One of the items on our fulltiming "bucket list" is to spend one entire Summer in Colorado.
Little did we know this would be the year.
Our bucket list plan was (and still is) to purchase a Colorado State Parks Pass and traverse the state, visiting as many of its wonderful state parks as possible. But, this Summer, we've found ourselves in Colorado dodging wildfires, driving from one RV technician to another, and making not one but two trips to our favorite high-altitude town to cool off.
That's right. We're back in Gunnison! And, that's right. Our heat pump still isn't fixed!
The good news is it soon will be. There is light at the end of our heat pump "tunnel". When this year-long saga is over, we may tell the whole bloody tale. Or, we might not. The bottom line is a replacement heat pump is making its way from Wichita to Loveland.
Meanwhile, it's hot on the Front Range, so we decided to head back to Gunnison to chill (literally and figuratively) for awhile. We'll swing back through Loveland and have the new unit installed in a month. On or about September 1st, we'll make our way across the plains of Kansas in one cool moose. We can't wait.
The even better news is we have gifted ourselves another month of Summer in a place we absolutely love. It's not the Colorado Summer we planned. But, it'll definitely do!
Distractions
Our Summer plans are disintegrating before our eyes.
We made the drive from Gunnison to Monument, on one of our worst travel days ever, to learn the news from a highly recommended technician that our AC system has a refrigerant leak. The leak, so we've been told, is the result of a shoddy repair in Forest City. But, we're reserving judgement on that, for the moment anyway.
One of the things we've learned about AC units and technicians is there are a few who do refrigerant work and most who don't. And, as luck would have it, our Monument tech was amongst the most. With a refrigerant leak, we needed to find somebody who does that type of work. With the help of our AC unit manufacturer, we found a qualified tech in Loveland, just a few miles from where our Summer Colorado adventure began in Fort Collins. Last week, we called for an appointment.
The earliest we could get in was next Monday, the 23rd. Our travel itinerary had us in northwest Montana meeting friends about that time. But, it's Summer and it's blistering hot, especially in most of Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. For the health and well being of ourselves and our cats, we have to get this thing fixed. So, we took it.
The repair is expected to take two days, and that's if everything goes smoothly. With our luck, of course, it'll take longer. So, with plans to meet another couple of friends a week later in Montana, we bagged that reservation, too.
Wahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After a couple of nights in a really overpriced and quite crummy campground north of Monument, we decided to head somewhere fun while we waited. We went south to Colorado Springs and landed at Garden of the Gods Campground. We had stopped for a few days here last August after we left Gunnison. We had AC troubles then, too. So, we were thrilled to nab one of the shady spots in the iffy park. Since our last visit, the place has been purchased by a resort company with a dandy reputation. And, reports were they'd already made some notable improvements in their newly acquired park.
We nabbed one of the "Executive Premium" spots for the first few days. We enjoyed a level site with shade, plenty of space, a poolside view, wifi and cable. It was quite nice. The one drawback was this park seems to be in one of AT&T Wireless' black holes. Our iphones and air card were rendered worthless.
As soon as we realized we had considerable time to kill before our service appointment, we made a request to extend our stay. Our fancy site was not available after Sunday night. But, we were welcome to move to a "regular" back-in site for the duration of our extended stay. We made the short move Monday morning. We were pleased to find that the site had plenty of shade, which would aid our crippled AC. The real bummer was the site had no cable. The shady tree blocked our rooftop satellite. And, the park wifi decided to take a nose dive. With no TV or wifi, we were disconnected from the world.
We put up our over-the-air TV antenna and did our best. We tried to get by. Really, we did. But, the truth is, we need to be connected! So, yesterday, we decided to take matters into our own hands.
Our first stop was Camping World. We had thought about making this purchase for awhile, but we decided now was the time for us to acquire a portable satellite dish and tripod. We brought the thing home and Paul started on the "some assembly required."
It's important to note that all that has been required of us to get satellite reception to date is to park the moose with a clear shot at the southern sky and push a button. Magically, our rooftop antenna searches the sky for the right satellite and locks on. We turn on the TV and it works. Simple as that.
This portable dish exposed us to an unknown world! Suddenly, terms like Elevation and Azimuth were important. And, we didn't have a clue.
But, first, we had to connect the dish to our receiver. That was the beginning of one long wild goose chase! There's a convenient "portable satellite antenna" jack in our electrical bay. The question was where were we supposed to connect our satellite receiver? Two calls to Winnebago and an extensive search of the guts of our motorhome eventually revealed that the other end of the portable satellite antenna cable was plugged into a mislabeled jack. (Arggh!)
In the middle of this adventure, we decided we needed to rectify our wifi-less situation. So, today, we made a trip to the Verizon store and purchased a 4G mifi device to replace our aged 3G router and AT&T air card. With smoking hot wifi returned to our rolling home, we conducted extensive online research on how to point a satellite antenna. Lots of people do it, every day, so we knew we'd get it, eventually. But, we had the added challenge of a stone wall and a few trees. It wasn't the best environment for a couple of portable satellite newbies to take a shot, but we stuck with it. With the help of a nifty app, several you tube videos and a helluva lot of patience, we eventually got it. Our signal finder screen filled up with numbers over the 80s, and we had TV!
Hallelujah!
With wifi and TV, all is right with our world. But, what we're most grateful for is how these two special projects have been most welcome distractions from our ailing AC.
All will be well in our rolling home soon. Meanwhile, we're soaking up all of the wifi and satellite we can!
And, we haven't a clue how the rest of our Summer will actually shape up.
We made the drive from Gunnison to Monument, on one of our worst travel days ever, to learn the news from a highly recommended technician that our AC system has a refrigerant leak. The leak, so we've been told, is the result of a shoddy repair in Forest City. But, we're reserving judgement on that, for the moment anyway.
One of the things we've learned about AC units and technicians is there are a few who do refrigerant work and most who don't. And, as luck would have it, our Monument tech was amongst the most. With a refrigerant leak, we needed to find somebody who does that type of work. With the help of our AC unit manufacturer, we found a qualified tech in Loveland, just a few miles from where our Summer Colorado adventure began in Fort Collins. Last week, we called for an appointment.
The earliest we could get in was next Monday, the 23rd. Our travel itinerary had us in northwest Montana meeting friends about that time. But, it's Summer and it's blistering hot, especially in most of Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. For the health and well being of ourselves and our cats, we have to get this thing fixed. So, we took it.
The repair is expected to take two days, and that's if everything goes smoothly. With our luck, of course, it'll take longer. So, with plans to meet another couple of friends a week later in Montana, we bagged that reservation, too.
Wahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After a couple of nights in a really overpriced and quite crummy campground north of Monument, we decided to head somewhere fun while we waited. We went south to Colorado Springs and landed at Garden of the Gods Campground. We had stopped for a few days here last August after we left Gunnison. We had AC troubles then, too. So, we were thrilled to nab one of the shady spots in the iffy park. Since our last visit, the place has been purchased by a resort company with a dandy reputation. And, reports were they'd already made some notable improvements in their newly acquired park.
We nabbed one of the "Executive Premium" spots for the first few days. We enjoyed a level site with shade, plenty of space, a poolside view, wifi and cable. It was quite nice. The one drawback was this park seems to be in one of AT&T Wireless' black holes. Our iphones and air card were rendered worthless.
As soon as we realized we had considerable time to kill before our service appointment, we made a request to extend our stay. Our fancy site was not available after Sunday night. But, we were welcome to move to a "regular" back-in site for the duration of our extended stay. We made the short move Monday morning. We were pleased to find that the site had plenty of shade, which would aid our crippled AC. The real bummer was the site had no cable. The shady tree blocked our rooftop satellite. And, the park wifi decided to take a nose dive. With no TV or wifi, we were disconnected from the world.
We put up our over-the-air TV antenna and did our best. We tried to get by. Really, we did. But, the truth is, we need to be connected! So, yesterday, we decided to take matters into our own hands.
Our first stop was Camping World. We had thought about making this purchase for awhile, but we decided now was the time for us to acquire a portable satellite dish and tripod. We brought the thing home and Paul started on the "some assembly required."
It's important to note that all that has been required of us to get satellite reception to date is to park the moose with a clear shot at the southern sky and push a button. Magically, our rooftop antenna searches the sky for the right satellite and locks on. We turn on the TV and it works. Simple as that.
This portable dish exposed us to an unknown world! Suddenly, terms like Elevation and Azimuth were important. And, we didn't have a clue.
But, first, we had to connect the dish to our receiver. That was the beginning of one long wild goose chase! There's a convenient "portable satellite antenna" jack in our electrical bay. The question was where were we supposed to connect our satellite receiver? Two calls to Winnebago and an extensive search of the guts of our motorhome eventually revealed that the other end of the portable satellite antenna cable was plugged into a mislabeled jack. (Arggh!)
In the middle of this adventure, we decided we needed to rectify our wifi-less situation. So, today, we made a trip to the Verizon store and purchased a 4G mifi device to replace our aged 3G router and AT&T air card. With smoking hot wifi returned to our rolling home, we conducted extensive online research on how to point a satellite antenna. Lots of people do it, every day, so we knew we'd get it, eventually. But, we had the added challenge of a stone wall and a few trees. It wasn't the best environment for a couple of portable satellite newbies to take a shot, but we stuck with it. With the help of a nifty app, several you tube videos and a helluva lot of patience, we eventually got it. Our signal finder screen filled up with numbers over the 80s, and we had TV!
Hallelujah!
With wifi and TV, all is right with our world. But, what we're most grateful for is how these two special projects have been most welcome distractions from our ailing AC.
All will be well in our rolling home soon. Meanwhile, we're soaking up all of the wifi and satellite we can!
And, we haven't a clue how the rest of our Summer will actually shape up.
Year Three
When we started, we thought we'd be done by now. Our original plan was to travel the country for at least a year, perhaps two, maybe as long as three.
Yes, it's been that long!
That fateful day, July 7, 2009, the idea of living on the road for three whole years seemed pretty extreme. By then we were sure we would have seen it all. We were certain we'd have found a place we'd rather be and other things we'd rather be doing. This crazy idea of living fulltime in a small box on wheels couldn't possibly keep us entertained for more than three years.
We got that wrong!
In the three years since we left the last place we called home, we've traveled 29,323 miles and parked our moose in 147 spots in 35 states of just one country.
We haven't seen it all. Far from it.
And, where would we rather be? We don't know! We think it might be a smallish college-town somewhere west of the Mississippi someday. We'll know it when we find it. But, for now, the place we park our moose is the best place for us to be.
What would we rather be doing?
I'm still amazed that I haven't "worked" in three years and I'm still a fully functioning human being. For a couple of recovering workaholics, we have adapted quite well. For what would we trade exploring our country while we hike, bike, geocache and meet wonderful people?
We don't know.
And, what's the entertainment factor these days living in this box on wheels?
Year Three has been particularly challenging for our moose. It ended as it started, with a problematic heat pump. In between, we dealt with big problems with our refrigerator and ceiling, and pesky maladies with our satellite radio, TV antenna motor and sleep number bed. Add in regularly scheduled maintenance and it seemed like we spent much of our energy this year on Bullwinkle's care and feeding. Our fingers are crossed that next week we'll get the heat pump taken care of and our moose will be ready to roll for a trouble-free year.
While these troubles have tested our patience, our sense of adventure (and humor) remains intact. And, it's all still pretty darn entertaining.
These first three years have exceeded our expectations. We've had the great privilege of seeing amazing sights, meeting interesting people, reconnecting with family and old friends, making new ones, learning lots and dealing with the highs and lows of life on the road. And, we're not done.
Today, we start Year Four. We didn't think we'd be here. But, we're sure glad we are.
Yes, it's been that long!
That fateful day, July 7, 2009, the idea of living on the road for three whole years seemed pretty extreme. By then we were sure we would have seen it all. We were certain we'd have found a place we'd rather be and other things we'd rather be doing. This crazy idea of living fulltime in a small box on wheels couldn't possibly keep us entertained for more than three years.
We got that wrong!
In the three years since we left the last place we called home, we've traveled 29,323 miles and parked our moose in 147 spots in 35 states of just one country.
We haven't seen it all. Far from it.
And, where would we rather be? We don't know! We think it might be a smallish college-town somewhere west of the Mississippi someday. We'll know it when we find it. But, for now, the place we park our moose is the best place for us to be.
What would we rather be doing?
I'm still amazed that I haven't "worked" in three years and I'm still a fully functioning human being. For a couple of recovering workaholics, we have adapted quite well. For what would we trade exploring our country while we hike, bike, geocache and meet wonderful people?
We don't know.
And, what's the entertainment factor these days living in this box on wheels?
Year Three has been particularly challenging for our moose. It ended as it started, with a problematic heat pump. In between, we dealt with big problems with our refrigerator and ceiling, and pesky maladies with our satellite radio, TV antenna motor and sleep number bed. Add in regularly scheduled maintenance and it seemed like we spent much of our energy this year on Bullwinkle's care and feeding. Our fingers are crossed that next week we'll get the heat pump taken care of and our moose will be ready to roll for a trouble-free year.
While these troubles have tested our patience, our sense of adventure (and humor) remains intact. And, it's all still pretty darn entertaining.
These first three years have exceeded our expectations. We've had the great privilege of seeing amazing sights, meeting interesting people, reconnecting with family and old friends, making new ones, learning lots and dealing with the highs and lows of life on the road. And, we're not done.
Today, we start Year Four. We didn't think we'd be here. But, we're sure glad we are.
A Long Lost Draft
It's Anniversary Eve at our house. Tomorrow marks three years since we began our great RV escape. As we're wrapping up our stay here in Gunnison, we've been reflecting on the year just passed, and the two before that. Perhaps some of these thoughts will make their way to a celebratory blog post tomorrow. Or, maybe they won't. Who knows?
While reminiscing over blog posts from our third year, I found one unpublished post from exactly halfway through the year. Reading the words brought the day clearly into my memory. It was a day we'd rather forget, but can't quite seem to. It wasn't funny then. But, with the passage of time, at least one of us can laugh about it now.
With hopes that you will, too, here's the long, lost draft.
After three years, this ride is anything but routine!
While reminiscing over blog posts from our third year, I found one unpublished post from exactly halfway through the year. Reading the words brought the day clearly into my memory. It was a day we'd rather forget, but can't quite seem to. It wasn't funny then. But, with the passage of time, at least one of us can laugh about it now.
With hopes that you will, too, here's the long, lost draft.
January 8, 2012 - Mandeville, Louisiana
Keyless
Yesterday marked a milestone, of sorts. It was two-and-a-half years ago yesterday that we started on our fulltime RVing adventure. Can you believe that? And, just about the time we thought we might be getting the hang of all this, the RVing gods and goddesses threw us a curveball.
The biggest item on our agenda today was dumping our tanks. And, not being one to dwell on the most mundane of tasks associated with RVing, I thought there was no way that would become the topic of today's blog post.
I was wrong!
It's been eight days since we checked into this sewer hookup-free park, so we were definitely ready for a short trip to the dump. After lunch, we readied the moose for travel. All that was left was to start the thing up and pull up the jacks.
But first, we needed to pull in the slides.
Our nifty Winnebago is equipped with a keyed Master Slide Room Control Switch. With the key turned to "On" you can open and close the slides. When it's turned to "Off" you can't. Simple as that. Since the day we took delivery of our moose, the key has sat safely in the lock, ready to turn at will. Today, when we got ready to roll, the switch was set to "Off" and the key was missing.
We were going nowhere.
In a rapidly escalating panic, we looked for the missing key. It was nowhere to be found. One of the things we've done while we've been parked here is some pretty extensive housecleaning. And, one possibility we considered was that the very small key got knocked out of the lock and swept up by the vacuum. Sure, the possibility was remote. But, we locked in on that scenario and didn't let go. After looking in every nook and cranny for the still missing key, we resigned ourselves to the reality of calling Forest City first thing in the morning and hoping a working key would arrive here before we leave next Saturday.
But, first things first, we had to dump.
New friends Tricia and Keith came to the rescue. They offered up their very handy dandy rolling waste tank for our use. As Paul went about the task of dumping the moose, 35 gallons at a time, I searched in vain for the still missing key. Finally, I set about the task of getting the moose out of "travel mode" and putting everything back in its proper place. Just as Paul was finishing up his fourth trip of toting some 300 pounds of fluids, I focused my attention on the keyless lock. It's something I look at every day. I asked myself when was the last time I had seen the key in the lock.
The answer came to me in a flash.
I had seen the key in the lock just a few hours earlier! One of the first steps in our pre-travel routine is to lower our TV antenna. As I always do, I had removed our "Antenna Minder" card that is clipped to that key and placed it in a cabinet overhead. I went to the cabinet and pulled out the day-glo orange card on a chain. Attached to the clip was - you guessed it - the key to the master slide control switch. Keep in mind, I've made this same move about 100 times. Never before has the key come out of the lock. Never.
Argghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After my exhausted husband returned the portable tank to our new friends, the four of us gathered outside the moose for a well-deserved happy hour. Over our first drinks, we recounted the events of the day and enjoyed a few laughs. Keith summed it up perfectly when he said, "You know, I was going to ask if after awhile this stuff all becomes routine." We burst into a round of hysterical laughter.
After two-and-a-half years, we don't think so.
After three years, this ride is anything but routine!
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