Pueblo/Colorado Springs
The the big story of the week in southern Colorado was the weather. There are several reasons weather was such a big factor.
First, Colorado Springs was booked solid. We could not find a park with an availability anywhere nearby, so we had to camp in West Pueblo. That meant an hour drive (each way) when we needed to go into The Springs.
Second, our favorite truck mechanic is in The Springs so we needed to drop off the truck for a checkup (and a few minor repairs) which meant we only had the scooter for transportation.
Third, because we had scheduled appointments three of the four days we were in southern Colorado we had to travel on certain days and at certain times of the day. The forecast for the area (especially the Springs and the road we traveled to get there) was a 20-60% chance of rain each day.
After four days of dodging thunderstorms on our hour commute twice each day, we can happily say that we stayed dry the entire time. We are thankful to have current radar on the phone so that we can more accurately plan for times like these. Here are a few shots of the beautiful, yet daunting skies.
The day before we arrived in Pueblo, our water pump went out. Not that big of a deal, we were planning to use the campground water and didn't need the pump for that. Interestingly, the well water at the park also went out the first night of our visit. That meant we had no water except the 15 gallons in our tank and without a pump, we couldn't even get that (no drinking, no showers, no washing dishes, no toilet, no laundry).The campground transferred water from the cistern to the well, but it was quite orange because of the particles that were stirred up. We didn't want to put that in our plumbing. We quickly bought a replacement for our water pump and Trey replaced that.
Still, we only had the 15 gallons of water in our tank. We needed to radically conserve. By the end of the second day, the park owners offered to pump fresh water into our tanks from a local water supplier. The transfer method was a bit tricky: they used a 500 gallon water tank balanced on a forklift 6 feet in the air with a hose running to our tank. Didn't really want to stand anywhere near that tank, but 20 gallons was safely transferred so all was good. That solved all our problems except laundry. We had enough clean clothes for the remainder of our stay, so we would be okay until the end of our stay.
Steamboat Springs
We left Pueblo and drove through the mountains to Steamboat Springs. It was a beautiful drive. Temps were in the low 70's with no rain!
Here is our rig resting along the side of the road while we stretched our legs.
We stayed on the west side of Steamboat and had a beautiful view of the ski area from our site.
The weather for the Steamboat Springs area was supposed to be clear as opposed to towns closer to I-70. We hoped to stay a couple of days and enjoy some mountain driving. It didn't really work out as we planned as the mountains were threatened with thunderstorms each day. But, our RV park was quiet and pretty, so we just relaxed at home and caught up on a little work.
We did, however, meet up with some friends in a nearby town. We met Maurice and Ginny at the HDT Rally last year. They were just looking at rigs and RVs at the rally considering whether or not this was a direction they wanted to go. By the time we saw them in Colorado, they had an HDT and fifth-wheel and were preparing for their first official trip in a couple of weeks.
It was a beautiful drive to their home; about 30 miles through a green valley passing through various small towns that were built around mines. When you consider that this is their route to the big grocery store, the shopping chore doesn't seem so bad.
We ate a lovely meal, got a tour of their property, and got to know them a little better.
Here is their house from the hill on the back side of the property.
One Highlight of the tour was their dog, Riley. He ran nonstop by the truck, protecting us from cows and elk and leading the way home. He needed a couple of verbal corrections (like when he tried to chase the elk away) but he heeded quickly. Here he is in all his running glory!
While we missed out on a couple of scenic drives we hoped to see, we enjoyed our last-minute meet-up with friends.
It was now time to bring our brief visit to Colorado to a close.