Alamosa

Alamosa, CO

I returned to the El Vado Lake SP campground, and got the last elec. and water site. Very lucky as the place was packed with folks playing with boats and jet skis and grilling and generally having a splendid Memorial Day. I decided to stay put, getting a site anywhere is hard this weekend, so I cleaned and puttered and walked around.  Big yellow bluffs towering over the water, right out my back window.

Back at Chaco, I met a woman in a newish Bambi, the tiniest Airstream made nowadays, she was astonished to see that I was traveling ( and backing and hooking up and etc) alone, and also thrilled, because she wants to do the same. We showed our trailers and talked and talked about trailering and how we came to be adrift.  Another woman came to my door at El Vado to ask was I alone, and again she was thrilled, and wistful.  I remember meeting a young couple somewhere with Don and the woman said, “Oh, I want to be like you when I grow up!”  My beginnings at this life were pretty rugged emotionally, but it never occurred to me that towing and dealing with the trailer by myself was a big deal.  On the farm of my youth, I was driving things pretty early, and then years of horse shows and horse trailers made towing the Airstream seem very familiar.  Maybe these ladies are looking more at the navigation, or fixing things that break.  At any rate, I was reminded again how lucky I am to be doing this, and just a teeny bit proud that I can.

I left El Vado, heading for Alamosa, CO, and coming down a fair grade, decided that I did not like my brakes.  The front ones on the truck were smelly, and it didn’t seem like I had much on the trailer ones either. So I stopped at the Economy CG, and drove into town to Walmart. One of the recommended places was open on Memorial day, so I drove in and made an appointment for the next day, for both truck and trailer.

The truck needed new pads up front (thought I just did that…)and this time I got ceramic pads which will never wear out. The rear needed some adjustment and the truck is now stopping like a roping horse.  The trailer on the other hand…..

At El Vado, it felt like the trailer brakes were grabbing, and I found that the breakaway switch had popped out, but not before some more bad smells and in fact, I cooked the wires…. A new part was found and installed, but then the other brake on that side was NG. Opening it up we found parts just loose inside, and so more ordering and waiting.

The garage folks are terrifically nice and funny, and since my trailer still has one wheel off, I’ve been boondocking in the garage parking lot for the last two nights. I do have electricity, and for the rest, I’m getting pretty used to doing without.  Tomorrow morning, the part will come and we shall see what happens next.

Today I went up to Great Sand Dune National Park. Very strange to have these 800’ dunes of sand, with the snow streaked mountains behind, and a creek running right at the base of the dunes.  Playing in the sand, sliding down the dunes on snow sleds and frolicking in the shallow wide sandy creek water is kid heaven, and there were plenty of them there.  Pepe and I climbed part way up the dunes.  Very heavy going in the soft sand at over 7,000 feet, and after a while the sand began to get too hot for Pepe’s feet, so we came back down.

I’m in the huge flat basin that lies between the front range and the main body of the Rockies.  The Rio Grande runs through Alamosa, pretty big now with snow melt, but not far from its source in the San Juans to the west of the San Luis Valley as it is called.  There is a lot of water about, and lots of stock , but at this altitude, it’s a short growing season.  The winds swoop down from the San Juans, carrying some sand and then scour the plains, picking up more sand until they hit the mountains on the eastern side.  There the big creek and some wetlands await and the sand gets dumped, forming the huge dune field.  I guess this doesn’t happen anywhere else, and besides it’s lots of good fun.  The creek is full of sand, carrying some back out to the flats where it will get picked up again and dropped in the dunes.  For the locals, it’s like going to the beach in the mountains!

The part came but it still took all day to get the brakes fixed, so I left Alamosa at 5:30.  I didn’t want to stay in town, and I found a couple of CG’s in Poncha Springs. BUT, on the way, in I think Villa Grove, out in the middle of nowhere is a sign for camping. At this point I am at the northern end of the vast flat San Luis Valley, with the Colorado Sangre de Christo mountains rocky, snow streaked and gorgeous to the east and the beginnings of the San Juans to the west.  I passed through a long stretch where the Rio Grande has irrigated miles and miles of what looks like potato fields, the giant water dragons doing their slow circles. I think I only made two slight turns.  At the end of the valley, some old lava piles start to appear. 

This campground is one of the nicest places ever. You would be hard put to beat the views, the sites are large, with trees between.  Nicest people.  It’s called the San Luois Valley Campground, and it is a flat out 10 by my standards.