My face hurts. We saw a new dermatologist in Texas before we left. She biopsied a spot and it came back positive for basal cell carcinoma. We scheduled an appointment with Dr. Steinbaugh (John) in Boulder to get it removed while we were here. That was today’s project. It wasn’t fun, it still involved shots right in the nose and cutting, but it was so much better than the last experience we had in Texas. John is so good and it is so good to have that gone. A little bit of pain tonight. A little bit of Advil and wine helped. We sat outside and watched the sunlight change to moonlight; the sun shadows change to moon shadows. Judy is taking great care of me.
The results are in
The minivan conversion to a towcar worked just fine. There was a lot to do. We needed a baseplate mounted to the front for our Blue Ox towbar. Blue Ox doesn’t make a baseplate for our car, but Roadmaster does, so they installed a Roadmaster baseplate and modified it to connect to our Blue Ox towbar. We needed a wiring kit so the towcar lights and turn signals will mimic whatever the motorhome lights are doing. We need a braking system to apply the towcar brakes when the motorhome brakes are applied. We got an Air Force1 system for that. It is activated by way of an air line from the coach to a physical connection with the arm of the brake pedal. Those are the basic components; baseplate, wiring kit, auxiliary braking. There is an additional twist though. Normally, in a towcar, we have to turn the ignition key to the accessory position to unlock the steering wheel. The minivan doesn’t have an ignition key; it has a push-to-start button. It’s a little tricky to get everything in the right place. The transmission has to be in Park to turn the engine off. Then, without touching the brake pedal (or the car will start again), push the start button twice to get the ignition to the correct position so we can take the car out of Park and put it in Neutral. At that point it’s ready to tow except that all the dash lights are lit and alarm bells are ringing because the ignition is on but the engine is not running. The installers added one more feature for us, a battery disconnect. Throw the battery disconnect and the car entirely shuts up. Close the hood and the car is ready to quietly tow. The process isn’t as simple as it was with the Jeep, but we don’t want to tow a Jeep anymore, we want to tow a minivan. It seems like a lot of moving parts to make this work, but we towed the van for a thousand miles, unhooked it here in Colorado to drive, and everything is working just fine. We declare the tow setup to be a success!
Happy September
We’re at St Vrain State Park. 2014 summer/fall trip map 
Our campsite for a week. Met Hobbes.
Went on a sunset walk with Becky and Brian.
Our campsite for a week. Met Hobbes. Went on a sunset walk with Becky and Brian. More dots on the map.
2014 summer/fall trip map Now we’re in Colorado. Lathrop State Park.
Pinyon/Juniper habitat.
Added black-billed magpies to the year-list. Tomorrow, Saint Vrain State Park, and Becky’s for dinner.
Pinyon/Juniper habitat. Added black-billed magpies to the year-list. Tomorrow, Saint Vrain State Park, and Becky’s for dinner. It’s crazy
…how empty this place is on a Labor Day weekend. Lake Colorado City State Park. It *was* a quiet night. Quieter than we wanted it to be in fact. We were listening for owls and didn’t get any. A day’s drive north… 2014 summer/fall trip map …and we’re parked at Oasis RV Park outside Amarillo.
What a difference a day makes. They have their own version of Cadillac Ranch.