Travel to Golden CO, Visit with RV-Dreams Friends

September 15 - 17, 2013 
  
We decided to wait out the Colorado flood/rain for another day.  The weather reports are looking good for Monday the 16th but not so good for Sunday the 15th in Denver.  The weather in North Platte NE wasn't real good either.  The temperature never got above 65 the whole day.  Even then, 65 didn’t happen until close to 5pm.  It was also drizzling most of the day with off and on light showers.  Basically it was a day to watch TV inside and just relax.

Monday the 16th we were up at our usual 7 am and were determined to get on the road quick.  The outside temperature was 53 and a heavy wet fog hung on everything. This is our first time traveling in a temperature under 70.  
I did my usual and started the Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) in the truck while I went about disconnecting the RV systems and readying it for travel.  After about 10 minutes I went to the truck to check the TPMS and found that none of the tires on the trailer and one on the truck were found. Hmmmmm!  

The truck was turned backwards so I started up the truck and turned it around to see if that would make any difference.  I left it alone again for 10 minutes and this time I was missing one trailer tire and one truck tire.  The pressures were all low, due to the cold weather, so I decided to just go to each one and check with a gauge and top them off if needed.  I am thinking that the tire sensors are affected by the ambient temperature and are not reporting due to it being only 53.  In the back of my mind I am thinking that the internal batteries maybe getting low and it is only noticeable when the temperatures are low.  After just a few miles on the road all of the TPMS sensors were reporting.  Does seem it is related to heat.

With all of the tire checking we left a little before 11am which was an hour later than we had planned.  The trip to Denver was going to be a long trip of 266 miles; probably the longest trip this year.  We were a little concerned that the campground we were headed to may have been affected by the heavy rains.  We sure didn't want to get there and there be no room at the Inn, so to speak.  Patty tried calling the campground a couple of times and no one answered and no answering machine.  Not good.

We decided to try and find another place.  So, over the next hour Patty managed to find a place in Golden CO, the Clear Creek RV Park.  Now we are officially on the longest pull for the year at 280 miles.   That also means that we will need to stop for fuel with the rig attached to the truck.  I try to avoid doing that as much as possible.  As we were traveling along I76 in Colorado we saw many exits closed due to the flooding. We did eventually find a suitable fuel station that wasn't flooded and made to the park around 2:30.

Flooding along I 76 in Colorado.

The office across the street from us at the Clear Creek RV Park in Golden CO.  We are right at the foot of the Rockies.

Our site in Golden.

Just another view

View of Clear Creek out our back window.

We really do like this RV Park.  It is a small, town owned park, right on the bank of Clear Creek.  Clear Creek is the river that is depicted on Coors beer cans.  We can walk to all of downtown Golden on the paved path that runs through the park.  It’s really too bad we are only here for a couple of days.

We took advantage of the path and walked into town to have dinner on the other side of Clear Creek.   On the walk to dinner we met up a couple and started up a conversation about living in Colorado and Golden in particular. They couldn't say enough about how great it was to live here. It is really nice when locals love where they are and want to tell you about it. It was great evening of food, wine, and each other.

Seems this is a big thing here.  They ride their kayaks into the falls and try to jump up on top.

The bridge over Clear Creek on our way to dinner.

Our dinner destination on the creek where the lights are

 

View crossing Clear Creek bridge  

Us at dinner.  

Tuesday the 17th we had errands to run in the morning which spilled over into the afternoon.  Patty went to an urgent car place to have a cyst looked at.  She got a prescription for an antibiotic to treat the cyst so we went to Walgreens and waited for almost an hour to get it filled.  While there we took another half hour to get our flu shots.  Walgreens already had our information in their computer system so they directly billed our insurance for the shots and we didn't have to pay anything.  

The young guy who gave us the shots couldn't say enough about how great Colorado is.  He actually said there wasn't anything he didn't like about the state.  Is it the air or water or both here that does this to people?

We were then off to the grocery store for some ingredients for shepherd’s pie Patty was going to make for a dinner party tonight.  Then, finally we got the truck topped off with fuel so we are ready for the pull into the Rockies tomorrow morning.
  
One of the couples (Natalie and Brock) we met at the RV-Dreams rally in Oregon last year is in the area so we invited them to have dinner at our place.   They arrived around 4:30 just in time for cocktails before dinner.  Natalie and Brock are from California and just started their full-time adventure about a month ago.  They have family in the Denver area and were delivering some of their last house stuff.  It is amazing how much us full-timers have to say to each other when we are together.  It was a great night with friends.

Tomorrow we will head into the Rockies on I 70 west for a 125 miles trip to Gypsum CO.  I understand that the first part of this route out of the Denver area is mostly up hill and can be very taxing on the truck.   That is why we are doing just 125 miles first for the long assent into the mountains.  From Gypsum it is 200 miles to Arches National Park in Moab, UT where we will spend a couple of days exploring.

Stay Tuned!