This morning, Saturday I think it is, one of the options was to go back to the closed gate as described at the end of Part II, and see if some carnotite JAFRs could be found. There is also a very nice Forest Service campground there up in the mountains where I'd love to stay for a few days....and....it's not locked up! Obviously someone made a grievous error and missed this opportunity - or they ran out of gates. But clouds were forming so the decision to move on was made. I'll be back!

An hour or so later we were in Gallup, wandering through an "Indian Flea Market" after wandering through a few "shops" downtown. After a few trinkets were purchased, we moved on. Whew! Next was Cortez and Dolores, CO. Dolores, especially, looked like a really neat place with many roads off into the hills. There was a beautiful campground (with wifi) on the banks of the Dolores River but a stay there tonight was not meant to be. Alas. I'll be back!

At the pass, a primitive road into an informal camp area beckoned. This time, we turned in. The 1/2 mile access road was, well.....interesting to drive with the motorhome. Let's put it this way, today we went 10-wheeling! This is a delightful spot at 10,222 feet, right at the pass. No electricity. No wifi. No cell service. There are maybe 5 units here in about a 200 acre area. Awesome! Unloaded the Jeep, took a short drive, came back, watched a small storm pass by, grilled a couple burgers, had a few beers, and came in to finish this. So far the coach batteries seem to be holding pretty well, despite the fact they froze up this winter due to negligence at a Cummins repair facility. Sigh.

This is a nice place.............VERY NICE. Being self contained and self sufficient out here is pretty cool. This is SO much better (even sans wifi or cell service) than a commercial campground.

The afternoon's short drive led to the former ghost town of Ophir and subsequently Ophir Pass Road. This would have been an awesome road to drive but alas, it was not meant to be.

Sadly, Ophir is too close to Telluride. There were some small houses in this former ghost town that looked like they were no more than 1500 sq. ft., maybe less. They had no property so to speak, only a small parcel on which the houses were originally built. According to some sales brochures we picked up, the asking price range of these small, older houses, was $500,000 to $700,000. WTF!!!!!!!

12 noon: Really quick, more to come later. Sitting here in Montrose stealing some wifi. It was cloudy this morning up at 10,222 so pulled the RV out of the parking area and 10-wheeled through the deep hard mud ruts (soon to be deep soft mud ruts) and onto some gravel. Got the top on the Jeep just as it started to pour. Drove a little in the Jeep, got some photos, then drove down the hill from Lizard Head Pass. The road was great and it will be the route of choice through the San Juans. As an added bonus, there were many people in their BMWs, Land Rovers and what not that thought that because they own $1,000,000 houses in Telluride that the two lane road (with few pull-offs for the RV) is theirs. Lots of people waved. I also waved back with glee. Great entertainment at times. The scenery was an absolute 10 though. Once we got out of the mountain, some really heavy rains and storms hit them. The sky to the back is now, over the San Juans, as black as the ace of spades and moving this way. COOL! Time for lunch then to find a place to plop for the night. More later.....

....OK.....It's later. 7:45 PM, 8407 feet, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument, 13 miles out of Montrose and may be 3000' higher. Once again....no cell or wifi but we do have 'tricty. However, I need to go again. There is rumbling and it's not my tummy from the excellent BBQ rib meal in town tonight. No! Surprise! It's another cool thunder boomer. I'm gonna go out and stand on the picnic table with my bottle of cherry wine and a camera and get some photos. If you read this, you can assume I didn't get zapped.

OK, back again.....9 PM. Rewind to this morning. After moving the RV to solid ground, and after the the rain shower, we drove back to the trestle on the D&RGW mentioned earlier for a few Sony moments.

After the storm passed and the obligatory photos of the canyon were taken, we descended into Montrose, looked at a few more potential places to camp and finally settled on one in Olathe. The center of attraction for the next few days will be Grand Mesa and Delta, therefore something a little closer than where we are now would be in order.

After selecting a place deemed worthy, went back to Montrose, had a GREAT meal and watched yet another storm work its way across our path.

7 AM - another little boomer. Woke up and watched about 10 deer in front of the RV forage for their breakfast in the rain. It probably would have been fun to spend another night at 8407. We would have seen an awesome sunset tonight but the "tanks" were full and not knowing how much rain we'd get, it was deemed prudent to descend the 3000' on a 5 mile two lane road before it washed out. Even so, I was dodging boulders in the road.

Got back and decided to see where this latest air leak in the RV brake system was that's been irritating me. The engine air compressor has been cycling every 45 seconds which is WAY too often. This was the first time on a concrete pad this trip, so elected to see what was going on since it's easier for me to slide my fat gut under the RV on concrete.

Took about 20 minutes to find that it was the ride height air valve on the driver's side. Went to disconnect the air lines to it and poof, the air inlet side of the cheap POS plastic valve broke off. This crap plastic has apparently been cracked for some time. It really is a POS design, a plastic body with a 1/2" pipe fitting embedded. Poor, poor, design. So am unable to move the RV at all now until I get a replacement part as I have no air for the brakes. ARG! If this would have let loose on the road, the air brakes would have engaged due to lack of air pressure, the wheels would have locked up, and we would have been stopped in the most precarious spot possible per Murphy's Law. Another bullet dodged.

Obviously tomorrow is a search for parts.

Not much of a search.....I called two places in Montrose and found what the parts guy at the second place thought was the right one. Drove the 10.4 miles into Montrose and sure 'nuff, the $85.55 POS plastic replacement part looked like it would work. After the purchase was consummated, Jeff, the parts guy and I chatted for almost 20 minutes. I have always been impressed with how friendly the people are here in this area - and how they like to talk! This is a nice place.

Once back at the RV, the installation and testing went flawlessly and was completed in about 40 minutes. By 11 AM the dirty deed was done (but not quite dirt cheap) and I was ready to go for a road trip with the Jeep.

'

And, of course, the obligatory photo of a unique movie theater. The scenery made this a 9.5 today. Thanks for bearing with me on the photos. Perhaps it's the chokecherry wine that made it hard to choose only a few photos to put online.

Tomorrow......Moab.