Saturday - Sand and RiversAfter a breakfast of bacon and eggs with Hoppe we started checking out some of the things in the camper. The 15 to 30 amp adapter the rental company promised was in the back of the van was missing – so we had no hook-up over night despite Hoppe kindly running out an extension cable ready for us.
The flush on the cassette toilet stopped producing water. Inspection showed that the filler tube was full to the brim, but the glass level tube showed no water. A flap inside the filler must have jammed; a blast of mains pressure water in a hose pushed into the filler did the trick and the tank started to fill.
A torq head screw holding the cooker lid had also come undone, but luckily Hoppe had the correct screwdriver bit for that.
Many thanks for Hoppe for his great hospitality – it was a real pleasure spending time with him.
After leaving Nathrop we dropped into another Wal-mart to pick up a 15 to 30 amp connection (about $8 – I bet the rental company charge you a lot more if you lose it), we also picked up some other bits, like a quilt since we had been very cold at night with the thin blankets provided to us.
As a result of this additional shopping trip it was lunchtime by the time we arrived at Great Sand dune national monument.
We went for a short walk, but decided not to climb the whole dune.
We stop for lunch on the way out of the park - the view over my sandwich:
During the trip I find wherever we stop for lunch the side window of the camper makes a wonderful frame around the scenery:
I decided to try out the BLM camping knowledge we had learned from Hoppe and headed for Wild Rivers Park near Questa just south of the CO/NM border. What a great spot, and all for $7.
The Rio Grande was visible below, so we had to go down there for a look.
We used the generator for the first time to run the microwave. It worked, but was noisy, especially the exhaust which rattled against the housing.
Stay tuned as we head further south still...
