McGaffs On The Fly

Made it safely through the mountains and arrived in Leadville mid-day to set up our next camping adventure at the Sugar Loafin Campground. Seems to be a nice campground, although a little rustic, and on top of that they allow dogs as long as they are good campers. There were a few bad campers last night, wonder if they were kicked out.

The good news at over 10,000 is that you get to camp in the summer yet the temperature tells you it’s winter. Pretty cool to have the heater kick on starting about 8:30pm…48 degrees will make it do that.

We’re starting keep a list of what we need to do for our next adventure as it relates to what to bring, what to fix on Airstream and again…what not to bring. Top of that list would be “why does ac inside of trailer leak water”?. It’s certainly not condensation since only the heater ran, could it be from the heavy rain we got last night? More to come, hope we don’t get any more rain.

Still doing our best to social distance and Leadville makes it so you don’t have a choice, masks required everywhere. We are ok with that and in fact when people find out we are from Texas they all take a step back. So we got that going for us.

Heading to Vail to check out the mountains…

For the last two days, it’s been more of the same…pickleball, hike, pickleball, hike. Not only has it been a lot of fun, but we always reward ourselves with a big Pagosa Burger. You know that the calories don’t count when on vacation, right?!

So Joan and I, led by peer pressure, decided we better start thinking about phase two of our travel plans. The Ray Manor has been a great stop, if a week can be considered a stop, but time has come to move on.

With 20 days left in this adventure, we’ve planned to wake up Little Al and leave Sunday to start our move north. We have plans, only 10 days worth mind you, to visit Leadville, Co, Rock Springs, WY, the Grand Tetons, then on to Gardner MT where we can visit cities and sites in MT. Can’t wait, these are parts of the country Joanie and I have never seen.

That’s it for now, unless you want to hear the story about the VRBO renter that thought “no animals” meant “ok for dogs, really big dogs and two of them”. Ok, I guess not…back soon.

Great evening weather and great friends makes for a great time, we couldn’t be any happier staying at the Ray Four Seasons Resort. If you are lucky enough to be invited, be prepared for full tilt action and planned activities for your entire stay…be sure to plan that nap time up front or the activity will engulf your time and no napo for your weary bones.

We spent an evening happy hour on the Jackson Mountain Rd at the secret spot. If you ever want to go then just proceed to…ha, kidding, it’s a secret. Great views with an abundance of wildlife highlighted by a mamma turkey leading her 6 baby chicks across the field…awwww.

Yesterday we played in the new game taking the nation by storm for the “mature” adult, pickleball. Hint, stretch before you play because those quads will be screaming at the end of the games if not. The game is a little like tennis with a ping pong twist, easy to set up and easy to play. Not sure why my legs keep telling me otherwise.

Slow day today (yea right) with Paul and Donna coming in at 1…hope there’s time to do something when they get here at 3!

Life in the fast lane with the Ray’s is full speed ahead and always on the go. Yesterday Dick and I climbed the Crater Lake Trail and I found out that high altitude sickness is real. Turns out I’m fine at 11,999 feet but that one step forward to 12,000 is a killer. Lots of water and rest, almost back.

I lied, I was healed almost immediately when Dick murmured, “golf anyone?” Wonderful weather at about 65 all day and fun round of golf, I’m back!

So my man cave at the Ray’s was broken into last night about 10:00 when I got the call, “Marc, come pick me up”. Turns out one of the ladies had to go to the emergency room for some issues (update, she’s getting better) and Joanie needed to come here since they would depart early.

Good news, my sweet sweet wife is back where she belongs. Bad news, my corner to corner sleeping is officially over. Oh, the good ole days.

Out to that hidden spot on the mountain for happy hour, pictures to come.

After dropping Joanie off at Kaylane’s with all of the “girls”, I headed back to Dick and Brendas to stay with them. It took me about half a second of grief to get over missing her when I crawled into my king size bed and immediately took over every corner. I still miss her but I don’t miss the spider monkey she turns into when we sleep in the small Airstream bed.

I woke up the next day to 50 degree weather and the fan blasting that cool air into my room, how awesome is that for late June?! Great day for a hike.

Dick and left early for the their Blanco cabin to try out some new trails he had heard about. We set off on “the City Slicker” trail without knowing where it went or ended. We assumed by the name it had to be easy, how can that assumption go wrong?

Turned out our assumption was right, after about 3 miles we ended up on private property (Dick knew him) and walked back to the cabin a mile away.

Great day and beautiful weather here, why is all I can think of that big bed waiting for me…hope Joanie’s having fun!

One of the things we wanted to experience when we took to the road was meeting new people from all over the US. Our neighbor at the park also had an Airstream so I migrated to him for lessons and tips. Turns out he and his wife are from a crazy little town called New Braunfels…about 25 minutes from our house, what are the chances? His wife Kathy gave Joan a dream catcher when we were leaving for good luck. Even better, John was sporting a great pair of knee pads that turned out to be the best tip ever…so helpful with trailer, and you never know when a volleyball game might break out in the 55 and older parks!

We ate breakfast at a great place called Tune Up Cafe then got in a little exercise before heading back to meet our 11 am checkout. On the road at 11:30, close enough.

What a great ride to Pagosa other than the extreme amount of traffic with a bunch of cars with blinkers on. Joanie is usually so calm and collective but I gotta tell you, she didn’t like those darn (not the word she used) slow cars with the blinkers on. After about 15 miles stuck behind these nimrods the second lane opened up and were able to pass, turns out the lead car was a hearse…OOPS. Joanie’s going to hell!

So Little Al made it all the way and boy is he tired, not sure how he feels about RV parks either…he’s kinda uppity. One thing we did find out, he’s a little bit of a celebrity. Apparently, if you’re pulling an Airstream and you see another one you are supposed to honk and wave. Al loves the attention and I’m not gonna lie, it’s nice to be one of the cool kids.

So we parked Al at Dick and Brenda’s to give him a break and we’ll see where we go from here…plans to leave in about a week.

Today was the day we’ve been waiting for, oh for like about 7 months. After waking up to a 63 temperature we were able to finally get in some exercise, relaxation and just chilling out and doing nothing. For me it just seemed to come natural, for Joanie…well Joanie has to work at it. Good news, figured out the AC system (right before the heater kicked on)…I only have 4 more years of schooling to get my degree in the Dometic control system configuration.

After finally slowing down we realized we may have brought just a little to many things with us, nota surprise. What was a surprise was the basics we (reads me) forgot to pack; like chairs, a fan and toothpaste. Really ok though, unless we decide we want to sit, stay cool or have fresh breath…all overrated in my opinion.

That’s pretty much all from here in beautiful Santa Fe, off to Pagosa Springs, CO tomorrow.

Grandma JoJo in the park in a jacket…in June.

St. Francis Basilica.

$1800-35,000…we didn’t get one but we did get a free bottled water.

Home away from home.

Our first night of trying the much publicized free parking at Walmart was, well, worth every dollar spent. Nice weather (remember broken window) sure helped the mood when we finally nodded off, but the late night stockers and their midnight yell practice brought the mood down a notch. Overall, I’d give the night a 10…sliding scale.

Our plan was to try to find an Airstream dealer to replace the glass and Albuquerque was the closest location, and only slightly off path. Turns out they did not have the window in stock but even better news was that it would only take 2-3 weeks to get one…yada,yada,yada…we decided not to wait and set sail for Santa Fe.

After much discussion with RV repair companies and glass companies we were down to one last drive by a glass company before plywood became a reality. We found our heroes at The Glass Man, and if you are ever in SF in a glassless Airstream I would highly recommend them. Our home away from home now has a nicely cut plexiglass window replacement, our almost certain catastrophe diverted…we love us some Glass Man!!!

Finally at our RV park, a beautiful location and beautiful weather at The Trailer Ranch RV resort. Ready for bed and more than 3 hours sleep…hope Joanie doesn’t snore.

Note from park…”be sure to keep and eye on your bikes and lock them up, there have been some stolen”. Oh well, kids will be kids.

Since we had over 10 hours to drive to our first destination of Santa Fe NM, we decided to finish our last push to get our home ready to VRBO and leave on Tuesday night. We had decided that 7pm would be a reasonable departure hour but set a goal getting out by 5pm. So, at 7:40 our adventure began!

Our first stop for the night was Big Spring and we made a safe arrival at around 12:30am and found a nice (free) spot to park for the night.

If there was ever a spot that I thought I would find Joan at 12:30 in the morning, in a RV, in a parking lot with big rigs…it would not be in this Walmart heavily lit lot!

But here we are, we traveled safely for almost 5 hours and all went well. That was, until, we decided to open the window for air circulation. Long story short, and lesson for all you cool cats and kittens…Airstream windows are not shatter proof when they hit the ground.

“What you gonna do, ain’t no big thing” I said with my natural cool demeanor. We completed the night in blissful sleep and will worry what come tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Next destination, Santa Fe.

Thanks for joining us on our adventures.

Life is short and the world is wide – Anonymous