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Published: July 22nd 2008
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The Fellas
Huddled in a rock at the Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs. Hello everyone!!!! I am not even sure where to begin this entry....the last time I wrote we were staying at Gunsmoke and getting out of Dodge, so they say. Well, maybe Dodge City wasn't so bad....
We hit the road on Tuesday morning and headed to somewhere in Colorado. We had an idea where we would stop but we had an unexpected situation occur. For those of you worriers...everyone is healthy, there was no accident involving wild game or pick up trucks😊 While driving Tuesday they were a couple of instances where the RV seemed to exhibit signs of illness. Stalling or stepping on the gas with no engine response was disconcerting to us as we were to be headed over the beautiful Colorado Rockies so we stopped and called Cruise America. To make a long story short we stayed in a "cute" little city, Canon City in a Walmart parking lot (yes, you read that correctly). We even played guitar hero for free in their game section on a guitar that strummed in only one direction while we waited for night fall to come. Devin even failed a song on expert...he's sure it was due to the broken guitar,
Garden of the Gods
What a cool place! I agree. We were told to bring the RV to Royal Gorge Truck and RV between 7:30 and 8 am. We were there at 7:26 hoping to get the RV in the service bay and fixed.
The parking lot was quiet and it didn't seem to be open but you never know. So at 7:30 (starting time) I checked doors...the service department (open and unlocked) followed by the parts department (locked). All was quiet so all there was to do was wait and talk with mechanics that were showing up for work and waiting for the boss. As we stood there a truck pulled up (two large men) and a Sheriff's car. A stern man asked if anyone had opened any doors to the shop. Yeah, that's right, the Sheriff's Department has now arrived do to a silent alarm that was set off by good 'ole me. I apologized profusely while they pulled their GUNS and entered the shop to check for burglars. That is how the day started....
The news was not good on the RV. A clogged fuel pump, air filter and more. There was no way we would be out of there on Wednesday so
Our New Home
Note Walmart sign in the distance...Royal Gorge Truck and RV repair, Canon City, Colorado. making lemonade out of lemons Chris and I decided to rent a car for the day and go from there while the RV remained at the RV hospital. There are many emotions I am leaving out of this. There are no words to describe the disappointment for Devin. It was a tough day but it wasn't all a wash. I got to ride in a BIG pick up truck to a rental place to rent the ONLY car they had left. It was a 2002 Saturn. It was clean, it ran (when you could turn the key in the ignition) and the headlights faced two directions when they were turned on. Smile...
We checked the map and decided that a trip to Colorado Springs seemed like a good trip. We visited the Garden of the Gods which was gorgeous and FREE. There are still some things in this world that are free, not many, but this was a gem. We all really liked! Ate some ham out of a plastic container and then headed into Old Colorado City. Neat place, quaint, small. I visited a mystery book store, my first book store of the trip for all of you
doubters. I did buy one book (though I have 9 more to read that I packed)...we all have issues. I bought everyone a treat a chocolate shop because we all know that chocolate makes you feel better. Most of tried something new. I thought that this would be the day to eat a chocolate covered JalapeƱo pepper. Yeah, great idea, the woman gave me a brand new bottle of water as I was leaving. That should tell you something about this special treat. FIRE!!!
We then had a nice dinner at Henri's which is a Mexican restaurant and then decided to hit the road. Devin and Chris visited Cave of the Winds and Nick and I enjoyed a beautiful rainbow overlooking a gorge. I should be honest here because the road going to the Caves was exactly the type of road that Chris hates. Windy and STEEP....another omen.
After the 1.5 hour delay we headed back to our hotel for the night in Canon City. Finales are supposed to be spectacular, right? Well I pulled a good one here. I had seen a map that showed a scenic route back to Canon City and decided that it would be great to see more of Colorado. Big MISTAKE! It was beautiful, slow going, steep, windy and so much more. At one point there was a concern we were not even on the right road. One could not tell...these were nice county roads (that may help some of you). The light started to fade and the next thing you know there were signs warning us of cows crossing the road. They were not kidding. Huge, black cows, crossing the road in the dark. I thought Chris was going to come unglued and my head started to pound. We did see a large cow look both ways and then turn away from the road. I guess he decided it was too dangerous...boy, was he right, the Silver Bullet (the name for our new car) is dangerous. No sooner did we see cows did we see large deer on the edges of the road munching away. I spent the next 1.5 hours looking for eyes on the side of the highway. Did I mention that Colorado Springs is only an hour from Canon City? It took us 2.5-3 hours to go over the cow grates and dodge animals. Not a good ending. We also missed the pool hours, yikes. Everyone went straight to bed in hopes that Thursday would be a better day.
I think I will leave you with this little story for the night and will add more tomorrow.
All of you that have read Omnivore's Dilemma should visit Kansas to see the feed lots someday. Disgusting.
Hope you are all healthy and well...miss you!
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Mitch
non-member comment
Colorado
I'm glad everyone is o.k. and doing well. Tammy, you have left your readers with a cliff hanger...no pun intended. Hopefully the RV is back in action and ready to climb the mountains. These are stories which will last a lifetime! Sincerely, Mitch