As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, I was a bit apprehensive about tackling the steep downgrades along Interstate 70 as we headed toward Denver. The exhaust brake on our Winnebago diesel pusher just doesn’t have the same effect as the Jake brake did on our MCI bus conversion.

Dennis Hill from the RV Driving School e-mailed me to say “Keep the RPM’s high, no matter what gear you are in. The exhaust brake works best at high RPM’s. Shift down often – the transmission won’t let you go into too low of a gear.  Apply the brakes very firmly and slow down at least 5 MPH when you use them.”

I followed Dennis’ advice, and we had no trouble at all. The mistake I was making in the past was expecting the exhaust brake to give me good braking power at about 1500 to 1600 RPMs. By downshifting and keeping the RPMs up to about 2200 – 2300, I saw a tremendous difference in efficiency. Thanks, Dennis! Even an old dog can learn a new trick now and then!

We pulled out of River Dance RV Resort in Gypsum, Colorado a little after 9 a.m. and headed east, passing lots more beautiful Rocky Mountain scenery all the way.

How would you like to have this for a view every day?

By the time we reached the summit of Vail Pass, at over 10,600 feet, our Cummins turbo diesel was working hard, and about all I could get out of it was 40 miles per hour.

Then we began the downhill run.

Some sections weren’t too bad, but others really made the exhaust brake work.

All too soon we were climbing up again, to Eisenhower Tunnel, at 11,158 feet high. The tunnel was long, but well lit and easy driving.

We passed more great scenery, including these old mining buildings.

The worst of the downhill run was between Eisenhower Tunnel and Denver, and the closer we got to the big city, the steeper the downgrades got. They have lots of signs warning truckers not to get careless.

We even passed through another tunnel somewhere along the way!

There are not a lot of places to get diesel along Interstate 70 in Colorado, especially when you are driving a 40 foot motorhome, towing an extended length cargo van. By the time we got to Downieville, at Exit 234, we were getting really low, and when I saw a small truck stop on the north side of the highway, I stopped and filled the tank.

We passed Lookout Mountain and Buffalo Bill’s grave, which we covered in one of our earliest issues of the Gypsy Journal, and soon we were hitting a lot of traffic as we entered the Denver metropolitan area. We got onto Interstate 76 and scooted around the northeast side of the city, and soon came out into agricultural fields.

It is amazing, that coming into Denver from the west, we were crawling down steep mountain grades, and less than 30 miles east of the city, we were out on the open plains, with few trees, and mostly flat terrain.

Interstate 76 had some rough patches, but we rolled along, making good time, and eventually crossed into Nebraska, where the highway ended at Interstate 80. Another 75 miles or so east brought us to North Platte, where we pulled into the Flying J about 5:30 local time.

We topped off our tank, had a less then mediocre meal at the restaurant, and  parked for the night. We covered 391 miles, and we still have about 560 miles to go, to get to Forest City, Iowa. We’ll make that easily by sometime Thursday, so we can get our name on the list for a service spot at the Winnebago factory. It’s worth pushing to get there, and then be able to get our work done, before we continue on to Michigan for Terry’s annual medical appointments.

Thought For The Day – Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to use the Internet, and they’ll forward junk e-mail to you forever.

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We thought about making the drive back to Glenwood Springs yesterday, just so we could drive through Glenwood Canyon in the van, but it was very windy for much of the day.  We had such a backlog of paperwork and e-mails to wade through because we have been busy with the wedding the last few days, that we decided to act like grownups and stay home and work instead. I don’t like being a grownup!

But just because we had to work doesn’t mean you can’t do some virtual sightseeing. Colorado is a colorful place, and here are a few pictures we took the other day that I’ll share with you.

Between Eagle and Vail, Interstate 70 passes through some awesome red rock formations. U.S. Highway 6 parallels the interstate through here, and we took the slower route just so we could pull over and take in the dramatic scenery.

When the sun is setting, the cliff faces just seem to glow. It’s really something to see.

We even saw a covered bridge, though it is not as old, or has the character, as the ones we have seen in Indiana, Iowa, and New England.

Sunday night we were treated to a beautiful sunset, and Miss Terry managed to capture a couple of good shots of it.

I mentioned the other day that Terry’s son, Cody, is the accountant for one of the major developers in the region. Besides allowing him to live in this outdoor sports wonderland, his job comes with some pretty neat perks, including these gondolas that he can ride right from an upper floor of his office building to the top of the ski slopes! How cool is that?

As promised, yesterday I posted a preliminary schedule for our upcoming Gypsy Gathering rally on our Rally Registration Page. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the seminar lineup. I will be making some changes and adding more seminars as we go, but we have over 50 listed now, so there is sure to be something for everyone!

Today we will be heading east on Interstate 70, through the Eisenhower Tunnel and down into Denver. I’m a bit apprehensive about this stretch of highway, which tops out at 10,666 feet at Vail Pass, and then follows a lot of steep downgrades as we descend the Rocky Mountains.

As I’ve said before, while our Winnebago diesel pusher climbs the mountains much better than our old MCI bus conversion did, the exhaust brake on the motorhome is not nearly as effective as the Jake brake was in the bus. My Mountain Directory shows that there are several places on the eastern descent where the speed limit for heavy semi-trucks is 32 miles per hour. I plan to be in the right hand lane poking along with them all the way down!

For those of you who get concerned when I write about doing long days on the road, here’s fair warning that we’re about to do it again. We want to stop at the Winnebago factory in Forest City, Iowa and have some work done on our coach.

Since the Winnebago Grand National Rally is in Forest City, Iowa this week, I wasn’t sure about the chances of getting in for service. I  called Winnebago to ask about an appointment, and was told that they do not make them during rally week or right after, but if we arrive by Friday at 3 p.m., we can put our name on a list to get service, and we should be able to get in by Tuesday or Wednesday. But, we have to actually be there to sign up, they won’t take our name by telephone.

It’s 940 miles, so we can do it easily, and we’ll scoot right along, so we can hopefully catch up with some of our friends who are in Forest City for the rally, before they hit the road.

While we were out taking pictures and attending weddings, Bad Nick was home posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled Who’s The Racist. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.

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Well, it’s official, we have a new daughter in our family, and what a beautiful young lady she is! This is Terry’s new daughter-in-law, Leslie Wyse. Have you ever seen a more beautiful bride?

The wedding was held at the Eagle-Vale Pavilion, and what a beautiful setting it was!

Here are twin brothers Casey and Cody a few minutes before the wedding. Aren’t they a couple of fine looking young men?

In addition to being lovely, Cody’s wife Jonna is an accomplished musician, and she performed the Wedding March for the ceremony.

A flower girl led the procession.

And then Leslie’s dad, Ron, walked her down the aisle.

Where she and Casey exchanged their wedding vows.

And sealed their union with a kiss.

I present to you, Mr. and Mrs. Casey Wyse. What a beautiful couple, and we wish them a lifetime of happiness.

Here is the traditional wedding dance. Don’t they both look happy and so much in love?

The wedding was an informal affair, with folks dressed in everything from $1,000 suits, to jeans and boots. But I really do think that they scrimped a little too much when it came to hiring the band.

I took almost 300 pictures at the wedding, and I won’t bore you with all of them.  But here is a photo of Terry’s sister, Dani, her father, Pete, Terry, and her mother, Bess Weber. I sure married into a family of good looking women, didn’t I?

These are two of the prettiest ladies I know, Miss Terry and Leslie.

Here is a photo somebody took of Terry and I. She’s the pretty one in the picture, but she said I clean up pretty good too. What do you think?

Today we’re going to catch our breath, maybe do a little bit of local sightseeing, and then get ready to hit the road for the Midwest, tomorrow morning. We had a good time at the wedding, and it was great to see everybody, but it’s time to move on.

Thought For The Day – Whoever told you that marriage is a 50/50 proposition lied. In a successful marriage, both husband and wife must give 100% of themselves to the other all of the time.

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Yesterday, relatives from all over the western United States descended on Avon, Colorado for Terry’s son’s wedding today. In the early afternoon we drove to Avon, which is sort of a bedroom community to Vail, to get together with everybody at her son Cody’s house.

We had not seen Cody and Jonna’s place before, and it was pretty impressive. Located high on a hillside overlooking the valley, they have a great view, but I really wouldn’t want to drive down the steep roads they have to navigate in the wintertime.

Terry’s mom and dad, and her sister Dani had arrived from Arizona just a few minutes ahead of us, and her son Shawn pulled in from New Mexico an hour or so later.  Then we all headed to a Mexican restaurant for a family dinner. The kids’ father, Larry Wyse,  and his significant other, Jane,  were in from Wyoming and met us there, as did the bridal couple, Casey and Leslie, pictured below.

Here is a picture of (left to right), Shawn, Leslie, Casey, Cody, and Cody’s wife Jonna. If Casey and Cody look very much alike, it’s because they are identical twins. Terry and I have been married over thirteen years, and I still can’t tell them apart. I think they should wear name tags like RVers do. It would sure make my life easer! (Yes, it really is all about me!)

And here is one the waiter took of our dinner party. That’s your truly on the left, then Terry’s dad, Pete Weber, Shawn, and then from the far back right we have Cody, Jonna, Casey, Leslie, Shawn’s date, Faith, Terry’s mom, Bess Weber, Miss Terry, and her sister Dani.  The young man in the dark shirt and head brace next to Shawn is Casey and Cody’s friend, Bob. He broke his back in a bicycle accident just two weeks ago and is in a body brace and looks pretty rough, but there was no way he was going to miss the nuptials. You can just barely see Larry’s cowboy hat behind Bob, and Jane was hiding someplace.

This area is very pretty, but I have to tell you, it’s just not for me. Too many people crammed into too little space, and every inch of that space is very expensive. Cody told us that a small run of the mill two bedroom, one bath apartment, goes for $1600 a month, plus utilities, on a year lease minimum, in this slow economy. When things are booming, the same apartment will cost upwards of $2,000 a month. It is not uncommon for as many as four to six people to share a small apartment, all of them working two or three low paying jobs just to make ends meet. All so they can live in this natural outdoors playground.

Cody pointed out what he called “get away homes,” perched on the mountainside, owned by wealthy out of town people who come here to ski in the winter and mountain bike in the summer, and said the lowest priced house costs over $2 million. Since Cody is the accountant for one of the major development companies in the region, he knows what the current values are at any given time.  A lot of sports and Hollywood celebrities have homes in Vail and Avon, and enjoy coming here to rub shoulders with the ”little people.”

Don’t get me wrong, the area is beautiful, but I wouldn’t trade our life on the open road for the fanciest, most expensive house here. Our motorhome may not have as much square footage, but we can turn the key and go wherever we want, whenever we want.

Today we’ll get those two young people hitched, and spend some more time doing the family thing, and then things will get back to normal and we’ll get back to real life.

Thought For The Day – A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.

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We slept in yesterday morning, taking advantage of the calm before the storm of activity this weekend, when Terry’s son Casey marries his lady love, Leslie.  River Dance RV Resort has cinnamon rolls on some mornings, and Rusty and Rebecca, in the office, had insisted we allow them to treat us to a couple, as compensation for the short delay getting into our RV site yesterday. 

We appreciated the gesture, and the cinnamon rolls were huge, but since Miss Terry makes the very best cinnamon rolls in the world, it’s hard for anything else to compare.

It was another hot day here in Colorado, well over 90 degrees, and we are finding that our Norcold refrigerator doesn’t keep things like milk nearly as cold as the residential style refrigerator we had in our bus conversion. Our awnings help shade the sides of the motorhome, which helps a bit, and the air conditioner keeps it nice and comfortable inside, but the refrigerator is definitely working hard just to keep things cold.  

The Eagle River runs right along the edge of the campground, and we walked down to check it out yesterday afternoon. The water was moving along pretty well, and it would have been fun to get our kayaks wet.

At one point there is a wide gravel sandbar just a couple of feet off shore, and Terry rolled up her pants legs and went wading. She said the water was cool and felt wonderful on such a hot day.

The water is very clear, as you can see in this picture. We didn’t spot any, but the folks in the campground office said beaver are seen frequently in the river.

While Terry was out wading, I took some photos of the river and the campground. It sure is located in a scenic spot. The campground stays busy all season long, and because it’s the weekend, it’s even busier. All day long everything from popup trailers to huge motorhomes were pulling in.

I spent much of the afternoon working on the schedule for our Eastern Gypsy Gathering in Elkhart, Indiana the end of August, and I hope to have the preliminary schedule posted on our main website by sometime Monday. I’m still waiting for last minute confirmation on a few seminars.

About 6 p.m., Terry’s son Cody and his wife Jonna came by to visit, and we went out to dinner at a place in Eagle called Moe’s Barbecue. It was pretty good, but not in a league with Hog Wild in Cottonwood, Arizona, or any of the Bandana’s Barbecue or Famous Dave’s we’ve been to at different places in the country. But, it was nice to spend time with Cody and Jonna.

Back at the RV, we chatted for another half hour or so, but since Cody has a lot of responsibilities with his twin’s wedding on Sunday, including the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner today, we soon called it an evening.

We’ll be busy with family activities the rest of the weekend. Terry’s other son, Shawn, and her daughter Kelly, are arriving today, from New Mexico and Nebraska, respectively; and her parents and sister Dani will arrive from Arizona this afternoon. So we’ll have lot of family to spend time with.

Thought For The Day – My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.

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