Sunday
July 29
Look
a new car.
Why
in the hell would they want a new car you ask.
That
was for only one day. And not our choice. Ya see on Friday when we
got in and started to drive the truck a funny noise was coming from the
front. Checked and the power steering fluid was low. Got that filled
and the noise stopped but later noticed fluid on the frame so knew we had
a problem. We were planning to get out of here on Tuesday so we ran over
to the Chevy dealer and they took a look just at closing. They said sure
enough you have a leak. After pleading a sad tail of woe that we were just
passing through town and I had bought the truck from them. They agreed
to squeeze us in on Friday so that's the reason for the rental.
Left
the truck and got a rental. Would you believe Hertz had a rental location
right on the dealers location.
Got
a call early Friday from the Chevy shop with the bad news... power hydro
booster went out... need a new one... They had one but it would cost over
$1000. Och. Well they got it done and we picked er up and all
is swell with the world again.
We
are just glad we had this happen now instead of in the mountains of Colorado
where we are headed next.
In the mean time we got the
new transmitter installed on the Satellite dish and that works... so good
to go again. It was only failing in high temps and now that a cold front
has gone through... you get the picture.
A final
shot of the outflow of Saylorville Lake.
Sunday
in a COE campground is the best of times as everybody leaves and it's left
all to you.
Saturday
July 21
Found
a Dam Site.
Update:
Sat 4:30 Water leak fixed.
Pic taken from on the dam
road.
We are camped along the outflow
of the Saylorville Dam in a pretty Damn good site. Right on the end of
the loop.
I keep asking Terry if I
did good. Made reservations weeks ago. Used Google earth to check out the
spots and all this for $8 a day with 30 amp. Oh and by the way could you
fine people of Iowa do something about this heat and humidity. This sucks.
It cooled down into the lower 90s for a day and another heat wave is going
to hit till and last mid next week. I have a nice stack of firewood but
don't know when I can use it.
This heat is not just effecting
us but my satellite internet is acting up as well. The LNB on the
receiver stops receiving when it gets to hot like 100 or so.
Then have to spray water on it to cool it down to get back online.

The LNB is the flat unit
on the top end with the coax connected to it. This the second one that
has had this problem. Had too replace one last year when back in IA also.
So I have had enough of this crap and have ordered a whole new transmitter,
wave guide, LNB and feed horn on rush delivery. Should be here on
Tuesday or Wednesday. So everything you see in the above picture will be
replaced with this.
One of the reasons we like
coming back to Des Moines is going to Bass Pro Shops. Not for the
sports stuff so much but for the clothes. I load up on shirts and shorts.
And at great prices. Beats the Walmart look all to hell.
Along with shopping Terry
got new glasses. He need new ones since his eye operation last winter in
Tucson. We waited to get them here at Vision for Less in front of Menards
in Ankeny. My nose peice was loose on mine so they replaced my frames
for me. Right price and good service. Much cheeper than even Walamrt.
But the best news is Terry
had is Dr. appointment and all is well and I had my blood work done ahead
of appointments and got a call Friday that all results were OK. So just
have a cardiologist and regular family Dr. to see and we can then hit the
road.
Ops not so fast we have
an appointment at the RV dealer on the 31st to get our fresh water leak
looked at.
Update: Sat. 4:30 Water
tank leak fixed... Terry removed the under carriage cover to discover
the fresh water tank elbow was cracked and it fell off in his hands.
Old one on the left.
New one from Tractor Supply on the right. A $1.49 part.
And here is where it goes.
Now all fixed by Terry...
he is now full of himself and hard to talk to without me having to bow.
That savved us a big repair
bill by the RV dealer me thinks. way to go Terry.
Next we are out of here for
cooler locals in centrral and southern Colorado. I'm ready... have done
the research and have found several campgrounds that will be great for
boondocking on forest service lands. Buna Vista, Taylor park, Tin
Cup, Lake City, Creede, South Fork, Pagosa Springs, etc.
Stopback in the weeks to
come for updates on what we find. Have camped all over Colorado but not
so mush in the Lake City, Creede, South Fork area. So this is going to
be an adventure for us.
Tuesday
July 10
We're
Not in Kansas anymore...
or
New Mexico or Colorado
We left the Taos NM area
on Friday July 6th and landed here in Iowa on Monday the 9th.
The plan was for it to go
slower but if you know me when behind the wheel I will just keep going
if it feels right. And right for me doesn't happend till mid afternoon.
At our first planned stop it was only noon so on we went and our second
stop flew by also. At last we pullled off the road at Oakley, KS
after leaving Taos that AM.
North from Taos up through
CO and out to Welsenburg on US 160.
Heading on HW CO 10 toward
La Junta across a lot of nothing for miles and miles we came up on this
little car. She pulled over to give us lots of room to pass. Yep it was
the Google Earth Street View camera car. Now if we remember to look up
this spot later to see us on the view. Think they will block out our faces?
Kansas is a fun state to
drive across smooth and great roads. We go from southwest to northeast
and there are several routes to choose from so each traverse you can change
course if you want.
We know how to pick'em this
Motel RV Park was a dump... but the hosts were very friendly. Get this...
It is has been hot in tripple digets and the swiming pool had no water
in it. How do you do that. Notice to the far rear of our 5th wheel
you will see an old 100 lbs. propane bottle we had to rool out of the way
to get in the spot. .
When we were in Santa Fa
we stopped at Lowes and put together a water pressue regulator unit with
gauge for the RV.
Never got a picture of the
finished unit, it was costly... but worked. The little ones from Walmart
suck and not worth buying... We have one. We had before never used
the city watrer hookup... just put water in the tank and turn on the pump.
But we have a problem filling the tank with the filler trube leaking water
down inside under the RV so went to using city water.
Now the rest of the story.
At the next stop Terry sez I'll tell ya something if you don't yell at
me. Yes... he left the expensive unit on the water faucet at the above
RV park. Guess what.. I think idiot was used along with a few choice others.
They are going to send it
to us... Thanks.
Next a stop overnight at
Concordia, KS after a full day drive across the state via US 24. We got
to drive through many small towns that were right out of a picture book.
Who wants to drive an interstate when you can get there on the blue roads.
And we are not holding up traffic on the supper slab as we drive 55 to
60 no matter which road we are on.
Now this is living... (above)
A donation city campground on the south edge of town across form Walmart
and the airport is on top of the hill in Concordia, KS. 30 amp and
water with dump station.
After an overnight stop at
the Lakeside Casino Osceola, IA we were off to our end game for a week
at Terry's home farm.
But on the way we had to
stop at a Fairway grocery store l(ocal chain of over 100 stores) with full
service meat counter. There are no pre packaged meats... all are
warped or if needed cut to order. It was if we landed in a
candy store with the great meats and I told them so. You can not
find anything like this in Arizona. We also got ham salid made in store.
The best! Down in AZ it's always bone in this and bone in that.
Like---USDA Choice Ribeye Steaks, Bone-In, New York Strip, Bone-In.
Off to eastern Iowa on US
30 the old Lincoln highway. Now for the sad part, Iowa in this area
is in a severe drought. There may not be a corn crop this year and
beans need rain to survive also. Terry's brother is farming the homestead
and has crop Ins. so will be OK. And Terry's nephew is a crop Ins/gov.
adjuster so he is having a big year. We just missed him as he was
sent to Kansas not near where we passed to crop adjust the wheat crop.
As you can see this looks
a bit strange place to park the 5th wheel. But take a closer look, the
satellite dish on top was pointed right at the tree... no signal was to
be had. So we had to move part way into the old cattle lot. The got
rid of the livestock last year.
It has cooled of a bit but
no rain in sight.
We will be heading to Des
Moines next week for DR. appointments etc. We have reservations at
Bob Shetler Rec Area COE for two weeks. For again with Senior
Pass for $8 a day.
If you are heading through
Kansas do check out this site that lists all those hard to find FREE city
KS RV parks.
For later use you can find
this link in the main
Hitchitch.com
RV Travel Resources section.
Tuesday
July 3
Day
trips around Taos.
By
Terry
But
first a reminder we are still camped in the Orrilla
Verde Rec area on the Rio Grande river.
And
at Senior Pass priced at $7.50 a night. 50 amp with water for the mister
system.
We
are now leaving on Friday after the 4th. No dump station here so will do
tht in Taos on Friday. That means we will have stayed here without dumping
for over 14 days. Yes it can be done and without much effort. Terry does
take the dish washing water over to the shower house but other than that
we have not have to scrimp much on our usage.
Now for the Terry
Terry report.
Brought the dutch oven along
this summer, and since this is the only spot in the state where we can
have an open fire I baked a loaf of whole wheat shepherds bread.
Should of made several small loafs instead of the single loaf that fills
the oven, would have been able to freeze or give away the smaller
loafs, but it is still very good and makes great toast in the morning.
I slightly misjudged the number of charcoal briquettes to place on the
lid but was able to correct when I checked the baking progress.
Ron is still showing an aversion
to all things Taos, He just sends me off to town with a grocery list
and the instructions to drive safely. The Harwood Museum of Art was
my museum of the year for Taos, Last time Through I went to the Millicent
Rogers Museum, and this time the Harwood. They were in the process
of hanging two new shows, so the tour was a bit abbreviated, I also
got in for half price since I was not going to get the full experience.
Modern sculpture at the
entrance.
Since learning how to cast
silver and bronze at the Quartzsite Gem and Mineral Club I have been studying
other peoples designs, I am especially interested in belt buckles,
and have created several. Here we have a case full of new inspiration
as found in one of the high end leather shops surrounding the Taos Plaza.
I especially like the bull rider buckle.
Every weekend we get a flotilla
of kayaks, canoes, inner tubes and other flotation devices coming down
the river. The oddest thing so far has been a coleman double bed
sized inflatable air mattress with a couple of older kids drifting down
the river, do not know if they had to put it back in their tent that
night or not, but they were not making very good time as the current
in the long flats is very slow. These Kayaks were all paddling to
get to the good parts of the river, the rapids. Many of the long
flats are so shallow that the canoes have to get out and walk the canoe
to the deeper water.
We took the High Road to
Taos Scenic Byway. It takes you through the mountains of central New Mexico
where the state's 400 + years of history is alive in the architecture,
religion, and culture of many small villages.
See Google pictures
of
the area.
We are camped at the red
dot in the Orrilla
Verde Rec area
We left our campsite and
went south to HW 75 and HW 518 and returned on HW 518 to Taos.
As you can see from the
map we went through Tribal Lands again, in this case Picuris Pueblo. Go
to the Indian Pueblo
Cultural Center for more info on all the NM Pueblos. The
site is very well done with lots of information.
Shots taken in our tour of
the high road to Taos. There were a few trees showing the stress
of the last few years drought and pine beetle infestation, but much
of the forest seemed to be in good shape, we did drive through one
area that had been burned in the last year ors so, but is was not
a very big fire. We are hoping for wetter then normal Monsoon to
help reduce the fire threat this season, like many others who live
and travel the west.
Went to Taos on Monday,
not to do my tourist trap thing, but to actually help maintain our
full time lifestyle, taking care of laundry, after going three
weeks without washing clothes it was time to find a laundry, or start pounding
clothes on a rock in the river. Pounding on a rock sounded like to
much work so Ron sent me off to Taos again. Found the laundry just
across from the Smiths Grocery and started feeding quarters to the machines,
sort of like going to the casino, but here you are guaranteed
a win?
The Laundry was clean, well
maintained, and had all newer front load washers, a bit on the pricey
side a $2.25 for a load, but not much you can do about that. The
place was very busy, and I had to park across the street in the Smith's
Grocery parking lot and carry everything across the street. Later
a parking spot opened up in front to the laundry so the loading was not
as big a deal. After laundry I went looking for the Chamber of
Commerce to see about Fourth of July events in the area. One of the
little towns to the North has a parade and Taos, Eagle's Nest and the Taos
Ski area all have fireworks. Other then that I was told its pretty
much a normal day, with all of the tourist oriented businesses open,
the season is short and the winter long, have to shear the tourists
when they are able to.
Have
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