Day 11 – 2716 miles … Dinosaurs and bridges

After my morning walk and greetings to the farm animals, this RV park is also a working horse farm and has a “petting zoo” (think pen) full of goats, I settled for my second cup of coffee on our picnic table to do some writing. The view from our campground, is perfect, Mesa Verde is our backdrop. The first challenge of the day was dealing with our sewer hose … yes, I know, you’ve been waiting for the sewer hose story :)

Our RV, has a fresh water tank, about 55 gallons, which lasts us 2 days of use. We have 3 holding tanks to carry our “used” water and other “stuff”. We have a galley tank, that is the water from the sinks and we have a “shower” tank, that stores the water we used in the shower. We also have a “black water” tank. This holds what our toilet “gathers”. So, our sewer, consists of 3 tanks … they each have valves that you open to “dump” them.

A full service campsite, basically means that there is electricity, water and a sewer facility … allowing us to fill one tank and dump the others. Dumping, is not hard :) … connect your hose to the RV, put the other end in the sewer hole, using a “donut” (more on this later), open the valves … presto! Nice, and “emptied” facilities.

My challenge this morning, had to do with a lesson in gravity. Apparently, “stuff” doesn’t flow uphill … while our RV was higher than the “opening” for the sewer, the opening for the sewer was not the lowest point. To prevent odors from escaping and to prevent “spillage” (which is not welcome), you place a rubber “donut” on the end of the hose. This donut is conical, so that you can press it into the sewer pipe and get a good seal. The night before, I connected the hose, put the donut on the end … and being tired, didn’t do an elevation analysis … and opened  the valves. Now … as the tanks emptied, they did so into the hose (which is basically a dryer hose), the hose filled, and when it reached capacity, it flowed into the sewer … no spillage, no problem … well, except, that I now had a 10ft, thin walled, dryer hose, full of “stuff”.

  I asked for some help from Michelle … which basically, was met with a face, that cannot be described in words. Apparently, dealing with this issue was something, she was not willing to cope with. I then recruited the older two … figuring I could use this to teach some life lessons … while in concept a good idea, when they realized what the challenge was, they quickly left … I wonder if encoded in our genetic code is the fear and disgust of human sewage … hmmm.

  I studied the problem and came up with a “solution”. Remove the hose from the RV, maintain the end above the level of the sewer, slowly lift the hose, so that all the “stuff”, flowed in the direction of the end that I wasn’t holding … hope that the donut held the pressure of column of “stuff”. Have the water hose at a ready to “flush” and deal with any “issues” … and audience of my family had gathered at a respectable distance … luckily, and sorry to disappoint … my plan went off without a hitch.

We left the park around 1130A, headed west again stopping in the town of Cortez for provisions … I stayed with Jack (he was sleeping), while the girls went shopping. They came back about 1.5 hrs later, with a cart full of stuff … proclaiming how “strange” this Wal-Mart was … when I asked Genna, she said … “it was full of Cowboys and Indians.” … Yep, had the statement confirmed, and witnessed those coming and going … Cowboys; hats, boots, jean, shirts … and Indians; long hair, braided, colorful shirts. We topped fuel and continued on our way.

We crossed into Utah, after several great days in Colorado and stopped at a Dinosaur museum in Blanding. This wasn’t a special museum, nor was it fancy, nor was it unique … it just was on our way and on the map. We arrived around 4P and stayed until closing (5P). It was a nice diversion, not a bad museum and had some interesting displays. They have a great collection of movie posters that feature dinosaurs. They also have a good display that show and theorize about feathered dinosaurs and their relationship to modern birds.

Somewhat reluctantly (since the kids wanted to stop) we continued west, heading for the Natural Bridges National Monument, which was only 50 miles away. This, took us close to 2 hrs to drive and provided some magnificent views. The road we drove to get to the national park was very good, mostly uphill and empty. We saw 2 cars in 2 hours. When I could, I pulled over to get some of the pictures you see … this added to the time on the road, but was well worth it.

When we arrived at this park, the visitor center was closed. We headed to the camping loop, to find that they do self registration. We drove around the campground and counted 8 (out of 13) empty spots. We decided, since we had almost 2 hrs of daylight left, to the park scenic outlook drive. This was 16 miles and had 3 major stops, to see the 3 signature bridges.

We stop at the first, called Sipapu. You park, then walk about 300 yrds on a sidewalk to an overlook. As you walk down, you get the full view of the White canyon, which is solid rock, amazing. We needed to have a talk with the girls as they wanted to play … and somehow, hadn’t figured out that slipping on the rock and sliding to the bottom of the canyon would cause a big ouchy. Kate and Jaci got it, Genna on the other hand … didn’t care.

We did the remaining loop and stopped at all 3 bridges, each different, each impressive. On a future adventure, we will come out here for a longer amount of time and hike the canyons … from what we could see the access to the bottom of these canyons was imminently doable for us and kids. I wish we had more time, I think we could spend a couple of days at this park, just walking the canyons.

On our return to the campgrounds, we find only 2 sites left … after trying to park in one for about 10 minutes, I give up and head to the other. This one is much easier to get into, but not as private, as it is across from a bathroom (think permanent outhouse) and the trash cans. Regardless, it was the only one I could get into. This campground is “dry”, no electricity, no water. We fill in a form, put our money ($10 for the night, and the cheapest we’ve stayed at so far) in a deposit box, and head back to the site.

As Genna and I return from completing our permit, we are greeted by a ranger at our site. Now, there was a sign at the entrance to the campground that said 26ft max length, and the ranger was standing next to the sticker on the motorhome that said 2900LTD. So I feared for the worst … wasn’t the case. Turns out he came by to invite us (and the other campers) to a talk at the visitor center about astronomy and the planets. Nice.

We had dinner, ate outside and where treated to a great colorful sunset. Jaci, our aspiring astronaut wanted to go to the talk and she and I set out for it. We had a nice 1 mile walk to the visitor center. We passed the generating station that provides electricity for the homes of the rangers and the visitor center. This is a field of solar cells and a generator (which was running) for the night … I didn’t realize as we drove in, but there had been no power lines for over 40 miles.

We arrive a little late to the talk, and find that Jaci is the youngest there (the next was a 14 yr old). We also find out that there are about 16 people there, representing 6 sites. Of the 16, 14 where German. Our ranger chose this park, for its “dark sky”, and apparently, there is a very little sky left in the US that does not have light pollution … not sure I would agree with what we’ve seen in the last couple of days. We heard all about he planets and then stepped outside for a sky show … unfortunately the sky was overcast and we couldn’t see anything.

We thanked our ranger and started on our dark walk back. The American couple (only ones), got in their car and drove back to the campground. Jaci and I, trekked with ze Germans. We found ourselves in the middle of there movement … 6 Germans in front, 8 behind. All had donned head mounted lights. The lead 2 had them on, the ones following did not. They walked in 2 lines, and had about 2 ft spacing between them. This was precision hiking.

The group in front of us, quickly outpaced us … the group behind us, was being held up by us. You could hear them talking, but we couldn’t make out what. I’m sure that it had to do with our pace and apparent lack of discipline and structure :) … Jaci got a rock in her shoe, so we stepped off the trail. This provided the opportunity for the trailing group to advance. Within 2 minutes, we could no longer see them … so Jaci and I, talked about the planets and stars and walked back to our site. Was very, very, very nice.

Day 10 – 2530 miles … Cliff dwellings

Nice start today … on my morning walk with Jack, we come across some deer grazing, they seemed completely comfortable with people, as they let us get within 10 ft of them. We pack up quickly and got everything together, as we have a reservation for an 11A guided tour of Cliff Palace. The site is 11 miles further into the park, and it took us almost an hour to get there. These are the steepest and windiest roads we have driven so far.

Our road takes us up on top of the mesa and wanders itself around canyons until we get to our parking spot. You have to remember that this is a very popular park and therefore, very well developed. We find our RV spot, which unfortunately requires parallel parking … a couple of tries later, we’re in and ready for our experience.

We gather at a vantage point that is the start of the trail and provides a view of Cliff Palace. Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling, it is a World Heritage Site and by all accounts impressive. While we had planned on taking all the kids on the tour, we decided to leave Genna and Jack with Michelle, once we saw what the tour required. Stairs, ladders, tunnels … only the ladders would have been a challenge for Genna, and we didn’t want to risk anything.

Take sometime and read about the history of this place and the people, for me (and us) it was a great experience. Jaci enjoyed the tour, for the climbing part, not for anything else. Kate got more out of it, but we had too much waiting around and she got bored. We’ll come back to this park when they are older and can get more out of it … regardless … Cliff House is impressive.

We got out of our tour and drove the museum, which is about 6 miles away. This was a very well done experience and we spent over an hour going through the displays and reading about the people and the history. Many of the national parks (a true treasure in this country) have a Junior Ranger program. Kate and Jaci discovered this at the St. Augustine park, and Mesa Verde also participates.

The Junior Ranger program is basically an activity book that you get from the ranger station. It has a track for 4-7, 8-9, 10-12 yr olds to follow. The book, has you draw things, answer questions and requires that you “visit” and “learn” facts about the park you are in. This is a great way to get the kids involved and more interested. When you complete the book, you take it to a ranger station (or mail it in) and they  provide you with a badge. Kate completed the 10-12 section, Jaci the 8-9 section and Genna with some help the 4-7 part. They took the Junior Ranger oath and got their badges. All very happy and proud.

At the back of the museum is Spruce Tree House, this is another dwelling and it doesn’t require a guide. So, we took everyone, walked the .5 mile loop, first down, then up, then down, then up and spent some time at the site … This site, while not as large as Cliff House, does provide you the experience of getting into a Kiva (ceremonial house), which you must enter through a ladder and it lets you see more of the houses and dwellings. I carried Jack in his carrier and the backpack to balance myself… and I can tell you … hiking/walking at 7000ft elevation, is a lot of work.

We got tickets for another guided tour for just Michelle and I. Balcony House, is more difficult and not as easy for kids or those not in great shape (size and ability). You park, basically on top of the site, then have to descend 100ft, make your way along a trail on the cliff side, and climb a 32ft ladder to access it. On the way out, you have to crawl through a tunnel that is 2ft wide at the narrowest and then climb 3 sets of stairs for 50ft and pull yourself along chains on the cliff side.

Balcony house is not large, but the access, the view from it and the ability to walk throughout the site and into the back of the alcove was great. Ranger Jim, loved his job … and it showed. His talk and stories made the experience that much better. The entire tour took about an hour and when we got back to the RV it was around 6P.

The 16 mile drive out of the park took almost 2 hrs … yes, I’m that guy. The one that is always slow and holding everyone up … didn’t care, even waved to the people as they sped past us when they could. Whenever I found a pull out, I’d get off the road and let the traffic pass. My record, so far … is 15 vehicles being held up… will try for another later this trip.

We didn’t feel like driving, so stopped at the first RV park we could find, which happened to be at the exit of the park. This was fine … it had a pool, playground,  and a view of the Mesa. Michelle made dinner, we swam in the pool and all had showers … Jack in the sink.

We all fell into bed from exhaustion early.

Day 9 – 2450 miles … A boat captain and more vistas.

We seem to be developing a consistent pattern and rhythm. Jack wakes around 630A and hangs out until 7. I get up, make a cup of coffee and go for a walk with him for half and hour. This, our “bonding” time, is very quiet and I love seeing the day get started … apparently, for RV campers, the day starts around 8A. Tent people are up earlier … will need to remember not to become tent people.

As I stroll the campground, the girls take over the bed and watch some TV. While out motorhome is equipped with an antenna, we have yet to deploy it. Instead, we watch some of the 700+hrs of recorded TV that we carry with us. Now, forgive my geekness … I installed on the RV our home server, this carries all our movies, music, pictures and recorded TV. I have a WiFi router, that establishes a “bubble” and allows all the computers we have access to the server. We carry the computer power of many 3rd world nations with 4 laptops, 1 server and a desktop machine. All computers are on the network and have access to all the TV. So … morning on the RV are similar to at home, except … I don’t walk at home :).

Fun Valley, is as the name implies a “fun” place. It isn’t upscale, it isn’t fancy, heck … it isn’t even all that pretty (aside from the vistas). The owners have developed this place, over the years … the buildings are simple and rustic, the fishing ponds are small, yet plentiful and they have tons, upon tons of things for the kids to do. It is family owned and has a strong family feeling. There are at least 100+ kids running around … which helps bring the average age to about 60 … without the kids, this park easily reaches the upper 70s in age :).

The big girls, have taken to exploring every place we stop at. They must stay together and come back to the site every 30 to 45 minutes. They loved Fun Valley … lots of things to do … ride horses, putt-putt golf, trails, arcade, pool tables, bicycles and paddle boats.

Kate and Jaci REALLY wanted to do the boats and they wanted to do it alone. So … Kate in command, Jaci providing additional power set off for their maiden solo voyage. Their plan, to explore the far reaches of the pond. Genna and I took another boat, but Genna quickly grew bored and I quickly grew tired of pedaling. Kate and Jaci on the other hand, spent over an hour on this little pond.

Kate looked so proud and happy to be out there like a big girl, Jaci was also very happy. They needed no help and wanted no advice. They had a few helming issues, but nothing that he coast guard ever saw, so we don’t have to care. When it was time to dock, Kate needed no advice (demanded that I stay quiet), she had one failed attempt, but backed up nicely and made her approach perfectly. She pulled into the slip, where she proceeded to tie off the boat and step off with a huge grin. Next summer I will buy them one as their boat for our house.

We did our laundry here, using Jack’s stroller to take the “laundry” for a ride to the laundromat. Surprisingly, we never got any comments or stares, at the site of a family pushing along a stroller full of dirty clothes … go figure :). We did 5 loads of laundry, ordered a “world famous” pizza from the snack bar, packed the RV for travel and set off around 1P.

It was another day of absolutely beautiful vistas through the mountains … lots of struggling by our RV, but nothing it couldn’t handle … although the “check engine” light now comes on when I start it … this I’ll take a look at later.

The altitude is creating some problems for our generator, as it cuts out after about 2 hrs of use here. Nothing we can do, so we “plan” our electricity use accordingly.

The drive took us past Chimney Rock, the continental divide and into Mesa Verde as our final destination. We go through the check-in process, which wasn’t simple. Mesa Verde is one of the top 20 national parks, it has a campground, which is run by the Aramark Corp. They have a 800 reservation number and is all very “commercial” in the process. We had called early in the day, got our reservation and confirmation. The campground is only about 6 miles from the campground, yet these 6 miles are all uphill onto part of the mesa.

At check-in we are informed that there is no space … and that “they” should have never given me a reservation. I held my cool, and explained that I had a reservation, it was late, I had 4 kids and wasn’t going to drive down the mountain. Once again, she explained that “they” made a mistake. Now, I explained that “they” are Aramark and that she was Aramark, so ergo, she had made a mistake … and if she wanted to dispute this, she could call “them” and I would speak to “them” and “they” could resolve the problem that “they”, aka “her” had made. A gentleman standing nearby came over and told us we had site number #187 and apologized for “their” mistake. I cannot tell you how much I dislike the “them \ they” stuff … please take responsibility… ahhh.

Anyways … we settled into our site, had a nice dinner, heard a talk at the amphitheatre about the park and saw a bunch of deer. We made a nice fire and watched the stars high up on Mesa Verde.

Tomorrow, we visit the cliff dwellings on the Anasazi people.

Day 8 – 2135 miles … Altitude, vistas, weather and camping

The weather in the mountains seems to be almost perfect for camping. We start each morning in the low 70s, air is dry and the sun, while out is not blistering… all of this is very conducive to waking up and going for a little stroll. The state park we are in has a great overlook of the lake and the place seems to be overrun by “bunnies”. Yep, lots and lots of rabbits everywhere. While the girls go out on a bunny safari, armed with a camera, I decide to tackle some maintenance on our RV.

Our motor home is equipped with 2 engines, the main one for the truck and a very small one for the generator. We need the generator running for any electrical device. So, our generator runs a great deal, usually non-stop, unless we are parked where we can plug in. Our truck engine requires an oil change every 3000 miles (we will have to do one shortly) and our generator every 100 hrs of use. I decided a couple of days ago, that I would tackle the generator oil  change myself. Several trips to Wal-Mart (we visit these a lot) and I have gathered the parts and tools needed for the endeavor.

I call Abuelo, to make sure there is no secret trick to doing this (he claims there isn’t), seems straight forward enough: 1. Remove oil drain plug, 2. Drain oil into something, 3. Replace plug, 4. Fill with oil, 5. Tada!. I get everything ready, all the tools at my side, 2 rolls of paper towels, a milk container for the old oil and 3 funnels (of different sizes). The first challenge comes when the milk bottle with the funnel doesn’t fit underneath the motorhome  … hmmm … 2 choices, raise the motorhome or cut the container. I use my trusty (an now always at my side) leatherman (with the 2.5” locking blade) and cut the milk container in half. Perfect!

I balance the container with the funnel underneath where the drain plug is, but the funnel is making this setup top heavy … so I prop some rocks around it to hold it in place. I put a bunch of paper towels around, just in case. As I start removing the drain plug, I realize that the oil isn’t draining directly underneath the plug, but flowing a little to the side … now , I’m about to have an Exxon Valdez moment … fearing reprisal from the “green movement”, I quickly put the plug back in, and reposition my collection unit. In the end, I use up the entire 2 rolls of paper towels, capture about half the oil in the container and the other half in the towels … success! Well, I’ll chalk it up to success.

Our first stop is a stroll through Trinidad and some shopping there. Pretty town … the girls play at a park, while we do some shopping at Safeway. By about 1P, we are all packed up, again, and fully stocked. We have enough room for about 2 days of food, since the fridge is a little small (think bar size fridge) and there is little cupboard space.

We carry many books for this trip (I think Michelle has brought over 12 of them). We have one book called “The Most Scenic Drives in America” (great book), It shows you the scenic drives and then provides all the history and important information about it. Scenic drive #44, is called “Highway of Legends”. It is an 80 mile “loop”, that follows the Purgatoire River into the Culebra Range, over Cucharas Pass and back down following the Cucharas River. This is our first real experience in the mountains … and I can tell you, it is no disappointment. The scenery and vista are magnificent, words and even the pictures I have taken do it no justice. I’ve made a mental note, to learn to take better photos, so that I can hope to come close to capture what we saw.

This part of the trip, was also our first experience with driving in the mountains … our average speed through the 80 miles, was about 30 mph, and these where all good roads. We climb from about 7000ft to the pass at 9,941ft. We encounter some grades of 8%+, which has our home dropping into first gear just to keep going and speed below 20mph (no matter what I did with the gas pedal). I watch the gauges on my dash do 2 things, fuel and speed get lower and lower, while temperature and pressure get higher. Our water temp got almost into the red in our big climb.

Our “Highway of Legends”, drops us onto another very scenic road, highway 160. This drive west affords more spectacular views. Throughout the day, which has been overcast, we can see lighting storms in the distance and have gotten some rain. As we enter the San Luis valley, we see some very dark clouds ahead and know that we will be rained on … wow … what an understatement.

I think I’m ready for this … I do live in Florida, and we have some great torrential rainstorms … The rain comes, it is fierce, as are the winds. It gets to the point we can see about 15ft in front of us, so we pull over to the side. Then it gets loud in the RV, and I mean loud. It wakes Jack who is sleeping, and we need to yell just to communicate. Everyone is off the road now … the reason it got loud and was getting louder, had to do with the hail that was falling … I now know what the inside of a snare drum must be like. The storm passed us in about 10 minutes (it felt like an hour), and it had dropped a great deal of hail. The entire valley looked like it was covered in snow. 

I grabbed a bowl to gather some hail for the girls, I opened the door to step out and was greeted by a blast of sub-arctic air. I screamed like a little girl as I ran to the side and scooped up some of this cold stuff. Back inside, the kids had a great laugh and played with the hail for the next 20 minutes. We continued on our drive, only to learn what happens in arid locations when it rains heavily …  mud slides and wash outs.  We drove through and had to avoid a couple of these on the road. I felt sorry for the many motorcycle riders we passed.

We continue down Highway 160 until just past South Fork, CO for a stop at the Fun Valley RV Campground. According to the books we have, and the research on the internet … this place had 800+ sites and rave reviews from people that would spend weeks here for many recurring years … Fun Valley, is in a valley that has the Rio Grande running through it … this is the upper part of the river, so here, it’s not so “grande”. The site layout is a little “adhoc” … our instructions … drive around and find a place to pull into. So we did.

Our first drive in the mountains can only be summarized by wow!