Colorado near Estes...what now?

David and Deb wrote:
Thanks everyone! This is our first and LAST "free wheeling" adventure. I usually plan to the point where I know a place like the back of my hand, but we thought it wouod be fun just to take off. Gheese! To read an excerpt from my blog about the past 24 hour fiasco...

Our first night and the view out my front RV door is scrumptious! Imagine tall, green pines and golden aspens. Pretty, right? Down right serene, wouldn't you say? David sums up the past 24 hours as a "cluster" and I feel like we've been in a Saturday Night Live skit that's actually funny.

So what happened, you might ask yourself? We decided to "free wheel" these first few days of our trip. What is free wheeling? Basically leaving your house completely unprepared, with the wrong clothes, without your electric blanket and WITHOUT A WINTER COAT!!! Add that to making zero reservations and having no plan as to where you are going AND driving a 32 foot beast that can't be backed up nor turned around in tight quarters and pulling a Jeep...about 47 feet of trouble going down the road at speeds comparable to the time my Grandma Leora was driving her friends home from a Homemakers Club meeting in Vinita. She had a mile long line of cars stacked up behind her. I was at the end of that line and late for something. It took forever passing that long line of cars. Thankfully, I didn't flip her off as I finally passed the slow-driving culprit barely able to see over the steering wheel of her "**** red" (her words) car.

The whole day was my fault. Everything was fine until it was my turn to drive. I decided we would go to Golden but not in town...."let's go to the mountains", I said. I decided to take the "scenic route" and get off boring I-70 so we didn't have to go through Denver at rush hour. I decided we were fine on the steep hills without using the engine whatever button to slow us down and I was JUST fine using the brakes. I WAS fine until we saw the smoke and smelled something burning.

I quickly pulled over in an empty lot and we checked the temperature of the tires...left front 203 degrees, right front 190. Yikes! David quickly determined the brakes had overheated and we needed to sit a while for them to cool down, which was fine, but rush hour had slowed us down and the mountain park I was dying to stay at would be really dark with no rangers on duty to show us to our campsite after hours. (Without a ranger or host you're like a rat in a maze.) David also determined HE needed to drive the rest of the way. Fine.

So it is dark, our destination is Golden Gate Canyon State Park, and somehow we get on Mountain Base Road which does not allow RVs because of the steep grades (19%) and hairpin turns. Remember the overheated brakes? David is trying to drive this awful road and not use the brakes much. I felt like we were on that crazy roller coaster ride at Silver Dollar City. Stuff was falling out of our cabinets, rolling back and forth on the floor. You get the picture. David was oddly calm and Sadie never moved from the couch. I on the other hand was white knuckling it the whole way and wondering what kind of mess I was going to have to clean up when we finally arrived at the $&@@ campground.
So in PITCH BLACK darkness, we get on another road but this time we see a sign that says 20% steep grades and ABSOLUTELY NO RVs. ****! So we have to unhook the Jeep so David can turn the RV around and decide I'll lead the way in the Jeep and try to find the $&@ campground.....wait, we have no cell phone coverage? How are we going to communicate if we get lost from each other?

After a couple of tries and multiple stops on pull outs to let cars pass us, we finally find our campground road, park the RV, both get in the Jeep and hunt for a campsite. We wind through the dozen loops looking for a spot to camp in the absolute darkness. Finally found one, got the RV turned around on the narrow, mountain road and got to the site. A ranger shows up, thankfully!!! He guided David as he backs up blind into a narrow spot with trees overhanging. Done!

David hooks up the electric, comes inside and we realize we are VERY unlevel, despite using the leveling jacks. We also realize we've been at this for 16 hours and are exhausted so we lived with it and were ready to fall into bed although we were having trouble breathing...a minor inconvenience. We checked our altimeter and we are at 9200 feet. Holy cow! THAT'S why my head has been hurting...and I thought it was just the stress of the roller coaster from he!!. David remembered he has a couple of Breath Right strips and DANG those babies work!

We were awakened by Sadie jumping up on the bed (which she never does) this morning. All the covers and both of us were practically on the floor of the low side but had slept fairly well, thanks to the strips and exhaustion. The RV was freezing cold...probably 40 degrees. Turned on the heater for the first time and were greeted by that lovely smell we all know. I started laughing and couldn't quit. David was stumbling back to the bedroom on the unlevel floor to bring me my first cup of coffee and summed up our last 24 hours perfectly...."I'd rather be in a Walmart parking lot!" So much for free wheeling...

Deb,

Busskipper here, tried really hard to get you to Stop in Buena Vista - Would have still been Light! - OMG - I think you would have Loved it - Take a good look at those Brakes - Give us some info on what you are after once you get to RMNP - some of us Love Estes Park some Grand Lake - what is the Mission?

Rule #1. Never drive in the Mountains of Colorado in the Dark, not because it's dangerous, but because it's just too beautiful to miss even one Mile of the views.

Rule #2 If it's dark just stay in Wal*Mart - they have lights and they have security, and in the morning they have COFFEE.

Rule #3 Always keep Fleece - Gortex - Warm Socks - Boots - Shorts and Jeans in the RV. Just never know what you'll need tomorrow.

I have a number of other rules but I've done this for 50+ years, so time for you to GET some RULES, they just make it easy.

Wish you would have asked a little more, as I could have given you better advice, I feel really Bad.

Give us a little time to help make the trip back a little Better, what are you after, what will make it GREAT.

Keep Posting and let us know how it goes.

Best of Luck,

Would love to see a map of how you got there, especially to GGCSP?