancy in the future.  Mark Polk of RV Education 101 did the research to find there are approximately 8500 campgrounds in the US, and there are 9 million RV owning families in the US.  He argues that there are about 500,000 campsites available assuming about 60 sites per campground, so with 9 million RV's, that is the equivalent of 18 RV's for each site.  Very interesting.

I will do a regular update in a few days.  Thanks for the support.