Colorado Bound

Sunday, June 29^th

We said our goodbyes and hit the road to Colorado Springs. Before we got too far from the house, the “low coolant” warning came on the truck dash. We were glad it alerted us now, before we got out of town! We headed to WalMart, knowing we could park there and get what we needed. Luckily, there was an AutoZone next to the WalMart, so we opted to pull in there, instead. A much quicker stop! Tony put some coolant into the reservoir and we were only stopped about 10 minutes.

We got back on track, and headed around the 335 loop to 287 heading to Dumas. Not quite the route we thought we wanted to take, but hey, it’ll get us there. We then took Hwy 87 West which then merged with 365, towards Dalhart. In New Mexico, we stopped at a rest stop to each lunch, and I did some quick work for a customer.

Headed north from Amarillo.

Onward! We made good time through New Mexico, to Raton. Surprisingly, no road construction! A first! Then, we headed up Raton pass. Just as we got to the top, the truck warned that the engine coolant was hot, so we pulled over at the scenic overlook to give the truck a little rest.  It was now 86 degrees, not 96 when we passed through Raton. After about 10 minutes, the temps were back in the normal range and we headed on down the pass with no issues.

Taking a break at the top of Raton Pass.

We pulled on, though Trinidad and Pueblo and Fountain, and into Colorado Springs. We were following the GPS to the campground, and I am not sure what that thing was doing. She had us go past a road which would have been a right turn, up another ½ mile, take a horseshoe type exit to go under the road we were on and then get back onto it going the opposite direction, so we could turn left on the road we just passed… It was quite stressful, as has become the norm when using this GPS!!!

Anyway, we found the Garden of the Gods RV Resort, and got checked in. Navigating to our site was another adventure. The guide leading us there in a golf cart did not know how to lead a large RV. He was not swinging out at turns, as most guides would do. And there were lots of turns, many were though some tight areas. We were lucky we didn’t hit anything! We didn’t have too much trouble getting backed in, since the site right in front of us was unoccupied. Tony was able to pull forward into that site to back in much more straight. We threaded the needle between the trees, and fit right in.

The entrance

Nestled in our spot at Garden of the Gods RV Resort

Set up!

It was about 94 degrees when we got to the park, but with the sun beating down, it felt warmer. We were sweaty by the time we were set up, but the coach quickly cooled. We had homemade quesadillas for dinner, and settled in for the evening. I tried for a few hours to get the internet/wifi set up, but we do not have a strong signal here. The park wifi, when you can connect, is great, but not reliable as so many folks are here and trying to use it or any other available signal. It is very frustrating, usually when I am in a park, I can always get wifi signal with my personal hotspot when the park wifi or our phone connections are not good. NOT THIS TIME! I had some work to complete, which I did, and then I was finally able to upload so that my customer could download. I hope the text went though! Because of the time change, it was not as late here when we decided to hit the hay. But we’d had a long day of traveling, so we went to be about 9:30 (10:30 TX time).