2022 June NM, CO staying cool

  June 2022. A relatively short drive to Taos, NM from Santa Fe, NM, we took what is called “the high road” passing through small scenic villages with glimpses of the Rio Grande River. A specifically scenic area that you would not want to miss is the Rio Grande Gorge National Monument. Today we saw the southern portion which also has campsites in “Santa Fe Ranch Recreation area”. This is BLM land with established campsites not boondocking.

As we take a turn along the road SURPRISE! Bighorn sheep

Rio Grande Gorge

No campsite available in the Rio Grande Gorge, so in Taos, NM we stayed at a casino, unfortunately the restaurant was not open due to covid. Nice and quiet night, horses grazing next to us, had asphalt to park on, so in the morning I finished installing the trailer jack. Now if we need to, we can disconnect the trailer!

Breakfast in Taos, you have got to eat local for the flavors are amazing! Then a quick drive through town for it is all shops and tourist stuff that do not interest us very much, then a drive along the “Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway.” I also happened to see this in Leisure Travel Vans (LTV) newsletter which makes it even better for us as LTV owners. Such a beautiful drive along mountain passes as high as 9767 feet elevation. Then through a high mountain valley with 2 towns, Angel Fire and Eagles Nest. Wow, such a beautiful drive through the mountains of New Mexico. A Vietnam Memorial (first National Memorial in US established by the father of a fallen hero) Further along the loop is Red Rock, a small village, ski lift (very tempting) and other tourist attractions. Stopping for an ice cream next to the Fly-Fishing shop, we walk and enjoy the scenery.

At the other end of the Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway is the Northern end of the Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument with fantastic view of the Rio Grande Gorge! Oh WOW!

This is where the Fire River joins the Rio Grande River

Looking North on the Rio Grande River.

It is so quiet here, Tanya wants to spend several days, I’m not so sure I can sit still that long with nothing to do. So, we are taking it day by day.

A couple of days here with constant rain and cold, decided to go over the mountains to Colorado Springs where it’s less rain and warmer. Beautiful drive through the Sante Christo mountains, over a high pass. We noticed allot of RV going both directions, watched license plates and most were local Colorado.

Turns out it was Sunday so people were going home after the weekend. Another example of retired life, “what day is it?”?

After spending 4 days in Colorado Springs running errands, doing minor repairs, picking up Amazon orders its time to go to cooler climes. The weather was definitely warmer than Taos and no rain! I had a full day ride checking out the town and nearby Fort Carson Army Base, I love ridding the scooter around town!

Over the hill 1 1/2n hour ride to Pikes Peak National Forest, Badger Meadows Dispersed Camping area. Coming up is the 4^th of July weekend so I know there will be allot of 4 wheelers and dirt bikes ridding around. The first few days were really quiet and I welcomed watching all the OHV running around. After 3 days I felt ENOUGH ALREADY! Hahahahaha not so bad really, but I am missing the quiet.

 

Tanya and I got out for some hiking and scooter ridding. 

I made a longer trip and caught these signs that described the early days in the area.

We’ve spent 6 days boondocking in Pikes Peak National Forest then went into Colorado Springs for a few days taking care of eye exam, RV warranty work then back out to boondocking! Boy we love this lifestyle!

Today’s scooter ride I explored CR 72 through rolling hills following the Tarryall creek towards it’s origin. While cruising slowly at 35 mph, a herd of motorcycle riders pass me, spooked me and I realized I have slowed down considerably.

Another cool sign describes the area growth.

Arriving back at camp, we work on adding the Kelty tarp to help in the afternoon sun comes directly broadside to the coach. We wanted this spot because it has the best view of the valley.

I took the day for a scooter ride to higher elevation Cripple Creek, CO. This is the largest gold mine in the world! The 70-mile ride was spectacular until the end when a rain and hail storm caught up with me. I arrived home wet, cold tired ☹. But while it lasted it was excellent. Very curvy roads with such immense vista’s, I recommend it for a scenic route.

The motorcycle did not like it so much for it is an older scooter with standard carburetor’s and above 9,000’ the fuel air mixture was very poor, and performance was really lacking. At peak elevation 10,240’ it was really bad, struggling on the climbs, miss firing.

The town of Cripple Creek consisted mostly of casino’s The older storefronts remained, but it had been merged into one long building on each side of the road forming the casinos.

This is what the call a Frittatta here,

The story on this one is that a Coal Miner would make $3.00 a day high wages back then. The Ladies in this establishment would make $250. Per customer! WhooHoo what a profit!

For a tour, I preferred the Mollie Kathleen Mine; I did tour the mine itself where you go 1,000’ below the surface and they give demonstrations of the original method of drilling (by hand) and advanced method using air power. The original labor was burros until President Roosevelt felt it was cruel and inhumane to keep these creatures below ground their entire life and they would go blind. Then the method was air powered engines to move the ore carts.

Government regulations????

This is the lift that took us below ground.

Even 1,000’ below ground you must have an outhouse.

 Through the end of July we stayed in the Rockies keeping cool during a heat wave in the middle of the US. Mostly Boondocking west of Colorado Springs then errands in Colorado Springs and Denver before going up to Cheyane, WY for "Frontier Days".

Having warranty work accomplished in Colorado Springs at Van City RV was a good experience, their team of technician's, office staff were truly excellent at their jobs, pleasant to work with. I highly recommend them not only for sales but service. These items we brought were very minor, the LTV did an excellent job on building the RV. Some other manufacturers products did not work so well. The only one I have a complaint with is Carefree Awnings. The motor failed to stop properly when opening and failed to fully close. The adjustment was ineffective and in fact made the motor much worse. So after getting approval for warranty replacement of the motor we wait even more for Carefree to respond on ordering the motor.

I have had a total of 4 brand new RV's over the 30+ years I have been RVing. The LTV has had the very least of troubles of them all. AND it is not even the most expensive RV I have ever purchased!

After my previous Blog where I went to the Mining town at 10,200' elevation and my motorcycle would not perform a this elevation because it was a older model with carburation and the fuel air mixture will not work without changing jets in the carburetor. This was the final deciding factor to trade up for a larger bike, newer with fuel injection and capable of carrying both Tanya and I. I did online research to identify a bike that short people are comfortable with and we went to Denver, CO to check out the bike shops. Due to supply chain shortages there are very few new bikes available. Fortunately, there was a used bike that fit my needs very well.

2014 Honda CTX700. This is a "Cruiser" style of bike, highway speeds are very comfortable, very low vibration, responsive at higher and lower speeds as well as slow steady climbing up the mountain.

Tennessee Pass 10,454 elevation. I never do selfies and did not know that there is a function to change the text in pictures that reverses the text. :)

This is a route between Leadville, CO and Aspen, CO. Independence Pass was over 12,000' elevation!

Tanya had flown back to MD for Dr appointment and mother/daughter time. So, I spent a week in Leadville, CO and made 3 different scooter rides of increasing distance and complexity. The last here going over Independence Pass was a very steep, very winding road that had 2 hairpin turns at 10 MPH, also so narrow that 2 locations had traffic stoplights for only one lane available due to the narrow road. I am not at all afraid of heights, but this road I definitely felt vertigo! 

You can almost reach out and touch the snow.

Leadville has interesting museums to see mostly mining. The town itself has buildings with character too. The use of old barnwood make it look really interesting.

Having to return to Denver to pick up the title for the motorcycle I continued on to Cheyane, WY for "Frontier Days". The first weekend the Air Force Base where I stayed had their own demonstrations of historic military items such as tanks, jeeps from WWI and WWII, Vietnam. Also 1800 village in period dress, blacksmiths, EOD demonstrations (EOD- explosive demotion detachment). 

2022 June NY through southeast west to NM

  2022 June, Early Summer, New York

We moved the RV to upstate NY when the campgrounds opened up. Having Tanya here at home when I come back from work is sooo nice! (Tanya: I am very happy I get to see my husband every day now, not just weekends!) I am finishing a 3½ month work assignment at a hospital in Cooperstown, NY, known for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The best thing I will always remember about this assignment is the people I worked with. I even coined a phrase that I never expected to for work colleagues, “Neighbors treating each other as neighbors.”  Everyone treated each other as neighbors, not colleagues that you won’t see after work. Because you would see each other around town, gossip is the village main form of communication.

This is our last weekend here and we’re going out for breakfast and driving down these beautiful country roads, it is always a treat, then swinging by the hospital to check on something before going back to the RV. By now it has warmed up enough for a motorcycle ride along farm roads through the NY countryside. Awesome views of smaller mountains, rolling hills, farms.

An Amish farmer has a horse hitched to his lawn mower and is cutting his lawn in front of the house, he waves as we roll by at about 25 mph. Next sight is a young filly by his mother prancing in the field, he trots out to see what our motorcycle is and his mother calls him back, prancing like the world is here just for him!

Today’s motorcycle ride of 22 miles round trip and Tanya gets up to 31 mph! Such a beautiful ride through the countryside.

Sunday morning, we take a long ride through the Catskills on Hwy 23 until we reach Albany, where Tanya’s favorite store Trader Joe’s is. We stock up and head for home on Hwy 20. An impressive view of the Mohawk Valley below us along the route.

Although it would have been really nice to stay in the Catskill Mountains and enjoy the weather and countryside longer, we had promised my youngest grandson and his new bride a visit. Our goal is western Louisiana with stops along the way.

Tanya has a visitor while she is working.

 

A short stop in Maryland, we connected with old friends Jess and Lise. They are planning a trip out west and we shared with them some online tools for traveling, so perhaps we can connect out west somewhere too. Both of them have retired since I saw them last, and they have put a lot of work into their home. It is very nice, and I know they will be happy there. My parting comment to them was that the only thing that had not changed in their home was from Jess' bachelor days of congregating around the kitchen table!

Being retired again and not in any hurry we drove another section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The new RV made it a dream to ride the hills and curves, plenty of power, very little sway to the coach. I took the motorcycle off the back and rode the parkway with Tanya following me. Mmmmm, so nice. Tanya discovered that it was like playing a video game, slight lag and you are making the same turns as the motorcycle in front of you.

Staying over in Roanoke, VA so that Tanya would have internet in the morning, we learn that the Parkway is closed for the next section due to a bridge repair.

This ride showed why it is called Blue “Ridge” Parkway, there was a section where you are on the very top of the ridge and can see over on both sides! Wow, so cool!

Ach, you can feel the thick humidity, the temperature is high too. But we expected this going south instead of north at this time of year. The new RV sure makes it much more comfortable with these higher temperatures. I plan on adding perforated vinyl to the windows similar to the last RV to block heat from coming inside. Tanya agrees for the comfort purpose but hates to reduce the visibility. Perhaps 10% reduction in visibility but 90% reduction in heat gain through the windows. See, rationalization helps!

Arriving at son Doug’s in SC I worked hard in the heat getting the kayak trailer ready to take to grandson in LA. SO HOT! Not used to it anymore, high 90s, high humidity. Got half of the windows covered with perforated vinyl (had to order more material). Tanya was working inside when I did the skylight with the sun dropping onto her, she said she felt immediate change when I stuck on the perforated vinyl!

Once the trailer and kayaks were ready, we headed to a COE (Army Corp of Engineers) campsite near Augusta, GA. It's very nice on the lake, cooler temperatures, so we were able to take a walk in the morning. Great to relax a little.

We are now at another COE near Tuscaloosa, AL staying for 2 days to relax and slow down a little. It takes more of a thought process change to stop longer and enjoy the location. I took a motorcycle ride around town to see the sights and the University of Alabama campus was impressive, “Roll Tide” was displayed allot in the area too. Nearby the college was historical homes, in one neighborhood the road was a loop that had large Antebellum homes along both sides as you slowly ride down the road. The foundation of the previous capital building was still there in a park alongside the Old Tavern.

Last stop on the trip to see grandson is Jackson, MS. We stayed over in LaFleur’s State Park which was very close to town, so I got out the motorcycle to tour the town while Tanya works in the morning. Another former Capital building, the new Capital building, and the Governors house all nearby each other and much larger than in Tuscaloosa, AL. One historical placard described the Cadets at a military college had gone out to defend the city from General Sherman's advance but missed them and when returning to campus were ordered to stand down. Interesting?

The 2^nd Capital Building.

We arrive at grandson Zach and his wife Stormy's late in the day and they came out to the campground to meet us. We had a great time chatting and catching up until early evening.

The newlyweds have worked hard to make a pretty, comfortable home on a shoestring budget! Just like all of us starting out, outfit your home with hand me downs, garage sales, even curb pickups! They have been actively pursuing this and it looks great!! They are in Army housing and quite large spaces, garage, it is shared with others similar to a condo, upstairs spaces for one family, downstairs is another family. We are so proud of them and what they have accomplished.

Both Zach and Stormy birthday dinner at the local steak house, they told us that behind us there was someone from work and his platoon would tease him with belly slaps if they knew it was his birthday. Ach I am so stuffed! I did notice that both Zach and Stormy ate until full then stopped. They took the leftovers home; wow wish I could do that! 

We had brought the kayaks here for them to use during the summer, we looked at the garage and it is very long so the trailer with kayaks on top will fit very well inside. The height of the garage door is a concern for I have the kayaks on a rack above the trailer so that the motorcycles would ride beneath them. Fortunately, I have installed the racks so that they can be adjusted in height, so it is not going to be a problem.

    Apparently, we had a hitchhiker from the campground. Stormy was not too keen on this visitor! That’s Zach holding the visitor.

 

The campsite on base only had availability through Saturday, I had been trying to reach the campground on Toledo Bend but their phones were out. So, I spoke to the campground staff at the base campground, and they had a personal cell phone of someone at Toledo Bend and we were able to reach out and get a campsite there for the following few days.

Our last meal with Zach and Stormy. Getting with the locals in Louisiana. Wow, that was a lot of fun!

Can’t wait until fall when we visit Zach and Stormy again. It will be cooler, and we can spend more time with them.

The heat and humidity are so very oppressive in Louisiana, so we head out looking for cooler climate in the Rocky Mountains. Several COE campgrounds, lodges to stay cool with air conditioning at night. While traveling we are very pleased with the LTV's dash AC during the day, it keeps the whole coach comfortable while driving down the road.

Having the motorcycles on the back rack is our preferred method to carry the scooters. BUT even though the weight calculations are right, the extended bar (part of the calculations) keeps drooping the more miles we put on it. I determined that the receiver is twisting to allow this drooping… The effect is that we are more and more often scrapping on dips in the road.

Time to give it up and go to another method. Shopping both enclosed trailers, car dollies, motorcycle trailers, we finally decided on this motorcycle trailer. The man we purchased this from built it himself and was very gracious to assist in modifications so that it works well for us. This alone made the decision to purchase this one, for I do not carry welding gear, cutting tools, heavy drills etc. Excellent choice, the trailer tows behind us accurately, so stopping in tight areas is not so tough to maneuver in.

Pretty cool looking trailer!

We are currently in Santa Fe, NM enjoying the cooler weather. It is monsoon season, but a few showers each day is easy to deal with compared to the heat wave crossing the country right now.

First weekend here, we went over to the Bandelier National Monument and Los Alamos to see the “Manhattan Project” museum.

Due to small parking lots you leave your RV at the county visitor center where the shuttle will take you to the NPS Visitor Center ???? Trust me, it works! Also, the county visitor center has RV connections for $20 daily, so if you want to spend more than a day exploring the area you don’t have to move your RV.

Bandelier was named for the individual who saw the site and wrote a book about it causing others to come and see for themselves. Education of the peoples at the time, artifacts. Very nice 1½ mile hike to see the pueblo.

Up on the hillside are caves where Ancestral Puebloans lived, in time a circular town was built at the base of the cliff. Much more information on pueblo life and sustenance is there but you will have to visit to see for yourself!

We did get to the Bradbury Science Museum where you learn all about the Manhattan Project and much more. The Laboratory is still very active today so you cannot tour it. The museum provides information about the lab and the many research projects they work on besides maintaining the safety of the US nuclear arsenal.

Nearby there is 1½ mile trail Tsankawi with pueblo caves alongside the trail. Very comfortable weather to be hiking!

Sunset at our campsite. Notice the way the fences are made here in Santa Fe.

For the week we spent in Santa Fe and Los Alamos, for a day trip we really enjoyed the weather. The eastern half of the country was in a very high heat condition, and we were enjoying cool temperature where no air conditioning was needed, this is great boondocking experience. The monsoon season has reached us and the rain became more and more prevalent, so it's time to move on even though we had not seen all the things we were interested in seeing. The rains do not reach all the way to Pueblo, CO so that is the general direction we are going to go.

Time to start a new blog, for this one is quite long. See you soon on another post of our travels.