The Millers Go RVing - Day 7

After staying 2 nights in the same place, we felt refreshed and ready to move on again. We wish the timing would have held out differently, that we weren't in Canon City on a Sunday, so JS could've gone prairie dog hunting. Now that would've been the opportunity of a lifetime!

The original plan was to go whitewater rafting in CO. But the heatwave was melting the snow up in the mountains and it was rushing down the canyons so rapidly, the water was rougher than usual. We heard a fella had fallen overboard and gone missing for a couple days so the rafting companies were temporarily shut down.  We decided to move on and try add rafting into the schedule later.
We had a goal to leave at 8am, and actually pulled out a few minutes before. Yay for us! As we drove by the rafting companies we saw 1 or 2 that were getting ready to launch but it did not appear to be with beginners. We kept looking at the water as we drove, trying to guess what class of rapids those were and if we would've been adventurous enough to take those on.

"Big Bertha" made it up her first mountain pass!

Give her a big round of applause.

We drove for 3 hours to get to Great Sand Dunes National Park. The roads flattened out after the pass and you could see the Dunes from a long way off, but it took "forever" to actually get there. We stopped at the store to rent a sand board and sand sled.

Now we had heard about how blistering hot the sand gets in the afternoon. They were warning at the rental store that it's extra hot out there because of the heatwave. We set out thinking it's really not that bad. We waded through this stream of mountain run off... 

But then we got to the open sand. Oh. My. Word.

They were not kidding when they said it's blistering hot!!

We didn't go very far before A. decided flip-flops are not gonna cut it. We told the men not to do anything cool & adventurous till we get back; she & I returned to the RV to swap out for shoes and get bottled water. By the time we got back, we met JR heading for the RV; he was wheezing so loudly I could hear him from a distance. He was fine once he got away from the blowing sand, although we did have the breathing machine along just in case he'd need it. But it was a good thing he didn't stay out any longer because he got a bad case of sunburn in the short time he was out.

As soon as I started climbing the dunes, the Crocs I had on were not cutting it either. With each step, burning sand poured in around my feet. 2 steps, stop and empty the 150* sand out of each Croc, 2 more steps, empty the sand... slow going. A. fared a little better in tennis shoes. But it was hard work climbing those dunes. Besides the blistering heat, the air is thin. R & JS started with a goal of climbing the highest peak but till they made it up this medium sized dune they decided that was enough.  Where are the ski lifts when you need one? Or an ATV.    

It was like straight down so they had a fun ride coming back down though.

I only climbed a small dune and I thought I would go insane from my burning feet. Folks, if this is a tiny taste of hell, you do not want to go there! A. & I each gave the sled a go but we were not on steep enough of a dune to get a good ride. JS is a natural on any kind of board (snow, water or sand)so he did ok.

 But we didn't last very long out there.  Even walking in the stream did little to cool my burning feet. If we would ever return to this park, we would not attempt to sandboard in the heat of the day again.  We agreed under better conditions, it would be a lot of fun.

We got a good laugh out of R. "flossing" JS's toes to get the sand off. 

Ok, so it was rather a bust, but we did the Great Sand Dunes!

We drove through some beautiful scenery and up Wolf Creek Pass next. While we gave Big Bertha a cool-down rest at 10857', we got out to stand on the Continental Divide.

Having just come from the burning 150* heat, it was cool enough here that we almost dug out jackets! There was snow on the ground so we checked off our bucket list throwing snowballs in flip-flops.

 

A. was getting "the short end of the stick" from her brother, but she did manage to smuggle out a snowball and chase him around the Continental Divide till she got it down his back.

Snow & sunburn -all on the same day!

 We started down the pass, but partway down the brakes were smelling very hot so we pulled into an overlook. So much beauty - waterfalls to the left, elk in the valley to the right... This is where R started his mantra of "Now that's purdy". If we had a dollar for every time he said that...

But as soon as we started driving again, R. realized something is wrong with the brakes. We went the rest of the way down the pass with next-to-no brakes. You can guess again if you think this mama wasn't sitting on pins & needles! I prayed the whole way to Pagosa Springs, where we pulled into the first automotive store we came to. R & JS were crawling around under the RV but the brake lines were fine. R bought brake fluid and topped it off just to be safe. We learned from experience we needed to add more brake fluid after every mountain pass; it just simply smoked the fluid away every single time.

However, in crawling around under the RV, they discovered a steer tire was showing wires. A blowout waiting to happen. We had a reservation in Cortez CO but realized we're not going to make it that far. So we started praying we make it to Durango and calling campgrounds there. We found a little Mom & Pop campground that was still open and had just had a cancellation. Thank you, Jesus! It turned out to be neat & clean, had good Wi-Fi, nice laundry, and even a river adjacent for fishing if we needed to wait around for a tire.

Going up the next mountain, the generator shut off and the engine wasn't running right. We backed into a little trail along the road. Richard couldn't find anything wrong but the "Check Engine" light was on. We let Big Bertha rest awhile and prayed. After awhile she started up okay so we cautiously rolled on toward Durango. 

   Till we arrived & got checked in at the campground, it was 8pm and we were "starving". We randomly chose Serious Texas BBQ from our restaurant options within a mile of the campground.

Seriously, if you ever get to Durango Co, you absolutely have to eat at this place! The pulled pork & beef brisket... their serious sweet tea... were the best we ever had. Like JS said, the food alone was worth our unplanned stop in Durango.

A great way to end a stressful day.

The next day Big Bertha was running just fine. R decided the high altitude messed with all her fluids and made her 'throw a code'. When we got out of the CO mountains she quite throwing a fit.

To be continued...