"Check Engine" light...never a good sign!

We left Montrose last Wednesday and had planned a 5 day- 4 overnight trip along the way.   Our first day was a short 175 mile trip to Gypsum, Colorado for an overnight stay at the Riverdance RV park.

We left the next day around  8:45 am and had an uneventful drive  until we were about 170 miles out traveling along I-70.   The coach was sluggish as we approached several 11,000+ ft summits.  Then the Check engine light/ coolant level low light came on.

We were able to move onto the shoulder along one of Colorado's many chain up areas.   After Ron made several phone calls and tried a couple of things, we continued our drive another 67 miles into a Freightliner Service Center in Commerce City, just north of Denver.

The issue was a cracked surge tank that was leaking not all, but enough coolant to cause the check engine light to come on.   The people at this Freightliner Service Center couldn't have been more accommodating and pleasant to do business with.  We called them while we driving there to let them know we were coming in.   Most of their service centers are first come first serve, but they pulled the coach into a bay within 20 minutes after our arrival.   And luckily they had the parts they needed to make the repair.  It is a 3 1/2 hour repair and we got there too late in the day for them to begin, so we spent the night in their lot.  We were back in the bay by 7:30 am the next morning and on our way again by noon.

We spent the night in a campground in Seibert Colorado only 135 miles from the repair shop.

 Saturday morning we began our 300  mile trip at 8:00 am, again heading east on I-70 trying to get to St. Louis for our annual visit.

Shortly after we crossed the Kansas border a suicidal bird decided to make this his last flight.   Unfortunately our passenger side mirror was in his way.    Ron was in the passenger seat looking down reading and heard a loud thump.   Then I cried out....oh  no look at our mirror....

Ron asked, "what kind of bird was it"?    I said,  "a BIG bird".   He asked again, "what kind of bird was it"?

Now I am not an expert on birds and it happened so fast that I just said "it was a duck".   He stopped asking me.

We stopped as soon as we could so Ron could tape it up to prevent the pieces from coming loose and flying back and hitting our Jeep or worse someone else's car.

Another trip to a repair shop....this is getting old, fast !  

I guess we owe some thanks for the "duck" giving up his life to give us some excitement as we travel through flat, boring, hot Kansas.

Do any of our RV buddies out there know if the mirrored part can be replaced or do you have to install a whole new mirror frame and all?

And other than driving through a small field fire we made it to our destination.

We are spending the weekend in Salina, KS for a one day rest and so we can attend Mass.   Will be back on the road tomorrow and hopefully get into St. Louis by Tuesday.

Hope all is well!

Montrose, Colorado

We spent 15 days in Montrose Colorado, a town population of 19,132, elevation 5803 ft and the County Seat located on the Western Slope.

I had forgotten how beautiful the drive into Montrose is:

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Layer and layers of hills and mountains.

Steep canyon walls...and magnificent rock formations.

I 70 through Glenwood Canyon hugs the northern edge of the Colorado River.

We fall into the bottom speed limit.   Although a beautiful drive, it at times can be very slow.

We really like Montrose, besides the fact that we travel here to visit my nephew and his family,  it is a really nice town, very progressive and quant at the same time.   It is located near the Black Canyon of Gunnison, Box Canyon, Ouray, Telluride and Grand Junction.    During our past visits we have visited all of these  places and  only repeated a trip to Ouray this time.

My nephew, Joe and his wife, Shani and there two children, Lucy and Daniel, are a very busy family, but we were able to spend quite a bit of time with them.    We've enjoyed several meals together, one very delicious steak dinner with all of the trimmings at their home.   We have been able to watch Lucy practice her gymnastics and Daniel enjoying time at the local skate park.   We also attended our first BMX race with both Joe and Daniel as participants.  I joined Shani and Lucy at Amazing Glaze and tried my hand at pottery.

Daniel all decked out in his racing gear, waiting for his race to begin

Joe taking a practice run.

Daniel during the race....go Daniel go!!

Joe during the race.
   Opps....going too fast for me...either I need a better camera or photography lessons....or both!

Lucy didn't have any gymnastic meets while we were there but we were able to watch her practice.

Here she is on the balance beam...one of her favorites.

We attended the annual Sweet Corn Festival in Olathe, Colorado.   

The festival began in 1992 when the people of this small western Colorado town decided to celebrate the community's agricultural jewel... Sweet Corn and   as a way to improve the social, economic and  cultural environment of the Town of Olathe.

The celebration this year was kicked off with a Joe Diffe concert on Friday night.  Other events included a corn eating contest, local restaurant cook-off, continuous concerts by various bands, lots of booths and children's activities.  And of course lots of corn on the cob, which all you can eat is included in the price of admission. 

This was our second time in attendance and we had forgotten how much fun it is.

We left the festival mid afternoon, took the kids home then the adults, along with Shani's cousin Randy and Debbie ventured to the outskirts of Olathe to visit 3 of their wineries.  We love to vineyard hop!

  

We got to spend some alone time with Lucy and Daniel.  They are at a great age 11 and 9.  We introduced them to geocaching and spent a couple of hours one day hunting down a few finds.

Their first cache find.

Their second cache find.

Their third cache find.  Now they are experts.

We also spent time at the campground pool and ate Daniels famous bagel pizzas for dinner.  They spent the night and after a  chocolate chip pancake breakfast made by Ron, we swam one more time then we dropped them off at their activities for that day.

The trivet I made at Amazing Glaze.   Now I just have to figure out a way to display it and not have it in a million pieces as we roll down the road.

Almost every day there was a brief rain shower which left beautiful billowy 

cloud formations over the San Juan Mountains

Good-bye Montrose.   We enjoyed our visit and will be back!

Hope all is well!