Monday, Sept. 22
Once again, a great sunny day. Seems a shame to leave this beautiful, serene setting but I need to see about a motor mount and Joe needs a new tire for his trailer. He put a piece of wood through the sidewall the other day but it didn't go flat until this morning. While he's replacing the tire, I'll run the PC off the inverter for an hour or so and finish the Moab chapter. Then we'll head to Moab for parts, I'll try to upload this drivel, and we'll head to Grand Junction, set up, and run 21 Road tomorrow.
View of the Needles area from the motor home Monday
morning, 8:30
Today was a day of repairs! Joe got his tire replaced and I found a motor mount at Moab Auto Parts - $14.95. Wouldn't have guessed that! Stopped at Canyonlands Campground and they let me upload Chapter 7, but at about 19.6K - ARG! As we headed out to Fruita, CO, our base for 21 Road, a guy in a pickup flagged me down and said my trailer wheel was wobbling. Replaced the tire with a 6 ply spare and got set up at Colorado River State Park in Fruita. Ran the wheel and tire into Discount and they put a new wheel on. Looked at it, the welds were broken. Whoa!
Camped at the base of Colorado National Monument
The cylinder at the right is supposed to go into the bracket at the left
and have rubber all the way around.
Got back, switched the trailer tire (again) to get my 8 ply back on,
and then started on the motor mount. That was tough! One of the bolts
somehow, no idea how, got rounded off all by itself and therefore had
to be ground off. That created some attention in the normally quite
campground. Then another motor mount bolt hit the power steering pump
as it was removed. It took longer to remove the power steering pump
and reverse the bolt than it did to replace the motor mount. A couple
of Aussies came over and we had a nice chat with them while I was hammering,
cutting and cursing as the motor mount was beat into submission.
Joe graciously made supper and we were able to scrounge enough "product" to make one batch or margaritas. Ahhhhhhh! Thanks, Joe!
Tuesday, Sept. 23
Intense! Gnarly! A lot of fun! That's what describes 21 Road today. I'm sitting here, 5:15, waiting for a load of clothes to get done thinking about the great time today and having a Becks. Ahhh. Hic! Started about 9 AM and got into the canyon easily by 10. The fun started then.
I got high centered with my front drive shaft in peril so Joe strapped me. About 1 PM, due to my superior spotting skills, I got Joe between a rock and a hard place. The choice was to winch or do body damage. We elected to winch. The rest of the time was spent climbing over boulders larger than most cars.
Of course, I only got photos at the beginning,
of the boring spots, since when we got into it we were having so much
fun we didn't take photos. Probably just as well. 
There was little breakage. Joe got some sand between his wheel and his tire and lost a little air but no big deal. He also broke a front brake line and after we repaired it we went happily on our way.
We got out about 4 PM and are looking forward to pizza and beer and patting each other on the back congratulating ourselves on doing not half bad today once I get my clothes washed.
As usual, the photos don't do justice, but WAY down in the canyon, WAY down, is 21 road. Excellent!
I was planning on stopping in Montrose and checking in with some realtors to see about a place to retire. Joe wanted to head a little further down Hwy 50 and complete the rest of his 2 weeks in the midst of the Rockies. We agreed to part company tomorrow as I have only one day left to play then need to make a beeline for home.
Wednesday, Sept. 24
Welllll.....This was a day of changes. Got to Hwy 141 and decided to take the Unaweep/Tabeguache 150 mile scenic route instead of heading to Montrose. As I approached 141 from the north, only a few minutes out of "the Junction," I literally slammed on the brakes and thought, "What the hell, I'm on vacation!" and exited stage right. I've taken this route twice before and it's incredibly scenic. Besides that, I want to wheel on County EE20 at Uravan!
141 traverses some of the most beautiful canyons I've seen, and towards the end, around Ridgeway, the canyons and San Juan mountains were alive with color.
Here's a sample view. The black arrow is the shelf road - yes - big enough for a motor home - but just! The red arrow is a wooden flume that was built in the 1800s to deliver water for mining. This flume hangs about 200' above the river.
So I get to Uravan, named for Uranium and Vanadium, the two products of this area (until 1984, at least). Pulled in at a rest area, dropped the Jeep and off I went. The motor home is in the white circle and the road, EE20, is off to the left, barely visible in the canyon. EE20 takes you to the top of the mesa and there are many, many old mines up there. After exploring a few, came back down W19, pictured below - along with plume from a forest fire in the Uncompahgre Plateau.
This was such a great area that a few hours won't do it justice so this place has now been bumped up on the list of places to return to - next time for 4 or 5 days of exploring.
So continued on and into the San Miguel Canyon. I had never seen colors this vibrant in an autumn canyon before - brilliant yellows, reds, oranges and greens. The vegetation was alive with color as the afternoon sun made the colors fluoresce. The crimson red from the canyon walls made the colors stand out even more. I've never, ever, seen anything like this before.
Then out of the canyon and bingo! - the San Juans. Again, the camera doesn't do justice to the colors. There were cars lined up all along the road with people looking at the incredible sights and taking photos.
So blasted through Montrose, stopping only long enough to purchase some Danish for breakfast and some Blue Moon for tonight. Settled in at the Curecanti National Recreation area, specifically the campground at the Morrow Point Dam. I've wanted to stay here since the first time was by here, probably 20 years ago! The campground is primitive, no electric or water (or people tonight, for that matter!) and is nestled in a smaller canyon that leads back to the dam and the beginning of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Drove up to the top of the hill behind the motor home by 3 large transmission towers where the arrow is pointing. That was a fun drive and not at all easy. Last time this route was closed but no signs today :)
Just got done grilling a couple pork chops, having a few beers and walking down by a clear, crisp stream. This is a NEAT place.
So, what are the plans for tomorrow? Don't know. Don't care!
Thursday, Sept. 25
7:30 AM and 31°. Scrape off the windows and up and away! Well, first a drive to Morrow Point Dam was in order. The generating station is built into solid rock in the side of the cliff. I've photos from 20 years ago when they allowed self tours but now it's closed to the public.
In the Black Canyon of the Gunnison there is a diverter that sends water through a nine mile tunnel to the other side of the mountain and provides a large part of the irrigation water for the Montrose area. Decided to find the west portal and drive along the unmaintained service road for the canal. Yeah, I know, strange , but it really was fun. Took a couple hours with all the dead ends and detours but finally found where the water eventually wound up.
The canal
The service "road"
So on the way back to Cimarron, about 20 miles, one needs to go over Cerro Pass on US 50. There just had to be a better way. Found a small dirt road that went up over the Pass a few miles south. It added about 20 more miles but took me through an area that was even more beautiful than yesterday's scenery. This was probably the best drive of the entire trip!
So headed back, hooked up and headed out. Monarch Pass, 11,000+ feet, is the highest I've had the motor home. It did just fine although I did hear a couple of food bags pop from the lack of air pressure.
Nearing Canon City, there's a kidde go-cart park called "Scream Until Daddy Stops!" Got to give them an "A" for creativity. I thought it was a great name!
15 miles out of Canon City came across this camp ground - again deserted. Looked like a nice place to stay the night but I really do have to put more than 152 miles on each day if I plan on getting home by Sunday. Tried to drive up to the Royal Gorge Bridge with the Jeep but it closed at 5:30- and I got there at 6. Oh well, seen it before - if you've seen one Royal Gorge you've seen 'em all.
No place to wheel, it's all Wilderness Study Areas. ARG! So back to camp for some wine and a pizza. Tomorrow I'll have to make up some time but for tonight it's run the generator (for the air - it's still hot), do this web stuff and watch Terminator 2. I love roughing it!
Friday, Sept. 26
Up at 6 AM. I guess I'm getting ready for CST so set the clocks ahead. On the road through the foothills of the Rockies, blazed through Colorado Springs at rush hour and hit the "Great Nothing" (Eastern Colorado.) This is just miles and miles of nothing but sand, some ranches (trees only where there are ranches) and towns 30 miles apart. On the other hand, this beats the hell out of rush hour in Colorado Springs!
I took the "blue highways" from Colorado Springs to Kearny, Nebraska. It's great - towns with names like Limon, Last Chance, Akron, Yuma and Wray - the heart of America.
75° but with 40 mph head winds. Driving this is like pushing 3 sheets of 4x8 plywood into the wind at 100 mph with 38,000 lbs behind. Hmmmm, maybe 6.9 mpg isn't so bad after all?
I could tell the engine was working hard - exhaust manifold temperature is normally 800-900° but today was running between 1200-1300°
3 - 4 hours of this.......
Oh, did I mention I caught the oven on fire last night? While cooking the pizza I heard this "whoosh" and saw the oven door open momentarily with flames shooting out. Hmm, perhaps a little too much grease on the pizza??? Turns out, when the morons made the oven, they screwed up on one of the gas connections, internal to the oven, and it had started leaking, but only when it was on. Apparently the gas built up, ignited, whoosh, and all was fine until the next time. Diagnosing that took some doing. So at Wray, CO, where I bought a 20¢ ferrule, the errant oven was was fixed and ready for another pizza.
Got into Windmill SRA, Kearny, NE, just in time for this great sunset. Much better, 487 miles today.
Saturday, Sept. 27
At Kearny, there's this Archway Monument that I've driven underneath for years, both during construction and since it was finished and have always wanted to stop. Dropped the Jeep and headed into town. Kearny had a parade going on at 9 AM. Odd time but it must have been a big deal since it lasted over two hours. Small towns have a lot going for them.
Shot over to the Monument and went through it. Pretty impressive - basically the story of the migration to west. Most impressive was they way they handled the varying scenes. Headphones were used and as you moved from scene to scene the commentary changed. Buffalo stampedes, lightning storms, the transcontinental rail line and even a drive-in movie were all woven together as you walked through this museum than crosses over I-80. This was well worth the time and I highly recommend it for anyone traveling I-80 through Nebraska.
After that, headed for home, 620 miles. Made it in by 10:30 PM and so ends a 5100 mile, 30 day journey. It was GREAT!!!
