Monument Colorado - 2018

We finally made it back to Colorado.  Pulled into Colorado Heights camping resort in Monument on Apr 20th 2018.  We are members here, and because of that, we can stay free for 2 weeks at a time.  But if we wanted 50-amp service, it would cost $8 a day.  We opted to just have 30-amp and see how that goes.  Our plan for this stop over is to meet up with friends and pack up our stuff we have in storage and take it to Justin’s (our son in South Dakota).   Since we lived in the area for over 20 years, we didn’t visit any parks or museums.  Just friends like Don and Diana, Ben and Sheryl, Pete and Gwen, and of course our little one, Michael (ok, so he isn’t as little as he used to be.  Still my little one though).  And I almost forgot, Terry was still broke, but her favorite massage lady (Kathleen Osness) worked in Colorado Springs, so she obtained an appointment with her and another chiropractor (Complete Chiropractic).  After two appointments each, she was totally fixed.  No more pain for her!

Colorado welcomed us back I guess, because not two hours after we arrived at the campsite, it snowed on us (See above).  All we could say was "Thank you?"

We still haven’t heard back from the dealership on our cameras for the truck so we gave them a call and they were to check back and let us know.  By the time we left Colorado this time, we still didn’t hear back from them.  More on this in the next chapter.

While we were sitting in our RV, the neighboring RV was getting ready to leave.  It was a new travel trailer.  The kind that looked old but wasn't (the Classic style).  It looked like they were new to the RVing thing, probably their first time.  Anyway, the guy (older guy) backed up his truck to hook up the trailer and after three or so attempts he almost had it in.  He just needed to move back about 1 inch or so.  He hopped into the truck and put it in reverse and pop, the trailer hitches joined.  This must have made him exited because he hopped out of the truck just to see it and the trailer started to roll back (they didn't use wheel chocks on the trailer).  He then thought he turned into the Hulk because him and his wife tried to old the truck and trailer from rolling.  They were wrong.  He did start thinking and ran back to the cab and hit the break just as the trailer was hitting the wall.  Looks like it didn't do much damage to the trailer, a bent bumper was all I could see.  Talking about breaking it in.  He didn't hang around long.  Buttoned up the RV and off they went.  It gave us a good chuckle.

Like I mentioned before, our puppy (4-years old) has lots of energy that needs to be burned off.  Because of that, we are always looking for places to throw the ball for him.  In Monument, there is a great dog park in the woods.  It’s all fenced in and plenty of doggy bathrooms (trees).  The place is called “Fox Run Dog park”.  We didn’t take the ball with us into the park, but really didn’t need it.  He was happy running everywhere saying hi to everyone he saw.  He loves to run at full speed right at some poor person, just to go sideways to get petted.  Scares most people.

Let's talk about this 30-amp service thing.  When I talk about 30 or 50 amp service, I am talking about how much electricity it can get at one time into the RV (just in case you didn't know).  Our RV is designed for 50-amp service, but you can connect to either 30-amp or 20 amp (like using an extension cord type of power) if needed.  In our RV we have a heat pump in the main air conditioner which puts out heat instead of cold.  This works great when the temps stay above 40 degrees or so, questionable below that.  We also have an electric fireplace that also can put out heat.  Our water heater can be on electricity or gas along with our refrigerator, and lets not forget about the most important item...the TV.  We use the heat pump and fireplace to keep the RV warm so we don't have to run the furnace and use up our propane.  What we found out is that running all of that, kills the power.  I must have made 438.3 trips out to the breaker, resetting it.   We finally found out that if we shut off the water heater and fireplace, then we can run the heat pump.  That worked for us and at night before bed, we would turn on the furnace and water heater (so we had hot water in the morning) and in the day/evening, we would run the heat pump.  We didn't test the washer and dryer running at the same time, so we ran the washer, when it was done, we ran the dryer.  It took a lot longer to do laundry.   So the question becomes, was it worth it, saving that $8 a day and living like we were camping, or paying for it and feel like we are living in our house.  We decided paying for it was worth while since it was a pain on 30-amp.  We are spoiled afterall and probably won't do that again if we have the choice.

Soon after we arrived at the campground, we called U-Haul to get a 26-foot truck reserved.  We were to pick it up in Monument so we only had to drive one truck to the storage unit instead driving the pickup to Denver and then drive two trucks back to Monument.   We also hired a couple of movers to load the U-Haul (didn’t want to move that furniture again).  On the Sunday before we were to get the truck, they called and said they didn’t have a truck for us in Monument but were willing to give us 2 15-foot truck for a reduced cost.  The only problem with that was we only had one driver.  Instead they connected us up with Denver dispatch and they found a truck for us in Aurora off of Buckley.  So, we went with that.  On Tuesday, 1 May, we headed up to Aurora to pick up the truck and get it loaded. (yeah, we get to drive two trucks back!).  We get to the U-Haul place, do all the paperwork and just before getting to the truck, they said it had an oil leak and won’t give it to us.  This was 2 hours before we were to meet the movers.  They said the U-Haul joint on Colorado and I-70 has a truck for us.  And we’re off, heading there to get it.  (Our storage unit was off of Tamarac in the DTC.)  When we got there, no one was in the office so we had to wait another 20 minutes or so before they showed up.  After that, we were able to get the truck and headed to the storage unit.  Once there, we ran to Sonic to grab some food really quick before the movers showed up.  The moving of the stuff to the truck went fine and we also got another 5x5 unit to put the stuff that wasn’t going to Justin’s in.  It’s packed full now, from bottom to top.  We learned that downsizing to a 5th wheel, can’t be done in one big swoop.

The next day, off we go to Rapid City for a few nights to get the truck and trailer registered and get the address on my license fixed.  And of course, as soon as we started leaving, my truck said the fuel filter needed to be replaced.  Well, that is just going to wait until we get to Watertown, SD.

The review for the campground can be seen here, or on the Camping Reviews page (link on the right).