On the Road Again

The day we took to the road again was long and a lot of work. We weren’t sure if we would leave that day or not. All day Monday we had been busy picking up the trailer from RV Interiors, then waiting at Camping World while a Shur-flo fan was installed. Tuesday morning we did our workout, went for a run, and then said, yes, we will leave today. That meant spending nearly three hours loading personal belongings and food for the seven-month trip, then driving 150 miles to Lathrop State Park in Walsenburg, Colorado.

We have camped at Lathrop numerous times, but never this early in the year. Other than the camp host, we were the only unit in the campground. It was cold and windy, but we were relatively snug and warm inside, once the furnace worked for a while. Because of the cold, we didn’t de-winterize. We had three gallon jugs of water—one to flush the toilet, one for washing and cooking, one for drinking water. We would have liked to go on after one night, but we knew that the Texas Panhandle had high wind and wildfire warnings and we didn’t want to face that. So we settled in the three nights. Part of the good news was that this year John turned 64 and is eligible for an Aspen Leaf Pass to the Colorado State Parks. That means we get half-price camping Sunday through Thursday, so we were only paying $9 a night. The savings for three nights paid for the cost of the pass.

By day two at Lathrop, we had water dripping out from the covering on the trailer underbody. We thought that must mean the holding tanks were leaking. After talking to Montana dealers in Loveland, Colorado, and Amarillo, Texas, we decided to go on to Texas to have the problem fixed.

The overnight low had been 14 degrees Tuesday to Wednesday, 19 Wednesday to Thursday, and 20 Thursday to Friday. When we broke camp on Friday, the slides stuck three times before all the ice fell off. But that morning we left early and drove to Amarillo, stopping at Jack Sisemore RV on our way into town. They couldn’t look at the RV till Monday, but said we should go ahead and de-winterize. After setting up at the Amarillo KOA, that is what we did. And for three days, we saw no dripping. Whatever the problem, it wasn’t our water or sewer system, so we left on Monday for points south.

This is the third spring we have come to Texas. The last two years we volunteered in state parks here. This year we are passing through on our way to volunteering at Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. We know we are in Texas because we’ve seen cotton fields, long-horned cattle, oil rigs and jack rabbits. We’ve also had our first meal of bar-b-cue.