Saturday 8-27 Change of Plans - Minnie Problem

 

We had a beautiful day

We had a beautiful day. A small rain storm came through the early morning, about 2:00. I had gone to bed at 11:00 so it woke me up. It was a nice rain but didn't last too long. 

By the time we got up the rain was gone and the roads were mostly dry. Larry got up around 6:00 and I rolled out of bed at 7:15. We put everything away and secured for our adventure to Colorado. While I finished putting things away Larry went over and put some money in the donation box. A few people left earlier and when we left others were getting ready to go. We were on the road by 8:00. Texhoma is a great place to stay for the night.

Larry drove 274 miles to Fort Garland Colorado. We started in Texas, drove through New Mexico and ended up in Colorado. Of course I napped most of the way. We drove mainly four lane highways and a lot of prairie land. During the drive we saw a lot of cattle some of them were calves. When we got to New Mexico we saw pronghorns. It was fun to look for them because sometimes you think the big rocks are pronghorns because they are the same color. We drove the highway through a couple of mountain passes. The passes were gorgeous with all the pine trees. As we drove through the passes we saw signs for drivers to watched out for deer, elk and bears. We stopped along the way to stretch our legs, fill up the Minnie and to eat. 

First stop was in Dalhart, TX, where we stopped at T T Donuts to buy breakfast. The reviews were good. Larry agreed with them. The lady was friendly and the service was great. We both agree the donuts were delicious. Next was at Loves in Clayton, NM for gas. Next was Raton, NM for lunch, I made sandwiches. Next was at the welcome to Colorado sign on the mountain pass between Raton, NM and Trinidad, CO. There was an overview, where the scenery was beautiful.

Welcome to Colorado sign

 

Mountain scenery at the welcome sign

Sunflowers at the welcome sign

As we were driving through the last mountain pass the Minnie started giving us some trouble. It started running poorly, there happened to be a pullover really close by that we pulled into and the Minnie died. Larry let it sit about 5 minutes and it started, after about 5-6 miles it started running poorly and Larry found another pullover and once again it died, after another 5 minutes it started again. We were in the middle of nowhere without a cell signal, the closest town was Fort Garland, it was about 20 miles from where the problem started, Larry would drive 3-5 miles and when he saw somewhere to pull over we would stop and sit for about 5 minutes and start up again, it took a bit but we were able to get to Fort Garland, unfortunately it is very small and without any repair places. Larry thinks the fuel pump is going out and when it gets hot it wants to stop. Our destination was Del Monte, which is another 50 miles away.

We parked at the visitor center and he called Good Sam's, which is our towing service company. They lady was very nice and tried to help but she couldn't get anyone out until Monday. She tried four different places. The policy is that they will tow your rv to a place that will service it. Everyone was closed for the weekend. She told us to call Monday. We'll stay the night here in Fort Garland. It is suppose to be in the 40's in the morning so we might try to drive the Minnie to Alamosa or we might just wait until Monday and get it towed there.

The good news is we are in a safe place and not broken down along side the road. We have a comfortable place to sleep and we know in a few days we will be back on our way.

After dinner we moved to a side street, the visitor center has a sign saying no overnight camping. Once we got setup for the night I walked around for about an hour. I ended up doing 15,000 steps I missed my goal by 10,000 steps. I stopped because the mosquitoes were biting me. I came in 4th place in my group. For the week I did 151,331, which is over my daily goal for the challenge. I have one more day to go on the 175,000 steps challenge.