August 25, Day Two at the Estes Park KOA.
We got off track a little here because I had a project on the house that took a couple of days and also that my recollection of the day's events felt hazy in the first place so I needed to get my ducks in a row with Laurie to make sure I didn't have things twisted because, well... even though you wouldn't know, I would and well.... if I'm doing a travelogue type thing, the pressure of being accurate is internal but real. So anyway.
In addition to the stove challenge (it's a recurring theme in the trip), at some point there had been some damage done (rodents, probably?) to one of the fuel lines. Of course it was to the line to the larger of the two gas tanks on the van, rendering it useless as you couldn't pump gas into the tank at all. So parts of the previous evening and this morning were spent trying out various auto parts and hardware stores seeking a part to fix the hose – even if it were a temporary fix – to give us a range for the drive home greater than 100 miles. Ultimately, it did not come to fruition, but the time searching did get us close to the Stanley Hotel, so we did drive up to it and get some photos in front of the Shining Hotel.
Although we had made the appropriate reservations for a return trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, the circumstances overall prohibited it, so the Stanley was the morning tourist stop. Following that, we grabbed some food and headed back to the KOA to eat and check out the last-ditch effort to get a patch for the fuel line. The former was successful, the latter not, and the fast forward was that instead of extending their stay in the hotel in Estes Park, Laurie's parents decided to head back home a day early, so we spent the time up to their departure at the campsite.
After Laurie's parents headed out, we spent some time getting to know the van. It was, for instance, this point where the refrigerator really took flight and never really looked back. It took a day on the shore power to get traction and make us a bit nervous in the meantime about functionality. But as I mentioned, the fridge came through and performed admirably. We had not tried the stove again on the first night at the KOA. I'm not entirely certain why not, but ultimately, the story comes down like this: There was a really nice fella who was the RV parker (in that he would help folks back their trailers into their spots) and patrolled the grounds. We caught him at one point and did the only reasonable thing we could do at that point... sought guidance from someone more knowledgeable than ourselves.
We asked him about the stove. We weren't certain but had speculated that part of our issue from the first breakfast attempt might have been altitude-related. We were, in fact, about 1,000 feet closer to sea level. He suggested that if the van had been sitting (which indeed it had been) dust or cobwebs could work their way into the system and would just need to be, in essence, blown out. I don't recollect that we asked him about starting the generator which would in point of fact have been a useful thing to do. I think that Laurie's dad had run across an altitude compensator which was what had put us on the "altitude as culprit"path with the stove... and so we were not certain at that point that we had not fixed that particular challenge. At any rate, we visited with him for a bit and got lots of really good information. Turns out you can watch all the YouTube videos that you want but you are unlikely to internalize a lot of the information without a frame of reference to grab onto. Fortunately, none of the challenges we ran into were debilitating type things.
Following the suggestion to essentially just keep swimming, we planned to give the stove another shot and planned to do burgers with various picnic-type fixins (you know, potato salad and such)... but first we wanted to make a quick run for some provisions that we were lacking at this point. Enter Rambo's Longhorn Liquor Mart. We unhooked the van and ran up the road probably not quite a mile, threw on our masks, and headed in to procure supplies to allow us to participate in one of our favorite pastimes when traveling: drinking locally produced beers. In short order, we got to the local cases, received good advice from someone who I still at this point don't know if he worked at the shop or not, and left with beers enough to get us all the way back to Seattle (which conjures up a mental image far beyond what was actually acquired). I'll hook my Untappd account here so that you can see what we had if you are interested.
Back to the camp, hook up, and we deployed our van-specific fancy camp chairs that we had purchased at the hardware store earlier. Oh, and a card game. A quick hand of Skip-Bo was played, and then the stove. Which worked. Sizzle sizzle sizzle and then there were burgers, and beer, and potato salad, and a lovely meal had by all. Well, Laurie and I. So we did a full on nice camping night with camp foods and beers and good company and sitting out in fancy folding chairs. After the first night on the foldout couch, it was decided that reinforcement could be in order so we re-inflated the air mattress and called it a night. The next morning would start The Long Journey Home in earnest, so rest was highly desirable.
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