Log of Trip to Colorado to Get Camper

Log of Trip to Colorado to Get Camper

March 27th through April 10th, 2005

Ok, I know what you are thinking, didn't I just read about this before? Well, yes, but I wanted to try out the links and other stuff that bloggers do plus give you some abbreviations and vocabulary that I used within the Log of the Trip to Colorado.

First the Links and Log Info:

Hi all, we are going on a most excellent adventure: where we are picking up our Snowriver camper, something that we can put on our Ford SuperDuty F-350 truck. We have all ready packed and are now on the road to get the camper.

Please check back often, as we plan (we will see of course) to: upload pictures and travel log.
Actually, we now have a couple pages of pictures: Getting There, Getting Camper, Staying at a Walmart, From a Walmart to Colorado, From Cold to a Desert, Visiting Colorado, Lounge Day, The Mighty Hike, the Wineries, the Downhill Hike (in Monument Canyon), the signage day, our relaxation day and more. The Daily Logs: are now within the pages above, except for traveling days.

Started out writing this on the home page, but it got too long, that was why we made individual pages. But here is the first log that I did-on March 27, 2005:

By the way, trying to write this while on Ohio roads - they are so bumpy!
I am no longer in Ohio, or Kansas anymore, but in Colorado where it is 17 F with the wind blowing the snow off of our camper. There are more pictures to be seen, I have changed the format a little so that the pictures and pages of text are together.

Now we are in Fruita, Colorado, just outside of Grand Junction where it is going for a high of 60 F and blue skies!

Today, April 2nd is also blue skies and warmer still.

April 3rd was the day of the Mighty Hike. Please check on the pictures to see why it is so mighty.

April 4th was winery day -we went to six wineries and did no hiking until the next day.

April 5th was another hike day, this time back to Colorado National Monument on the Monument Canyon Trail, a 7 mile downhill trail with beautiful vistas, geology, and biology. The log is on the same page as the pictures, as keeping up a log has seriously cut into our vacation time. We also met with our camper neighbors - Larry and Kathy and spent some time with them that evening. They are such an interesting couple and the information they gave us will help every time we travel with the camper. They have been traveling with the a trailing camper (they actually live in it full time and move when the job moves them) for several years now.

April 6th was a relax, put signage on the camper, and clean up day.

April 7th, we drove back from the Grand Junction area via I-70 thru some amazing scenery and stopped in the Denver area at Five Star RV to have them take care of a couple of punch list items on the camper. We feel that 5 Star really took care of us and would recommend them without hesitation should you be in the market for a camper or similar RV. Once the gang at 5 Star did their magic, we were back on the road.

Now on 1-70 eastbound on the high, flat Colorado-Kansas plains, it was very windy here. We are having problems going more than 65 miles an hour because we are fighting against the powerful southerly cross-wind. We have been using the on-board trip computer in the truck to plan refueling stops and today, for the first time, it let us down. The strong cross-winds fooled the computer, something the driver should of anticipated. At least it happened during the day. We still had enough diesel to make it up an exit ramp. I parked the truck off the side with Laura in it. We were 8 miles short from the planned truck stop. 2 guys heading to a Bass tournament gave me a ride east. Once there, I found Tim the parts guy who just happened to be heading west to Denver to pick up truck parts. We filled a jerry can with diesel and went back west to Laura and the truck. Tim the good samaritan asked for nothing, but got a healthy tip from the grateful travellers. Lesson learned- cross-winds effect mileage!! We didn't make it to our planned stop that night and stayed in Hayes, KS that night in a Wal Mart parking lot.

April 8th we are again on our way home. We hopefully will get moving again, but I was able to upload the rest of the pictures of the last hike and signage at Flying J truck stop because - get this - they have a high speed internet hot spot. And it is fast!

On April 8th we went from Hayes, KS to the western outskirts of St. Louis, MO. We stayed that evening in a Flying J parking lot. I know this is really not camping but, boy is it nice. Hi-speed internet access and a safe environment, plus a good restaurant when you wake up.

On April 9th we plan to go through St. Louis and try to get as close to home as possible. But we plan to take a slightly different route, going through Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia on Interstate 64 to Interstate 79.

Sasha has been very sappy lately, I believe we have found a great way to travel and have become closer because of it. He believes that the camper is good for our marriage. I believe that our parents thought we would kill each other by trip's end, but I think that it really brought us closer together - in many ways. All in all, a very good trip. We will update this website when we get back too, as there are more things that Sasha wanted to add, and I will just have to teach him how to use it.

April 10th our last day: again we stayed at a Flying J last night, driving in at 1 am. We are so close to the West Virginia border, but still in Kentucky.

We are now back home and back to work, but we plan to get other things into the website in the next couple of weeks. See you soon, as we go one the road again.

Second, the Vocabulary:

Bars or Internet Bars: I have a T-Mobile Sony Ericson card that I got - it allows me to get onto the internet anywhere as long as there is a phone tower. It uses the same speeds as dial-up, up to 56 kb. So the more bars, the faster the internet connection, no bars or red bar means I might lose internet connection. This purchase was a great deal as it is $30 a month, which has more than paid for itself last month when I was in NY and they were asking $10 a day for internet service! I stayed 5 days!

ASL: = Above Sea Level. Sasha and I, being from Washington, DC area, have not been much above sea level and now with our GPS (discussed below), we can tell what elevation we are at at any time. I like to log it so that we can tell how high in the sky we are at a moment's notice.

GPS: = Global Positioning System. Sasha bought the Delorne Topo Mapping software and we installed it on my computer. It came with a little device that allows us to beam to a satellite so that we can see where we are on the map. It is great for getting directions and keeping a log as to where we are and how to get to somewhere else.

Temp or F: I like to record the Temperature when we go places, so that you can understand how cold or warm it is. Remember, we are CAMPING, it is just a little better than being in a tent, so if it is cold, we might be a little cold too. As we get better at gauging how much propane is in our tanks, we won't have to feel cold.