Historic Old Colorado City

Tuesday, 30 June 2015 (Part II)
Peregrine Pines FamCamp; USAFA, Colorado Springs — Colorado

Mui had his heart set on having tapas for lunch, so after our hike in the Garden of the Gods (post here), we got in our car and drove the short distance to Old Colorado City (OCC).  Like so many towns in the west, OCC owes its birth to gold.  It was founded in mid-1859, shortly after prospectors were lured to the area by major gold strikes that were announced in the Pikes Peak region.  Pikes Peak or Bust was the rallying call of the day.

We had already checked the TripAdvisor comments and knew not to expect much of our visit.  Of course, if you are an art gallery browser or just like to check out the various stores lining the streets, there’s plenty of that.  And restaurants as well.

I sort of got the sense that the place comes alive later in the day.  But no matter, we were there for lunch not to sightsee … although we did stroll up and down the small historic center while we waited for the restaurant to open at 11:30a.  Since I’m not much for crowds, the quietness of the streets worked out for me.

Fun mural at the Colorado City Creamery.

Garden of the Gods … Redux

Tuesday, 30 June 2015 (Part I)
Peregrine Pines FamCamp; USAFA, Colorado Springs — Colorado
Temps: Hi 87F (31C) / Lo 52F (11C)

When we left the house this morning, we had no intention of going to the Garden of the Gods.  But we had to jiggle our plans a bit, so that’s where we ended up.

Florissant Fossil Beds: Giant Redwoods in Colorado! … and More

Thursday, 25 June 2015
Peregrine Pines FamCamp; USAFA, Colorado Springs — Colorado
Temps: Hi 84F (29C) / Lo 55F (13C)

Sarah, a fellow-blogger and RVer (of See Where the Road Leads fame), took time out of the Alaska road trip she is on with her hubby and Kitty to suggest that we might enjoy visiting some fossil beds in nearby Florissant.  After a couple of hazy-skies days at home, we were raring to go somewhere fun.  So this morning we hopped in the CR-V and made the 40-mile (64 km) drive to the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (FFBNM) — one of only nine NPS units specifically set aside to protect fossils.

Falcon Trail: 13 Miles Up and Down … and a Side Trip to 1871

Saturday, 20 June 2015
Peregrine Pines FamCamp; USAFA, Colorado Springs — Colorado
Temps: Hi 86F (30C) / Lo 63F (17C)

The morning dawned bright, with blue skies and puffy clouds, and comfortably cool temps.  The forecast was for a hot day, but by leaving early to get on one of the hiking trails here at the USAFA we figured we just might beat the worst of the heat.  Hah!  We were wrong!

For today’s hike we opted to do the Falcon Trail, a multi-use loop trail that runs entirely within the boundaries of the USAFA.  When we left the Phaeton at 7:00a, we were still debating doing just a portion of the 13-mile (21 km) trail as an in-and-out hike.  By the time we were at the trail access point five minutes later, the decision was made to hike the entire loop.  Five minutes after that we were walking, our Camelbaks heavy on our backs … the water bladder filled to the gills with the liquid refreshment we knew we would be needing for this moderate-to-difficult hike.

Driving the Pikes Peak Highway in 7 Minutes and 8 Seconds

Wednesday, 17 June 2015 (Part II)
Peregrine Pines FamCamp; USAFA, Colorado Springs — Colorado

Seven minutes and eight seconds … that’s all it will take you to make the 39-mile (63 km) roundtrip drive on the Pikes Peak Highway.  Mui processed his GoPro video; cut out some scenes … added others; slowed down portions of his footage … sped up others.  Just so you can come along on this drive at warp speed.

Strap on your seatbelt and let’s go.  I don’t think you’ll need any motion sickness meds … just be warned!

© 2004-2015 Two to Travel's Phaeton Journeys.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED by ERIN ERKUN.

Pikes Peak: America’s Mountain

Wednesday, 17 June 2015
Peregrine Pines FamCamp; USAFA, Colorado Springs — Colorado
Temps: Hi 80F (27C) / Lo 55F (13C)

The mountain that looms over Colorado Springs has been known by many names.

The Ute Indians referred to it as Sun Mountain because it catches the early mountain rays.  The Arapaho called it Heey-otoyoo, meaning "Long Mountain” — that’s self explanatory; just look at the photo to the right.  Then came the Spaniards in the 1700s … they named the mountain El Capitán.  In 1806, when Lt Zebulon Pike was sent to survey the lands acquired through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, he named the mountain Grand Peak … some say it was Highest Peak.  That name lasted until the first recorded ascent in 1820 when the mountain was named James Peak … in honor of the botanist who made it to the summit.  Thirty years later, the mountain was officially named Pikes Peak … the name that has lasted to our time.

A Day at Home … Fixin’ a Leak and Makin’ “Kuru Köfte”

Tuesday, 16 June 2015
Peregrine Pines FamCamp; USAFA, Colorado Springs — Colorado
Temps: Hi 77F (25C) / Lo 53F (12C)

Sometimes you decide to stay home for one reason — in this instance, to relax and catch up on “living life on the road” type of stuff.  But today it turns out to be good for an entirely different reason that we decide to spend the day at home.

Garden of the Gods: Light Hiking

Monday, 15 June 2015
Peregrine Pines FamCamp; USAFA, Colorado Springs — Colorado
Temps: Hi 72F (22C) / Lo 53F (12C)

A return visit to the Garden of the Gods (GotG) today proved more fruitful for our plans to hike a couple of the trails in the park.

We tried to start our day early, but “things” got in the way, and we didn’t leave the Phaeton until 7:30a.  Twenty minutes later we were turning onto the Gateway Road — the entrance into the park from 30th Street.  Having studied the map we picked up from the visitor center (V&NC) yesterday (post here), we already knew which trail we wanted to hike.  The bonus for picking a trail at the far end of GotG was that we got a sneak preview of the park by car on our way to the trailhead — which wasn’t that easy to find after all.

Garden of the Gods: Visitor & Nature Center

Sunday, 14 June 2015
Peregrine Pines FamCamp; USAFA, Colorado Springs — Colorado
Temps: Hi 75F (24C) / Lo 46F (8C)

Made a mistake today.  Well, sort of a mistake.  You see, instead of hiking one of the trails here on the grounds of USAFA, we went to the Garden of the Gods (GotG) — a registered national natural landmark since 1971.

We went to a free park!  On a Sunday!  In the summer … when schools are out!  What were we thinking?  Apparently, we weren’t — thinking, that is.  To boot, when we arrived at the GotG V&NC, we found a long line of vehicles queued up along 30th Street, and a barrier and a police car blocking the entrance into the park.  What the heck?

America the Beautiful

Saturday, 13 June 2015
Peregrine Pines FamCamp; USAFA, Colorado Springs — Colorado
Temps: Hi 77F (25C) / Lo 48F (9C)

O beautiful for spacious skies … For amber waves of grain … For purple mountain majesties … Above the fruited plain! … America!  America! … God shed His grace on thee … And crown thy good with brotherhood … From sea to shining sea. …

Thus goes the opening stanza to one of America’s most patriotic songs — America the Beautiful … although if you’re like me, you’ll be surprised to learn that the words have changed some since Katherine Lee Bates first wrote the poem in 1893.  (All three versions are in the Wikipedia article I linked to above.)

So what does this beautiful song have to do with what we did today?  Aside from the fact, that is, that Bates was inspired to write the words after a visit to Pikes Peak, which towers over Colorado Springs (CoS) and is visible from almost everywhere you go in and around town … including USAFA (photo above)!

Welcome to USAFA

Friday, 12 June 2015
Peregrine Pines FamCamp; USAFA, Colorado Springs — Colorado
Temps: Hi 68F (20C) / Lo 56F (13C)

Get used to references to USAFA.  Why?  Because United States Air Force Academy is simply too much of a mouthful to say for the 30 days we will be here.  Actually, 25 days now, since we arrived here five days ago.

Boy, time sure flies fast.  I’ve said that before, haven’t I?  Well, it’s true and repeating it doesn’t seem to slow time down; or speed it up, for that matter.

Almost at the USAFA South Gate.  It won’t be long before we’re settled for a month!     

So, how did we get here and what have we been doing since we set up camp at USAFA?

A ‘Plog’ [Photo(b)log] of the Highway of Legends

Sunday, 7 June 2015
Carpios Ridge Campground — Trinidad Lake State Park, Colorado
Temps: Hi 77F (25C) / Lo 51F (11C)

No Work Today.  Except ...

… for continuing with a little online reading to educate myself about blog thefts — be they posts or entire blogs.  I gave myself a day off to enjoy some of what the area has to offer, so on with the fun stuff.

143 Miles on the Toad’s Odometer … Great Drive!

Quiet Day @ Trinidad Lake SP … and the Research Continues

Saturday, 6 June 2015
Carpios Ridge Campground — Trinidad Lake State Park, Colorado
Temps: Hi 83F (28C) / Lo 52F (11C)

First Let’s Have Some Fun.

A pitch dark site; quiet too … after our late-arriving neighbors finished setting up in the dark; only the occasional strong gust rocking the Phaeton; no thunderstorms … no weather alerts … a tiny bit of rain pitter-pattering on the roof.  Yup, had a good night’s rest at Trinidad Lake State Park.

Wake up came with the reminder that I needed to deal with the plagiarism/copyright infringement issue.  Sigh!  Shelving plans to go hiking, I sat down at the computer to get started with researching what actions I needed to take, and solutions that would keep me blogging.  At least it was still quite chilly outside, so I didn’t feel too bad about being at my desk.

Fisher's Peak, a basalt-capped mesa, is thought to have been formed by horizontal lava
flows over a million years ago.  The 9,600-foot high (2,925m) mesa looms over the reservoir.

Third Day on the Road … and We Arrive @ Trinidad Lake State Park, Colorado

Friday, 5 June 2015
Carpios Ridge Campground — Trinidad Lake State Park
Trinidad, Colorado

Note (8 June 2015): I briefly took my blogs offline by making them private, but an expert on Google’s Blogger forum said I probably had to keep the blog public so that Google can find it when they look into the DCMA violation I filed.  So I changed back again.  Since the blog is out there already, might as well post to it until action is completed on my filing.  When might that be?  Your guess is as good as mine.

In the meantime, you might notice a change in the tone of this post.  That’s because I simply copied and pasted from the private journal.  Skip over what you don’t want to read ;-)  And if some of it doesn’t
make sense, remember the words were written before I switched the blog setting to be public again.

Blogging No More?  Maybe.  But First …

Our third day on the road … the last leg of the drive to our weekend stop before we continue onto Colorado Springs, where we will be spending a month.  The trip started in Port Aransas on June 1.  So how is it that this is day three when the date for the post reads the 5th and we started out on the 1st?

Taking the Blogs Offline

Not going to worry about the formatting of this post … suffice it to say, I am taking all my blogs offline.  I’ll give this post a day or two to alert regular readers, however.

A nice woman from England, experiencing her own plagiarism issues, alerted me this morning that at least one of my posts was plagiarized.  I immediately did my own search, using a unique set of words from within the post in question.  Sure enough, there was my post on someone else’s blog; predated by a year, but there nonetheless.  Not talking a word or two here … rather, the entire post … pictures and all … was lifted.

To make matters worse, looks like someone else might have stolen the entire blog.

I will be dealing with Google/Blogger to resolve the issue.  But in the meantime, I am going offline.

This may be the incentive I’ve been looking for to return to personal journaling.

Sorry to leave any stories hanging, but in an already busy lifestyle, I do not need the additional hassle of monitoring blog posts to ensure they are not stolen.

The reasons why people steal posts matter not one whit to me.  THEY ARE IDIOTS AND THAT’S ALL THERE IS TO IT.

Made it to Amarillo

Thursday, 4 June 2015
Amarillo Ranch RV Park — Amarillo, Texas
Temps: Hi 95F (35C) / Lo 65F (18C)

We re-jiggled our plans … though not in the way you might think.

Mui and I were both up around 4:30a this morning.  Don’t ask me why.  We woke up, we tossed-and-turned, and finally we decided to just get up.  Figuring we had a long day of driving ahead of us, however, we decided to take it easy, and didn’t get on the road until 8:00a.

A golden sunrise in Fairfield gets our day off to a good start.

On Our Way

Wednesday, 3 June 2015
Shady Oaks Cabins & RV Park — Fairfield, Texas
Temps: Hi 95F (35C) / Lo 68F (20C)

A second overnight in the Coach Care Houston parking lot; an 8-hour wait in the deep freeze — the customer service lounge, that is — and at 3:00p today the Phaeton was sprung from the service bay with the water pump that circulates the coolant replaced.  That was the last — and most important — item that was on our work order.  Our third trip to CCH — happy customers the third time around.

As soon as the toad is hooked up, we’re out of here.

Everyone Mui spoke with at Coach Care suggested we take the Hardy Toll Road to head north out of Houston.  We took their advice and had a very easy time getting out of the city just as the rush hour traffic was picking up at 3:30p.  When we connected to I-45N 22 miles (35 km) later, we found the interstate all but free of traffic.  Yay!

Where Is Two to Travel’s Phaeton Now?

If the format of this post looks a little different, it is. Not because I am having problems with Live Writer. I am not. In fact LW is back to working beautifully, at least for me. But I decided to try out a Mac-based blogging platform so I can write blog posts on my MacBook Pro. The verdict is still out on Blogo. I’m going to use it through the end of the trial period before deciding whether I am going to keep it or not.

Tuesday, 2 June 2015
Coach Care — Houston, Texas
Temps: Hi 95F (35C) / Lo 69F (21C)

You want to know where the Phaeton is at the moment? I’ll give you a hint and the first two guesses don’t count. I think that’s fair, don’t you? LOL!

Our view of a few of the service bays at the Coach Care Facility.

We were up early and out of the Phaeton by 7:00a … slides in, but still plugged into the power pedestal per our instructions. We walked over to the Coach Care Houston customer service lounge, made ourselves comfortable, and got down to work — Mui editing videos; me working on a blog post of cute penguins.

Look, they even have a comfortable work station for me.

Of course, comfortable is a relative term. It was freezing cold in the lounge, and no amount of warm beverages would serve to warm me up. I had come prepared with a pair of socks and a hoodie, so I put them on. But it was to no avail. Mui played macho at first, but after a while he gave in and went to see if he could get into the coach to pick up a couple of jackets.

From what I have on in the picture above, you’d think it was winter in Houston and not summer. Then again, that’s the problem isn’t it? Summer in Texas seems to give everyone permission to crank up the A/C as high as it will go ;-)

Our appointment was at 7:30a, and the Phaeton was pulled into a service bay sometime thereabouts. Unlike at the Tiffin maintenance facility in Red Bay, customers don’t have access to the service bays, so we had to wait for someone from the service department to come out and talk with us — particularly hard on Mui. Around 11:00a, we ate the PB&J sandwiches and fruit Mui had packed for lunch. And we waited a bit more.

Four hours after we had settled into the lounge, Chris, the RV service manager, came out with the Phaeton's report card. The maintenance items were all done — the Phaeton had aced those tests. The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) recall that Tiffin had sent us last June for the LED clearance lights was also taken care of. Buuuut … the coolant issue was yet to be worked on. They had identified the leak as coming from the pump that circulates the coolant through whatever it needs to circulate through to keep the engine cool. Hey … I’m no mechanic; if you want specific details, ask Mui ;-) However, the techs were all tied up, working on other vehicles. “I’ll get you in first thing tomorrow morning," Chris said.

Nothing else to do but spend the night at Coach Care Houston. Having planned for the possibility of a second night here, we’re still on schedule with our road trip … though we might have to drive extra miles to make it to our first campground reservation in Colorado by Friday. C’est la vie.

In the meantime, Mui’s off shopping. He just called to say that he picked up fresh salmon at Costco, so we’ll have a decent meal tonight. Nothing like living it up in the parking lot ;-)

While I’m waiting for him, perhaps I should go dig out some of my polar gear … I’m going to need them in the customer lounge tomorrow. ROTFLMAO ;-))

GWRVR to Coach Care Houston

Monday, 1 June 2015
Coach Care — Houston, Texas
Temps: Hi 94F (34C) / Lo 67F (19C)

With most of the getting-on-the-road chores already completed, all we had to do this morning was disconnect the hook-ups, bring in the slides, raise the jacks, and back out of our home site.

Bye Bye … ‘till we return in November!

With the toad hooked up, we were on our way to the ferry by 8:00a; across the channel and in Aransas Pass 30 minutes later.  Seeing the long, long, long line of vehicles queued up to cross over to Port Aransas, we were glad that we didn’t have a similar line to wait in before boarding the ferry.

The quickest way for us to get out of dodge is the Aransas pass ferry.

With the sun burning bright in the sky and high humidity, the cockpit A/C was having a difficult time keeping us cool.  No problem; we needed to exercise the generator anyway, so we cranked it on and turned on the house A/C.  Ahhh, much better.

As we drove north, we saw evidence of flooding along either side of the highway, with trees under several feet of water in many places.  It’s going to be a while before everything dries out.  In the meantime, mosquitoes are having a field day :-(

Just past Victoria, we pulled into a truck stop I found with the AllStays Trucks & Travel app I purchased a few weeks ago.  The stop was nothing special; just a dirt parking area at a Conoco station where there were a few truck fueling lanes.  We just needed a safe place to do a quick check of the engine coolant level … the slow leak will be fixed when the Phaeton goes in for maintenance tomorrow.  The coolant was holding its level, so we were soon moving down the road again.

Our next stop was at a rest area on Hwy 77 for an early lunch at 11:00a.  The egg salad sandwiches Mui prepared sure hit the spot.

Preparing Egg salad sandwiches for lunch.

We accomplished the rest of the drive without any other stops.  Shortly before 2:00p, we were pulling under the portico at Coach Care Houston.  After Mui checked in, Justin drove the Phaeton to its overnight spot and hooked it up to a 50Amp pedestal for our overnight stay.  Nothing special … just a parking lot, but convenient for our 7:30a appointment tomorrow morning.

Although the neighboring rigs are all hooked up to power, none are occupied.

If all goes as scheduled, we’ll be out of here tomorrow.  That said, we’ve given ourselves two days for this maintenance stop, so if we have to stay over another night, it won’t be a problem  See you tomorrow … either from somewhere down the road, or from this same parking lot.

Live Writer Is Back Up

Monday, 1 June 2015

Just to let everyone know ;-)  I understand there might still be a problem if you upload photos from your computer, though.  Hopefully, that’s the next fix … and it will happen soon

I had no problems adding the photo below … but I did it the way I usually add photos … and that’s with a link from my SmugMug Gallery.

Thanks, Google and/or Microsoft, for fixing whatever the initial problem was.  Now to fix the photo upload issue so everyone can get back to blogging if LW is their preferred method ;-)

The Barn Swallow photo is just a test to see if photo linking works.