Camping again!

It's only for a few days but I'll take it!

Today the company I contracted with to trim a couple of big Cottonwood trees in the backyard came by and did a nice job of removing enough leaves and branches to allow air to flow through easier.  Now I am less worried about the occasional wind storm taking out the trees and the trees taking out the roof of the house!

I left the Denver cesspool just before 4:00 p.m. and by 7:15 p.m. I was at a campsite in the South Rampart Range road area.  I have camped nearby last year in August.  

This time I managed to snag the primo spot with a view of Pikes Peak to the south.

Going to be here till at least Saturday if not Sunday. Nice to be out of the cesspool that is the Denver metro area.

Home from the Rally

 Sunday, Jun 10

The rally ended yesterday evening, nothing left to do but pack up in the morning and head home for everyone.  That is, except me, I would go boondock for the night to check out a possible site to the south of Hotchkiss.

I did a little helping in the putting away of stuff such as chairs and table, but mainly said my goodbyes to friends old and new.  A rather enjoyable rally in spite of me trying to hack up a lung the first two days!  The second Shingle shot really kicked my butt!

I drove to the BLM site (location undisclosed as its near the locals' secret spot) and about 1/4 of a mile in from the road, found the site and settled in:

It was another hot day but I stayed in the shade as much as I could, took several quick outdoor showers to cool off and enjoyed the solitude after almost three days of non-stop socializing!

Just before 8PM, I drove Scarlett the 6+ miles of rough dirt road to the "secret spot" and found the lighting of the now over cast day to be disappointing in terms of lighting up the rock formations.  The angles were just wrong you see.  I contented myself with the below shots.

Based on the clouds covering the horizon, I decided to forego waiting for the sun to set and instead headed back to camp.  I should have stayed, for as I rode back, I saw a colorful lighting of the horizon in the distance behind me!  Oh well, at least I avoided riding back in the gathering dark.

Monday, July 11

Woke shortly after 6AM and broke camp, leaving the site around 8AM.  Not a bad site, but its apparently a resting spot for cattle as there was plenty of evidence of cow poop.  Not sure why but it took me almost 6.5 hours to get home, no issues otherwise.

Gas prices continue to climb....paid $4.99/gallon for 85 Octane.  

At the USCA National Rally - A Diagnostic Ride and The Rigs at the Rally

 Saturday, July 9

A very hot day today!  I believe the weather app reported almost 99°F (37.2°C) and it sure felt like it!  Luckily, it wasn't too humid, it would have sucked to still be in Wisconsin.

Dan K and I did a short ride, first back to the the "secret spot", not far from its entrance, to establish viability of any possible boondocking sites on this BLM land.  Found only one really viable site.  More on that later.

As we rode around the lesser trails seeking other sites, I noticed that Dan  was no longer behind me.  I turned around and found him getting his tools out and his rig parked under the shade of a tree.  Uh Oh.

Turns out, what Dan K had been thinking were jetting issues with his carburetors may have actually been symptoms caused by a massive air leak.  Dan's rig's right side carburetor's compliance fitting had developed a large crack in it's rubber body.

Compliance fittings, by the way, mate the carburetor to the cylinder head.  They allow the passing of the air/fuel mixture from the carburetor for combustion.

But Dan K was prepared, he had a spare compliance fitting and gasket and his rig was soon purring smoothly.  I won't mention the fact that initially after the replacement, the engine was "running away" at high RPMs when he cranked the engine to life.  I won't mention, that after several diagnostic attempts at the idle screws and just before we started messing with the idle air screw; he found he'd accidentally engage the throttle lock while twisting the throttle.  Doh.

So we then left the area and rode the short distance to Crawford and Needle Rock.

It was getting rather warm by this time, around 11AM, so we rode back to the rally location via CO Hwy 92.  Lunch was a pitiful chicken sandwich in Hotchkiss at the 133 BGR diner.  Not recommended!

Neither of us remembered that a local vendor had setup a hotdog stand at the rally.  That would have been better.  Doh!

OK, later on that afternoon, I walked around the fairgrounds and tried to get a picture of most of the sidecar rigs that were in attendance:

Sheltering from the hot sun

Spat's faithful Patrol

A KLR and a Triumph 

A cute cargo trailer

A lovely K Bike

A lovely /2 with a later engine

My camping spot during the rally.

Last but definitely not least, here's Marley, a very good dog.  His riders rode with Dan and I earlier in the Rally: John and Jo.

There were a few more rigs that I either missed because they were out riding, or were Ural rigs which are represented by Scarlett, or I simply didn't get a good picture of some.

At the United Sidecar Association National Rally - Friday

 I arrived yesterday in Hotchkiss, CO where the Delta County Fairgrounds were hosting the annual rally for the United Sidecar Association.

I wasn't feeling well due to the side effects of getting the second Shingle shot right after barely recovering from covid infection so no pics for Thursday.

I was feeling better when I woke on Friday.

Scarlett and CCjon's rig

CCjon is the current president of the USCA

Local native guide: Rich, generously guided us to a secret locals viewing spot for the Gunnison Gorge area.  Here's some views both along the way and at the site itself:

The view along Fruitland Mesa Road

The sights and colors of the viewpoint itself:

A pano shot with my Pixel 4a's phone:

After a while, we retraced our route back to pavement, and three of us stopped here to wait for John and Jo who were riding sweep at this time.  As we waited, I got a picture of our guide, Rich.  Those two big mountains are Mt Lamborn and Landsend Peak.

After a few minutes, no appearance by John and Jo.  Dan K. turned his rig around and headed back to check on them.

After some more minutes, Rich and I decided to head back to see what was going on.  We arrived about a mile back to find John busily replacing his pusher tire.  The tire had experienced a flat upon impacting a large rock (that's the theory) and John was putting on the spare tire/wheel.

Dan K's bottle jack came in handy and Rich and I helpfully kibitzed while John did all the work!  ;)

Jo and their dog Morley waiting in the shade of a nearby tree, they were the smart ones.

Once John finished up, we all headed back to the picture point from before and this time I got all three rigs in the picture:

We all made it back to Hotchkiss with no further issues.  John and Jo peeled off as we approached the campsite and Rich, DanK and I continued on a short ways to a burger joint for a late lunch.

I'll be posting more pics of sidecar rigs as I find them, there's plenty here at the rally.  I just want the more "unusual" or unique rigs this time around:

Jack Daniels collector edition, #47 of 150

An R1150RT Rig for sale, used to belong to CCjon

Dana's Rokon motorcycle, now with a small sidecar.

A California Uralista's Geo LE Ural Patrol

After a Chili Dinner provided by the rally organizers, a band played and there was an Ice Cream Social event as well.  Fed and watered, we listened to the band while seated at picnic tables positioned all over the fairground's grassy area.

Riding stories were told, jokes shared, new people met and socialized with, in all a good time was had by this curmudgeon.

Night fell, the day's hot temperatures cooled down and the mosquitoes came out, so by 9PM I was headed for the VRRV!

Home again, now Martha's got the Rona

Another long day of driving, starting at 7:30 AM CST and getting home by 4:30 PM (gaining an hour when we crossed into the Mountain Time Zone).  So figure 10 hours on the road, with stops for gas and lunch.

Martha had been exhibiting itchy hives yesterday, but we thought it was an allergic reaction to the grass cutting ops that had occurred the day after we set up camp at the Rolling Hills COE campground.  Some dizziness as well and some swelling of joints.

So, we decided to cut the trip short and left this morning instead of Saturday morning.

Turns out, Martha is positive for Covid-19.  Sigh.  So, we got her the same antiviral meds that I got back in Wisconsin tonight and she's in Covid jail for the next ten days.  Good news is that her symptoms, so far, are very mild, unlike mine which were more flu-like.

Here's a pie chart of the expenses for this camping trip.  Not surprisingly, fuel costs dominated.  It worked out to $67.31/day.  

Miles driven: 2696

Do Nothing Days and an Early Departure

Wednesday, June 29

Needed a full day of basically laying about to recover from yesterday's driving.

I did do some light riding on Yagi, the TW200, to fully explore the motorable sections of this COE campground.  Not much to report, both RV loops have good views of the lake, the tent loop was OK as well.  

Wandering down a "Nature Walk", found a dirt road which led to this barn:

Here's how the campsite looked like in the daytime:

Sitting in one's lounge chair, reading and relaxing, one becomes just another mostly unmoving feature of the grounds to the local fauna.  I was able to use the zoom feature on the Nikon Coolpix S9900 I got from CCjon with some success.

Thursday, June 30

Another do nothing day, not even any riding.  The campground however is filling up and we've decided to displace tomorrow and hopefully able to drive the whole 487 miles that separate us from home.

Not much else to report on or take pictures of.  The lake turns out to have an active algae bloom and there's an online warning about swimming in it.  Not prohibited but not recommended either!

So, now in the afternoon, we're flanked by campers here for the long weekend, no swimming, dogs barking and someone playing the radio outside, it's time to leave early.  For whatever reason, the A loop is full but the B loop is mostly empty!

Martha has some allergy reactions going on as well, so she's happy we're leaving two days ahead of schedule.

It'll be good to be home for a bit, this trip hasn't been the greatest.

A Taste of Oz, now in Kansas

 Yes Toto, we're now in Kansas.

Long driving day yesterday, with a stop at the Wizard of Oz Museum in Wamego, KS.  I didn't realize there was such a following of this movie, and the museum should definitely make any fan of the movie happy.

Lots of movie and post-movie merchandising on display.  Of course, the main characters are exhibited.

I remember liking the marching song sung by the

bad witch's soldiers: "Oh-Ee-Yah! Ee-Oh-Ah!"

A Flying Monkey would keep other people

away from my campsite...

The Emerald City

Old Dutch Mill, built in 1879, moved into 

town later on.

After the museum touring, it was time for more gas and a grocery run.  We made it into the Rolling Hills Campground run by the Army COE around 6PM, so yeah, with an 8AM departure, a long day of driving.

The sunset was nice, and a first use of the Nikon to capture a sunset, provided by CCjon:

Nice campground, not crowded at all so far but am sure that'll change once the long 4th of July weekend crowds show up.  Still, the swim beach is a short walk away and the water was nice.  Hot few days coming up, so I'm sure we'll be in the water.