Steve and Judy's Travels!

Wow. That was warm! Last night in Golden was warmer than our high
temperatures all last week. We didn’t even freeze.

That week went well. Started the job on Monday. Finished on Friday. A
very big, very nice day care/preschool/pre-kindergarten in Edwards. A good
place to work. Good weather. Lots of blue skies. No wind. A little on
the cold side, but we were living pretty well without fahrenheits by the end
of the week. When you’re making your way through really cold weather in a motorhome, you
risk damage to it if you pile more blankets on the bed to keep from getting
cold. You can’t be a minimalist. Don’t try to conserve propane. You can’t
get through it by putting more blankets on the bed; you have to take
blankets off the bed. You have to just suck it up and turn up the
thermostat. Let the furnaces run. The colder it gets outside, the warmer
you have to keep it inside to make sure things don’t freeze. Early in the
week, we left the furnaces turned down and put on more clothes. We were
cold all evening in the living room and the water lines froze during the
night. They thawed out after a few hours the next day, but we don’t want to
do that very often. By the end of the week, we turned the heaters up a
couple notches in the evening and we weren’t cold in the living room at all.
We left the heaters on at seventy degrees all night and took a blanket off
the bed. It worked. At zero degrees outside, we were comfortable all night
and the water worked fine in the morning. Finished up in Edwards, headed west, and settled in at Dakota Ridge in
Golden by five o’clock. A two-hour drive. We were supposed to head for
Montrose on the western slope, but that job got delayed. We’ll have to go
to Montrose some other time. The next job is in Bailey, starting the middle
of next week. I can reach that one from here, and there isn’t another
motorhome park any closer, so we’ll stay at Dakota Ridge for about ten days.
Big trip coming up after that.

Highs in the thirties. Single digit lows. Bill, remember backpacking? You could carry a three-season tent or a
four-season tent. We always used three-season tents. Four-season tents
cost more, and were heavier to carry, but they were designed to accommodate
winter conditions. We chose not to backpack in winter conditions. I think we’re driving a three-season tent. Motorhomes are perfect for three
out of the four seasons, but winter is a stretch. We have furnaces, and we
can keep warm, but it’s not like being in a house. There is some insulation
in the walls, and maybe in the floor, and all the windows are double pane
except the windshield, but there are drafts. When I sit at the dinette
table to work, my feet are in the slideout section. I don’t think the floor
of the living room slide is insulated. I don’t know if the winter weather issues can be solved by spending more
money on the motorhome. We talked to the guy in the Prevost and he was
complaining about the cold and drafts. He spent a million dollars on his
motorhome and still thinks it is drafty in the cold! Imagine that. Know what else? Small price to pay for what we get. We’ll get through the
winter with the three-season tent just fine.
The job is going well.

We’re parked right on the Eagle River. In the Eagle Valley. Right
downstream from the town of Eagle. And guess what we saw flying up and down
the valley today? That’s right! Magpies! Magpies! And a few eagles too. McKee gave us an eagle story as well. A bald eagle comes to roost in the
same tree every night in Louisville just a couple blocks from her house.
That’s unusual. Oh! And our victory. On the way out of Texas, we faced the San Antonio
Challenge and emerged victorious. Right in the middle of the day on our
drive home, we made the connection from northbound Interstate 37 to
westbound Interstate 10. That’s it. You would think it would be simple.
One road goes north. The other road goes west. How hard could it be? The process involves turns. You would think one turn would do it. A left
turn. But no. I don’t recall how many turns there are, but there are a
lot. They are all freeway intersections. It’s not like you have to get off
the freeway and drive through traffic lights. And there are signs. This
way to Interstate 10. This way to El Paso. Signs like that. You’d think
it would be easy. And it is easy. For a while. But then the turn and lane
changes get closer and closer together. You make the first exit, follow it
for a few miles then make the next turn, then the next, then the next. They
are not all right lane exits. They are not all single lane exits. After
the first five or six changes, they get so close together, you have to be
set up in the correct lane for the next exit while you’re still in the one
before it, or you’ve already lost. Fifteen years now, we’ve been driving back and forth to the Texas coast, and
most of those trips we drive through San Antonio. Never once, in all those
years, have we made the connection between these two interstates without
making at least one wrong turn and having to explore other parts of San
Antonio in our motorhome. Of course, we didn’t accomplish this victory without help. We had the GPS
navigator. But know what? The navigator didn’t help at all. It missed the
first turn and was going to direct us another way. So without the help of
the GPS navigator, how did we find our way……?
Luck. Could we do it again…..? Not likely.

The river view.