A Soggy Trip Up The Front Range

Hello again, welcome back. Our last chapter concluded on Wednesday, May 6^th, with our arrival in Monument, Colorado, just north of Colorado Springs. We arrived on a rainy, stormy day, and the forecast for the next four days doesn't look any more promising. On Thursday we spent most of the day at home, watching the rain come and go. We had about 20 minutes of pretty heavy pea sized hail that accumulated on the coach and car and looked very much like snow. We also saw on the news that further south in Colorado Springs they had very heavy small hail that closed the freeway for a while so they had to get the snow plows out.

One storm went right over the top of us in the early afternoon and there was a lightning strike VERY close. It was right outside our front window and I would have sworn it hit inside the RV park, but I talked to one of the workers a little later and he said they didn't find any evidence that it hit in the park. We did lose all electric power, however. We did go out during one break in the action to Walmart and the local Safeway, looking for coffee since we are running low and are having trouble finding the Folger's Simply Smooth brand that we use. After we got back to the park we played cards for a couple of hours since we didn't want to put too much strain on our batteries by running the TV. We didn't know how long the power would be out. As it was, the power came back on about 4:00 and we were up and running again.

The storms continued to come and go throughout the evening and night. About 1:30 in the morning I woke up and noticed that the lights that we leave on at night in the living room were flashing. I also noticed that the monitor panels for our inverter and power system were flashing and giving weird indications. I also heard a very loud rattling or clicking noise coming from outside by the power box. I threw on some pants and shoes and went outside and found the noise coming from the area of the power box. It was raining pretty hard, but I shut off the breakers and the noise stopped. I went back into the coach and the power was back to normal, although running off of the inverter now since the shore power was off. I knew we had plenty of battery capacity to get us through the night, no different than dry camping, so I shut off all the unnecessary lights and appliances and went back to bed.

The next morning, Friday, I was up early and went outside to do some trouble shooting. It didn't take long to discover that the noise was actually being made by our surge protector that we use between the RV park power box and the coach. We bought that surge protector not too long after we bought the coach, so it is at least nine, maybe close to ten years old and has been in constant service. I guess it just gave up the ghost. I got my multi-meter out and checked the voltages in the power box just to be sure everything was OK, and it was, so I plugged the coach directly into the power and everything worked perfectly. Fortunately, the malfunction of the surge protector didn't cause any damage in the coach.

I was not comfortable not having a surge protector, especially with all the thunderstorms we have been having and that are forecast to continue. So I started making some calls and found that Camping World in Colorado Springs had the one I need on sale. We had lunch and then got in the car and drove the 30 miles to Camping World and bought a new $400 surge protector. The drive down on the freeway was kind of wet, with a lot of rain showers, but the drive back was fairly clear and by 3:00 I had the new surge protector plugged in and we were protected again. Yea! We spent the rest of the day in the coach, watching the storms come and go.

Saturday, May 9^th, the forecast was for another round of storms today, so we decided to just stay in. We had rain most of the morning and the first part of the afternoon, but by about 2:00 it turned to snow and we started getting some good accumulation. Within a couple of hours the satellite TV went out as the snow built up. At least we can still watch recorded programs for a few days before the receiver resets and won't work at all without a signal. I setup my 100 watt light bulb that serves as my freeze warmer inside the water compartment and filled the water tank so we could use the internal water and disconnect the hose in case it freezes. It is supposed to get below freezing tonight, but not by much, only 29 or 30 in the early morning hours. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening watching the snow build up. We played some cards and watched some TV and just relaxed. At least once the snow started it was too cold for any thunderstorms, so the weather died down. There were a couple of tornadoes in Colorado, maybe fifty miles from us, but nothing that was threatening to us.

Sunday, May 10^th, Happy Mother's Day. Not much of a holiday for us since both are mothers are gone and Jackie never had kids, but I hope all the other mothers out there had a great day. We woke up to about four inches of beautiful snow coating everything, but relatively clear skies. We took some pictures and enjoyed the beauty, only pretty because we knew that we didn't have to go anywhere, and it was going to be all gone when we did have to move. We spent the day in the coach, played some cards and watched a movie we had recorded on the DVR.

By early afternoon the snow on the sat dish had melted off and we had TV again. I did make an ugly little snowman on the picnic table next to the coach. Can't have snow without a snowman. By sundown most of the snow was gone and we were back to just wet. The forecast had called for possible showers today, but nothing materialized and we had the first dry day in a while. Tomorrow is supposed to be mostly clear and we may be able to get out for a while.

Monday, May 11^th, we finally awoke to clear skies after a pretty cold night. The forecast calls for a couple of days without rain. The last of the snow is melting and it now looks like we never had four inches on the ground. We left the coach after lunch and went shopping. We ended up at a King Soopers market, which, based on it's internal styling and the Kroeger house brand, is Colorado's version of a Fry's market. After our shopping we did four geocaches, or first caching since arriving in Monument six days ago. We then headed home and stayed in for the rest of the day.

Tuesday, May 12^th, we left the coach around noon and drove down to the northern fringe of Colorado Springs to have lunch with our friends Jim and Pat Goetzinger. Jim and Pat are fellow full timers, with about 11 years of travel under their belts, and we met them at a rally about seven or eight years ago. They are retired school teachers from New Mexico, but they always spend some time in Colorado Springs because their two daughters live here. When we were last in the area in 2011 we met Jim and Pat for lunch also.

We met at a place called the Colorado Mountain Brewery. It was a nice place with an interesting menu. Lots of bison dishes and some interesting pairings, like bison poppers and bison chili. I had a bowl of the bison chili and it was wonderful. I had the prime rib dip with fries, which was also very good. Jackie had a bison burger and was only able to finish half of it, taking the other half home. The only down side was that this is a brewery, featuring it's own craft brews, but when I ordered their version of a Heisenberg I was told that they were changing kegs. An hour later they were STILL changing kegs. I ended up getting one of their blond ales, which was OK. At least they didn't charge me for it. Later, about the time the food got to the table, they finally brought me a Heisenberg, also on the house. At least it was a good beer.

We ate and chatted with the Goetzingers for about an hour before we left the restaurant and went out to enjoy the clear weather and do some geocaching. In a couple of hours we had scored eight new finds, along with one DNF. After caching we went back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, May 13^th, moving day. At least we woke up to sunshine again with only a 30 percent chance of showers and minimal chance of thunderstorms. We were hooked up and on the road by 10:30, and back on Interstate 25, headed to Westminster, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. It was only a 60 mile trip, but traffic was bad, there was a lot of construction, and I had to stop at an urban Pilot truck stop for fuel. Getting in and out of the truck stop was a bear. We then got to the street I am supposed to turn on to get to the Westminster Elks Lodge, our destination, and it was closed for construction. We had to call the lodge to get alternate directions. I was pretty stressed out when we finally got to the lodge. They did have a water and electric site available, which is all we have ever had in the past, and we were in and parked by about 1:30 or so. They do have some 50 amp full hookup sites here, but the lodge has no stay limits, and all of the premium spots are taken by people who come in early and stay all summer. We got all setup for our five day stay here in the Denver area and relaxed in the coach for the rest of the day and evening.

Thursday, May 14^th, we left the coach about noon and drove to the south side of Denver to the Bagel Deli for lunch. We had eaten at this great Jewish deli in 2011 when we were here and the food was outstanding. The place had been featured on the TV show Diners, Drive ins, and Dives. This time we both had versions of a pastrami sandwich. We also had an appetizer of chopped liver and I had a cup of chicken soup. A real Jewish meal. The food was just as good as last time.

After lunch we went to a laundry to wash clothes. Once the clothes were done we headed back to the coach, stopping for one geocache on the way. We had a couple of brief bouts of rain, nothing serious, but the forecast calls this on and off afternoon sprinkles for the rest of the weekend. After we got home we relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Friday, May 15^th, Happy Birthday to my wonderful wife Jackie! And, it's also our baby cat Benji's birthday. He turned three today. Jackie did not. After lunch we went out to do some geocaching. We got in three new finds, including number 7,000, before the rain started again. We decided to do a couple of Elks Lodge visits, since most are not open on weekends and we didn't want to cache in the rain. We drove to the Denver Lodge, Number 17. We had last been in this lodge back in 2008. We got there right after opening time and were the only one's in the building besides the bartender. He was actually the Exalted Ruler of the lodge and was filling in for the bartender who was sick.

The ER's name was Ron and we sat and chatted with Ron over a couple of Cokes for close to an hour. He took us on a tour of the lodge and we saw one of the most magnificent dedicated Lodge rooms we have seen. In their Lodge Room they have about 3 million dollars worth of 19^th century stained glass from the original downtown Denver lodge building. Ron told us some interesting stories about his past. He was an Alaskan State Trooper, a Denver cop, a drug enforcement agent, fire chief and a few other things.

After the Denver Lodge visit we went to the nearby Lakewood Elks, another Lodge we had visited in 2008. We had a cocktail there and visited with the bartender and a couple of the members. They were unable to get us a lodge pin because they couldn't get into the display case, no one had the right key. We did have an old pin on the banner from this lodge, so it was not a big deal. After visiting Lakewood Lodge we started towards home. We stopped at a Safeway store for a couple of things and were able to get another couple of cache finds, bringing the total for the day to five. The weather in the immediate area was cloudy with sprinkles, but to the east and north there were some severe storms, including a couple of small tornadoes. Fortunately, most of the tornadoes in Colorado don't form until they get a few miles out on the prairie to the east of the Denver metro area.

After a brief rest at the coach we went down to the Westminster Lodge, where we are staying, for dinner. We both had the New York steak entree, which was wonderful. We also each had a piece of very good cheesecake to celebrate Jackie's birthday. After dinner we went into the bar for a couple hours for some drinks and karaoke. They had a very long rotation, so I only got one song in, but we had a good time listening to the singers and talking with some of the people at the bar. About 9:00 we left and went back to the coach for the rest of the night. A very fun day.

Saturday, May 16^th, we left the coach after lunch to do some more exploring and geocaching. We were only able to go after a couple of caches before the rain started coming down again. We switched to sightseeing mode and drove downtown to look around. We thought that the weekend would be better for driving around downtown, but there was still a lot of traffic and a lot of construction going on. We had a major driving rainstorm while we were touring, but after an hour or so it cleared up. We continued just randomly driving around Denver, looking at neighborhoods. We did a couple of geocaches, and stopped at a Costco that we happened to pass. We ended up with only two new finds and three DNFs for the afternoon. We finally got back home around 5:00 and just stayed in for the rest of the evening.

Sunday, May 17^th, we had a nice Sunday paper and coffee morning and decided to just stay in for the day. We didn't have any rain, although the skies were cloudy for much of the day. About 4:00 I decided to take the sun screens off the windows since they were dry, just in case it rained overnight. I don't like putting the shades away wet. As it turned out, we had rain a couple hours later, so, good decision.

Monday, May 18^th, we were packed up and on the road about 10:30, still heading north on Interstate 25, this time to Cheyenne, Wyoming, about 100 miles to the north of Denver. The skies were overcast for the whole trip, but we never got more than a few sprinkles on the trip. We arrived at the A-B Campground in Cheyenne about 12:30 and were parked and setup by 1:30. We had a quick lunch and went out to do some exploring, since it still wasn't raining. We spent a couple hours driving around downtown and the Capital area. We also stopped to get one geocache since we were not sure how much caching we would get done here. The weather for our stay is supposed to be cold and wet. After sightseeing we went to Walmart for some supplies and then back home for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, May 19^th, woke up to more rain and cold. It's only supposed to be in the low 40's today and rain on and off all day. Some of the forecasts even call for snow flurries. I went out after lunch on a mission to find an electric space heater. Jackie didn't

want to leave her warm couch. We had no idea we were going to run into these kinds of temperatures this late in spring. We are running low on propane and I thought if I could find a small space heater it would let us stay warm in the living room without having to run the furnaces. If we run out of propane we will have to pack up the coach and drive somewhere to get refilled. I would rather be able to get by until Friday when we leave here and can stop and get propane.

I stopped at Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, Target, and Bed, Bath and Beyond and no one had any heaters. Everyone had fans and air conditioners, but no heaters. I guess this is warm for this part of the country. I was able to get some new wood blocks for our jacks from Lowes. I have been looking for some new ones since the ones I am now using have gotten wet and are not very useful anymore. Our jack pads are only about eight inches around so I use two foot square pieces of three quarter inch plywood as jack pads to keep them from sinking into soft ground, or hot asphalt as has happened in the past. After I got home we just stayed in for the rest of the day.

Wednesday, May 20^th, we woke up to 33 degree cool with cloudy skies, again. We decided that we needed to get out of the coach no matter what, so we bundled up nice and warm and left about noon to go out and have lunch. The highly rated local place we went to was closed until next month, so we ended up at the local Outback. We had a very nice, filling lunch, and then went out to do some shopping and caching. We went to the indoor mall, more to get exercise than anything else, and walked around the mall for a couple of hours. We did a few geocaches, ending up with four new finds for the day, and then headed for home. On the way we passed a pawn shop and decided to stop in just on the chance they might have a small electric heater. Well, they had a dozen or so. We ended up with one that still had the box and operating manual and looked brand new, although the original receipt inside the box said they bought it in 2005. We got it for $12 and took it home and we now have a little heat source. It doesn't heat the whole coach, but it works for the small area we are in during the evening and we don't have to worry about running out of propane now. We stayed in for the rest of the evening.

Thursday, May 21^st, it was again cold in the morning, only in the low 40's. The forecast called for rain again, but all we had in the morning was fog. We went out after lunch for some last minute caching and such. We were able to get five new finds, and one DNF, before we decided it was a little too cold. Unlike earlier cold days, today there was a pretty stiff breeze the accentuated the cold. After caching we went back to the mall and we both got haircuts. Jackie gets one about every month or so, I was about six months since my last trim. After our haircuts we headed home and stayed in the rest of the night.

Friday was another travel day and we were closed up and ready to go by about 10:00. It was cold, in the mid 40's, and raining, which didn't make for a pleasant preparation time. We were back on I-25 again, heading north and a little west to Casper, Wyoming. The trip was 168 miles, one of our longer recent trips, and it rained for nearly the entire time. However, there wasn't much traffic and the roads were good, so it really wasn't a bad trip. Except, our older cat Smokey had a bout of motion sickness near the end and made a bit of mess in several areas of the coach. Gave us a little something extra to do when we were getting set up.

We arrived at the Fort Caspar Campground around 2:00 after a stop for fuel and propane just outside Casper. The campground is located inside a State park, but it is a private operation. We got a nice full hookup pull through site and the weather was nice enough to stop the rain for at least as long as it took me to get us hooked up and settled in. By the time we got settled in it was nearly 4:00, so we just stayed in the coach the rest of the day. The decision was helped by the fact that the rain started again and it was pretty wet.

We are here in Casper for another four day stay. This is our first time in this town, so we are looking forward to exploring, doing some caching and enjoying new things. This is also a good place to publish this chapter, since it has been just a little over two weeks. Until the next time, remember the words of author and entrepreneur James Altucher. “Learning to find happiness with less is true wealth. Ultimately, we are the sum of our experiences, and not the sum of our belongings.” See ya soon.

Standing on the Corner in Winslow, Arizona, and Other Fun Stuff

Hello readers, glad you're back. Our last chapter concluded on Thursday, April 23^rd on our last day in Camp Verde Arizona. On Friday we packed up and left Camp Verde about 10:30. I was a little concerned about the weather since there was a storm front moving through the area and there were predictions of rain and even some sleet in Flagstaff. Flagstaff is over 7,000 feet, so there is always the threat of ice if it gets cold enough. We are not staying in Flagstaff, only passing through on the way to Winslow, which is only 5,000 feet elevation. The biggest problem on the trip was the wind, which was blowing about 20 mph with gusts to 40 along I-40 out of Flagstaff.

We did run into some rain, heavy at times, on the way up the hill to Flagstaff, but by the time we got to Flagstaff we were in partly cloudy, mostly sunny skies and we did fine. We arrived at the Homolavi State Park campground, just north of Winslow, Arizona, about 12:30 or so and quickly setup camp. We only have water and power, 50 amp, but we are only here for three days so sewer is not an issue. This is the first time we have ever been to this park. It is quite barren, sitting on the high prairie that marks most of northeast Arizona. There are not too many other RVs in the park, but we were greeted by a park volunteer who checked us in. The wind is blowing up here too, so we didn't put anything outside, not even the sun screens. It is supposed to rain on Sunday and I don't like the

screens being put away wet when we leave on Monday. After we got setup we just had a relaxing afternoon, watched some TV and I made a pot of chili for dinner. We will go out tomorrow to explore a little.

Saturday, April 26th, we woke up to partly cloudy skies, morning temps in the low 50's and lots of wind. The wind blew all night and I expect it will blow all day too. We left the coach after lunch to go out and do some exploring and geocaching. We first went to the Visitor's Center for the State Park we are staying in to see what it was all about. Homolavi State Park was founded in 1986 to help preserve and study over 300 Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites. Homolavi a Hopi word meaning "place of the little hills". The Homolavi cluster of archaeological sites includes seven separate pueblo ruins built by various prehistoric people, including ancestors of the Hopi people, between approximately 1260-1400 AD. This fertile area is on a floodplain of the Little Colorado River, and the inhabitants grew cotton, corn, beans, and squash. The visitor's center was interesting, but we learned that the sites are actually little more than ruins, piles of rock, and we have been to better preserved pueblo sites before. Given the cold and wind we decided to forgo visiting any of the ruins today.

We then drove down into old town Winslow. Although we have been through the town many times over the last ten years, we haven't really spent any time here. Winslow was incorporated in 1900 as a rail stop on the Sante Fe line. It sits an an elevation just under 5,000 feet and has a population of just under 10,000. Winslow was located on the famous Route 66 cross country highway, and the main street of town reflects this history with dozens of old motels, eateries, shops and ersatz Indian trading posts. Some of these buildings are still in use, many are barely standing ruins.

Although Winslow missed out in being named in the lyrics of the song Route 66, it does make a big deal of being a part of the 1972 Eagles song, “Take it Easy.” “Standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona. Such a fine sight to see. It's a girl my Lord, in a flat bed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me.” There is now a park in old town called “Standing on the Corner” with a bronze statute of a guy with a guitar and a big mural depicting a Ford flatbed truck reflecting in a shop window. In one of the second floor windows shown in the painting is a large Eagle. There is also an actual restored red 60's model one-ton Ford flatbed truck parked at the curb next to the park. In the middle of the nearby intersection is a large “Route 66” shield incorporated into the pavement. Of course, we had to take our pictures at the park. We also visited a couple of the souvenir shops nearby.

After “standing on the corner,” we started doing some geocaching, and actually, the park had a virtual cache and was our first find of the day. We ended up with 13 new finds and no DNFs for the afternoon. Two of the caches were located at the historic La Posada Hotel. The La Posada was the last of the famous Fred Harvey railroad hotels to be built. Harvey began partnership with the Santa Fe Railroad in 1876. He started by opening eating houses along the railroad. At its peak, there were 84 Harvey Houses, all of which catered to wealthy and middle-class visitors alike and Harvey became known as "the Civilizer of the West." Harvey also gained a boost in business with his incorporation of the "Harvey Girl". He hired women between the ages of 18 and 30 and did not permit them to marry until they had put in a full year of work. Harvey Girls resided in housing adjacent to the restaurants, where they were supervised by the most senior Girl, who enforced curfews and chaperoned male visits. Roughly 5000 Harvey Girls moved out West to work and ultimately marry. The corporation also built more than a dozen large, luxurious hotels at various stops along the Sante Fe line.

The La Posada opened May 15, 1930, just after the stock market crash of 1929, and remained open for just 27 years. In 1957, the hotel closed to the public. The museum-quality furnishings were auctioned off in 1959. In the early 1960s, much of the building was gutted and transformed into offices for the Santa Fe Railway. Several times over the ensuing 40 years, the building was nearly demolished, as recently as 1994 when the railway announced its plans to move out for good. The building received protection from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and was finally purchased by a private company from the railroad and was completely restored and reopened in 1997 as a full service, luxury hotel. It also still serves as Winslow's Amtrack station. We walked around the public rooms and grounds of the hotel for a while before continuing our caching.

After our caching adventures we went to the local Walmart for some supplies, then headed back to the coach for the rest of the night. Sunday we had a stay at home day. The weather called for possible rain most of the day and we did have some on and off rain showers. We got a few chores done, but mostly just relaxed.

Monday, April 27^th, we finally woke up to clear skies and light winds. It was another travel day and we were packed up and on the road by 10:30. We headed east on Interstate 40 towards Gallup New Mexico, about 120 miles. The trip was uneventful except that the further east we went the more clouds we encountered and the winds picked up some too. The trip only took a couple of hours, however, when we crossed the border from Arizona to New Mexico we lost an hour as we entered the “actual” Mountain Time Zone as opposed to Arizona Mountain Time, which is the same as Pacific Time during the summer. Arizona does not do daylight savings time. We got settled into the USA RV Park in Gallup, New Mexico, a place we have stayed numerous times in the past. We decided that we didn't need to do anything today, so we just spent the rest of the day in the coach.

Tuesday, April 28^th, we went out after lunch and did laundry. After laundry we did one geocache, just so we would have somewhere to visit all our travel bugs in Gallup, and then went to Home Depot to get some light bulbs for one of our fluorescent lights. We then went back to the coach for the rest of the night. Wednesday was another travel day. We left Gallup around 10:30 or so and got back on Interstate 10 heading east to Albuquerque, New Mexico, about 140 miles. We made a fuel stop about 20 miles out of Gallup, but the rest of the trip was uneventful and we arrived at the Enchanted Trails RV park on the west edge of Albuquerque about 1:00. We have stayed in this park before and they have a couple of their sites setup as kind of an RV museum with some nice old restored late 40's cars and some vintage trailers that are also restored. We decided to stay in the rest of the day and we just got some chores done and relaxed.

Thursday, April 30^th, we left the RV park about 11:30 and went out to do some exploring in Albuquerque. We first went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant called Sophie's Place. This was a restaurant that was featured in the Food Network program, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. We watch the show and like to visit some of the featured restaurants from time to time. This one was a little bit of a disappointment. It was a pretty dumpy taquaria that didn't even have a sign outside. It did appear to be pretty popular with the locals and there were a lot of shirt and tie types in there for lunch. The feature dish on Triple D had been duck enchiladas, but nothing on the menu about those. Jackie had fish tacos and I had carne asada. The meals came with beans, rice and a little salad, but you had to pay extra for chips and salsa. Everything was OK, but a little bland, especially for New Mexican cuisine which tends to the hot side normally. I will say you get a lot and everything is freshly made, including the chips.

After lunch we did some geocaching. We had a good afternoon, getting eleven new finds with no DNFs. We ended up in Old Town and we spent an hour or so walking around shopping and sightseeing. As many times as we have been to Albuquerque we never went to Old Town before. It was very nice and reminded me of the Old Town area of Sante Fe. After our great afternoon we went back to the RV park and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Friday, May 1^st, Happy May Day. We left the coach after lunch to run some errands. Jackie had cleaned out her shirt closet the other day, so we first went to the Goodwill store and dropped off a bag of shirts. We then went to Costco to buy some vodka. We still have a couple bottles in stock, but Jackie brought to my attention that we should check the liquor laws for the next couple states to see if spirits can be bought at the grocery store. As it turns out, Colorado and Wyoming, the next two states on our travels, both have very restrictive liquor laws, which always means higher prices. New Mexico is very permissive, but the next permissive state we go to is North Dakota and that's a month away. So, we bought a six pack of vodka at Costco, which will certainly hold us until the next permissive state.

After Costco we did a quick run to the Post Office and then did a couple of geocaches. We had three new finds and one DNF. We then went to Walmart before heading back to the coach. About 5:00 the winds came up and it looked like we might get a storm, but nothing came around and we had a quiet night watching TV.

Saturday, May 2^nd, our next travel day. We were packed up and pulling out of the Enchanted Trails RV park about 10:30. We were traveling about 125 miles north to the little town of Las Vegas, New Mexico. We have stayed here several times before because it is a convenient stop between Albuquerque and points north in Colorado. The trip went OK except that it was a long grade out of Sante Fe and the coach was getting a little hot until I slowed down some. We made it to the KOA campground in Las Vegas just before 1:00 and quickly got checked in, parked and setup for our two day stay here. We are at about 6,200 feet, so I don't see us doing a whole lot while we are here.

Sunday, May 3^rd, we went out after lunch to do some exploring of Las Vegas and a little geocaching. We spent a couple of hours driving around town, checking neighborhoods and enjoying the sightseeing. We also picked up three geocaches, two of which were cemetery caches, although they were on the edges, not inside. This is a very Hispanic area and that culture is really into decorating grave sites. We spent half an hour driving around inside one of the cemeteries checking out all the fencing, lighting and flowers that are on many of the graves. After our tour of town we stopped at Walmart for some supplies and picked up some chicken from the Colonel for dinner and then headed home for the rest of the night.

Monday, May 4^th, Star Wars Day! (May the 4^th be with you) Another travel day for us. We packed up and left Las Vegas, New Mexico about 10:00 and headed north on Interstate 25. After going over the 7,832 foot Raton Pass we entered the State of Colorado. We only went about ten miles into Colorado before exiting and stopping at the Cawthon RV Park in Trinidad, Colorado. We had run into a little rain in northern New Mexico, but it was just a very light drizzle when we checked into the RV park. We got our spot and I no sooner got the utilities hooked up and the coach leveled and the skies opened up. We heard a little thunder and we had some small hail for about ten minutes. After that it was just on and off rain for the rest of the day. About sunset it cleared some and we had a little bit of blue sky and some sun, but the forecast says the rain isn't over. Because of the weather, the altitude and the fact that it was a travel day, we just stayed in the rest of the day and listened to the rain on the coach. Thankfully, still no leaks so we are dry inside. Before I got the leak in the slide fixed a few months back we would have had to pull the kitchen slide in for the rain and we would not have been able to have it out for about a week now.

Tuesday, May 5th, Happy Cinco De Mayo. We decided to celebrate Cinco De Mayo by having some Mexican food for lunch. We went to a place about a mile from the park that we had seen on the way in yesterday called El Rancho. The place had quite a few cars outside, so we were hopeful. Inside was quite strange. It was a very old, stone building and the inside looked like an old nightclub, big dance floor, stage in the corner, and a bar. The restaurant was way over in the far corner and very small. The rest of the place looked abandoned. There were quite a few people in the place, including one big party, so we thought it must be popular with the locals. As it turned out, I don't know why. We both ordered a combo lunch with an enchilada, a taco and a chili relleno. That is kind of our “go to” dish in new restaurants. I had wanted a burro, but the waitress told me the beef burro was ground beef, and I don't care for ground beef burros. It turned out the taco was ground beef also and very tasteless. The enchilada was OK, the chili relleno was deep fried, very small, and the red sauce was very hot. Jackie had the green sauce, which was even hotter. She couldn't eat the enchilada. It turns out they smother mediocre food in super hot sauce and hope no one notices. They didn't even have any chips and salsa. They ran out – on Cinco De Mayo! Never be back to that place again.

After lunch we went out to do some exploration of Trinidad and some geocaching. It was sprinkling on and off, but we still got four caches. One of the caches was located near an old, abandoned coal mining town called Ludlow, about ten miles north of Trinidad on Interstate 25. There is a monument there commemorating the 1914 Ludlow Massacre. The Ludlow Massacre was an attack by the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel & Iron Company camp guards on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914. Some two dozen people, including women and children, were killed.

The massacre, the culmination of a bloody widespread strike against Colorado coal mines, resulted in the violent deaths of at least 26 people. Reported death tolls vary but, all include two women and eleven children, asphyxiated and burned to death under a single tent in what was later called the “death pit.” The deaths occurred after a daylong fight between militia and camp guards against striking workers. Ludlow was the deadliest single incident in the southern Colorado Coal Strike, lasting from September 1913 through December 1914. The strike was organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) against coal mining companies in Colorado. The three largest companies involved were the Rockefeller family-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Company (CF&I), the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company (RMF), and the Victor-American Fuel Company (VAF).  The picture is one that is on the memorial and shows the Colorado National Guard machine gun pit situated on a hill top overlooking the miner's camp.

In retaliation for Ludlow, the miners armed themselves and attacked dozens of mines over the next ten days, destroying property and engaging in several skirmishes with the Colorado National Guard along a 40-mile front from Trinidad to Walsenburg. The entire strike would cost between 69 and 199 lives and is often described as the "deadliest strike in the history of the United States". The monument was erected by the union and was quite interesting to see. There were a number of plaques with the story of the strike and the massacre. We also drove around Trinidad for a while and got a couple of caches in town too. After caching we headed back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, May 6^th, we woke to cloudy skies, but no rain. This was another travel day and we were packed up and ready to go by a little after 10:00. We started north on Interstate 25 again, this time headed about 150 miles to Monument, Colorado. Monument is a small town at the north edge of Colorado Springs. The exit we take to get off the freeway is just a few miles north of Air Force Academy, which we visited when were last here in 2011. We got settled into the Monument Heights RV Resort pretty quickly. This is one of our Resorts of Distinction membership parks, so we stay here for free. We did have to pay $5 a day to get one of the 50 amp sites, but it was worth it. We are going to be here for a whole week, our longest stay since we left Camp Verde. We have nice site on a mesa that overlooks the surrounding hills and mountains. It would be really nice if it wasn't so cloudy and rainy. We had a bit of rain after we got checked in and setup, but not too much. It is supposed to be quite stormy for the next few days, so we are prepared to batten down the hatches.

It has been a couple weeks since we published, so this change of location marks a good spot to close this chapter of the blog. We will publish in another couple of weeks, so stay tuned. Until next time, remember that to create more positive results in your life, replace 'if only' with 'next time'. See you soon.