2015 Shake Down Cruise - Beginning

This year the shake down cruise is many times more important than in years past. We'll be gone for at least 3 month, maybe 4 or more, so we need to know what we forgot this time, what doesn't work, and so on. So far, so good. At least as far as the rig is concerned. We planned the first couple of days so we could attend the Colorado Snowmobile Association meeting in Glenwood Springs.  After that ... no plans at all.  What a treat!

So what's not so good? Let's start with the weather. Friday, May 8 started out with an inch of new snow and snowing hard. Not a good thing. Luckily, there was a break in the weather and by the time we finished packing the food and other last-minute items, it had stopped snowing and even stopped raining. Yay!

However, between Hot Sulphur Springs (30 miles from home) and Kremmling (45 miles from home) it had started raining again, it had gotten really windy and then the rain started turning to snow/slush and there was even a patch where the road was covered. Crap! That's not good for driving a motorhome. It's even kinda scary. Motorhome tires are NOT all season. Motorhomes are big and heavy and just not really suited to winter type driving. Luckily, with the “smart-ass phone, I could check the highway cameras and see that Vail Pass was clear. So, on we went.

From there on it was fairly smooth sailing. We stopped for lunch at a scenic area with a small lake, just barely east of Copper Mountain (ski resort), then were back on the road.

The next hiccup came when we got to the state park. Our reserved site was occupied! There was a trailer in it, but no one around. Tom looked at the tag on the post – it had been filled out today, for one night, checking out tomorrow. Back to the office. They were pretty relaxed about it. The gal who had checked us in, if you can call it that, was just starting her season. The other gal in the office, and the ranger weren't too excited about the situation (“it happens a lot”). The site across from “ours” didn't have a reservation tag, but it was reserved. They did give us another site in the same loop (if it hadn't worked they'd have given us a “hold site”. They also mentioned there had been a guy in a site that was reserved who wouldn't move out because he “had a ticket” and he had an attitude.  We didn't want to deal with him if he was our "site thief". 

Their system leaves a lot to be desired. In other state parks we've been asked our name. Here we gave our name and were asked “which site?” They (kind of) keep track of reserved and occupied sites on a white board. They didn't check a computer or a printout, they just went with what was on the white board. Having worked a campground with reservations in the past (both of us) we know how it can be done, with or without computers, and this is not the way. We didn't make a stink because we got a site that works for us; it's just not the one I had carefully selected because it was off by itself on the outside of the loop.  (Update - when I went back to pay for one more night the gal (a different one) did check the whiteboard and a printout to be sure we really were OK staying where we were.) 

I haven't decided if I should write a letter to the Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife or not.

For the first time this year, we Farkled after dinner. We Farlked by the lake. Doesn't it sound dirty? Farkle is a dice game. But we like the sound of saying “Let's Farkle in the woods, or by the lake, or on the beach, or whatever. Anyway, while we were passing some time Farkling, it started to rain. It blew some, too, but not like it did after we went to bed. We commented more than once that we are really glad we're not the folks in the next site – they're in a tent  (they must have had a heater - there was an electrical cord from the electrical pedestal into the tent). Been there, done that. I remember waking up and thinking the motion was somewhat like going down the road, and the rain was really pelting the rig. It wasn't as bad as some storms we've been in, but it was noticeable. When it got quiet later, I wasn't sure if it had stopped raining or if it had turned to snow. Luckily, it had stopped snowing.

Saturday morning we woke to light cloud cover, a glassy calm lake (we have a nice view of the lake from our windows) and no wind. I thought I heard something like a loon, but it was just a single note, not the “laugh” that is so distinctive. There are geese, small birds (wrens?) in the bushes and cottontail rabbits. Luckily, Max didn't see the bunny we spooked. He was too busy reading the calling cards and leaving a few of his own.

View from the RV across the Rifle Gap Reservoir

 

To be continued . . .