August 24. As I mentioned we ended up reserving the Moraine Park Campground for just the one night. At the time The Plan was made, we had allowed for the three days in the Estes Park area, with the second two camps spending the night at the Estes Park KOA. It's not that we were bent on staying at the KOA but The Plan required two nights of RV + tent capability and after contacting about a half-dozen campgrounds, it was the only place that would be able to facilitate. In fact some of the RV campgrounds we contacted flat out forbade tents. It was all still cool, though. The first night at Moraine Park had provided us with a night off the grid, as it were. It also got us a guaranteed entry into the National Park (we had reservations on the 25th but 23rd had been full up... except to campers in the NP).
We also were introduced to another head-scratcher with the van on the morning of the 24th. We had acquired breakfast foods with the idea to do them on the propane stove in the van. Sitting at 8,160 ft above sea level (idk, maybe that's relevant, maybe it's not) it may have been my highest elevation sleep ever. Don't hold me to that, but.... I think. probably. So history up to this point for anyone who may be a liquid propane (LPG) expert: The van had sat for a while before it's shakeout journey to meet us. At least 2 years at the home of Mr. Titsworth from whom we purchased it and idk time at the previous owners'. Anyway, somewhere in the junction of all the moving parts, we were unable to get the stove lit on that morning. While the altitude may have been a factor, the challenge intermittently persisted through the duration. The grounds host at the KOA suggested that if the van had been sitting, it could be that the lines had dust or cobwebs that may be causing the difficulty... but we are ahead of ourselves here.
I want to spend another minute inside Rocky Mountain National Park before we head on our merry way. Laurie and I spent that first night in the tent, and in the wee small hours we heard another elk bugling down in the small field that our campsite overlooked, so that was pretty cool. Also of surprising note to both Laurie and myself, we saw a bunch of Magpies at and near the camp. Neither of us could call to mind a time that we had seen Magpies stateside. We did see a bunch of them over in the northeast of England (Newcastle, specifically), but also specifically not in RMNP the previous time we had been through it. None of them helped to install my contractual obligation sticker though. Bastards.
(I know jumps on blog posts are so 2014, but well I kinda wanna keep the main page somewhat tidy, so just go on ahead and click that title up there to see the rest. Also, if you didn't before, try it on the others. You may have missed something.)
Having given up for the time being on the propane, we had a delicious breakfast of ham sandwiches. High living.
So we, on the morning of the 24th with our ham sandwiches in our bellies tore down camp, threw things back in the vehicles and installed the contractual obligation window sticker. Those things are not as easy as as they seem like they should be. In particular, it turns out that Elvish script is not very easy to make sure you get stuck. A short amount of time, both Laurie and my efforts, and a dose of patience and we have installed the sticker with only losing one non-vital piece of design. If you didn't know it was there, you'd never know it was gone. Departing the Moraine Park Campground, we officially took possession for always and forever of the keys and the van, so it kind of happened a couple days sooner than I had envisioned... not that it mattered in the slightest. Keys swapped, we loaded into our vehicles for the grueling 8.5 mile trek to the KOA. On the way out, however, we were treated with another cool wildlife experience.
Having seen a large number of cars on an upcoming turnout, we were prepared and pulled off to see what was happening. It was really cool that we did. Probably not a lot further than 30 feet off of the side of the roadway stood a very impressive Bighorn sheep. He was obviously a local as the presence of the cars and people didn't seem to have any effect on his thoughts or plans for the day. We don't know for sure, but our speculation based on his behavior was that maybe he had come to visit a natural salt lick of some sort. What we do know is that he was a handsome guy and (insofar as wild animals feel the need to show off to humans) it seemed that he knew it. At the end of it all, it was certainly the closest we had been to a Bighorn sheep, and it was really cool.
The KOA itself was nice enough, I suppose... it was in essence carved into the face of a rocky hill. There was plenty of room and our site would have accommodated the van and the tent (which was, of course, one of the points). We also were right down the hill from the giant Adirondack chair. Disappointingly, I was the only one to have his photo in the chair.
I wasted no time at this point in availing myself of the electric and water hookups seeing as the point was to try out as many of the systems as possible. Also we had some hamburger patties that needed to meet refrigeration. The hookups were all easy and my biggest issue was hemming and hawing over the position of the water filter – whether it should live after the water pressure regulator on the spigot or later in the system prior to entering the van – which I eventually decided should live at the regulator. Regardless, everything hooked up beautifully and the water was flowing just as it should. I am not entirely certain why (this is ultimately going to be my motto with this van I think), but the refrigerator this first time took some amount of time to cool down. Perhaps it was the head start this first time provided, but it didn't take as much time on the other hookup that we camped on. Regardless, it did cool down and the fridge held temperature insanely well. Like for days well. Oh, also we got the house air on and running and it kind of kicks ass too, tbf.
In the course of this day it was decided for several reasons that Laurie and I would move to the van and it would be best for her folks to move on to a hotel room. So it was planned. Before that, we acquired takeout dinner from a local pie shop that we had seen and took it back to the campsite. A really nice chicken-fried chicken, some delicious shaved Brussels sprouts with bacon, and a slice of S'mores pie later and we were off to get the not-Titsworth section of lodging for the night arranged. Laurie and I returned to the van and set about stowing and organizing the Snacks of the Apocalypse and the rest of the items as yet to be stowed in the van. It's amazing how that one little activity calmed both of our minds. We got things around, vegged out for a bit and then kind of hit the hay for the night at old people o'clock.
Road miles to home: 1,428 miles
This post is not sponsored by KOA, Estes Park, or the Greater Colorado Bighorn Sheep Society
Excellent plan disguising yourself as a tiny (and less appetizing) human from the zombies.
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