9 May 2019 What a Difference 12 Hours Makes!

We woke this morning to snow coming down pretty heavily but it was not sticking where we were since the temperature was above freezing and the ground is warm. David had more telecons in the morning. Through the snow showers we could get occasional views of the dunes and could see snow building up. So we jumped in the truck and drove back into the park. Everything was snow covered and the winds were blowing really hard through Medano Pass into the park making the temperatures bitter. There were very few people in the park and no one was climbing the dunes. We again spotted some deer as we drove back to the Wanderer and warmth. Time to hunker down and wait out the storm.

 

Snow in May!

8 May 2019 Zapata Falls

When we woke up, it was a beautiful sunny day. The weather reports had changed and the storms were not supposed to hit until later in the day now. So we decided we would hike to Zapata Falls and then go into Alamosa for fuel and supplies. The road to the parking area for the trail is on BLM land and is poorly maintained. Not an issue for the behemoth,  but we definitely got our teeth rattled. When we got to the parking area we found out Leslie did not have her hiking boots with, but she decided to brave the trail anyway in her Sketchers. The trail was very rocky and in poor shape. Part of the trail is in BLM land, but the final quarter mile and the falls themselves are part of the Colorado Land Trust. When we got to the mouth of the S shaped canyon where the falls are located, the trail ends and you have to rock hop your way up the canyon to keep your feet dry. And believe me, you don’t want to put your feet into that freezing cold water. Between her shoes and concerns about her bad knee, Leslie opted to let David rock hop back to the falls while she enjoyed the sound of the running water. David made it back to the falls without getting his feet wet. Half the water fall was still a frozen sheet and the other half was running. A pretty little water fall. On the way back out, David slipped on a rock and dunked part of his left foot. The water is very cold!!!

Then we drove into Alamosa for lunch, fuel and groceries before heading back to the Wanderer. Interestingly, the headwaters of the Rio Grade River are also in this valley. As we headed back, the rain started to fall and it looked like it was snowing in the mountains. The wind picked up and was blowing 20-30 miles an hour out of the mountains to the east. The new awnings were flapping in the wind and it worried us they may get damaged, but they came through the night just fine.

Entrance Sign

Zapata Falls

David Heading Back to the Falls

7 May 2019 Great Sand Dunes National Park

Being a Tuesday, David had telecons to support all morning but after his last telecon around 1Pm, we headed out to the park. The weather forecast for later in the week look pretty ominous with winter storm warnings for Wednesday through Friday. We stopped at the visitor center and collected our 33^rdPassport Stampand watched the park movie. The sand dunes are the highest in North America at 755 feet high at the tallest (and they estimate 300 feet under ground). The dunes are formed from sand that has washed out of the Sangre De Cristo and San Juan mountains over thousands of years. The sand is washed into lakes west of the park via Sand Creek on the west side of the dunes and Medano Creek on the east side of the dune field. When the lakes shrink in the summer, the wind then picks it up and blows it into the dunes. Scientists believe that very little new sand is coming out of the mountains and the majority of the sane is washed from the east side of the dunes in the spring by the winter run off from Medano creek and recycled into the dunes by the summer western winds. 

David had visited the park in 2003 and climbed the dunes. Having climbed plenty of sand dunes in the past, we really did not feel like tackling the tallest sand dunes in North America since it is really tough slogging. Instead we took a trail to the dunes over look (2.5 miles) for great views of the 43 mile dune field. We also drove the Medano Pass Primitive Road to the point of no return. David had driven the road in his F-150 during his last visit and remembered the road was very narrow, intended more for jeeps than larger vehicles. So there was no way we were taking the behemoth beyond the last turn around. The road is closed due to snow beyond the 4 mile mark anyway. The dunes are impressive when you stand at Medano Creek and look up at them. Very few people climb to the top of the dunes. The clouds cleared out in time for a beautiful sunset. It was the first opportunity we have had in a while to have a campfire, so we took advantage of it and made ourselves a nice little fire! Critter sighting: we saw several groups of deer in the park as we drove in.

Entrance Sign

Dune Field from the Overlook

Dune Field from the Overlook Trail

Medano Creek with sand dunes and mountains in the background

Dunes and Mountains from he RV Park

Dunes across Medano Creek

Dunes across Medano Creek

Shadows on the Sand

Dunes across Medano Creek

Camp Fire with the dunes and mountains int he background

6 May 2019 Lamar to Mosca Colorado

We were up early, eager to hit the road. It was a 6.5 hour drive to the Great Sand Dunes Oasis RV Park ($41 per night with GSC) which is just outside the entrance to the park. To shave off approximately 40 miles, we decided to take Colorado 10, a state road (not a state Highway),

 across to Walsenburg. We won’t do that again! The road was not well maintained and it was a rough ride. Better to stick to Interstates or US Highways when possible. This was also our first big climb in the mountains. The grade on US 160 over Le Veta pass is 6% for 8 miles. The truck did great! It got a bit warm, between the load, grade, altitude and air temperatures in the upper 70s, but no where close to the red zone. We did slow down to at 45Mph on the steepest part, which was better than David expected.  When we arrived at the Great Sand Dunes Oasis RV Park we were informed that due to the continuing winter weather, they had not yet turned on the water in the RV Park. So we had to fill the fresh water tank by the office before going to our RV site. They also don’t have WiFi for the RV park even though they do for the lodge just up the hill. Not happy campers! This was the first time we have had to run for 5 days off the fresh water tank (107 Gallons), which holds half of what the average water usage in the US is in a day. It will be an interesting 5 days! Critter sighting: we saw two groups of Prong Horns along the road.

But the view out our door was incredible with the dunes clearly visible against the mountains.

View of the Dunes out our door.

5 May 2019 Lamar Colorado

The time change caused up to get up earlier than we had planned. But we had a slow morning, watched church via internet, and went out for our Mexican Food Sunday fix. Then we drove around Lamar to see what there was to see. Not much! The town was formed in 1886 when the railroad came through. There is still an active railway station for Amtrak here. But I really don’t know why anyone would get off. There just is not anything in this town for tourists! We spent the day catching up with our Blog entries and David did some work. Tomorrow we head for Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado. There are a couple of steep climbs and descents that will test the truck and David’s driving skills, but its good practice for some of the roads we will encounter in the next few months.

Mexican Food Sunday!

4 May 2019 Junction City, KS to Lamar, CO

We woke this morning to more factory noise. Heavy fog has settled in overnight so we were not in a big hurry to hit the road, preferring to give it time to burn off. Ken was in bright and early to reattach some seals that had to be removed for the paint work. Then he gave David some instructions on the new Anderson Valve and some caulking for the fiberglass joints and roof joints in case we need them in the future. We got ourselves ready to hitch up when our neighbor came over and asked if he could watch since they had never done it before. So, being seasoned RVers now, we showed them how it was done, then gave them some newbie pointers. 

Before we hit the road, we stopped at the truck stop just down the road from New Horizons and got weighed. The total weight of the truck and fiver was 36,100 lbs. The truck alone weighs 9,400 lbs. So the Wanderer total weight was 26,700 lbs. About 200lbs of that is water in the tanks. So the addition of the awnings added about 250lbs.

The drive from Junction City to Lamar was uneventful but long. The fog burned off about 10 am and we hit the road around 10:30 central time. We arrived at the Sundance High Plains RV Park ($32 per night with GSC) around 5:30 Mountain Time. So, a long 8 hour drive across some of the most boring topology on the planet!!! The one interesting thing was that we were paralleling the old Santa Fe Trail and crossed over it several times. 

The Sundance High Plains RV Park is an old park in the process of renovations by new owners (they bought it 18 months ago and it was in bad shape). The 22 RV spots are around the outer edge of the park with a large gravel area and in the center, a common gathering and BBQ area. They have a small hotel type block and one cabin to rent. The RV spots are around a central utility corridor, so one RV is facing one way and the other in the opposite direction in pairs. The RV spots on the outside have picnic tables and fire pits, the ones on the inside have no amenities. 

Sundance High Plains RV Park

Sundance High Plains RV Park Common area

Sundance High Plains RV Park Fountain

29 April – 3 May 2019 Junction City, KS

Well, it was a stressful week of dealing with repairs, missing parts, last minute issues, punctuated by periods of severe boredom! We awoke early Monday so we could get out of the Wanderer so they could begin working on it. We had forgotten how much fun it was to park in an industrial site with forklifts racing around, shift horns going off at 6:25 in the morning, employees coming into work, etc. In other words it gets noisy early everyday! As we got ourselves organized to leave for the day, David went in and found the New Horizon’s Service Manager, Ken, to find out the plan for the day. First bit of bad news was that the awnings, which were supposed to have arrived at the plant last Friday, had not arrived. As this was the major portion of the work to be done, the schedule was out the window. We later found out they had been shipped to the company that does the painting of the RVs, and not to the main plant. We were assured they would arrive Wednesday and be installed Thursday. Next bit of bad news was that the window we had damaged pulling the slide in with it open, was too badly damaged to be repaired and would have to be replaced. But they did not have any in stock, but a shipment was due on Friday. Luckily we had decided to stay an extra day, just in case, and were not planning to leave until Saturday. The schedule was getting tighter. After some additional coordination on the items that needed to be fixed,  we gathered up Etta and left the Wanderer to the professionals to do the repairs that they could without the new parts. This includes replacing the Anderson Valve, which controls the fresh water system. It had been giving us problems since we picked the Wanderer up in August 2017. We are not alone in having issues with this valve as many other RV owners, including other New Horizon RVs, have had issues with the design since they changes the O-ring formulation due to EPA regulations. Eventually, the company redesigned the valve based more on a ball valve design that they use with their oil field valves. 

I will tell you folks, there is not a lot of entertaining things to do in Junction City Kansas! Especially when you have a dog with you. Fortunately, it was cool enough the first few days we could leave her in the truck safely. We decided to head over to Manhattan Kansas to do some shopping. Then we took a drive around the area. This part of Kansas is called the Flint Hills. It’s named after the abundant flint rock in the area. Being spring, the wild flowers and tall prairie grasses were green and blooming over the rolling hills. It reminded me of the green rolling hills of England in many ways. Quaint little towns here and there. Along the way, we stopped to explore Milford State Park. On the shores of Lake Milford, it has quite a few camping sites and some new RV sites with full hookups we wanted to check out. The lake was about 12 feet above flood stage so some of the lakeshore camping sites were under water as well as some of the roads. The new RV sites could work for the Wanderer in a pinch, but they were all back in’s with not a lot of room to maneuver. We wandered back to New Horizons around three PM and hung out in the “customer lounge” until they pulled our rig back outside. They had gotten the Anderson Valve changes and fixed the trim and electrical problems we had identified and they actually found some trim problems we had not noticed and fixed them also. Ken caught us and told us to plan on sleeping in on Tuesday since they had gotten most of the work done they could until parts showed up. But David was taking the truck over first thing in the morning to get some maintenance done while we had the chance. So Tuesday morning, David was up early and drove over to the Ford dealer for an oil change, fuel and air filter replacements, brake and tire inspection and a full chassis lube. While he waited in the “customer lounge” he caught up on work stuff and telecons. He had wanted to get the adaptive cruise control checked out since it has kicked out on us multiple times but their diesel mechanic was not on duty to be able to do the required checks. So he made an appointment to go in Thursday morning to get it done. Then it was back to New Horizons. We asked them several times over the next couple of days about adjusting the window blinds so they would not shoot up and were told they would get to them. More on this later.

Wednesday we decided to head over to Topeka for the day. On researching Topeka, we found a few things to go do, but it is not a hot tourist spot! Once again Wednesday morning we handed the Wanderer over to the New Horizon Techs, gathered up Etta, and hit the road. Topeka is about an hour east of Junction City. First, we stopped at Stacy’s Dinner (Exit 299) for breakfast (a recommendation from Ken). They have great biscuits and gravy! A great way to start the day! Then it was on to the Evel Knievil Museum. An icon from the 1960s, Evel’s daring jumps were a part of childhood. The museum is in a Harley Davidson dealership since the owners of the dealership pulled together the museum with their own funds. It was an interesting walk through time. He performed 168 jumps, crashed on 19 of them and broke over 400 bones including every one of his ribs, some multiple times. They had the test rocket “cycle” that was used to test out the jump over the Snake River before Evel did it himself. The test shot failed as did Evel two weeks later. Its amazing the man survived! Following Evel, we went to ‘TruckHenge”. So what is “TruckHenge” you ask? We were wondering the same thing. The map directions took us out to the fringes of Topeka and some questionable roads. On arrival, we pulled into what appeared to be a junk yard. But as we peered closer, we could see that this “junk” was actually modern Junk Art. As we climbed out of the truck, we were overrun by dogs and peacocks! A man was just in the process of leaving and told us the owner would be out shortly. Sure enough, out comes Ron Lassen to give us a personal tour of his menagerie. Ron was a bit eccentric and his art very eclectic. He is a self taught artist who bought the 63 acres on the bend of the river and turned it into personal art studio. He had done paintings on various materials (including bed sheets), carved figures into logs with hammer and chisel as well as with a chainsaw, and of course his truckhenge and boathenge. He talked so fast we had a hard time understanding him at times. The truckhenge consisted of several trucks/busses that he had stuck in the ground after the county officials told him he had to “pickup” his property to keep them from floating down the river in a flood. His way of doing that was to stick them in the ground pointed up. Needless to say, the county officials did not like his approach. When they told him to “pick up” the derelict boats on his property, well you can guess what happened. Ron kind of grew on us as he lead us around and we appreciated his sense of humor and eye for art. But if you decide to go, beware, it is a bit unusual. 

 

Even Museum

Rocket Cycle test craft used for Snake River Jump

Artist Ron Lassen with one of his Peacocks

TruckHenge

BusHenge

Log art

Another portion of TruckHenge

Following “TruckHenge”, we looked up the Happy Basset Brewing Company and stopped in for a couple local brews before heading back to the Wanderer. On arrival, we ran into Ken and he informed us the awnings still had not arrived but that they would arrive on Thursday for certain. We also heard back from the Ford Dealer that they had failed their Corporate Ford inspection and lost their certification to work on Ford Diesels. So, we could sleep in Thursday. But once again, they had not gotten to work on the window blinds. They were very busy trying to get work done on another RV so those owners could depart for the New Horizon rally in Texas (we later learned that they had a entire wheel come off on their way!). They did get the inspections we requested completed and most of the other work items. So the new plan was to put the awnings on Friday, install the new window Friday, fix the window shades Friday and have the paint guy come out Friday Night. Sigh, we had left plenty of time to get this work done and it was all coming down to the last minute. 

With all the noise of a busy factory, there was no sleeping late. Thursday we hung out in the Wanderer. David had work to do, and Leslie was trying to get caught up as well, so it was slow day. The other RV they had been working on pulled out in the morning and another rig was pulled in. This one was suppose to be a sell off of a new fiver but the future owners found so many problems with it, they refused delivery. It was so bad, they shut down the production line and had an all hands meeting of the production workers! So they had people crawling all over their rig trying to fix issues. On top of all this, it has been raining hard off and on since Monday, so it has been dreary. The good news is the awnings finally arrived!

Friday morning we were out of the Wanderer early, so they could get to work. We decided to head back to Stacy’s for breakfast. We had considered going to Fort Riley, the Army Base next to Junction City since they had three museums on base that are open to the public, but we learned they were closed for major renovations through 2019. Fort Riley is home to the Army’s First Division, the Big Red One, and is the largest US Army post in the lower 48 states. Our next plan was to go to the Milford Nature Center. It was not very far from the Milford State Park and we actually enjoyed looking at the bird, fish and nature exhibits and the fish hatchery. Then we went back to Manhattan to pick up a prescription and to check out another local brewery, Tallgrass Tap House. Then it was back to New Horizons. We could see they were finishing up the awnings as we pulled in. After an inspection by David, they had to adjust one of the slide out awnings because it interfered with the shade awing that comes out over the door. As two guys were doing that, three more were working on the window shades. They finally decided they could not fix the ones that were giving us trouble and they would have to replace them. After a frantic search, they could only find one replacement. Sigh! As we were going through this, the delivery truck that was supposed to have the replacement window pulled in only for us to find out, there was no window! Double Sigh!! As we worked through these issues, they moved the wanderer back into the service garage so the paint issues could be fixed. When David went to inspect the repair they had made for a crack in the fiberglass, we found that the repair had cracked as well from the stresses on the fiberglass shell at that joint. After some discussion, NH basically said they could not fix it. About then, the paint guy shows up and we had to leave so he could get the painting work done. By this point we were ready to get the hell out of there! We went over to Munson’s steak house and basically took over a booth for three hours before heading back. When we got back, David inspected the paint work and found they had not addressed the over spray issue on the rear cap, they quickly fixed that. The rest of the paintwork was what it was going to be. It was not perfect, but would be acceptable. After talking with Ken, he ordered replacement shades and the new window and they would send them to me, where ever we happen to be when they come in, and Leslie and I would have to install them. Triple Sigh!!!

 

Bald Eagle at Milford Nature Center

Don’t get us wrong, we love our Wanderer, but I am concerned with the declining quality we’re seeing in New Horizons. The service technicians we had working with us were great guys, but all the snafus with parts, and scheduling, and the problems the other owners, we met while there this week, were having, even with a brand new unit, really make me concerned.