Tag Archives: UEV

Travel Day & Buffalo Bill Dam (Wyoming Gardens RV Park, Thermopolis WY)

We said goodbye to the Shoshone National Forest- Rex Hale Campground around noon and headed back towards Cody.

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We stopped at the Buffalo Bill Dam located 6 miles west of Cody.  The Dam has ample parking for big rigs alongside the highway.  Volunteers were standing by to shuttle visitors to the Dam Visitor Center in golf carts.  The tour is free but the golf cart drivers appreciate tips.

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According to wikipedia™: The 325 feet (99 m) high structure was built between 1905 and 1910.  At the time of its completion it was the tallest dam in the world.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and named a National Civil Engineering Landmark in 1973.  Known at the time of its construction as Shoshone Dam, it was renamed in 1946 to honor William “Buffalo Bill” Cody.

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I read that these log jams are cleaned out on an annual basis.

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View from the top of the dam looking down on the old power plant.  A new power plant was built a little further downstream.

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Looking back towards the visitor center from the other side of the dam.

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Inside the visitors center, an informational video played every 15 minutes inside this mini-theater.

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After our tour of the Buffalo Bill Dam, we headed on into Cody through the Shoshone Canyon Tunnels.  Known as the longest tunnel in Wyoming.

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We then dumped our tanks at the Cody Municipal Public RV Dump Station we passed just before heading south on WY-120.  We traveled through the little town of Meeteetse and then into Thermopolis, the “Gateway to Yellowstone Country” and home of the world’s largest mineral springs.  A 130 mile travel day.

We checked our iPhone apps and other resources to locate a campground and the Rand McNally RVND 7720 turned us on to the Eagle RV Park that offered discounts for Good Sam (10%), Escapees (15%) & Military (15%) but when we pulled in, they didn’t have a site large enough for the Urban Escape Vehicle.

Our next choice was Wyoming Gardens RV Park which we passed on the way through town.  The sites didn’t look large enough initially but we pulled in and found a site we could fit into.  We paid $58.86 for two nights after a 10% veterans discount.  Only 30 Amp power but we’re right in the middle of town and our satellite dish cleared the trees.

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We put a couple steaks on the grill for dinner and I worked on the blog to get caught up after being off the grid for the last several days.  The campground wifi is excellent here.

Check back tomorrow for a recap of our Monday tour of the Wyoming Dinosaur Museum and our visit to the Hot Springs State Park here in Thermopolis.

Touring is hard work… time to take a day off! [1 Aug] (Shoshone National Forest, Rex Hale Campground)

Since we’ve been on the road touring Yellowstone for the last three days, we decided to pay for another day here at Rex Hale Campground, and just relax for the day and maybe plan our next move.

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So we got up late and just hung out in the campground.  I used some of the time to wash a few sections of the Coach and then the Harley.

I also downloaded all the Road Mate DVR clips onto the laptop.  I’ve been using it in the Silverado on our trips through Yellowstone but I don’t think the 2-minute video clips are conducive to using on the blog since most of the files are between 200 and 300 MB in size.  I wrote about purchasing this while we were at the FCRV Campvention Rally in Gillette.  As I mentioned in that post: “These devices normally mount on your dashboard or windshield to record your trip. The advertisement claims that they are designed for your security, protection, and save the best memories of your trip.”  This is all good, but I don’t think I can use any of it in the blog unless I can get the sizing down.  More on this in the future maybe…

We also took a long walk and checked out the North Fork Shoshone river that runs next to the campground…

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Our grandson Kaan played a lot of MineCraft on his X-Box during the day.

Here he took a break from his video games and played with little Coach…

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Little Coach has Kaan down for the count.

And later we burned, I mean toasted, a few marshmallows to make some S’mores.

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Kaan toasting some marshmallows (again).

Life is good…

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This is how little Coach enjoys a campfire.

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And that was our day.  Hope yours was good too 🙂

Authors Note:  Almost caught up now… check back for an update on our moving day (2 Aug) to Thermopolis, WY where we are now…

Yellowstone National Park [31 July] (Shoshone National Forest, Rex Hale Campground)

On Friday the 31st of July, we got another early start so we could tour the northern loop of Yellowstone NP.

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We drove into the park one final time, through the east entrance and over Sylvan Pass.

And then we turned right at Fishing Bridge to do a counter-clockwise loop around the northern or ‘ Upper Grand Loop‘ of the park.

But first, we stopped at the Fishing Bridge General Store to get a fishing license.  Kaan wanted to try his luck, and well – so did I 🙂  The license was $18 and is valid for 3 days.  Kaan didn’t need a license as long as he’s with me, however, the nice clerk gave him a souvenir license anyway.

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We stopped at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River once again because we missed the Inspiration Point drive when we were here before.  Now, I think we’ve seen it all.

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After turning north at Canyon Village, we passed by some more falls;  Tower Falls.  It required a little hike, but it was worth it.

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And after a very scenic drive in a counter-clockwise direction along the northern grand loop, we made it to Mammoth Hot Springs.

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Of course, we stopped at the visitors center and toured the wildlife displays but a large section was closed due to an unexpected power outage.  Oh well, off to the Upper Terrace Drive we went…

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We took some of the boardwalks to see the magnificent area.

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This little geyser popped up through the asphalt in one of the parking areas.  They blocked it off with the concrete barriers.  The scenery here is always changing due to the geo-thermal conditions.

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View of the Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District and Fort Yellowstone in the distance from the Upper Terraces area.  Interesting history here from my friend wikipedia™.

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A small deer was hanging out near the hot springs.

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Kaan just had to touch the water to see how hot it was…  don’t worry, no damage was done to either himself or the environment.

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After spending time at Mammoth Hot Springs, we continued on our counter-clockwise loop until we found a picnic area.  Stilla packed us some lunch as she had each day prior, but this time we needed a picnic table to make our sandwiches and cut up our vegetables.  Sheepeater Cliff was a really unique and picturesque area and we had it all to ourselves for quite a while.

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We continued on past Norris and then back to Canyon Village where we had started our northern loop.  We did it!  We finished the whole park… it took us 4 trips, but it was worth it 🙂

By now, Kaan was getting pretty antsy about putting a pole in the water since we got our license earlier at the Fishing Bridge General Store.  So we stopped along the Yellowstone River between Canyon Village and Fishing Bridge.

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We followed the rule book that we got along with the license and pinched down the barb on our artificial fly.  Kaan had fun but quickly got bored when we didn’t catch anything.  We had to use a clear bobber so the line had some weight in order to throw it out in the current from the shoreline.  Probably not the best method of fly-fishing but Kaan had fun.

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Coyote across the river.  Little “Coach” didn’t like him and barked out the window.  But, he does that for the buffalo too.  As a matter-of-fact, he does that for all wildlife 🙂

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We made it back to our campground (almost 200 miles driven today) and had another enjoyable quiet evening without internet or cell phones.  Although, Kaan always has the X-Box hooked up the back TV so he can entertain himself for hours with MineCraft.

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Authors Note: We’re currently in Thermopolis, WY and I’m trying to get the blog up to date… check back soon for an update on our day of rest at the campground (1 Aug) and our drive here to Thermopolis (2 Aug).  Today (3 Aug) we plan on visiting the hot springs here and maybe the dinosaur museum.

 

Yellowstone National Park [30 July] (Shoshone National Forest, Rex Hale Campground)

On Thursday the 30th we got an earlier start to the day and decided we were finally going to finish the lower loop by turning left at Fishing Bridge and go past Old Faithful, which we saw on our first day.

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We drove the 16 miles from our campground to the East Entrance again.

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By the way – Here’s a sign listing all the campgrounds within the park.  Most are managed by a subcontractor called Xanterra Parks & Resorts Inc.  It would be nice to stay at one of the campgrounds within the park and cut down the travel time.  We have to travel about 27 miles from the East Entrance to Fishing Bridge over Sylvan Pass each day.  But that’s OK 🙂

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Campground sign at the East Entrance to Yellowstone NP.

This time we took the 1 mile turnoff up Late Butte Overlook when we got close to Yellowstone Lake.  We’d passed this Overlook on our other trips into the park.

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As I mentioned before, the east side still shows heavy fire damage from the 1988 ‘Summer of Fire‘.

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Kaan, Stilla, and little Coach at Lake Butte Overlook, Yellowstone NP.
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David, Stilla, and little Coach at Lake Butte Overlook, Yellowstone NP.
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Odd looking burnt tree at Lake Butte Overlook, Yellowstone NP.

This time we also stopped at the Fishing Bridge Visitors Center.

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The visitors center had a pretty cool raised-relief map laid out on a table.

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And this visitors center’s theme was on the fires in Yellowstone.

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Yellowstone Lake behind the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center.

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Stilla & David at Yellowstone Lake.

After crossing Fishing Bridge, we turned west to do our clockwise lower loop tour.

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By the way – I think they need to rename Fishing Bridge to “No-Fishing Bridge” since it is permanently closed to fishing.  That’s just false advertising, don’t you think?

We stopped along the lake a couple more times since the route skirts the northwest edge of the lake until you get to West Thumb.

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Here’s another picture of one of the cool old buses that still take people on tours.  We saw these many times during our visit to the park.  A 1936 National Park Bus.

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We passed by Old Faithful since we saw it on Monday and stopped at Black Sand Basin… one of the many geyser stops along the route.

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And we stopped at more geysers…

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And waterfalls…

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And more geysers…

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Here’s an Elk trying to hide during the day from the masses of people trying to take pictures (us included).

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During one of our stops, Kaan was startled by this female Elk hanging out in a heavily wooded pull-off.

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And here’s some more pictures of geysers and stuff we took during our tour of the lower loop around Yellowstone…  because you just can’t get enough, right?

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We drove up a side road called the Firehole Canyon Drive near Madison and the West Entrance.

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We wanted to stop and go swimming but didn’t have the foresight to bring any swim gear 🙁

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And we made it!  We finally completed the entire lower loop.  I think we put about 150 miles on the truck today.  Tomorrow, our goal will be the upper loop.   We relaxed for the evening with a campfire back at Rex Hale National Forest Campgound.

Authors Note:  It is now Monday morning on the 3rd of August and we are in Thermopolis, WY.  I’ll try to catch you up with our Yellowstone trip as soon as possible… we didn’t have internet or cell phone coverage the entire time we were at our campground, and only very limited phone connectivity while touring the park.

Check back in for our 31 July northern loop tour which includes Mammoth Hot Springs.

 

 

Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum (Colorado Springs, CO)

Most of Thursday and Friday were spent just hiding from the rain.  Enough already!… 28 more days until summer which can’t get here soon enough, in my opinion.

Still no word on the home appraisal.  However, the buyer scheduled a final walk-thru for the 27th.  So apparently, things are still rolling along on track for a June 1st closing 🙂

On Friday evening, we enjoyed dinner at the Elks Lodge with my Dad, stepmom Elaine, and friends Biff and Linda.  It was pork chop night.  Can’t beat the prices and the location, especially since we’re parked in the lot 🙂

We even had some live entertainment before and after dinner.  Here’s friend Linda getting some personalized attention:

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My Dad and Elaine even got up for a dance:

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Saturday, we drove over to Pikes Peak Harley-Davidson (PPHD) for their Memorial Day activities.  The dealership is only a few blocks away from the Elks Lodge.  There was food and live-music on tap; and in addition to the many motorcycles; there was a car show scheduled.

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I’m sure the on-again/off-again rain showers scared most of the car show entries away, there were only a handful of classics/hot rods on hand.

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We had planned on riding the Harley to the Saturday PPHD Memorial Day event, but the threat of rain (once again) forced us to drive.  Besides, I put the Harley and our bicycles in the garage at the house a couple weeks ago due to all the rain we’ve been having.  I purchased my Harley from this dealership back in December 1995.

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’96 Heritage Softail Classic locked away in the garage, safe from the rain.

We met up with my Dad and stepmom in the parking lot and hit one of the outside vendors for lunch.  We took our lunch inside the dealership since it was starting to rain again 🙁

My Dad and stepmom were interested in seeing the motorcycle museum that is located on the upper-level of the dealership.  There’s a really great collection here.  We’ve seen it before, but it was the first time for them:

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The Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame was established in 1992.

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My Dad used to have Yamaha just like this one (below)… I remember riding it around as a teenager.  We wondered if this could be it, but the one my Dad had was a 250, this was a 360.

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One of my favorites; a WLA:

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Most of the old Indians are locked away behind glass.

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Several of the motorcycles here are either on loan or donated from a Mr. Ross Van Etten.  My stepmom knows him from her bowling league.

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Another one of my favorites:

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I remember when these “dirt” bikes came out… It was back in 1999 or so, when they had these for sale at the PX in Germany.  I was very tempted back then… wish I had bought one.

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My Dad and stepmom Elaine at the Pikes Peak Motorcycle Museum.

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If you’re ever in the area… be sure to stop by and check out this awesome collection of vintage motorcycles!

My Dad and stepmom Elaine went on to run errands after touring the museum.  We hung out at the dealership for a while, shopped, and listened to the live music.  Then we called it a day, and hid out from the rain again.

We plan on spending Sunday at the Elks Lodge Memorial Day Picnic.  The pool is supposed to open today and they’ll have brats and burgers on the grill.  Hope the rain holds off for a pleasant change.  Stay tuned…

Who stole the Sun? (Colorado Springs, CO)

I spent Tuesday morning at the house waiting for the appraiser to arrive.  I finally got tired of waiting and left at 1 PM.  I found out later the appraiser used the electronic lockbox at 1:18 PM to get in the house…  oh well, I’m sure it went well.  I’m told we should get the report in a couple days, so we just have to wait again.  Everything else is still on track though, we should close on the 1st of June 🙂

Here’s a (very wet) front-view of the house…

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And the (very wet) front yard.  the mountains are hidden in the low-hanging wet clouds.

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View from the back deck overlooking (very wet) downtown Colorado Springs.

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Are you seeing the theme here?  It’s been a gloomy and very wet April so far.  I don’t think we’ve seen the sun for more than a few minutes the last several days.

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Here’s a couple pics of nearby Fountain creek, which is definitely getting close to overflowing.   Hope this weather gets better soon.

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I stopped by my old high school buddies shop, Chuck’s Auto, located on the west-side of Colorado Springs, just off 21st St.  I you ever need quality work done on your car… this is the place.

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I often hang out here when my buddy Mike (the owner) isn’t too busy.  Unfortunately for me, he’s always busy… which is good for him (business-wise) anyway.

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High school buddy, Mike… Hard at work.

On Wednesday, we hung out at the Coach and waited for long-time friends and blog-readers; Daniel and Monika Malmquist to arrive.  We had made arrangements earlier in the week to go out for dinner together.  We ended up at a local bar/restaurant for a decent meal and good conversation.  Of course the girls chattered together in German while Dan and I got caught up.

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Friends; Danny & Monika Malmquist.

Afterwards, we went back to the Elks Lodge and continued chatting in the downstairs bar.  It was good to catch up with them – see you again soon Danny and Monika!

Then I drove Stilla over to our youngest daughters’ house for the night.  She’s going to dog-sit for a couple days while they go out of town.  Meanwhile, I will play the bachelor until Friday, which really means; I can watch whatever I want on TV 🙂

Stay tuned…

Back to Reality and More Rain (Colorado Springs, CO)

On Sunday morning we joined my Dad and stepmom Elaine at a church service in the Morgan County Fairgrounds main building with the other FCRV members.

Afterwards, a small group of us carpooled into town for a hearty breakfast.  Then it was time to pack up and head out since our fun-time here has come to an end 🙁  We were supposed to be out of the fairgrounds before noon.

My Dad was hooking up his Jeep to tow as I pulled up beside him.  We planned to convoy back to Colorado Springs together.

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He hooked up his (new to him) Blue Ox™ towbar that he got a good deal on thru Craigslist.

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And then he hooked up his RVi™ supplemental braking system.  I have an older Brake Buddy™ version, this one is pretty nice, but I’d still like to get one of those Roadmaster InvisiBrake™ systems that I’ve seen at recent rallies.  Maybe one of these days…

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For those that are interested; here’s my Blue OX™ Aventa LX (10,000 lb) towbar hiding underneath the Roadmaster mesh tow defender that I purchased and had installed while at the FMCA Rally in Pomona. (Link HERE).  I think the tow defender is doing its job protecting the front of the Silverado, but only time will tell…

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My Dad followed us from the fairgrounds until we stopped for fuel at the Flying J in Limon.  He was running low and needed to fill up.  We had already filled up here on the way to the rally, but I used the opportunity to fit another 25 gallons into the 115 gallon tank.  It’s always best to keep the tank as full as possible to head off condensation issues in the fuel tank.  We know that we’ll have to spend at least another few weeks parked while we (hopefully) close on the house.

We switched it up and my Dad took over the lead after our fuel stop.  We followed along behind until we got to Colorado Springs.

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Pikes Peak grew larger and larger as we ticked down the miles and got closer to the Springs.

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And here’s another pic of the Urban Escape Vehicle that my stepmom sent me on her phone after we took over the lead again once we were in town.  Yup… it’s starting to rain again 🙁

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We stayed in touch with walkie-talkies while we were on our mini-convoy; we said our farewells once we got back on I-25 and I exited on Nevada Avenue.  We made it back to the Elks Lodge in Colorado Springs and were able to dump our tanks just before it started to rain hard.  We then relaxed for the evening and hid out from the infrequent rain.

On Monday, I spent time at the house working off some of the minor deficiencies as a result of the home inspection that the potential buyer had conducted last Friday.  We received an Inspection Objection Notice with a list of items that the buyer would either like to have fixed or he would like to receive compensation for.  After working off some of the items on the list, i.e., sticking door, loose door knob, caulking and insulation on central A/C lines, etc., I consulted with my realtor and we reached a decision to give the buyer some smaller $ amount in concessions.  We’re pretty sure it was the buyer’s intent all along to nit-pick on the inspection so he could get help with his closing costs.  So, we submitted a response to that effect, got positive feedback from the buyers realtor, and therefore hope to be closing on or about the 1st of June 🙂

This morning (Tuesday), we are expecting an appraiser to be at the house.   So I intend to brave the constant rain (it rained all night too) and go over to the house to answer any questions or do whatever might help things along… The appraisal is the last hurdle to get through on this home selling (mis)adventure.  Wish us luck…

 

FCRV Rally – continued (Brush, CO)

On Saturday, we joined most of the 100+ FCRV attendees here at the Morgan County Fairgrounds for a flag-raising ceremony.  The flags arrived in a parade of old John Deere tractors.

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After the flag-raising ceremony and accompanying musical tribute(s); we were able to peruse some of the classic agricultural-engineering-vehicles; aka “tractors”.

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Checking out tractors was almost as fun as a classic car show 🙂

Then we joined the smaller group for our morning 2-mile walk again:

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As we rounded the park on our walk-about, we came upon a rather large group of local boy scouts:

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They were shooting up their Estes Rockets…

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Several of our walking group stayed to watch some of the rocket-launching activities.  We saw one go into a tree; and one got hung on a telephone cable; and another one or two, plummeted down like missiles when their parachutes didn’t open.  It brought back memories of childhood… ahhh, to be young again.

Later in the day, around noon-time, we took part in the raffle and vendor sale activities in the event building.  They served hot-dogs, brats, and ice-cream.  We also joined many others in wandering around the grounds on a scavenger hunt.  We had to find hidden flags with a flamingo on them to mark our scorecards… when complete, we turned them in for a chance to win prizes.

Then it was time for another “happy-hour”:

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Just before dinnertime, we watched another storm front move into the area.

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Luckily, the heavy rain passed us by and we were able to stay somewhat dry.

After another fine dinner at the events building we gathered again for announcements and door prizes.  I won one of the 50/50 drawings from earlier, Yoo Hoo!… $65 dollars!

Our friend Linda, (below) won a $25 gift certificate from the previous days’ downtown scavenger hunt.  Unfortunately, the certificate is only good at local establishments… and guess what?  They’re all closed on Sunday and the certificate expires in a few months.  Sorry Linda.

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And then Stilla won the drawing for the Flamingo scavenger hunt!  A $30 dollar Visa gift card.  Yoo Hoo again!

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Today (Sunday), we head on back to Colorado Springs.  It’s been a great time with family (Dad & Stepmom Elaine), and our other friends in the FCRV group.

In other news from the home-selling front:  We got the results of the home inspection that was conducted on Friday by the buyer.  I was pleasantly surprised, but we have a few things to work out with the buyer.  More on that in my next posting… stay tuned…

Dodging Tornados at the FCRV Rally (Brush, CO)

Our first full day (Friday) at the FCRV “Spring-Fling” Rally started out with a 2-mile walk for those members that wanted to go.

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A rather nice, scenic route was marked for us by Rally volunteers.  It went around a pond and the local park.  The weather was cool but dry.

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Here’s our friend Linda walking Porter… or is Porter walking Linda?

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We walked past the Brush Area Museum and Cultural Center, which is a former schoolhouse built in 1912.  Maybe we will find time later to check it out since it’s right next to the fairgrounds where we’re parked.

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We returned to the fairgrounds after our walk-about.  We logged in our miles at the events building… the miles are converted into “Brush-Bucks” that can be used to purchase FCRV related items.

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We hung out at the fairgrounds most of the day except for the girls who went on a scavenger hunt of sorts, to get stamps from local businesses downtown.  A drawing for prizes will be held later this weekend for those that participated.

And, then we had a little excitement just before dinnertime.  We got tornado warnings on our iPhones and could see the clouds heading our way:

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Pretty ominous looking, eh?

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The local police even stopped by to make sure we were all aware.

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We watched the whirling clouds as they got closer and closer… luckily (for us) they passed over without incident.

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We put away all the chairs and tables and hunkered down to hide from the rain that we could still see coming our way after the tornado-like clouds passed.  The rain, mixed with a brief hail-storm passed quickly.

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We then went to the events building to enjoy a catered meal of BBQ pulled-pork.

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There was also a section of “flea-market” type items for sale that we perused.  Members donate the items and the proceeds go to the club.  There was even a kitchen sink for sale there 🙂

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We finished off our first evening with entertainment from a Father/Daughter team.  They were really good, and had CDs for sale after the show.

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That’s all for now… stay tuned…

 

A House Offer & Weekend Outing (Brush, CO)

It’s was a good morning Thursday.  First-of-all; it wasn’t raining for a change.  And second-of-all; we finally got a good offer on the house!  I got the email from my Uncle (the realtor) as we were packing up to meet our group so we could convoy to the FCRV “Spring-Fling” Rally in Brush, CO.

We delayed our departure a little bit while I brought up the contract via email and applied our digital signatures.  We got very close to our asking price with no seller concessions.  Now, the only thing to worry about is the home inspection scheduled for this morning (Friday).  Hopefully it appraises appropriately and the inspector doesn’t find anything expensive for me to fix that I wasn’t aware of.  Our expected closing date will be the first week of June contingent on the buyer getting his existing house sold.  He’s scheduled to close on his house in Canon City at the end of this month.

We were about 15 minutes late joining our convoy at the designated  place (E Woodmen Rd and I-24).  After hugs and greetings we all headed east on I-24 to Limon where I left the convoy to fuel up at the Flying J.  Since we were going to be dry-camping (no electric or water) at the upcoming rally, I need to have at least 1/4 tank of diesel in the fuel tank or the generator won’t run.  This is a built-in safety feature to prevent folks from using all their fuel while boondocking and then not being able to drive to a gas station.  It’s no easy task to get a diesel engine started again after it runs out of fuel due to air in the injector lines.

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After Limon, we took Hwy 71 north to Brush.  We never caught back up with the group on the road, but they were still setting up when we joined them again at the Morgan County Fairgrounds.

So, about 150 miles later… we parked the Urban Escape Vehicle and joined everyone for “Happy Hour”…

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Even little Coach enjoys “Happy Hour”!

After “happy hour”, we all (eight of us) went out for dinner in downtown Brush and made it back in time for Stilla to join the other girls for card bingo at the event building.  No, she didn’t win big 😐

Here’s my Dad and stepmom Elaine in front of their Jeep.  They towed the Jeep for the first time since he got the baseplate installed and  found a good deal on a used Blue Ox tow bar.

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My Dad and Stepmom Elaine.

So stay tuned… we’ll enjoy activities and the company of the FCRV group this weekend and then probably head back to Colorado Springs on Sunday.  Our spot at the Elks Lodge is already paid-up until the 1st of June.