5/14/15
Went through Monument Valley. This was the place I wanted to go on this trip. Just before we entered the valley I sent Peg a text just checking her phone. Even though her phone now worked it still had quirks. After hitting send on my phone everything on my phone became enlarged. No matter how many times I reset it, restarted it or talked nicely to it it refused to go back to normal. I could not take a picture as the camera button was off the screen. Very frustrating since this was "my" destination.
After leaving Monument Valley I found a Verizon store, handed my phone to the employee. He said he just learned two weeks ago that if you tap on the screen twice with 3 fingers everything would go back to normal. Not very intuitive but it worked!
Camped at a BLM sit just outside Mesa Verde NP. Had a wonderful thunderstorm, our first rain in the tear, love the sound. In the night the rain turned to snow. We had not put our alcove up so just donuts and coffee for breakfest. Peg is the master of bacon, eggs and hashbrowns and my specialty is blueberry pancakes. Donuts once in a while are very tasty.
5/15/15
Camping at Mesa Verde NP. Toured the ruins. Perfect weather for the tour. Then cold, rain, enough hail to make things white.
5/16/15
Woke up to 2" of snow and now neither the furnace or stove worked. Unhitched the tear and headed to Durango and purched a Blue Rhino propane tank. Love Durango. Back to Mesa Verde, did laundry, and walked through the snow to take a shower.
5/17/15
Woke up this morning to frozen rain on everything. Still no furnace or stove.
We headed to Black Canyon of the Gunnison. This is one of our favorite NPs. We are now at 8,320' and the propane is working again, yea!
5/18/15
Woke up and no propane again. Put the tank in the sun and eventually got coffee and breakfast.
Camped that night outside Fisco (between Breckenridge and Vail). Absolutely stunning campsite. We were the only ones in the entire place, right on a beautiful lake surrounded by snow covered mountains.
We even had cell coverage. Peg got a notification on her phone that we were due for 10-20" of snow that night. We talked to the camp host about the snow and he said they usually report worst case. No problem if we got snowed in as all the sights were empty until Friday then every one was booked. That gave us a few days so we figgured bring it on, it would be and adventure.
We found that if we heated a propane tank in the car it would work for a while. We did not know if it was the cold or because we were above 9,000'. That night the rain came. I thought if this was snow it would be very interesting. I started getting drips hitting me in the head, rolled a t-shirt up and stuck it behind the curtain. Worked great, no more drips. In the night the pounding rain stopped suddenly and I opened my door to look. It had not stopped, it had turned to snow. Because of the propane issue and the fact that we could no longer see the mountains because of the low clouds we headed out once more.
