Brush, CO, to Rawlins, WY

Today, I saw the Rocky Mountains. I came around a bend in the road, and they were staring straight at me. They were snow-capped, and they stretched as far north and south as I could see. So impressive. And right now, I am camped in them. This is a thrill to me. I am traveling on Interstate 80, and tomorrow I will cross the Continental Divide.

I arrived at this campground early…around 2:30. And now, I am watching other tired campers pull in for the night. When I arrived, there were five RV’s here. Now there are thirty-five…..and it’s only 6:00. No telling how many more will arrive before the sun sets.

And now I need to make a confession. I knew that one day I would have to tell, and today seems to be the day. I’m confessing because this event happened on Day One of this trip, and it really should be included in this travelogue.

My confession…..I broke one of my cardinal rules. Thankfully, the price I had to pay was only the embarrassment of having a fairly large number of witnesses.

The cardinal rule I broke is “Always see a way out before entering any facility.”

I can see that you are already smiling and shaking your head. You instantly know the wisdom of this rule, and you’re thinking how could she possibly enter any place towing that 32 foot trailer and not know for darn sure that she could get out?!? I know, I know. I have no defense. But there I was….stuck at this gas pump. The only way out was the way I came in. And that meant backing up. And just how was I going to back up onto a city street?

I could only see one solution, and that solution was walking toward me. I braved up, confessed my situation, and asked the Fed Ex guy if he could please go out in the street and stop traffic. He sweetly smiled and said “Sure thing, no problem.” And a beautiful job he did. I backed up slowly and got the job done. I waved a thank-you to the Fed Ex guy and then slowly pulled away. As I was leaving, I could see that there were about ten cars parked dead in the street. I know that I gave them a good show and a good story to tell, but I really do thank them for their patience while I corrected my error.

So, that’s my confession. I have resolved to never again break that rule. Hopefully, I will keep this resolution. After all, there may not be a very kind Fed Ex guy the next time.

Goodnight everyone. Time for me to rest.

Suzanne

Lamar, CO to Brush, CO

I won’t keep you in suspense. The big news of the day is the FLAT TIRE. And that is the bad news. All the rest is good news. Here’s how it happened.

The flat tire detector started alarming around noon. At first I thought that it was the GPS signaling that there was a turn coming up. After 30 seconds of continuous, obnoxious noise, I had had enough. So, I turned off the GPS. Boy….was I surprised when the noise kept going! Then I realized that it was the “Detector.” There it was…..blaring away and showing a readout of 52, 52, 52, 52, 51, 51, 51, 50, 50, 50…..reading out the tire pressure as the tire slowly went down.

I have seen what damage a flat tire that shreds can do so I immediately pulled over. And good fortune…..there was a shopping center….lots of parking room. I stopped and took a good look at the Detector”. I had just bought it, and it was supposed to show which tire was bad. It did. It was saying that it was the right front tire of the trailer. I went to look at it. It looked fine. I knelt down to inspect, and I heard hissing. Air escaping from my tire!

I took a moment to think….actually several minutes. I went and got some water and then looked around. I had ended up in a good location. Not only was I in a shopping center, I was also looking straight at a tire dealership not 50 yards from me. I know you’re thinking this is too good to be true. You’re right. The dealership was closed….after all, it is Sunday. So, I decided to call my roadside assistance company. But first, I verified with my tire gauge that the tire was going flat. Yep. It was. The tire was now down to 40 psi. (It had started out with 65 psi this morning.)

I called. They came. They put on the spare.

I decided to stay the night. So, here I am in Brush, CO. I am enjoying a beautiful city park where there is a swimming pool with 50 people splashing around, a picnic area with too many families to count, a fishing pond for children with 50 more people, and 20 other RV’s. What a nice place to spend the night.

Good night ya’ll. Pleasant dreams.

Suzanne

Leg From Caprock Canyons State Park, TX, to Lamar, CO

I left early this morning and saw for myself why avid wildlife observers say that the best sightings are usually at dawn or dusk. At 6:30 this morning, I saw…..
• Two deer calmly eating and not running away as I slowed to watch.
• A flock of about twenty turkeys (can you believe that the town of Turkey is only 10 miles away?)
• A group of 10 or so jackrabbits. Huge ears and fast. Forget the hopping….these guys were running.
• A pheasant. Absolutely gorgeous. Looked him up in the Bird Book. It is called a Ring-necked Pheasant, and the book calls him a “spectacular” bird. Indeed he is.
• Road-Runners. They just stare at you and then start running…..like a dare!

Tomorrow, I will also leave early. I’m traveling into Wyoming. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the early hours.

Getting sleepy now. So long for now.

Suzanne

Leg From Ft Worth to Caprock Canyons State Park, TX

I’m about ready to go biking here at the state park. I will bike down to the buffalo field so that I can see the “Home of the Official Texas State Bison Herd.” But first, I wanted to tell you about the first day of my trip to Oregon.

What was so impressive today was the countryside. Wow! Here are some of the things that I enjoyed…..
• Windmills. Those huge white ones with three blades. There were hundreds.
• Sunflowers. Sunflower fields and wild sunflowers along the road.
• Swallows (?). I’ll call them “mud birds” because of their nests. At every overpass, these birds were there darting back and forth. Fun to see.
• Mesas. Wow. Come over the hill and there are the flat-topped mesas. Welcome to the West.
• Wild Turkeys!
• A Full-Service Gasoline Station. Located in Ralls, TX.
• The Most Fun “Welcome To” Sign. The sign read WELCOME TO QUITAQUE. Underneath it, in parenthesis, was (KITTY QUAY).

I ran out to take a picture of the canyons near my campsite so that I could show you. They are beautiful, but the picture was washed-looking. (I remember hearing that these kinds of pictures need to be done with a special lens or at dawn or dusk.) So, instead of the canyon pictures, I’m showing you the cactus flower!

So long!

My curtains were dirty and stained. I decided to clean them. I would like to tell you some things that I learned about those curtains……

• In my thirty-two foot travel trailer, there are 21 curtain panels.
• These 21 curtain panels are attached to both top and bottom curtain rods with sliders.
• There are approximately 18 sliders on each of the 21 curtain panels.
• The curtain rods have screws in each end to keep the 21 curtain panels from vibrating out.
• The drilled holes for the curtain rod screws were done by wonderful mechanics who believed that no one would ever want to remove the 21 beautiful curtain panels.
• Because the mechanics believed that the 21 curtain panels were permanent, they do not smooth out the burrs left when drilling the holes for the screws.
• The 21 beautiful curtain panels cannot be removed unless the burrs are removed.
• Burrs can be removed easily with sandpaper or metal files or a Dremel tool.
• None of those tools worked. The location of the burrs is so tiny that tools can’t get to them.
• What did work was a combination of pulling and wiggling. Each of the 18 sliders found on each of the 21 curtain panels was pulled and wiggled past those burrs left by the wonderful mechanics who believed the curtain panels would never be removed.

My curtains are now clean and crisp. They are back on the rods. I am counting on their remaining clean and crisp for ten more years.

Take care,
Suzanne

P.S. This job took three days.