The day dawned bright and clear, the snow was rapidly melting, which did not stop me from having to clear a three inch layer of snow from the roof of the slide out.
The tricky part of today was contacting our vehicle insurance. We had taken the vehicles out of storage when we returned to Phoenix and renewed the insurance starting yesterday. I had been sort of thinking that the premium this time was quite low. Today I checked it!!!!! No collision coverage!!!!!! NO collision coverage since we had taken it out of storage!!!!!!!!! If we had had an accident we would have had no insurance coverage at all!!!!!! I kind of got spiky about this. The dear lady on the phone - Jasmine, then informed me that she could not change the coverage for 24 hours (I might have just had an accident and then make a fraudulent claim). However, gentle persuasion won the day and eventually she got the supervisor to give us instant coverage. Just as well, as we had to be off the site by 11 that morning and we had a site booked down in Golden, near Denver. We breathed a great sigh, but it was quite stressful. I have asked them to review the conversation I had on 25th March, as I know that I requested the collision coverage be returned to the Chevy. The stupid thing is that when they do capitulate I will have to pay the difference between the two coverages!! In case some previously undeclared claim is made against me. You just can't win against the big boys.
We eventually got packed up - we were not too worried, we were only travelling 65 miles and the later we left the more time the roads had to dry out and time for snow to melt off the roof of the the trailer. I estimate that the three inch depth of snow on our 240 sq ft roof would add about 900lb weight to the trailer! So the more that melted the better it would be. Just to help that we stopped at Safeways in Dillon for a cof/T (and a secret donut) before I pick
ed up some shopping and we drove off.
The High point on I70 is the Eisenhower Tunnel, built through a mountain it takes us across the Continental Divide. I reckon that we have crossed the CD in eleven different places on our trips (three places in the last three days) The Eisenhower Tunnel was the first place we crossed it in 2003. We are now planning to travel on the East side, so it looks like this may well be the last time we ever cross it. Oh Dear, that has hit hard.
We left the I70 to travel on U.S. Route 6, to a northern suburb of Denver called Golden. U.S. Route 6 is another one of 'those roads'. It is in fact the longest continuous road in the U.S.A., over 3000 miles long, it stretches from Bishop in CA to Provincetown, MA., though originally it started at Long Beach CA. It is called the Grand Army Of The Republic Highway (Wikipedia), we traveled on it in Long Beach, going through Tonopah (NV) and from Provo to Green River UT. The road winds through about twenty miles of narrow rocky gorges, following the Clear Creek River. It is a beautiful drive, though a bit slow with a trailer on the back.
Route 6 brought us right to the campground. We were assigned a site between the ex wife of a really nice guy called Rude DOG, (I think that is the spelling) who is/was a biker, now turned Christian (DOG stands for Depend On God), who has promised to turn up tomorrow with his Harley, as Sally foolishly said she has never ridden a motor cycle - watch this space!!!!!!
And a lovely couple Susan and Kerry Garcia. Susan told me almost immediately that Kerry was a world champion bull fighter in the 1980's, and instantly invited me into their trailer to show me his silver belt buckle and competition plaques. In passing, as you do, she mentioned that when he was a hunter he nearly lost his life in a snow drift - he and a buddy were stuck for 7 days, couldn't get out of the car as the snow had jammed the doors shut! Lived on beans and biscuits. They are a lovely couple.
Went for a run this evening and discovered that Golden has some lovely concrete paths, which go along the river to the old part of town, so we may explore that tomorrow, so more about Golden tomorrow. Once the Jiffy Lube man has been to replace the windshield.
Oh didn't I mention we had booked that in? Did I not mention that we got a stone chip as we drove through Chaco Canyon? Well, we have watched the crack grow steadily over the last two weeks and now it is time to replace it. The guy comes at 8.00 tomorrow.
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