by 531 – Clear Creek RV Park. FHUs. Site ‘H’. Good cellular. Good starlink. Good bath house. Found out that the city office allows mail and package delivery. Hot weather. Went for a early morning walk along the river behind the river – then drove to Lakewood for an errand – then went to woody’s pizza to watch a semi world cup match downtown Golden. Took a couple of early morning bike rides – they are working on over 65 miles of paved trails in different directions. Drove out to Morrison to pickup escapee mail, had good drinks and lunch at The Hungry Goat, visited Red Rocks during the day, then made a few pickup of items in different places. Went to Terrain Brewery for live music, drinks and food trucks. Walked around the town of Golden – good coffee and pastries at Vellichor Coffee Roasting. Watched world cup final at Tavern 242 near Morrison, then went to Red Rocks to watch Maren Morris with special replacement opening act Brandi Carlisle and Amanda Shires. Went out to Arvada for some shopping.
Delayed departure from Royal Gorge until 1pm – expected to arrive at Premier RV in Falcon. Good lunch at Coyote Den Cafe on the way to Golden.
Early morning drive to Transwest in Fredrick for brake inspection (July 14th). Good coffee and pastries at MeCo Coffee Collective. Nice walk in a local park. The Vista brakes are sufficient for another 5k miles or so. Will schedule brake replacement later in the year.
530 – Royal Gorge RV Park. Beautiful drive. FHU, PT site. Site 10. Starlink and cellular good. Good bath house. Nice views. The Canon City area took us by surprise – quite nice. Drove up to Royal Gorge for a nice hike along the rim towards the city park. Good coffee and burrito at Cafe Belay. Walked the historic town of Canon City, drove up to skyline drive above town (a little scary drive along the ridge) then listened to jazz and enjoyed a local bottle of wine at The winery at holy cross abbey. Went on a short hike to Tunnels trail outside of Canon City – saw the tour train entering the canyon. Went to Coyote Den Cafe in Primrose – enjoyed the breakfast sandwiches and listened to a local music couple – saw the fire to the south. Drove up Phantom Canyon then stopped by Royal Gorge for a six-pack of Ann n Mann’s ice cream. Decided to postpone visit to White Water Bar and Grill after we took the ice cream back to the RV.
529 – Monarch Spur Campground. FHUs, PT site. Needed 2 jack pads under each front tire. Family run campground. Good bath rooms. SL good – no cell service – using cronitor tool. There is smoke in the valley for first have of the week but got better. The first night, they had a trio of performers – great music. Next day we went to Salida for a great 4th of July parade (coffee at Topo Coffee and drinks at Bensons) – listened to two high school bands along the river. Ate a hamburger cookout dinner at the campground – they went back to Salida to hear a great band called Santa Rios. Visited Buena Vista for a nice town walk and short hike around the river front. Went to park arts show. Late breakfast at Cool River – after hike had great scone and coffee at Buena Vista Roasting company. Went back to Buena Vista for great coffee and pastries at Buena Vista Roasting Company – took a 18 mile bike ride along the river thru train tunnels – afterwards, visited the local Mountain Spirit Winery – rained for a while as we drove back to the campground. Visited Browns Canyon National Monument – parking and facilities managed by Colorado State Parks. Great hike along the river where we watched many rafts go down river – water levels were high enough in many places while other places made the guides work harder. Went into Salida to window shop – great dinner at Shavano – went to the park to enjoy their weekly music. Bought Colorado state park pass at the local office in Salida.
Driving from Alamosa to Salida, towing the jeep, was fine over the pass; however, the drive down the mountain pass, the engine was in 4th and rode hard even with the engine break. The F53 did not have time to recover the altitude and steepness before going up hill again from Salida to Monarch Spur (7300 vs 8600′) – could not get above 45 mph. Will take the Vista back to Salida without the jeep to see if the problem was temporary.
After the experience with the mountain pass, reviewed the plan for July and August. Decided to postpone Steamboat Springs visit – the pass from I 70 to steamboat springs then back to I 70 seems to be unwieldly and tough on gas engines – the last visit we came from I 80. Booked 4 nights at Riverdance near Vail and added 3 nights to Glendwood Springs KOA.
Will look at staying for a month or so at Monarch Spur in the future – found a really nice RV resort south of Salida (towards Canon City) called Salida RV resort, really nice but expensive place.
528 – KOA. Nice campground. FHUs – PT site. SL and cell were good. Good bath house. Could see fire from the campground. Visited the Great Sand Dunes NP – it was a good visit seeing the dunes and people sledding – had stopped by during COVID but it was closed. Long day trip to Creede and Lake City – two very nice mountain towns. Lunch at Vida – Eat to live. Went over a really high mountain pass – we had visited Lake City from previous visit many years ago during COVID. Saw a shiras moose along the side of the road – it was gone when we turned around to see it. Visited a couple of water falls around the open areas toward Lake City.
527 – KOA. FHUs. Stayed just the one night. Good bath house There was a great brewery with food within walking distance – Kaktus Brewing Co.
526 – KOA. Back again. Upgraded to FHU and PT site. Site is level in middle but not front or back – had to drive to dump station to disconnect. Back still hurting. Really long day (over 8 hours driving – Suzanne drove 2-3 hours. Cancelled 1 night KOA in Needles CA due to hot weather forecast – was 111-116 but only 102 when we drove by. Really windy drive – lost a lot of time and fuel. Got gas in Kingman – a little tight getting out but getting to pump was easy. Fire in Pocket Canyon NW of the road between Sedona and Flagstaff – level 2 – fairly smokey 1st and part of 2nd days. Went to get coffee at Cedar House and walked downtown – not too bad.
525 – Orange Grove RV Park. Back again. Hurt my back with all the moving of stuff between the Vista and Vista Drive. Long day. Got gas @ Sam’s club west Bakersfield – had to disconnect jeep since the exit was a zig zag. A lot of city driving with hard to understand truck routes. Need a new spot for the camera – slide knocked off the suction cup.
524 – Del Valle Regional Park. Site 2. Front driver tire took 4 blocks of wood and front passenger took 2 jack pads. FHUs. SL working well – no cellular. Bath rooms clean but spartan. Hot weekend. Had a challenge with flies inside the Vista. Mike and Marsha visited for the weekend in site 3 across the road. We visited the lake – busy weekend. Only a few visitors during the weekdays. Visited First Street Alehouse to watch game 5 NBA finals. Dropped off Suzanne’s ebike to Superfly repair shop in Pleasanton (install tcd replacement). Suzanne spent time planning for Yvonne’s 90th birthday. Researched new batteries for the Vista – went to O’reilly and bought a chassis and two coach batteries. Took Yvonne to Social Security in Concord, coffee at Gratitude and then Suzanne and I had a great lunch at Sidebar in Danville. Took Suzanne’s mother to dentist 2x, great coffee and pastries @ Tellus coffee. Lots of errands. Great doctor visit for checkup for the both of us – we really like Dr Velpuri. Took Graham, Cameron and Meghan to a great dinner at Pomet in Oakland – after visiting with them and Lulu and Gus at mother-in-law’s house – dogs in the pool. Smoked brisket and ribs at Yyonne’s house on saturday – was a little dry – the resting gives me problems with timing. Took Graham to Oakland for a walk along the Berkeley Marina and had a great lunch at LuLu’s – great bowls before dropping him off at Bart in Oakland. Good breakfast of pastries and quiche at Wingan’s in Livermore.
Given the lack of cellular connectivity at the campground – enabled wifi calling for cell phones and installed cronitor.io on my laptop and smartphone – sends a heartbeat from laptop’s powershell to the cloud every 5 minutes – seems to work. This gives us a backup for Marcel when we do not have verizon connectivity. Also, realized that I can monitor power at the campsite by checking Starlink’s status remotely thru my smartphone’s starlink app. Bought and installed Eufy solar camera – I was a little nervous about how isolated we were as well as not trusting the new cronitor tool.
Drove to Oakland Airport to complete our Clear+ application at their kiosa – went to good chinese food in Hayward afterwards.
Looked at Vista’s front brakes – confirmed they do need replacement in near future – appointment scheduled in Colorado Springs while we stay in Golden. Also- need to get maintenance on the onan 5500 genny.
Suzanne became part of a scam attempt associated with Wells Fargo and Zelle – we shut it down – escalated to Wells Fargo.
523 – Costanoa (formerly koa in pescadero). Back-in site. FHUs. SL good and cellular is fair. First weekend was crazy, crazy, crazy – so many families and kids with their bikes and resort buggies made the place look like grand central station. Went to Half Moon Bay twice for nice visits – lunch at la costanera and drinks/tapas at Jettywave Distillery – good music at both venues. Nice walk around HMB marina and downtown areas. Great musician at the Costanoa. Nice local hike above the resort. Took Felix to Ark Animal vet in Santa Cruz for his monthly injection and consult on his seizures – coffee and pastries at Verge. Good visit at Ano Nuevo State Park to see the elephant seals. Went to Quest in Scotts Valley in preparation of my doctor visits next week. Great quiche, pastries and coffee at Companion in the industrial section, bike ride along the coast near lighthouse, true farmer’s market downtown then great ice cream at Marianne’s in the industrial section. Watched kite surfers at Waddell creek. Drove to Pescadero to pickup pie and bread for this weekend with Mike and Marsha, beach visit to Davenport, then good dinner at Copla in Santa Cruz.
As we attempted to leave Carmel by the River this morning, we could not start the Vista. All three batteries were drained sufficiently. We reconnected the Vista to shore power – it was enough to get us to Costanoa. After much troubleshooting, we isolated the problem to coach 2 battery. Also, realized that the chassis battery is underpowered and sized and part of the problem (bought in emergency in key west April 2024). Will replace all 3 batteries in Livermore at Autozone.
522 – Carmel by the River. FHUs. Celluar and SL okay. Bath house okay. Smallish sites with high hedges separating sites. Campground located deep in the valley near lots of farms and houses – last 1/2 mile narrow country road. Lots of walks on the beaches in various places in Carmel and Pacific Grove. Visited Carmel Valley – visited Folk Tale and Twisted Root – great musci with former Doobie Brothers performer and a local guy. Took ebikes on the bike trail from north Monterey to north Carmel. Pastries at Ad Astra then lunch at Ocean Sushi and Deli – tried various Japanese food items in preparation for the Japan trip. Coffee at Stokers and the Bookstore – farmers market in Pacific Grove. Good lunch at Sandbar and Grill. Another great dinner at Dametra. Found an opportunity, without heavy marine layer, to visit Big Sur. We had a very very very nice prix fixe dinner at Aubergine (Michelin 2 star) restaurant in Carmel – good experience. Ordered new TCD for Suzanne’s ebike – Livermore – had connectivity issues on bike ride.
Installed bitwarden and ente auth on both laptops and galaxy smart phones to increase security as ease of using a vault for password management across multiple devices and accounts – took a few weeks to get it working properly.
