Thursday 9-1 Return Visit to Joey's Diesel and Towing

Camping at Big Meadows Campground

I got up at 6:00 am with Larry. We wanted to get a early start because we wanted to be at Joey's Diesel and Towing about when they opened. It's located in Alamosa, 61 miles from Big Meadows. We got the Minnie ready for the adventure. We put things away and secured. We were on the road about 6:40. On the way to Alamosa we ate a couple of granola bars for breakfast, I also had a protein shake. There is not one donut shop along the way nor is there one in Alamosa. How can a city of 10,000 people not have a donut shop?

The drive was a two lane highway down the mountain to South Fork, the scenery was gorgeous. This was about 11 miles. The two lane highway continues to Joey's. We arrived at Joey's when they were just opening, 8:00. Larry went inside to tell them we were there to get the compressor replaced. They said they would come out and check it out. We waited a couple of hours but that was ok, I played some Sudoku games and Larry read his book. Mel and another gentleman came out and checked it out. They didn't think the air conditioner compressor was the root of our problem. They were not sure what the other mechanic had observed. So we didn't get any work done but we were happy that we were able to put a few more miles on the Minnie ensuring that our problem the other day was the fuel pump we had replaced.

Before leaving town we decided to go back to the recreational center to take a shower. Afterwards we had lunch in the parking lot. When we finished lunch we continued our journey back to Big Meadows. We stopped by the Maverik store and topped off the water tank. Then we were on the road again. We got back to our site by 1:00.

We setup the Minnie once again. Larry put out the solar panels. I played my Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. Then I did the Event: Medium Mayhem Mini of 5 games. It took me 14 minutes and 25 seconds to finish, which put me in 16th place in my group. Larry read.

About 2:30 I walked around the campground for an hour. During my walk I saw the critter from yesterday. I had no idea what is was so I asked the camp host and he told me it was a marmot. Marmots are a huge ground squirrel, they hibernate during the winter. I met a couple and talked for a bit with them.

The marmot

When dinnertime came around I barbecued hamburgers. I went inside the Minnie to get something and a chipmunk jumped on the table and got under the grill to lick the barbecue sauce off the spatula. He wasn't scared of me. I was at the grill before he left. 

After dinner I went for another hour walk. During my walk I met another couple with a very friendly lab mix. I also saw the marmot and a beautiful buck. I stopped by the host site and showed them my senior pass and that's when he told me the critter was a marmot. Both walks were very nice.

The deer checking me out

By the end of the day I had done 26,000 steps, which put me in 5th place in my group with 96,000 steps for the week so far. I'm 4,000 steps behind for my weekly goal but I think I might make it. After doing my steps I played some more Sudoku games.