Craig's blog

Back in early May we bit the bullet (actually, wrote the check) and had photovoltaic panels installed on our roof by Borrego Solar. So far, we're extremely happy with them. We have a fairly large installation that's capable of putting out about 9 kW. Yesterday we got a check from the state of California for 27% of the cost of the system. :)

If things go according to plan, we should net an electricity bill of about $0 for the entire year. We're expecting to have negative bills during the summer and positive ones during the winter. If you'd like to know how the billing works, here's a quick summary. First, we switched to a "Time of Use" meter. You can do this independent of adding solar (and we probably should have long ago). It allows charging much higher rates during peak hours (noon-6:00 PM Mon-Fri), then during non-peak hours (in our case the difference is roughly 3x). If you use less energy during peak hours, it's a great deal because you buy your electricity at a lower rate. Anyway, we now also have "net-metering" which means our meter can run forward AND backward. When our panels are putting out more electricity than we are consuming, our meter runs backwards. Now if you think about when the sun is at its most powerful, you'll realize that this is during peak hours. So our meter is almost always spinning backwards during peak hours and pretty much only runs forwards during off-peak hours. This means PG&E is buying electricity from us at peak rates, and we're buying it from them at off-peak rates. :)

I truly wish everyone would/could put solar panels on their roof. In fact, it seems to me that all new construction (especially in the southwest) should require a solar installation proportional to the size of the house/business being built. Alas, the problem is the up-front cost. It generally takes 6-10 years to payback the cost of the system (in reduced electricity bills).

Click here for three pictures of the installation.

More technical details:

Click here to see lots of up to the minute graphs of the output of our system since it was installed.

We have 48, 200 Watt Sanyo Modules (Model HIP-200BA3). Each one is 51.9" x 35.2" x 1.4" and weighs 31 pounds.

There are two Sunny Boy inverters (a 6kW and a 3.8kW) and a "Sunny WebBox" that allows continuous access to the status of the system.

Well this should be evidence that I'm a slow learner, or probably more accurately, that I have a very short memory. You may remember that a little over a week ago I got persuaded by Catherine to ride up Page Mill Road against my better judgment. Today I was invited to go on a nice ride to the coast. The coast is cooler, right? Sounded like a nice way to get away from the heat, so I politely accepted.

We started by riding up Old La Honda to Skyline. We went 10% faster than I had by myself on Sunday (and on that day I just coasted back home afterward). This time we rode down Hwy 84 to San Gregorio (which was a beautiful ride). We stopped and had a snack and then headed up Stage Rd and then down Hwy 1 to Tunitas Creek. For those of you who haven't been up Tunitas Creek Rd, it is a spectacularly beautiful road that climbs through a redwood forest along a creek with almost no cars. There's only one problem. It is a relentless climb from sea level to 2,000 feet. At one point I looked down at my heart rate monitor (which I could barely make out through the sweat in my eyes) and thought it would be interesting to compare to Catherine. My heart was beating at 158 bpm. Catherine doesn't wear a monitor (you'll see why in a second), so I asked her to take her pulse. She calmly reached up and felt her pulse while continuing to ride up the hill. Her pulse was 126. That's my pulse when I'm going down hill. :(

Well, as you've probably figured out, I didn't die on the way up and we eventually made it to the top (with Catherine casually making small talk and me grunting the occasional yeah or me too). We took Skyline to 84 and then headed down 84 back to the valley.

In truth, it was a great ride. It was beautiful and the weather was perfect. I only wish I were in 1/2 as good shape as Catherine.

Two months ago I had the pleasure of visiting Tesla Motors in San Carlos. A friend of mine hooked me up with Marc Tarpenning, a co-founder of the company. Marc was willing to walk me around and show me what they were doing and then had the patience to answer my 100's of questions about what they were doing. For me it was a total blast. At the time, they were still pretty hush, hush about what they were building, but now they've gone public with their first car that is due to be available early next year.

They're building a two-seat roadster (those of you who know me, know that by itself would interest me). It goes 0-60 in about 4 seconds. The exciting part is that is doesn't have an internal combustion engine. It's an all-electric car. Plug it in over night and drive up to 250 miles. With the solar panels on our roof, that means absolutely no emissions from a very high-performance sports car.

I could write more, but it's much more interesting to read about it at their website: www.teslamotors.com.

Building a new car company is a huge challenge. I wish them all the luck in the world. These are the kind of changes we absolutely have to make, and we'll probably die waiting for Detroit to make them.

To whom it may concern,

In December of 2003 we purchased a new 2003 Chevrolet 3/4 ton Suburban with the 8.1L big block engine and trailering package. We were replacing our 1993 Suburban because we have an 8,500 lb travel trailer that needed all the pulling capacity we could find.

I'm somewhat of a car nut and am reasonably particular about my vehicles and have made numerous "enhancements" to the Suburban. We find it quiet, powerful and comfortable. In many ways it's ideal for its purpose - taking our family of 5 (and the occasional friend) on trips while pulling our large trailer.

However, I'm writing today because I've been extremely disappointed in the quality of our new Suburban. While I'm afraid I've come to expect lower quality from American cars than from Japanese or even German cars, the problems I've had with our Suburban have been particularly disappointing. Here is a list of the problems we've had after 2 1/2 years and only 19,000 miles.

1. The gas tank has always been difficult to fill. It works great until about the last 8 gallons. After that I have to coax it along a couple of tenths of a gallon at a time. The dealer says it's normal.
   
2. At 2,000 miles we were towing our trailer and the "Service 4WD" light came on accompanied by a "clunk". After reading the owners manual I hoped it was ok to continue with our trip. It was. When I brought it in for service I was told it was fixed with a software update.
3. The optional trailering mirrors I had special ordered never worked reliably. My dealer tried to fix them several times. I finally gave up, bought aftermarket (Schefenacker) mirrors that are fantastic and sold the OEM mirrors on eBay.
4. The dome light on the DVD player installed by the dealer never worked. I was told it would be sent to the manufacturer for 5 weeks to be repaired. This seems ridiculous - why not install a new one that works (and then get mine repaired if you want). I've never had it fixed.
5. At 11,000 miles all the instrument panel gauges stopped working. The next day when I tried to take the car in to the dealer, the battery had died. I jump started it and drove it to the dealer. The dealer concluded that there was a short in the instrument panel. A new one was ordered and then installed. The gauges now worked, but they couldn't get the information display to work correctly. After a week they ordered another instrument panel. 2 1/2 weeks later I had the car back with a working instrument panel.
6. At 15,000 miles the instrument panel gauges again all stopped working. This time the battery was so badly damaged that the car had to be towed to the dealer (it couldn't be jump started). When the vehicle arrived at the dealer and the battery was charged, the instrument cluster worked normally. I always drive waiting for it to fail yet again.
   
7. At 17,000 miles as I was preparing to leave on a camping trip with my family the new battery again wouldn't hold a charge. I took it to the dealer the morning we were leaving and they determined (after 3 hours of diagnosis) that the rear HVAC module had an internal short and was draining the battery. They didn't have the part in stock, so I asked that it just be removed so we could go on with our trip. The part arrived a week later(!) and I took the car in to have it installed. It turned out the wrong part had been ordered so I had to leave the car at the dealership for 2 extra days.
8. A month ago we left for a long-planned 3 week camping trip to Colorado (we live in the SF Bay Area in California). Within an hour of our departure the engine began to make a "clicking" noise at high RPM when under load (climbing hills). The check engine light also came on momentarily. Having some experience with engines, I was concerned that it sounded like an internal engine noise and might be serious. I drove by the Monterey service department (which was on the way for that day's travel), but found they weren't open on Saturdays. We camped 50 miles south of Monterey for 4 days, so on Monday I took the car (without the trailer) up to the Monterey dealer. They looked it over
   and diagnosed it as detonation (pinging). They said the gas in California wasn't any good and I should use higher octane. While I sincerely hoped they were right, I was quite skeptical (as I told them). I filled up with premium fuel, and on Wednesday we continued with our trip.
   We drove through the California desert and climbed in the heat toward Las Vegas. The engine continued to make quite disturbing sounds when climbing significant grades. We stopped at what turned out to be an excellent dealer in Las Vegas (Bill Heard Chevrolet). They were very busy, but they immediately asked their foreman to ride with me while I drove pulling the trailer. We had gone about a mile when he (Rory) said, "That sounds like internal engine noise, and I don't like that the oil pressure is dropping some at higher RPM". He recommended strongly against our continuing to pull the trailer through the desert and then mountains of Colorado. It was June 29, the Thursday before the July 4 long weekend and they said they wouldn't be able to start disassembling the engine until the following Wednesday. Needless to say, we were devastated that we wouldn't be able to complete our trip. I do everything I know to maintain our vehicles so that we can depend on them. We finally decided to rent a motorhome for the 14 days it was going to take to fix our Suburban. This cost us $2,500 we hadn't planned on spending. In addition, we were unable to use both our own trailer and our own truck for the trip, both of which are outfitted the way we like them.
   We continued our trip in the rented motorhome and on Wednesday they began to take apart the engine as planned. They found a faulty oil pump and replaced it. When we returned 2 weeks later, we happily found that had fixed the problem.
9. Our drive from Las Vegas to our next stop, Reno was (thankfully) uneventful. However, when I started the Suburban on our final morning to drive home, the gas gauge read completely empty. The night before it had been 1/3 full (there should have been about 12 gallons in the tank). I was frustrated, but hoped(!) that it meant someone had siphoned the remaining gas out of the tank while we slept. I drove directly to the nearest gas station to fill up. The tank only took 32 gallons - it WAS 1/3 full. The next tank did the same thing. When the car is started with less than 1/2 a tank, the gauge reads empty. The car has now been at my local dealer for 2 days as they try to fix the latest problem.
10. The entertainment center installed in the roof by the original dealer now vibrates and rattles a lot. It appears it is attached only to the headliner. This seems like an incredibly poor design.
    

We are very fortunate that we don't rely on our Suburban for anything other than vacations; I can't imagine driving a vehicle that is this unreliable regularly (or using that much gas). If there were another vehicle that competed with the Suburban for the things I need it for, I'd be all over it. What I really wish is that General Motors could build cars that approach the quality of the vehicles I've driven regularly over the past couple of decades from Honda (Acura), Toyota (Lexus), BMW and Mazda.

I've owned several GM cars over the years. I bought a new 1985 Corvette and while I loved the car, I had many problems with it (including being stranded in the California desert for a week when the coil(!) gave out with <5,000 miles on the car). I had a 1993 3/4 ton Suburban with the 7.4L engine. I had a number of problems with it too.

I'd love to see GM thrive. It's hard for me to know how that is possible when other companies make much more reliable vehicles.

Please take this letter in the spirit it is intended - to help you understand the perspective of one of your customers.

Sincerely,

Craig Carlson

Last night Patty and I went to "An Inconvenient Truth", Al Gore's movie about global warming. I highly recommend (actually strongly encourage) seeing this movie (or reading the book of the same name, which presents the same information in slightly more detail).

As many of you know, I'm quite interested in figuring out ways of dramatically lowering our reliance on fossil fuels. One key step is to have all of us aware of the need for change. Going to this movie is an easy way to become more aware. While our government is in a position to dramatically improve the situation, it appears very unlikely that that will happen anytime soon. So that leaves it up to all of us to make changes and lead the way.

Please go see "An Inconvenient Truth" and then make whatever changes in your life seem appropriate.

Today was pretty relaxed except for the bike ride that Catherine invited me on. She insisted we ride up Page Mill Road to Skyline, which I thought was a bad idea for three reasons:

1. It was very hot - 95 degrees
2. I haven't really exercised in 3 weeks; I've been sitting in a driver's seat
3. I've never liked riding up Page Mill - it's too hard.

Of course she deftly played on my competitive spirit and I decided to go for it. It was really rough because it was too hot and I'm out of shape. :)

But it was nice riding with my sister and I did survive. Thanks Catherine.

Well, today was the last day of our camping trip. Not so surprisingly, it started with another Snowie mishap, but our trip basically ended as scheduled and we all came home safe and sound.

As I was hitching up Snowie to the trailer in Reno this morning, I noted that the gas gauge read empty (really empty). I was shocked because I checked the gas as we were driving back from the wedding last night and knew that we had 1/3 of a tank. In addition, the car measures the amount of gas consumed by the ending and showed 32 gallons (out of a 44 gallon tank). So, the only thing I could figure was that the remaining gas was siphoned from our tank while we were sleeping. So after we hitched up, we drove as directly as we could to a gas station, hoping that we didn’t run out of gas. As I filled up, low and behold, I was only able to put in 32 gallons. After I started the car, the gauge read full. So my conclusion is that the gas gauge isn’t working correctly. The gauge did work all the way home (where we again had about 1/3 of a tank) and when I restarted the car after un-hitching the trailer, it again displayed totally empty. I’m getting tired of these problems. I think it’s time to write GM a note (not that that will accomplish anything).

Anyway, back to the trip. We had a nice day-after-wedding brunch at Penny and Pat’s house in Reno. It was great except for the fact that Patty’s Grandmother wasn’t feeling well. She ended up in the hospital by this evening. It appears it’s nothing serious – hopefully just dehydration and the altitude.

We had an uneventful (although bathroom-stop ridden) drive home and got home around 7:00.

Overall the trip was just great. We all had a great time, and got to see lots of beautiful country. The trip was 3,500 miles over 23 days. We spent 8 nights and drove 1,400 miles with the trailer/suburban and the rest was in the motorhome.

This morning Patty went for a run, and when she got back Kelly and Kate wanted to go for a run with her, so she took Kate and then Kelly. I made some breakfast (outside in the blazing sun) and we had a leisurely morning. We played at the pool from about 10:00 – 2:00 (and unfortunately got Jessica’s face sunburned). Then we showered and drove to Frank & Carol’s house for the wedding. We quickly changed clothes and then headed off with everyone else to the church.

It was a great ceremony with everyone standing around the bride and groom as they said their vows. Then we spent about ½ an hour with me taking pictures of everyone. You can view the pictures of the wedding here.

After the wedding we all went back to Frank & Carol’s place for the reception. There was good fun and we had lots of fun. We stayed ‘till pretty late for girls and then came home.

Tomorrow we go to a brunch at Penny & Pat’s at 10:00 and then we’ll head home!

We decided not to rush out this morning too fast, so we had breakfast, let the girls play on the play structure while we packed up and got off at 8:15. We drove up 395, stopped in Bishop for some coffee, and then continued up to Bridgeport where we had lunch at a park. We got to Carson City around 3:15, but didn’t get to the trailer park in Reno until about 4:45 because there was a lot of traffic.

We’re in a trailer park in the parking lot of the Hilton. We don’t plan on spending any time there, so it’s ok, especially since it has electrical hookups to run the air conditioning (it was 99 when we arrived).

We left the trailer and drove to Frank and Carol’s new house for a family gathering they are hosting the day before their wedding. When we arrived there were about 20 people here. Now I’d guess there are at least 45. It’s a typical Lombardo gathering.

Tomorrow we’ll play during the morning and then go the wedding in the afternoon/evening. Jessica is ready to be home and asks several times a day when we’ll be home. Today when I told her 2 days, it wasn’t soon enough. She’ll be happy on Sunday.

We left St. George at 6:15 (mountain time) this morning and arrived 2 hours later in Las Vegas (at 7:15). We had breakfast at The Original Pancake House near the Chevrolet dealership. It was better than the one in Los Altos. :)

We were at the Chevy dealer by 8:15 and started moving all our stuff to the trailer/suburban. It took about 2 hours. Then I drove the motorhome and Patty drove the Suburban across town to the rental yard. We returned the motorhome and then drove back across town to get the trailer. We stopped at the Sizzler across the street from the dealership for lunch and all had salad bars. I found I was very tired – this late to bed and early to rise thing for the past couple of nights hasn’t been so wise. I left the girls at the Sizzler and went and got some coffee and then hitched up the trailer. We took off about 1:30.

The traffic throughout Las Vegas is incredibly bad. It took us probably 45 minutes to get out of town, which probably amounted to about 10 or 12 miles. We headed southwest on I-15 back toward Barstow. There’s a good climb as you leave Las Vegas and it was 112 degrees, so we got a good chance to see how Snowie would do. The answer is, everything seems fine. The Suburban ran perfectly. We decided to stay the night in Lone Pine along Hwy 395.

Driving up 395 as dusk fell brought back memories for me of backpacking trips to the Sierra I took with my friends in high school. We’d drive from L.A. and arrive late in the evening at some location along 395 and stay the night before starting our hike the next morning. I’m not sure I’ve driven up 395 in over 20 years, though.

Anyway, we arrived in Lone Pine at 8:45 and decided (very uncharacteristically for us) to let the girls go for a late evening swim. They’d been sitting in the car for so many hours, and two of them had slept quite a bit, so it seemed like the right thing to do.

Tomorrow we’re off to Reno. We’ll have breakfast in the trailer and then hope to get off around 7:30. It sure is nice to have our trailer back. We’re all happy about it. :)

Today with left Rifle Falls at 5:20 AM. We had 460 miles to go, so we wanted to get an early start. We got 160 miles under our belts before breakfast! We drove I-70 to I-15 and ended in St. George. We made it here by about 4:00. It is HOT in St. George. It was 110 when we arrived, and had cooled off to 98 by 8:30.

We are “camping” in a classic RV park (which we really don’t like). The RV’s are parked right next to each other. There’s not a tree in sight. However, it had 3 things we were looking for: a swimming pool, near the interstate, and internet access. I wanted internet access so that I could finally push some of the pictures I’ve taken (and the blog entries that I’ve written) up to the web.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. We plan to leave around 6:00. It’s 2 hours to Las Vegas. We’ll have breakfast there and then we’ll go to the Chevrolet dealer and park the motorhome next to our trailer. We’ll move all the stuff from the motorhome back to the trailer. Then we’ll drive the motorhome and the Suburban across town (20 miles), drop off the motorhome, drive back to the Chevrolet dealer, hitch up, and head north toward Reno. We’ll get as far as we get, and then we’ll stop for the night in another RV park (hopefully with another pool).

The motorhome has treated us very well, other than the gasoline that was in the water tank when we got it (and still makes the water scary, even though I’ve dumped it and refilled it several times). Our gas mileage ranged from 9.8 MPG, to 6.8 MPG, which is better than I expected and better than I think we would have gotten in the Suburban/trailer. Other than missing some of our own stuff and having to switch back and forth in Las Vegas, it’s been a very positive experience.

This morning we left Mueller Park at 6:40, drove for an hour and arrived at Garden of the Gods. We had some cranberry-orange muffins we baked while we were driving, went to the visitor’s center and then for a hike among the formations. It was beautiful and everyone had fun.

Around 10:00 we left Garden of the Gods, got gas and hit I-25 North and then I-70 West. We stopped for lunch in Idaho Springs and then continued on to Rifle Falls State Park. As we drove the 13 miles north away from I-70 to get the park, I was wishing we had just stayed somewhere along the interstate. However, once we got here, I was glad we had made the extra trip. The falls were quite nice and we all had fun hiking around the falls and caves.

I’ve really been impressed by the Colorado State Parks. Everyone we’ve stayed in has been quite nice. This one is very pretty and very small (I think ~15 sites), but still has electrical hookups (which I didn’t realize when we made the reservation).

Tomorrow it’s a plain mileage day. I think we have about 450 miles (as opposed to 250 today which seemed long), so we’re going to get an early start…

We had a great day today. After a good breakfast of honeydew melon, fried eggs and hashbrowns, we biked to the stables in the park and went for an hour horseback ride (which we had scheduled a couple of months ago). We knew Kelly was very nervous (and that Jessie was really looking forward to it), but we hoped for the best. Kelly got on the horse, but really fell apart because she was so scared. So she decided to stay behind while the rest of us went for the ride. Jessica was on “Scout” who was very docile and was being led by our guide. Kate was on “Dakota” and she really had to learn how to control a horse because Dakota wanted to stop and eat all the time. I was proud of her. It took a little while, but she got the hang of pulling up the reins, steering and kicking him to get him started. We had a very positive experience (except for Kelly).

I went on a 6 mile mountain bike ride on some of the trails here in Mueller. There are numerous trails that allow bikes and I really enjoyed it. I was happy to see that my legs still worked, but my lungs were really working both because we’re at 9,500 feet and because I’ve basically been a couch potato the past couple of weeks.

Here are some pictures from beautiful Mueller State Park.

We had planned to go to the Olympic Training Center in the afternoon, but the weather was really nice, so we decided to just stay at camp. This was really the only day this week or next that we’ve had or will have the opportunity to do that. The girls made friends with a girl a few campsites away (A.J.), Kelly and I went on a short mountain bike ride (her first ever), we all took showers, I dumped and filled the motorhome, and we sat in the sun and read.

We made chili for dinner, watched a big hail storm around 6:00, had a nice campfire, and Patty and I stayed up by the fire and chatted, which we haven’t had the opportunity to do this whole trip. J

Tomorrow we’ll start early, drive to Garden of the Gods, have breakfast and then drive to Rifle Falls State Park. Tomorrow is the beginning of our return home, having now gone as far east as we will go. In fact after tomorrow, we’re basically just doing big driving days to get to Reno in time for Frank and Carol’s wedding.

This morning we had a little bit of sun, so Patty went for a short run (remember, it’s 9,500 feet here). I made French toast and then we went to the Visitor’s Center here at Mueller State Park. They recommended a hike (the Homestead loop) and we took about an hour and a half to do that. We got away without rain (just a few sprinkles) until we were done.

Then we drove into Woodland Park and ate at Joannie’s bakery and deli. It was excellent. While we were eating, the skies opened up and it just started to pour. I ran to get the motorhome and got soaked in the process. The streets were all rivers. We drove across the street to the Dinosaur museum. It was really neat. They have huge skeletons, and it’s clear that folks that have made it their life’s work to find dinosaur bones have setup the museum. We all enjoyed it.

After that we drove down to Colorado Springs to visit an old Ghost Town museum. It’s basically a big museum with rooms for different types of buildings (Saloon, Barber Shop, General Store, etc.). We spent about an hour and a half there, panned for some gold (Kate got a little) and then headed back up, stopping at a huge Safeway in Woodland Park on the way.

It basically rained from 12:30 to now, with a couple of short breaks. I think the weather’s supposed to get a little better tomorrow and then finally really improve on Tuesday. We’ve really had tough luck with the weather, but we’ve been lucky to get in some good activities during the breaks in the rain.

Tomorrow we have horseback riding in the morning and then we’re thinking of heading down to Colorado Springs to see the Olympic Training area.

This morning we awoke to more rain at Ridgeway. We had pancakes, packed up and left. We passed through Montrose and stopped at a Super WalMart where we got an iPod charger so that we could listen to the iPod in the motorhome (we have iPod docks built into the trailer and Suburban, so I hadn’t brought a charger).

We stopped along the side of the road just beyond Gunnison and made lunch. We arrived at Monarch Park at 1:30. It was as beautiful as advertised. You drive a mile and a half out a dirt road. At the campground entrance there are a number of beaver ponds. Our campsite (#25) was along the creek and was gorgeous. However, there was a problem. It was pouring rain, and it looked as though it had been raining for a long time and the sky looked like it was going to continue for a long time. So after some thought, we decided to drive on to Mueller State Park near Colorado Springs where we were supposed to be tomorrow night. It was very disappointing because Monarch Park was gorgeous, but it seemed like we’d probably stay inside the whole time we were there, so we thought we might as well be driving if we were going to sit inside.

We took Hwy 24 and made it to Mueller by 4:30. It rained just about the whole way, but stopped as we arrived at Mueller. It turns out Mueller is an incredible place. It’s a huge park. There are tons of hiking and biking trails and about 150 campsites. All the sites are very private and back up to forest (as opposed to more sites). In addition all the sites I saw had electrical hookups. It’s just stunning.

So far, of the campgrounds we’ve been to in Colorado, I’d love to return to Molas Lake, Monarch Park and Mueller State Park. We had lots of rain in all 3 places, so it would be great to come back and see them when it’s drier.

Now we have a couple of days in this area, so we’ll be able to do more things. There are so many choices. We have horseback reservations for Monday morning.

We got up, ate breakfast and left at 7:30 for our jeep ride out of Ouray. I had done this as a child and as a young adult and was looking forward to it again. We took the Yankee Boy Basin tour. It was a fantastic tour. All the girls loved it. The wildflowers were in bloom. The road was bumpy enough to make the girls laugh, but it really wasn’t very rough. We could have done in Snowie (although I don’t think we would have wanted to). I would have enjoyed driving it in a jeep, but this certainly worked out well. We had no rain, which was pretty amazing because we probably haven’t had any other 5 hour stretch without rain in 3 days.

Here are some pictures from the Jeep trip.

It rained pretty hard in the afternoon for a couple of hours. We explored Ouray some – ate in a French bakery and spent a couple of hours in the Ouray history museum which was designed to be enjoyed by kids.

This evening we came back and had another nice campfire and dinner around the table between showers. We’ve been fortunate to get two nice dinners in outside here, even though it rained on either side of both (and sprinkled a little during).

Tomorrow we’re off to Monarch Campground at 10,500 feet by way of Montrose and Gunnison.

It rained hard most of last night and continued raining this morning. I certainly didn’t measure it, but I’d guess we got >1 inch of rain at Molas Lake. We fished during the morning, often in rain or drizzle. Jessie was the most impressive. She sat for at least an hour and a half with her pole, patiently waiting for a fish to bite. We didn’t catch anything.

We were planning on staying an extra night there (and taking a night away from Ridgeway), but Kelly starting feeling pretty pad (from the altitude I assumed) and the weather was pretty bad. So after lunch we sadly (because it was so beautiful) packed up and headed north to Ridgeway. We passed through Silverton and than Ouray.

The drive from Silverton to Ouray was beautiful. We’re now in the Ridgeway State Park campground. It’s very modern, with well spaced out sites, electrical hookups, a playground, laundry, showers, etc. However, it’s not nearly as beautiful as Molas Lake was. We did see a great rainbow this evening and had a very nice campfire and dinner outside (ignoring the intermittent showers).

Tomorrow we will get up early, drive back to Ouray (14 miles), and go for an 8:00 jeep tour of the mountains. I had really wanted to rent a jeep and drive, but there are no more jeeps available, and I think Patty is happier having a “professional” drive us around anyway.

I talked to the Las Vegas Chevrolet dealer while in Ouray. They replaced the oil pump and think that fixed the car. They really wanted to test it thoroughly by hooking the trailer up, but I discouraged them, and when they looked at what it would take, they didn’t want to try it either. So we’re going to have to hope that was the problem. I think they really wanted to try to make sure it was fixed, which I appreciate, but they say they didn’t have a trailer of their own to hook up to it (which I think would have been the best solution). So Rory will drive it up some mountain tomorrow and if he doesn’t hear anything, will assume it’s fixed. He seemed pretty confident this was the problem. He claimed when he first rode with me that the 8.1L engine just never dies and was shocked that I was having a problem. He thinks it’s quite believable that too low oil pressure caused the valves to make noise, but that they weren’t damaged (they inspected them visually). I hope he’s right.

The girls slept great at the Strater hotel. Unfortunately, Patty had a terrible headache and was up most of the night. We had breakfast at Les Rendezvous just a block down on Main St. It was great food and good service. Then we did laundry and bought groceries. After that the girls wandered around town for about ½ an hour (buying candy) while I sat at an internet café and uploaded some pictures to the web.

Then we made lunch in a parking lot (we should have waited for a vista point 20 minutes up the road) and left on our 45 mile drive from Durango to Molas Lake. There were plenty of warnings in all the books about the road (both about how beautiful it is and how dangerous it is), but we found it only beautiful. It was a spectacular road and the Ford V10 in this motorhome pulled us up it easily. Molas pass is 10,900 feet. We stopped there and took some pictures (and looked down at Molas Lake, just below it) and then we came down to the campground. Patty and I are sure it’s the most spectacular campground we’ve stayed in together, and I think it’s the most spectacular campground I’ve driven to. It’s at 10,500 feet and has sites all around the lake. More than ½ of them are empty, so we drove a little way around and found a site right on the water (like our bumper couldn’t be more than 6’ from the water). We were really excited to get to fishing, but a thunderstorm blew in, so we hunkered down and played Flinch in the motorhome. When it let up for awhile, we went out and all the girls tried to stay out in the drizzle and then rain to fish, but one by one they went back in. It turned into a constant rain that lasted all evening (and finally stopped around 8:30). I BBQ’d out in the rain (I sure wish we had our awning), but otherwise we were inside.

Our plan had been to leave tomorrow and head to Ridgeway, but now we’re considering staying here tomorrow since it’s so spectacular. If the weather is clear, I suspect that’s what we’ll do. The girls really like it, and I could just sit in a chair and stare out at the view for a day (and maybe keep a fishing pole in the water). I’d also like to explore some of the dirt roads on my mountain bike.

Here are some pictures from Molas Pass and Molas Lake.

We spent July 4 in Durango. We arrived here around 10:45. We walked down Main St, then had lunch at the Saloon attached to our hotel. The girls loved the atmosphere, and the waitress, Ashley. Then we drove to the north end of town for our 1:45 rafting trip down the Lower Animas river with Mild to Wild Adventures. It was incredible. There must have been 150-200 people going at the same time. They had to get life jackets to everyone and then load us all up into buses (with trailers for the rafts) and drive us about ½ a mile to the put-in.

Our guide was named Jen, and she did a wonderful job, both of navigating the river and entertaining (and putting up with) the kids. We were a little concerned ahead of time because we weren’t sure if Jessie would like it, but it worked out great. She started with a pretty good attitude and then really warmed up to it. In the only class III rapid (Smelter), she got sprayed pretty good and was really smiling. Everyone had a good time, but Patty, Kelly and Kate would have liked a little more action.

We got back at 6:00, drove back to the hotel and got to our rooms. After we freshened up, we went out to try to find some dinner. Main St was pretty packed and there was a band playing in the street. After walking several blocks, we eventually found our way back to the Saloon where we had had lunch and had dinner there too. Ashley (who worked the entire day) was still the only waitress in the place. We had a good meal, walked the town some more, got some ice cream and then sat behind the hotel and watched the Durango fireworks display. It was a great show that lasted over 30 minutes. Now we’ve put the kids to bed and are about to crash ourselves.

It was a great 4th, and ended up being very similar to what I had envisioned / hoped. J Tomorrow morning there are a number of things we’ve talked about doing – we’ll see which we get done and then it’s off to Molas Lake campground (at 10,500 feet), just outside Silverton.

Today we went to Mesa Verde (a National Park that is full of amazing ruins from ~1,000 years ago). It was a fun day. We arrived around 8:30 (at the entrance to the park) and then drove (up a very impressive climb) to the Visitor’s Center. We bought tickets for a guided tour of “Balcony House” because it is supposedly the most “adventurous” of the tours. It was interesting and fun for the kids. It started by climbing a 30’ ladder. Folks were worried about Jessie, but she did fine (other than the fact that the rungs were pretty hot to the touch). After our tour we had lunch in a picnic area near the Museum. We walked to the Spruce Tree House and enjoyed viewing it too. Patty and I found the ruins very interesting and pretty to look at.

Kelly says she found looking at the cliff dwellings very interesting and she wishes we could look at a lot more of them. She’d like us to come back and do that sometime. J

Kate says she liked climbing on the ruins and going on the tour with Ranger Dorita.

Here are some photos from our visit to Mesa Verde.

We’ve been pretty surprised at how handy the motorhome is in these situations. We didn’t have to worry about what to bring with us to Mesa Verde (hats, sunscreen, lunch, etc) and it was great for making lunch when we were ready. The bathroom has also been handy to have all the time.

We stayed about 45 minutes away from Mesa Verde at McPhee campground. It was ok, but certainly not spectacular. We drove around Mesa Verde’s campground, and it was even less spectacular (lots of spaces without shade close to each other), but I’m not sure the difference was worth the drive (especially since we didn’t make use of the reservoir – and can’t see it from the campground).

We got up at 5:30 and drove out in the motorhome with the girls asleep in the bunk over the cab. We had 450 miles to cover today. We got 110 in before breakfast and it worked out really well – much better than it ever has to leave early in the trailer/suburban. We had two routes to consider and decided to take the longer miles, but interstate route. We took Hwy 9 to I-15 to I-70 to Hwy 191. We considered stopping at Arches Nat’l Park, but decided it would just make us get in too late. As it ended up, we got to our campsite here at McPhee Reservoir at 6:45. I’m a little disappointed in McPhee – it’s pretty unremarkable. Tomorrow morning we drive to Mesa Verde. I think we should consider just camping down there…

This morning we went on the Riverside Walk at the end of Zion canyon. We rode the shuttle to the last stop and then hiked along the cement trail. It’s a beautiful, easy hike that ends at the beginning of the Narrows. We played there at the end for awhile throwing rocks and then headed back. It was surprisingly cool there compared to everywhere else in Zion.

Next time we come to Zion (today we were talking about coming back in 3 years) we want to take more significant hikes. The two I wish we had taken are the Angel’s Landing (Kelly wanted to do it) and up the Narrows. Next time I want to be sure we do them.

We had lunch under the big tree at the Zion Lodge (like we did 3 years ago). Then we came back to the motorhome, rested for a little while and went down to the river. We saw lots of people jumping into tubes and asked about it. We found they could be rented just up the opposite bank. We rented 5 tubes and set out at 4:20 for a 2 hour tube ride. I held on to Jessie’s tube and she and I floated down together. Unfortunately, she really didn’t enjoy it. I don’t think she was particularly scared, but she said she didn’t like getting splashed (we hope she enjoys white water rafting in a couple days more). However, after about 25 minutes, some folks along the river told everyone that was floating down that there was a flash flood watch for Zion Canyon. We decided to play it safe and get out. 2 hours was going to be pretty long anyway, so I think it worked out pretty well. Kelly and Kate really loved floating down.

Here are some pictures from the Zion portion of our trip.