You Can't Get Lost - Day 1

 You Can’t Get Lost – Day 1

So why am I doing this?  When Sally and I started cruising, I tried to write mom a postcard every day so that she would get some mail that wasn’t flyers or other junk, and so that she could keep up with where we were, sometime weeks later.  And she could see the pictures on the card and sometimes remember being there herself or enjoy new places.  And, we always said the Betty’s (Sally’s mom) favorite song was “Far Away Places with Strange Sounding Names”.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RO2-uDTmHU) (Crosby's was the first recording, in 1948, the year it was published.)

Consider these your Postcards!

First day out

When the Solien’s (Sally’s family) were packing for a long trip out west, Sig made the observation that “’Whoever said you can’t take it with you’ didn’t know Sandy.”  Well, the space in a motorhome encourages that.  But there is also the inherent problem of a house on wheels.  I’ll skip the gory details of adjusting tire pressures in 6 degree weather, and so other component parts, but I finally quit packing at 1:00 last night so that I could get a good sleep.  When I checked the highway conditions last night, it indicated high winds of over 60 mph, a fairly common forecast.  So I woke up early, finished packing, adjusted tire pressures again, hooked the car up  and got off at 12:00.  The wind wasn’t bad for the most part, except around Arlington, where the first wind farm was developed in Wyoming, so not a surprise.  It was a good drive, me, a Rojo Toro and “Your’s Truly, Johnny Dollar,” a 1950’s radio insurance fraud detective “with the Action-Packed Expense Account.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JsxK5Mt-yA)

About 10 miles out of Laramie, a coyote ran across the highway.  First I’ve seen in a long time.  So I took that as a good omen.  Didn’t see any antelope, but saw lots of deer, especially around Baggs and my day’s destination, Maybell, CO, population 74.  Really, the trip was as smooth as it could be. 

Until I got to the campground in Maybell.  Really nice place for what it is, a full city block with what looks to be a big playground in the middle with camping around the outside. (Can’t see because it is covered with 10 or so inches of snow.)   You enter the south side from the entrance on the east.  They don’t have water or sewer connections, which is just fine, because I’m running dry right now until I get into warmer weather.  But maybe half the sites have electricity, which I did need.

The first thing I noticed is that Verizon wasn’t working.  Very common in the west, but the campground is self-service, and you have to enter your reservation number to get your campsite.  I had my printouts of my reservations in my trip notebook, so got assigned #14, on the north side of the campground.  Fine, I get in the camper, with the car towed behind, but the road going to the west, north and east campsites has not been plowed, and while I would bust through it with the 4-wheel RAV4, I wasn’t going to go there with a cow/calf operation like I have.  So I drove around the park to see if there was another way in.  Nope. And the entrance on the east side is set up for driving in from the south, not the north, so I couldn’t make the turn back into the park.  

Ok, I’ll just drive across the highway and make a loop around the next block.  As I started to make the left turn, I saw it was a dead-end, and I was past the point of making a right-hand turn.  So, go up to the next block, only there wasn’t a next block.  This road goes up a hill and makes a right-hand turn which goes down the hill a ways and stops, with two driveways at the end.  And what I’m driving on is dry packed snow

I quickly realize that I have to unhook the car and do a 3 point (or 6 or 9 point) turn to get around.  So, I unhook, backup a couple of feet, go off the edge of the loose snow pack and I can’t get out.  OK, don’t panic, get the motorhome turned around and I can back up and rehook the car and pull it up and out.  So I start backing up the motorhome, carefully staying away from the car, start sliding down the lower house driveway, and then stop, into a snow drift.  And I’m stuck.  Soft snow, about 6” away from a fence post.  Heck….

As I had turned into that short section of road, I had noticed that the house on the corner had four pickups in front, including one fairly heavy-duty construction four wheel pickup.  I go knock on the door, carefully observing the Beware of Dog sign, explain my situation to the man there, who nods his head and says, “Yep, it happens.”  The truck had a full grill bumper on it, and I figured if he could just get behind me, he could push up enough to get me out.  Great idea, he agreed, but the tires spun out, and he couldn’t do anything.  Right then, the homeowner whose driveway I'm in comes out to go to work at one of the mines, and drives his four wheel pickup out.  We show him what’s going on and he says, maybe we can tie into the front suspension and he could pull sideways while the other guy pushed.  And after the third try, he was able to swing the front around enough on the snow that the first guy could push a little better, and we got her out.  Then, we hooked up to the tow bar on the car and just a little umph and it drove out.  So, both vehicles were level and capable of self-propulsion.  Talk about guardian angels.  Two older crusty guys who were more than willing to come and help. 

The first guy suggested that rather than hook up immediately, go back down to the campground and see if there is someplace else I could park.  The first three sites I walked past did not have electricity, but the fourth did.  I checked the box with my circuit tester and it was on and properly wired, so drove back up the hill, hooked up and back down to plugin and am enjoying the leisure life of motorhoming.

I’m sure it will go easier tomorrow….. 

Picture 1:  Saddled up and ready to ride.

Picture 2:  Stalagmite that formed while I was hooking up at the house.  See the drop off the corner of the motorhome.