Mueller State Park RV Trip - Day 1

Meeting up with the Machidas!

Uma, the URRV, transported Martha and my eldest son Patrick, towing Scarlett in the trailer while I followed with Fiona, the '99 Ural Patrol.

We got to Mueller State Park by Divide, CO, shortly after RichardM and Bridget had arrived with their fifth-wheel RV and setup up four spots away from our assigned campsite.

We spent the rest of the afternoon setting up, chatting and catching up.  RichardM borrowed Fiona from me and will be riding her tomorrow along with Bridget:

We had dinner at the Machida's RV as it was a bit roomier than ours.  Martha got to warm up the fixings using their induction cook top and was duly impressed with its performance.  Looks like there's one in our future as well I think.

Before dinner, after setting up for camp

During dinner, a rainstorm came up with some hail and thunder and lightning.  One lightning bolt hit so close we think it actually struck an RV about three spaces away from ours and on the other side of the road!

The lightning strike also tripped the main breaker for the panel that served our campsite but luckily all we had to do was reset the breaker and we had power again.  We were lucky, the folks in the RV that got struck were lucky in that no one was hurt but their RV will have to be towed for repairs.

Note:  We were shocked and disappointed to hear from these folks that their Good Sam RV Towing plan wouldn't cover them as they considered lightning "an act of god".  We thought it was bogus.

After dinner, we took a walk with Bridget's dogs: Artie and Leinen.  This is how we found out about the lightning damage.

Artie and Thing One, not sure who was

leading whom on this walk....

The plan tomorrow is to ride up Pikes Peak, we'll see what the weather turns out to be like with all this rain.

Summer Solstice Sunset

Ah, the first official day of Summer and the heat we experienced here in the Colorado Front Range left us in no doubt that it was indeed Summer.

Both the day before Summer Solstice and the day of, the temperatures almost broke 100 degrees Fahrenheit and records were broken.

The day did end in quite a nice sunset though, in spite of the imbecile who joined us at the spot where more and more people have joined me in picturing the sunset.
The imbecile in question, decided to share his taste in music, with the rest of us....annoying us all.  Luckily, he didn't stay long.  He departed to annoy other people before the sunset's lighting got really good.  Imbecile.

The usual spot for sunset pictures is becoming too popular and crowded, there's even another imbecile flying a drone overhead at times, adding the drone's annoying buzzing sounds to the ambience.

I wonder if one can buy a drone controller signal jammer?

Last Day of Spring Sunset

I used the title Summer's Eve Sunset on Facebook to originally post these pictures, then I was reminded of the feminine hygiene trademark.  Doh.

It was a record breaking day yesterday in terms of temperatures.  99°F (37..2°C)!   Definitely a scorcher, but it did produce nice cloud formations and lighting conditions for this Spring season's last sunset:

As you can see, Fiona my '99 Ural Patrol with the '84 R80 Beemer engine is back on the road.  I received the replacement Final Drive mounting studs yesterday and replaced the two outer studs, leaving the two inner studs for the next time I have the final drive unmounted from the swingarm.

I also replaced the engine oil/gearbox oil on Fiona and Scarlett's engine oil.  It was a bit early for both but the oil was looking dirty and this way I can now use their respective odometers to schedule future maintenance.

Fathers Day Uraling on Mount Evans

Spent most of the day Uraling with Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol Sidecar Rig on North America's highest paved road, CO Hwy 5 or the Mount Evans Road.

Once can reach the parking lot at the summit, which lies at 14,420 feet or a bit over 4340 meters above sea level.  A fair altitude yoCou might say, but less than three hours away by Ural, there's also the road up Pikes Peak: America's Mountain.

You can drive all the way to the summit of Pikes Peak as well, and I've done so with all my motorcycles over the years.

Conditions were very crowded at Mount Evans, I attributed it to it's recent opening for the season and the fact there'd been a foot race on the mountain that morning; the race had closed the road to motored traffic until 11AM.

Got there at 12:30 after a 10AM departure from home.  Once I got clear of the usual congestation at the fee station, it wasn't too bad in terms of crowds and cagers.  Note:  If you tell the attendant you're just going up to the summit and back down without "stopping", you don't have to pay the entrance fee.  It's a Colorado Highway you see; now if you park at the summit or use any of the fee areas, then yes you have to pay.

I turned around just short of the summit (been there before many times) as I could see if was just jammed with cagers and crowds.  Here's the pictures I took as Scarlett and I made our way back down, usually stopping at the apex of the several hairpin turns.

 

 Approaching Summit Lake

 Summit Lake