Our Travel Blog

Again a coolish night, no problem sleeping.

After breakfast I headed out to the local hardware store to pick up the fittings I needed to install the new faucets. Well that was an exercise in futility, the store had nothing that could even be cobbled together to get the required end result.

Back at the trailer Lyn was busy quilting, so I played computer programmer for a while.

The weather forecasters here aren’t too bad at forecasting the weather, but leave a lot to be desired when it comes to forecasting the temperature. Again we reached up into the low 90’s. I think the heat has been one of the reasons we have been happy to hang around here and do very little, another reason is that there is very little to do.

Some kids had the audacity to take over “our” swimming pool (we’re usually the only people in the campground in the early afternoon) playing a noisy game of Marco Polo. We gave the pool a miss!

I started packing up a lot of the outside stuff in preparation for an early morning departure tomorrow. The next campground will be the last on this trip except for 2 days in Alabama which will be the new permanent home for the trailer. Hopefully the next week will see a little more activity in the touring department.

A cool night last night, down to 18C at one stage. We managed to leave the A/C off all night and most of the morning.

In keeping with the idea that this stop is a “vacation within a vacation”, nothing was planned for today, and likely not for tomorrow either!

Lyn continued working on her quilt, and I started on installing the new faucets. I got the old ones out without too much bother, installed the new ones and went to connect them up….. whoops, different fittings, they won’t connect. No problem, off to the local hardware store, they’re bound to have what I need. They almost certainly had the right fittings, but being deep in the heart of darkest rural Kansas the shop was well and truly closed, this being a Sunday. Back to the trailer, take out the new faucets, put in the old ones, pretend nothing happened and wait until tomorrow!

After lunch we headed out for a walk, we decided to see if we could find the cache that eluded us the other day. After 30 seconds of searching we found it. We managed to get a 1.5 mile walk in, which is the first lengthy walk for a couple of weeks due to the heat.

Back at the campground we went over to the pool before the itinerant hoards arrived and had the place to ourselves.

There was one other group that stayed for the day, they were in a rather sophisticated tent. Not the best picture as it was in the shade.

About 2 AM we awoke, or were awoken, by the sound of rain and thunder. There was also a near non stop display of lightning from above the clouds. After watching the spectacle for a while, it was back to sleep until our usual wake up time.

After breakfast we hung around the trailer, although initially it wasn’t as hot as it had been, the humidity had risen to about 60%. Recently humidity levels had been below the 30% mark.

Lyn did some quilting, and I set about devising a way to create some storage space in the trailer from a wasted area we had found that existed behind a panel near the entrance way.

After lunch we headed out to Hays, about 30 miles away to do our weekly shopping. We also wanted to get a new faucet set for the kitchen as the current set is beginning to corrode and is getting difficult to move. A job for tomorrow.

The humidity was increasing, as was the temperature which peaked at 34C, we then got a few showers and the thunder started rumbling again. After a quick visit to Home Depot for the faucets, there was a more leisurely stop at Hobby Lobby then we got the grocery shopping out of the way. This was the last major grocery shopping of the trip.

Back at the trailer we sat outside surrounded by dark grey clouds, the rumble of thunder and a severe thunderstorm warning. The storm was still a fair way off as far as visible lightning was concerned, but the the rumble of thunder was nearly constant. As the storm got closer, it started to rain, a good hint to head inside. We were then treated to more intense lightning and much louder claps of thunder. Looking at the radar, these storms are likely to continue well into the night.

The good news is the temperature has dropped to 20C and we can switch off the A/C. Forecast temperatures for the next few days are more reasonable at around 28C.

A coolish night, the A/C didn’t need to run all night long!

Today was a vacation day, of sorts! This morning was reasonably cool, so we sat outside for a while in the breeze. Then I got bored! I needed to do a little first aid on the truck, it suffered an injury going through the car wash a few days ago. As the car wash machine started up and approached the truck I decided it would be a good idea to read the warning signs, one of which was “we accept no responsibility for damage to bug shields”. Umm, wonder if that applies to me?? It was too late do anything about the situation, so I just sat there and watched as the revolving brushes attacked my bug shield, pulling one side off the hood. Out of the car wash I managed some temporary repairs, then yesterday in Great Bend I got some replacement fasteners. Unfortunately I wanted fasteners that fitted a 9 mm hole, 9 mm is a foreign language down here, so I got a pack of what looked like 9 mm. I was close they were 3/8″, just under 1 mm too large, nothing a sharp knife couldn’t fix!

The bug shield is now firmly back in place.

Next project was to fix the igniter on the BBQ, I have four deceased igniters here from previous repairs (I have problems throwing some things away) but no new ones. Much to my amazement all 4 dead ones had come back to life, I guess they just needed a rest!

BBQ now ignites at the push of a button.

After lunch we headed out on a geocaching session, we found 6 out of 7. Not bad, after a bit of research I think I can find the 7th as well.

Yet again the temperatures were in the high 90’s so we were pretty warm after we got back to the trailer, so it was off to the pool to cool down.

I will NOT mention BREXIT and our pensions

It must have cooled down quite a bit last night as the A/C was not running when we woke up. After breakfast we decided to head out for a day trip to Great Bend, about 100 miles away. There was a quilt walk that Lyn had read about that described the life of early settlers and their quilting patterns. There was also a pioneer type village that sounded interesting. To top it all off we could get there and back on a scenic drive.

As we headed south the sky ahead of us got darker and darker, but that wasn’t a worry as the scenery was superb as we passed through some Kansas Mountains.

A few miles further south we made a 90 degree left turn and the weather ahead looked much better, although about 20 minutes later the radio programme was interrupted with an Emergency Broadcast Message warning of severe thunderstorms and hail to the south of us. As we were heading east we weren’t too concerned, beside we had the sights of the scenic byway to look at.

The area was generally crop farming, with a few cattle herds added in. In addition there were a number of small oil wells in many of the fields, I guess this provided supplementary income to the farmers?

Below are a couple of general views that we took along the way.

The bad weather stayed to the south of us…….. until we got about 10 miles from our destination, then the rain started. The good news was that the temperatures had stayed cool, 21C by the time we hit Great Bend. As the rain was a little too heavy for walking, especially as we had left jackets and hats in the trailer (remember it was sunny and warm when we left) we went for a coffee. The rain began to ease off so we headed off to see the quilt walk. Unfortunately the quilt walk was on the same par as Kansas Mountains and Kansas Scenic Routes, just a tad underwhelming. There were four “quilts” inset into paving stones at four corners of a park surrounding the court house, no explanations, no history….. nothing to even acknowledge them.

The Courthouse:Next stop, the “pioneer” village. We didn’t even stop there, as we drove by we could see it was a group of less than a dozen buildings lined up along the edge of the street, many of them appeared to be closed up.

We found a place for a late lunch, then decided to head back. About 10 miles out of town the rain stopped, the sky’s cleared and the temperature climbed slowly from 21C to 31C. I guess Great Bend wasn’t to keen on us visiting!

NOTE:

No tongues or cheeks were hurt in the writing of this blog.

An early wake-up call for us today. Most of the pack-up work was done last night, and we were on the road by 07:50.

The first 100km or so of the trip was on 2 lane and 4 lane roads with traffic lights and varying speed limits. After that we joined Interstate I-70 for the rest of the journey. Total distance to our new destination Wakeeney Kansas. Kansas is another new State for us.

I have to admit to being a little nervous about this trip given our past record, but the truck and trailer behaved very well. No warning messages, no power losses etc. The temperature was not on our side as it climbed to 39°C or 103°F.

We arrived at the campsite and checked in, we then drove over to our site and started to set up. When it came to moving the truck to disconnect it, it wouldn’t start!!! It was the old problem of losing prime in the fuel filter, which was easily fixed. In some ways I wasn’t too upset with this little set back; the heat under the hood must have been somewhere above 150°F. I suspect this was more a case of air bubbling out of the diesel due to heat rather than air leaking in from the filter seal.

We have managed to choose another site in the middle of nowhere, but this stop is going to be a “rest stop” without too much site seeing. The blogs may not be too interesting for the next week.

Last night was the first time since we arrived at this site that we left the air conditioning on. Obviously we woke up to a nice cool trailer. As on most Mondays (the day before we leave for the next site) we had very little planned for the day.

There were a couple of mundane, but essential jobs that needed doing, e.g. flush out the sewerage tank, but other than that we just sat around either inside or out depending on how hot we felt reading or solving puzzles.

After lunch we headed into Cañon City to get some pictures from Skyline Drive, I remembered the camera this time.

Views to the west, showing the road we had just been on.

View to the east showing Cañon City

Views straight ahead, who needs guard rails (Hazel, you would have loved driving this road!!) From there we headed to the far end of the city where Lyn wanted to do a bit of shopping, then we headed back to get some gas and to head into a do it yourself car wash. I didn’t want to wash the truck, but I did want to clean out the radiator, transmission cooler and fuel cooler fins.

As I have said before paranoia is setting in with this truck after I had the fuel pressure issue on the way here. After a lot of reading, I am fairly certain there is nothing seriously wrong, many other people with this model of truck have had the same problem. The issue can be made to “go away” by resetting the check engine light.

The problem appears to be caused by high fuel temperatures. I never realised how important the diesel fuel was, apart from powering the vehicle, that is. It seems far more diesel is sent to the engine than is required to produce power. Some is used to cool the fuel system close to the engine, some is sent around parts of the engine as lubricant, some is sent to the injectors to power the truck and some is not needed. The fuel used for cooling and lubrication as well as the excess fuel from the injectors is returned to the fuel tank to begin its journey again. Of course, during this process the fuel heats up, when it heats up too much, any air in the fuel bubbles out. This air finds its way to the filter where it accumulates and prevents sufficient fuel from getting to the engine. The engine then complains that there is not enough fuel to go galloping up the next hill with 12,000 lbs of trailer in tow, this in turn cause bells, whistles and lights to go off in the truck, which in turn upsets the driver.

Anyway, answer is, don’t panic, reset the check engine light and if need be slow down until the hill goes in the general direction of down!

Tomorrow we are off to a new State for us, Kansas. This stop will likely be more of a sit back and relax (and use the pool) rather than a busy sightseeing Stop.

Again, nice and cool overnight, but warmer than usual when we awoke. Today we decided to get in some much needed exercise so we headed off to a walk along an old railway line a few miles away. We made an early, for us, start to try and beat the heat. We succeed in the first goal and failed in the second.

By the time we got to the area it was already hot. Unfortunately the old line was a couple of hundred feet above the parking area, so a bit of a steep trek to get to it.

Once on the track we had a great view down at the Arkansas River, and also the rail line that we traveled on the other day.

With a name like the tunnel trail you’d expect to find the occasional tunnel

Some interesting rock colouring.

The river was active with rafters, it had been closed to commercial rafting for a few days due to high and fast water levels. I guessed these guys to be doing 10-12 mph floating with the current.

Some more flowers and cactii


and even a turkey vulture riding a thermal

There are many of these small lizards around, but they move pretty fast. I finally managed to get a picture of one.There were a number of geo-caches along the trail, but most involved some rock climbing, we decided to give them a miss, but we did find one cunningly hidden in a pipe!

After about 2.5 miles in 35°C temperatures, we headed off north to find the suspension bridge that we saw from the train. The bridge was located in a park area which had strategically placed fences all around to prevent you getting a view of the bridge, unless you paid an entrance fee. Unfortunately the rather high entrance fee also included free access to various rides and activities, all we wanted was to see the bridge, so that was a dud! I did manage a shot though.

Driving out of the area there was a no parking area next to a fire hydrant, this gave a better view, but also resulted in a caution that we shouldn’t park there!

On the way out there was a small dirt track with a cache at the end of it. The cache was called Royal Gorge for Free. We had to go for that one. Unfortunately we didn’t find it, but we did get a few more views.

Bridge and Canyon

Bridge and Gondola
Bridge and Zip Liners

We headed back to the camp site, and Lyn said their was an Amish store on the way that she’d like to stop at, we forgot it was a Sunday so the store was closed.

A little late on this blog, but we didn’t get home until nearly 10 PM yesterday.

As usual a nice cool night to bring the trailer temperature down. Fridays trip was a double header, we were heading out to Manitou Springs, just north of Colorado Springs, which was about 60 miles away.

Our first stop was at the Caves of the Winds. Normally I would expect to descend into caves, but on this occasion we had a steep climb of about 300 ft and 4 switchbacks to reach the entrance.

From Whence we Came

Once we got to the site we had to get tickets, and found out the next tour was at 2:15, about 30 minutes wait. That should work. We had another trip booked at 4 PM, and we needed to be there at 3:30. This was a 45 minute tour, so we should be out by 3 o’clock, 10 minutes to the next site, no problem.

We started the tour at 2:20, luckily we could enter via a tunnel, not like they did 100 years ago, using a rope ladder to climb down. The black marks on the roof are caused by carbon deposits where earlier visitors extinguished their candles, it was deemed unsafe to climb back up a rope ladder with a lighted candle!

First of all we had to have the “obligatory photo” a lot of tours now insist on this, they say it is so you can purchase a memento of your visit, but my suspicious mind thinks big brother may be behind this, trying to keep a record of who enters public places. What, me paranoid… never!!

Anyway the tour got underway, it was a pleasant 12° in the caves, but one thing was missing…. moisture. Nearly every tourist cave system I have been in has been wet, puddles on the floor, water on the walls, dripping from overhead etc. This place was really dry, and as we looked around there wasn’t really a great abundance of stalagmites and stalactites. The majority of the ones we did see were small, only a few inches in length. 

They did have a couple larger ones

There we also a couple of columns, where stalactite meets stalagmite

To protect the caves environment Colorado has passed a law that allows a fine of up to $2500 for touching any surface inside the caves except for the concrete floor and hand rails. In addition to this, the offenders (or offenders parent) can have their driving licence suspended for a year!

Below is a small area that has been provided for those that just had to touch! It is quite polished.

By 3:15 the tour was still in full swing, and time was not on our side. I spoke to the guide and she arranged to have some one come and escort back to the main area as there were still about 10 minutes left in the tour.

We made it out to the truck in record time, and a quick drive down the switch backs (no problem with new brakes!!) got us on our way. As we approached our destination along a one way street we hit a traffic jam, it turns out the jam was caused by people going to the same place and trying to get a space in the parking lot. Lyn got out and walked ahead to see what the problem was and also to pick up our tickets. The traffic started to move, and we eventually made it to the parking lot with about 10 minutes to spare.

This trip was on a cog railway up to Pikes Peak summit, 14,110 fee above sea level. Below is a cog train about 3/4 of the way to the summit

The train is similar to a normal train, but there is a cog wheel on each driven axle that engages a third rail.

The trip was 8.7 miles long, with a rise of approximately 8800 feet, at times the gradient was 1 in 4 (25%).

Below are some general views

Marmot close to the track

Below are some big horn sheep.

Above the tree line, looking back on the rail tracks

The summit station

Proof we were there!

We walked around the summit for a while, but the temperature was down around 5°C, and the altitude really made a difference to breathing up there. This was about 3,000 higher than we were a week or so ago as we crossed over the mountains. Below are some general summit views.

Back down at the base station we went back to the truck and headed off in search of food. We found a nice Indian / Nepal /Tibet restaurant in Colorado springs. The food was good, and there was enough left over for a good lunch today.

Today (Saturday) was a semi lazy day. I replaced a bulb in the truck and had to replace a cap on the trailer sewer system. This afternoon was shopping afternoon for food and other essentials. We combined this with a drive along a road known as Skyline Drive. This road runs along a ridge above Canon City and give great views, what a shame both cameras were back in the trailer! We did manage to find our first Colorado cache up there though. We’ll probably return with the camera before we leave.