Pike's Peak Or Bust

 Anytime you take off in the camper and the camper has been stored away for a winter, there will always be issues. You come to expect it but you cross your fingers and hope that it is nothing major. Well my first issue, I came to discover, was bordering on the major. 

I get to Des Moines, stop for the night and realize that my furnace is not working. It would start up and then die. Looking at the weather forecast for the next few days I find that the low is going to be 29. By the time I get to Grand Island Nebraska, I have found a mobile tech who will come out to my camper for an exorbitant amount of money. It was either that or freeze – I was actually more concerned about the camper's plumbing freezing rather than Miko or me. Scott came out and within five minutes had the furnace fixed. Since I had to pay him for a whole hour, we went through the camper and he fixed all those little niggling things that you never get around to fixing, plus he told me various tips and tricks for several of the camper's systems. His visit was worth it just for the piece of mind it gave me.

Alas, when I get to Colorado Springs, I find that my truck has an issue – a clogged fuel injector. Most of the time, if you try to get your vehicle serviced at a dealer, they are scheduling service several weeks out. I lucked out and found a shop up in Denver that could get me in several days.

While I'm in Colorado Springs, probably the highlight of this season's trip is that I get to see my son Nate and his wife Maleena. They drove down from Breckenridge and we went over to the Garden of the Gods. We wandered around the rocks and spent time catching up.

My Boy!

We also visited their new house. It was Maleena's grandfather's house and he will be able to live there as long as he wants. Ray was quite the hunter and went all over the world following his passion. I must admit, the house was a little overwhelming for non-hunter me but also interesting to hear all the stories.

While in the Springs, I also decided to take the cog railroad to the top of Pike's Peak. It normally goes up to the top at 14,000 feet but we could only go up 12,000 feet as there was twenty feet of snow covering the tracks.

This is where the train stopped at 12,000 feet. 
We were not allowed to get out, perhaps because the snow was deep). 
So much glare from the windows.  

I had one more day with Nate.  He came down to Denver and we went to the Mile High Flea Market.  We walked up and down every single aisle and at the end, we had clocked three miles.  The place was huge.  We also went to the Denver Meow Wolf.  Meow Wolf creates these extraordinary interactive experiences on a large scale.  I think there are three of them scattered around the U.S.