It Ain't Fun If It Don't Cost

One of Debbie's stated goals for this trip has been to revisit the Rocky Mountain National Park.  We were here last in 1993, with three children in an aftermarket GM van pulling a Rockwood pop-up camper with a 12-foot box.  The kids quickly learned it was their job to set up the camper at every stop and we used that van for family and Boy Scout trips for another decade and a half.

Anyway....

We spend four nights at Ridgway, Colorado, when we had planned only two because, arriving down the mountain road nine miles short of our goal, Debbie complains the coach steering feels funny.  And then it's very hard.  And then she's hauling on the wheel like a stevedore, determined to get to the camp before stopping to fix anything.  Then the engine overheats, so we stop anyway.  The coolant is low and we pump a gallon into the tank.  We also notice pink slimy fluid everywhere in the RV's engine compartment and all over the towed Honda.  Also there's a puddle on the ground under the RV chassis.

 We limp into Ridgway and John buys two whole quarts of hydraulic fluid because the skimpy User Guide doesn't say how much and his experience with cars show they don't take a lot when the dipstick is low. John is woefully under educated about diesel truck engines --by more than a gallon!  It gets us to the campground, anyway.  Of course(!) it's a Friday and nobody can do anything for us until Monday at the earliest.  Eventually, we are able to be towed on Tuesday.

Ask for “Thomas” if you need a heavy-duty tow from Western Towing. He impressed us with his expertise and care.  His home is in Grand Junction which sits in a broad valley among mountains and phenomenal flat-topped mesas, so he was able to suggest we take in the Colorado National Monument, west of town, and Grand Mesa, to the east, while waiting for repairs.

Good advice, although the Colorado National Monument's name makes it sound like a statue.  The actual truth is a 23 mile long road along the uplifted rim of a vertical wall that extends two thousand feet above the town. The uplift is strikingly stunning.  And that –as our pictures– is a severe understatement.

The Grand Canyon is more– well, grand but–– this is somehow more personal.  It is every bit as craggy and gorgeously canyon-like, but for some reason you feel closer to it.  Like, somehow, you could put it in your pocket and pull it out to admire from time to time.  Or– John does, anyhow.  We drove our Honda up the west entrance –quite a climb!– which is very picturesque from above. 

The Redlands Fault is part of the big Uncompahgre Uplift that we have toured over the past week-plus.  The USGS makes quite a point of believing it is a Quaternary Fault, but you really need more geological training than we to understand why anyone cares.   Redlands is a fairly recent event, a mere 10-million years ago.

We saw many people pumping their low-geared bicycles up the Mesa (on both ends) and were advised this western entrance is longer –i.e.: easier– than the shorter challenging climb from Grand Junction, at the other end.  For John this scenic drive is the most memorable of any on this trip.  Debbie points out that, if our coach had not developed a cracked hydraulic hose, we never would have experienced this stuff.  Grand Junction wasn't even on our radar in plans to get to the Rockies.  Life is like a box of–– uh, well...Sweet Surprises, if you're open to them.

Our coach is being fixed at Driven Diagnostics, and they need us out of it while they work, so the next day, Thursday, we decide to drive to the east side of town to see why Grand Mesa also impressed Thomas.  It claims to be the largest flattop mountain on this planet, with a 63 mile scenic drive.  Rich, the owner of Driven Diagnostics, doesn't expect to be done repairing before Friday, so we plan for a two-day tour on Grand Mesa, with a motel stop in Cedaredge while our house-on-wheels is in the shop.

The mesa is, indeed, flat –the way the surface of a golf ball is flat. The dimples collect snowmelt and form many beautiful lakes, one of which hosted us for lunch. 

Eventually, one week and a hundred expensively towed miles after Ridgway, we are handed a bill for 12 quarts, a new pressure hose and lots of labor. The good news is that we don't have to buy a new turbo charge-air pump.  Driven Diagnostics, in Grand Junction, CO, is owned by a born in Sparta, graduated by Ferris State University man named Rich Willis. Small world. We believe he treated us well. If you break down near there, call him.  Rich calls from the shop on Thursday afternoon, a full day early!   The turbo charge-air pump in which he thought he'd detected a large crack, turned out to have merely a scratch in its paint.  But we had already checked into the motel, so we'll wait till tomorrow to reunite with Bry RV.  When we do, we ask Rich where good public land camping might be found, and he said “Dot Zero.”  What?!   It turns out to be Dotsero, Colorado, not quite two hours along Interstate 70 through such a spectacularly narrow canyon that the East and

Westbound lanes actually are stacked vertically! The payoff is a free-to camp USFS site along another intriguingly named dirt road guarded by two cows who are reluctant to let us enter the public land above a lively noisy creek.  Nothing sounds as good as running water in your dreams! 

That even made up for the hummingbird that conducted a close inspection of John's face (happily wearing glasses at the time!) and the midnight raid by a four legged bandit on our camp chairs.

Racoon goes hungry.

––

BTW and FWIW: Garmin, which sustained John's situational awareness in the woods for decades and navigated his plane cross country many times, continues to disappoint us.  The B!tch never heard of the village of Dotsero right along I-70 and is even unaware of US-6, a federal road at the interstate's Exit 133.   Bad enough her voice software can't understand the word “Park” when so directed; her disgustingly ignorant replies are “Searching for Parking lots” and “Searching for Amusement Parks.”  Repeatedly!  Do her programmers even speak English?
Nevertheless we continue to use this thing we paid for, even though we complement it with the vastly more accurate Google Maps, which came with both our phones for free.