Boy, it has been so long since I've last written I"m embarassed again about writing! (Haven't I said that before??) Anyway..... we have been up in the cool Colorado mountains and have enjoyed the nice beautiful cooler weather here and also the spectacular views of the mountains!
So let's backtrack some of this past month!
We left our rally on Sunday morning June 20th and headed to Great Bend. We were traveling with 3 of our friends. We needed to go to Great Bend for some minor work before heading on our trip. Ron/Nancy were ahead one rig from us and as we topped a hill we saw smoke coming from someplace and as we got closer we realized it was their rig billowing white smoke out! They had stopped and smoke was rolling out of the back of their coach. To make a long story short, their turbo went out of the engine and they had to be towed to Lenexa to a dealer to be fixed. They spent the week in KC waiting for parts and repairs. The rest of us headed to Great Bend. We got our awning fixed and drag bars fixed and headed out to Stockton.
We spent 3 days in Stockton or at Webster Lake with our friends, Don and Connie. We got to visit with Patty and Cecil and saw other's while there. It was nice catching up with them and seeing the "old town" once again.
Thursday morning, Bill and I left early to begin our trek to Pueblo. We had orginally planned to meet Ron/Nancy on the road and travel together to Pueblo to meet Andy and Charlotte but they were still getting their rig fixed. So we arrived in Pueblo around 4ish and then they showed us how to get to the lake where we were staying overnight. They decided to join us out there and so we set up for the evening at the Pueblo Lake. Early the next morning, we began our travels up to Gunnison. We were only about 1 mile from the summit and the truck began to get warm and a warning light came on. We were thankfully able to pull over and then the truck stopped. We found out the truck has an automatic engine turn off after 25 seconds so it was a good thing we were pulled off the side of the road as the road was winding and narrow. We were able to get towed to the summit gift shop and there Bill waited for 6 hours to get a tow into Gunnison. I came into Gunnison with Charlotte and Andy and waited for him to call he was on the way. They towed the truck and camper into Gunnison and dropped the camper off on the sidestreet. Andy then hooked the camper up to take it onto the RV park where we were 12 miles outside of town. We found out the it was the Antifreeze coolant reservoir sensor that went bad in it. We had them order a new one and replaced it.
The truck is doing great so far!
We got settled in at Gunnison Lakeside Resort and the guys began fishing. Andy and Bill fished every morning for a week and didn't catch that many. Charlotte and I just relaxed and solved all the problems in the world! :) We really didn't do much scouting around or traveling too much while we were there....we did have lots of wonderful company while there though! We arrived on June 25th and on July 1st Megan and Jeff came. They spent 6 days with us and we had a great time with them. They were heading on to Las Vegas to spend some time with Jeff's parents. On Sunday afternoon, we took a river raft trip down the Gunnison River which was a blast! The water was pretty chilly and we all got wet but we had so much fun!
Charlotte and Andy's daughter, son-in-law, and their 2 granddaughters arrived on July 5th for 5 days... We had a great visit with them and enjoyed seeing them again. The last time we saw them was 3 years ago at Estes Park when we worked there. Also joining us were some friends of Andy and Charlotte's from Pueblo. Georgeann and her son stayed for about 5 days in a cabin.
July 4th was the big fireworks display in town. Years before when we were there we went to the Western State College and watched the fireworks....they have since moved them to the town park. The fireworks was not near as long or many as before. The weather was chilly and cold.... I wimped out and watched them all in the car and the rest sat outside and watched them .....it was freezing that night!!!! Of course we forgot blankets but I did bring my heavy coat!
Gunnison Lakeside RV Resort is located on a hill and it was a very dusty dry park. The roads were all dirty and dusty and our coaches looked terrible from the fine dust not to mention the inside! It was constant cleaning and wiping things down......
The workkampers and the owners were really nice people and we enjoyed visiting with them...... there were several people there who come every year for fishing.. They were able to load the boat right across the hiway for the lake which was very nice and convenient. Fishing picked up some mornings...of course when we got ready to leave the fish started to bite even more!
One of the first things I did after getting set up was to get the hummingbird feeder out....boy did we have the hummingbirds! We counted 9 little feisty guys all trying to eat at the same time! It was so fun to watch them from outside the coach and also inside at the table.
We took a couple of drives up the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.... it is so pretty and so awe inpiring seeing the river and the canyon..... the views of the mountains in that area were just beautiful!
Ron/Nancy arrived on July 5th and so we set our "camp" up with the 2 canopy tents joined together..... and a tarp to block the road because it was so dusty. We were able to smoke fish and can what fish they got. Memories of Alaska were running around at that time! We ate our meals outside almost each night out there and visited in the evening.
So now it is July 20th and we are ready to leave...... Charlotte and Andy decided to join us for our rally in Buena Vista.... so we began our trip back over the "hill" aka..... Monarch Pass! (11,000 feet!) We were hoping and keeping our fingers crossed about our coach and Ron/Nancy's coach being able to make it over the pass....but slowly we did and no problems at all..... we pulled into Arrowhead Point RV park on Tuesday of this week. A couple of our club members were already here and it was nice to see them again.
Wednesday morning we (Ron/Nancy/Larry/Sherry/Andy/Charlotte and us ) drove to Fairplay to check out the town. It was a small mining town and not much left there.... we will take that road heading to Denver on Sunday.
This week in Buena Vista has been relaxing and we have been doing some sightseeing but also just sitting around the rigs and visiting which has been very nice also......
we have 12 couples from Kansas here this week.
We had a surprise visit from some friends we met in Arizona that we worked with on Thursday afternoon. Art/Connie worked with us at El Mirage and have since became fulltimers and are out seeing the "country"..... they had been in the Pagosa Springs area and saw where we were in Buena Vista so they decided to come to Buena Vista for a few days...... We were able to spend a couple of hours with them catching up ....it was great to see them again. We follow their blog too....so Art and Connie I have finally written on ours! :) It was wonderful seeing you again! We hope our paths cross again sometime!
Well, that about catches us up this time on our adventures...... we will leave here early, early in the morning with Ron/Nancy and head to North Platte, Nebraska for the night....back to the "flatter country" and of course we rejoin the heat! Michigan and Mackinaw Island is our goal !!!
Now that I have gotten caught up on this past month... I hope to be able to stay in touch! The cell phone service and internet service we have had this past month has been horrible to say the least..... we are using the park's wi-fi right now and so far it has gotten faster as the week has gone by. We have had to go out to the truck and use the phone enhancer to be able to call out and my Blackberry hasn't worked hardly at all.... so we will be glad to get out of the mountains to get in "touch with the world" again!
So that is about it until next time!
BJ
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