Mountains and Prairies, and What Do You Mean, You Put Us in a 30 Amp Site for the Night?

So, today's Monday, what the heck happened to Sunday?  And why did we leave a perfectly good park, that was already paid for?  Well...it's like this...we calculated it would be a long hard 7 hour day to get from Amarillo, and a perfectly good, paid for site, to our reservations up in Monument, CO, all on Monday.  We also figured we'd have at least 3 relatively good sized cities to pass through, so, ya know, anything can happen, and there's that Dick Luck thing we've got going on.  So, last minute, we booked a site in Raton, NM, right on the border of Colorado.  "At the top of the pass" should have been a clue, but....clueless flatlander here....I ignored that red flag.  

We set out early Sunday morning, and breezed through Amarillo, no problem.  Kinda sorry to see it in the rear view mirror, as there were still a few sites to see.  Ah well, such is life.  We'll save all that for another trip.  We passed through miles and miles of prairie, and it was humbling to imagine the Pioneers traveling the same grasslands, but in their covered (and uncovered) wagons.  I just couldn't imagine the strength and determination they had to have mustered.  

At one point, we saw these little teepees, but we really have no idea why there were there.  We *think* they are simply Western "yard art."  ???

As we got closer to New Mexico, the landscape started changing.  We began to see these little mesas.

This was our welcome into New Mexico.  Mesas on the left, more prairie on the right.

And then we neared Capulan Volcano.  We talked about taking a little detour, but it's really hard to turn our home around, and National Park parking lots are notoriously short on space.  So, we forged on.  Good thing, too, 'cuz now that I'm researching it, I see that Volcano Road has had several washouts and is closed to ALL traffic.  The Visitors' Center and Store are still open, in the unlikely event that you're headed that way.  I checked out my Google Satellite view, and darned if you can't see the crater up at the top!  This is the closest I've ever been to a volcano, Dick too.

As we neared Raton, NM, the trail got rockier, steeper and windier.  I'm NOT referring to the wind that blows.  I'm talking WIIIIIINDY, like switchbacks and tight turns.  Up AND down.  Those that know me, also know that is NOT my favorite kind of road.....I had to keep telling the Driver that my brakes weren't working.  That's our signal for "I'm scared, please slow down."  If it's safe to do so, he usually does, thank you kindly dear man.  Now, the directions to our campground for the night referenced road work and construction at their exit.  But, they also said it was well marked, and we should exit, then the park would be right there on our right.  Well.....ok.....they had also mentioned we would have no cell signal.  That part was correct, for sure.  What they did NOT tell me was that it was well marked when they sent me the confirmation e-mail.  It is no longer well marked.  Heck, it's not even marked AT ALL.  Luckily, my map was working pretty well, and my moving dot was keeping up with us pretty well, so I was able to warn Driver when we were approaching the exit.

And they were right, the park was right there on the right.  We took up most of their front parking lot, and I was able to walk the pup while Driver went inside to register.  We were instructed to pull around the building to the left, and pull up behind that RV you see there in the background.  So that's where we spent the night.  No frills, nothing fancy.  Just a safe, off the road spot, with electricity, and if we wanted, water and sewer (we didn't want or need).  No Verizon (our own, personal hotspot), so no cell phones, not much in the way of TV, and the internet that was available was via the campground satellite, so it was slower than sloooooowwww.  But it kept us apprised of the weather, and we knew when it would move in on us.

When we weren't watching the hummingbird wars (there were several feeders and flowers all around, and approximately 10 competing birds stayed through till dusk), we were admiring the view. From the top of the hill, I might add.  7,788 feet high hill.  

Someone was pretty talented and painted on all sides of the bathhouse.  They weren't joking about the bears......we didn't see one, but we were advised there was one very local.  As in, raids the hummingbird feeders on the porch beside us every time they were left out.

So, that's what we did and where we went on Sunday.  Monday morning dawned, and it didn't take us long to pack up and head out.  We had the rest of the construction to go through, and then back DOWN the windy (long I, not windy, with a short i, like the wind blows..) road.  There were several times I pumped the brakes, to no avail.  Darned things just don't work on my side!  Bailey earned her breakfast, keeping me from losing it!!  We were still pretty high up when we passed into Colorado, but, there, way off on the left, you can see the mountains we were headed to.

Then they got closer and bigger!

They were still pretty tolerable, though, as we were traveling right at their base, in the "valley."  I say "valley," because I really don't know what else to call it..

This was our view out the driver's window...

and at the same time, this was our view out the passenger's window.

So, mountains to the west, prairie to the east, and we are traveling due north, on a pretty decent Interstate.  Then we began to see Pike's Peak.

That's Pike's Peak, right in the center, hiding behind Cheyenne Mountain.  Imagine.  A mountain with its own website.

We breezed through Pueblo and hit Colorado Springs right at lunchtime.  Go figure.  We usually try to avoid that, but it wasn't too awfully bad.  Our campground was one we chose from the Coast to Coast book, and it promised a pool, WiFi, cable TV, and nice sites (that fit our length) for only $10 a night.  Oh, wait, plus $8 a night for 50 amp.  OK, that's a bit steep for the electricity, but, in the long run, $18 a night is plenty reasonable.  We've paid a lot more, and gotten a lot less, so we were set, right?  So we thought.  Again, though, we had considerable construction to pass through, but we were able to find our exit and double back about a mile, to the campground.  Driver took our reservation confirmation inside to register while I walked the pup.  Seemed like it took him a long time, but then I saw him and the workamper dude go up the hill in the golf cart.  That was odd, I thought.  He usually has me go along to view the site choices, but I saw the golf cart only seated two, so, whatever.  I was able to hook on to the park's WiFi (no password...) and do a word puzzle while I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  

Finally, he came back and entered the camper.  I could tell by the look on his face that we were in deep doo.  When he spoke, it was to tell me to get my computer and find us another campground.  Now.  Uh-oh.  He explained that they had put us on a 30 amp site, for tonight and maybe tomorrow, but then we could move to a 50 amp site, probably, but the roads were narrow and tree-lined, and we could see where others had scraped the tree bark as they went by.  Plus, the sites were either narrow, muddy, standing water, or some combination thereof.  I immediately called Peregrine Pines, the Air Force FamCamp, which was scheduled to be our next stop, to see if they could fit us in till then, as well as our original reservation.  They were not available to answer the phone, so I left a message to call me.  Then the workamper dude, Dick & I all piled up on the golf-cart-built-for-two, and took a ride up the hill to view the site he thought might work for us, if he moved a table and let us go through a vacant site.  Once we got up there I had a dickens of a time, trying to convince him that we were taller and wider than that site would accommodate.  Why is it that all these parker people think they know our home better than I do?  I am quite sure I know how high it is, AND how wide it is.  And "staying over to the side" just simply is not an option.  Not when there is a full-wall slide that comes out about 3 feet! So, about that time, the Peregrine Pines clerk called me back and said he could give me two nights, but then we'd have to move on.  It turned out that he could actually give me THREE nights, so I confirmed we'd be there shortly and we started the chore of getting out of the Coast to Coast park.  As you know, a tow-dolly doesn't back up.  Through the magic of mechanics, brakes are applied when it goes in reverse.  Don't ask, just know, when we say we can't back up, it's not because we don't know how, it's because we flippin' CAN'T. 

So, we unloaded the car, and I went the wrong way up the street to turn it around and come back to park it in an empty site (a really big NO-NO, but was given permission to do so for the moment).  Then Dick unhooked the tow dolly and pushed it out of the way.  Then, expert driver that he is, he turned that bad boy around in a Y-shaped parking lot, with trees, flower beds and brick walls serving as obstacles to get around.  Oh.My.Gosh.  He got it backed up without hitting a thing and got it straightened to where he could hook the tow dolly back up and have it be straight.  Simply amazing.  We loaded the car back on the tow dolly and squeezed out between 3 of those trees, did NOT bottom out on the steep slope, and maneuvered it around the hole in the pavement, and got back up to where we could turn back onto the Interstate to go South, to Peregrine Pines.  Which we had just passed, about an hour ago.  :)  Yes, we had traveled the 6 miles north in about 10 minutes, but it had taken us about an hour to view the sites and extricate ourselves from that crazy campground.  This is the road back up to the Interstate.  Not the best, is it?

I think what really torqued us was that they "never assign sites until the guest arrives" so they had already given out all the 50 amp sites.  Even though we had RESERVED a 50 amp site, several weeks ago, for 11 days.  Their reasoning was that "they always do it this way."  That was certainly not the way I was taught to book sites, and that is certainly not the way Coast to Coast sells itself.  Anyway, we were glad to be gone from their mudhole presence, and back to the safety and comfort of a military base.  Until we saw the Gate.  Ummmmm....would we fit?  We had seen the signs that said "No commercial traffic.  No trucks." Usually, when we see signs of that nature, we know it means us, too, but there didn't appear to be any alternatives, so we forged on.  We watched several cars get cursory searches, but we had our ID's ready and were welcomed with a salute and "Have a nice day, Sir." as we were waved on through.  Easy peasy.  What a relief, after all the tension and inconvenience of the first place.

You can bet I got a load of laundry started as soon as we were level and hooked up to power and water.  We are in a lovely level and wide pull-through, among the shady pines whose lowest branches start about 14 feet up.  We're here for the next couple of days, and we have lined up a campground back down in Pueblo for the remainder of our stay, till it's time to return back here for our regularly scheduled visit.  Can't wait to see what Pueblo has to offer!

We would like to wish our traveling friends (you know who you are, Gail, Gary, Allen, Lolly, Rod, Linda, Nancy & Ted) safe journeys, smooth roads and light tailwinds. 

Till next time!