It has been a week since our one night stop in Utah. We traversed  the beauty of Utah and then Colorado on I 70.  This may be the most beautiful piece of interstate in the entire country, some drivers might not agree as it is also the steepest and curviest interstate we can remember. The coach caused a few heart stopping moments as it downshifted and complained about working so hard in such high temperatures, but it climbed every mountain. 

We setup at the Grand Junction Elks Lodge with 50 amp power and no water or sewer available. We planned ahead for 5 nights and water conservation left us with a surplus even after cooking dinner for four onboard the last night. We go together with Simonne and Steve each day we were there. Simonne is our son Dan’s sister-in-law. They were in the midst of selling there house and moving into another house they own so the daytimes were mostly devoted to letting them work and then gathering for dinner and celebration after the closing. It was thrilling for us to be able to be there as family to offer support and even to carry a few things. Although we have known them for over 20 years and have visited in past years this was the first time we got to spend real time together. Carol and I cherish the time, the visit and seeing them move onto another stage of their lives.

We moved on to Buena Vista at over 8,000 feet to visit with our friends the Kelenbachs from our trip to Thailand and Vietnam in 2013. We have visited them most every year as we cross though Tucson, Arizona where they winter. Upon arrival the water heater decided to take a vacation. We had dinner at their fifth wheel which is their summer home, the first night. It was a lovely afternoon of conversation and then dinner. I awoke determined to fix the water heater, a call to Girard support yielded little help. Clearly we were not getting sufficient water through the heater to turn it on. It dawned on me that the filter might be a problem even though it was just 2 months old. When I pulled it I could see it had been used. Replacing it did not help. After dinner in town with our friends at a fun restaurant we setout in the morning for a 2 hour drive to Florence CO, only Google knows where it is. We are in a lovely new campground – it opened January 2021! They are still building it. Our site is huge 40×70 with brand new utilities and high quality plastic turf.  Our view out the windshield is Pikes Peak in the middle distance. 

The water heater has returned to working, Carol is finding more O2 in the air at this lower altitude and it is back to HOT!. We went into town to find a new filter and bread. Got the filter. Tomorrow we will drive around the Royal Gorge area. Carol wants to find a zip line she can ride since the one she looked at has a 100 pound minimum. I will report on the outcome in another post. It is cooling off, down to 88 so I can get the grill out soon. 

In the midst of all this goldberg-online.net was hacked, it became the source of a phishing operation.  This lead Blue Host to shut it down. I called Dan in some panic and within a couple of days, between his horseback riding, celebrating with friends and work got it restored, which is how come you can read this. Carol’s site http://cgstudio.net was collateral damage and it too is restored. Next we will secure them.

No destination for Saturday, yet